![]() ![]() The stone featured mysterious markings that supposedly translated into “40 feet below, two million pounds are buried”. They found more oak platforms, coconut fibers, mud, metal shards, and a large granite stone measuring 60cm long, 38cm wide, and weighing 79kg. ![]() What was found?Īnother story claims that a company called the Onslow Company traveled to Oak Island in 1802. This gave rise to the rumor that Oak Island was cursed. Two others who tried to retrieve them died as well. In the 1960s, Robert Restall and his son tried to seal flood tunnels but lost consciousness and died from carbon monoxide poisoning. Several people have died pursuing the treasure. In 2014, Rick and Marty Lagina launched a reality series dedicated to finding the lost treasure called The Curse of Oak Island on The History Channel. Eventually, after so much activity on the island, the Canadian government passed the Oak Island Treasure Act in 2011, granting treasure hunters licenses to dig. While they turned up more shafts and some intriguing artifacts, they found no treasure trove. Roosevelt, Errol Flynn, and John Wayne pitched in.īut eventually, most treasure seekers gave up. Even politicians and celebrities such as Franklin D. Photo: The History ChannelĬompanies including The Oak Island Association, the Truro Company, the Halifax Company, the Old Gold Salvage Group, and Triton Alliance poured in millions of dollars worth of labor and equipment to solve the mystery. Some accounts claim that they stopped because of superstitious fears. They stopped after nine metres when they encountered water. ![]() They found a shaft with oak platforms every three metres and markings from tools on the walls. Familiar with the Captain Kidd stories, they started to dig. ![]() Intrigued, he enlisted the help of friends John Smith and Anthony Vaughn. In the late 1790s, a teenager named Daniel McGinnis supposedly came across a set of strange markings on an oak tree, and an odd depression in the ground next to it. In 1864, The Colonist reported the possible discovery of the treasure’s location. While there is little evidence of Kidd’s activities in the area, it did not stop the story from taking root. On his deathbed, a former member of Captain Kidd’s crew had allegedly told the settlers that they had buried about “two million pounds” of treasure on Oak Island. Years later, in 1862, a story by J.B McCully stated that the tales of Captain Kidd began with the settlers. They have sunk their money but have left holes open.” He wrote that “some very industrious individuals have buried large sums in endeavoring to unbury larger ones supposed to have been deposited by the renowned Capt. The Liverpool Transcript published an article on August 8, 1857, written by one J.P. Tales of buried treasure only started to circulate in the 1850s. European settlers arrived in the mid-1700s. It was possibly settled by the Mi’kmaq people, who lived in the Newfoundland and Nova Scotia area thousands of years ago. Oak Island’s early history was relatively uneventful. An anonymous author composed The Ballad of Captain Kidd, which referenced “ninety bars of gold, and six dollars manifold, with riches uncontrolled.” Variously, his loot was said to contain Marie Antoinette’s jewels, the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Grail, and even proof that Francis Bacon wrote Shakespeare’s plays.īut what does 57-hectare Oak Island have to do with this?Ĭaptain William Kidd (c.1645-1701), shown here burying a Bible near Plymouth Sound. The British captured and executed the Scottish brigand in 1701, but his name somehow caught on. (Privateers were kind of a government-sponsored pirate.) One swashbuckling figure was Captain William Kidd. The beginning of a legendĮighteenth-century coastlines bristled with pirates and privateers. While this is not a lot to go on, the uncertainty has not stopped a flood of treasure hunters, archaeologists, and even politicians and actors from taking a crack at the mystery. What is the treasure? No one knows, except that it is worth millions of dollars. But for some adults, the Oak Island treasure off Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, is their life’s pursuit. Buried treasure nowadays sounds like just a kid’s story. ![]()
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