Oak Island's Money Pit Mystery Who will be the next treasure hunter to squander all of their money in search for a possible treasure on the bottom of a pit when hundreds of people tried without success for centuries to reach the bottom of the "Money Pit"? Is the next treasure hunter going to be able to stop the flow of the water that is preventing anybody from reaching the bottom of the pit? No one has been able to stop the water and solving the mystery for over two hundred years. Yet engineers, rich people, divers, builders and even a U.S President tried very hard to discover what is buried on the bottom of the pit. Is it possible that it could be Captain William Kidd's treasure? Could it be the crown jewels of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinetter? In my research paper I will first be explaining about the history of the mysterious "Oak Island "Money Pit". Next I will be explaining some of the techniques that were used to dig up and dry up the "Money pit". Finally I will present three theories of the content of the pit and how the seawater keeps seeping in the pit. From what i been reading although many interesting things have been found in the pit which are supporting the idea of something special being buried there, no finding up to this point has been conclusive. Everything started when a mere boy was hunting on a deserted island off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada in 1795. In "Mystery Island Baffles Treasure Hunters" by Edwin Teale, he explains how, "One day, early in the year 1893, a young insurance salesman in Amherst, Nova Scotia, listened to tale of buried treasure. Nearly a century before, three boys had explored a "haunted" island off the Nova Scotia coast, an island covered with exotic oaks with elmlike tops. Here they stumbled upon a curious depression in the sod. Digging near the spot, successive parties of treasure hunters had uncovered riddle after riddle."(pg72) Teale explains that over time, "Week after week, month after month, the boys went out to the island whenever they could. Eventually the project became too much for them they needed special equipment and engineers to advise them."(pg23) It was obvious that Oak Island was unnatural and anyone who searched it would have a difficult time. Several items were found by digging the oak island pit until water seeping in the pit prevented to get bottom. In Oak Island's Mysterious "Money Pit" by David Macdonald he notes how explorers, "They again found oak tiers every ten feet down the pit, to a depth of 90 feet. They also uncovered layers of tropical coconut fiber, charcoal and ship's putty, plus a stone cut with curious symbols that one cryptologist took to mean, " ten feet below, two million pounds are buried." At 93 feet, the diggers drove a crowbar five feet deeper and struck a solid mass. Lynds felt sure that it was a treasure chest."(pg137) Even with more advanced technology, diggers had a difficult excavating and searching for clues.
Also, "Perhaps the continuous flood of the shaft was caused by the removal of the strange, flat stone. In order to defeat anyone who persevered in looking for the treasure to the extent of digging ninety feet underground, the stone may have been placed as key to unlock the drains from the ocean." It even appeared as if they were in a Indian jones movie with riddles, traps, and treasures. Over the years many many attempts were made to stop the sweeping water that prevented treasure hunters from discovering what is buried in Oak Island. Teale goes on to explain how, "Unable to pump the flow of the water out of the pit, the 1895 company tried to turn off the faucet by dynamiting the tunnel near the beach. Five times they drilled holes seventy feet deep and lowered high explosives into them. The fifth time, 165 pounds of dynamite was set off one huge blast."(pg73) The diggers were trying to trace the source of water because that was their biggest obstacle. "Also close to the mouth of the pit will be the sixty-horsepower, 550-volt electric motor which will spin the twelve-inch, deep-well turbine pump that will drain away as much as 1,000 gallons of water a minute from the flooded shaft nearby, 165 feet deep." It was as if the pit was cursed and anyone wanting to excavate it became a victim. It's not hard to understand why the Oak Island Money Pit has been such a facinating mystery for over 200 hundred years. It has everything you want in a mystery: a secret remote, possibly haunted, location, possible buried treasure by well-known pirates, strange clues, bits of valuables like gold chains, booby traps and famous names and not to be forgotten, the people who have even died trying to solve the mystery. But maybe there is nothing more to the money pit except people hoping to get rich. The first problem is the pit itself. Is it man-made or just a natural sinkhole? As Brian Dunning reported in his podcast the hole is not one-of-a-kind and the flooding tunnels can be easily explained by natural forces. The region is primarily limestone and anhydrite, the conditions in which natural caves are usually formed. In 1878, a farmer was plowing Oak Island just 120 yards away from the Money Pit when suddenly her oxen actually broke through the ground, into a 12 foot deep sinkhole above a small natural limestone cavern. 75 years later, just across the bay, workers digging a well encountered a layer of flagstone at two feet, and as they dug to a depth of 85 feet, they encountered occasional layers of spruce and oak logs. Excitement raged that a second Money Pit had been found, but experts concluded that it was merely a natural sinkhole. Over the centuries sinkholes occasionally open up, trees fall in, and storms fill them with debris like logs or coconuts traveling the ocean currents. These events, coupled with the underground cavern at the bottom of the Money Pit discovered in 1971 and the discoveries of numerous additional sinkholes in the surrounding area, tell us that Oak Island is naturally honeycombed with subterranean limestone caverns and tunnels. The geological fact is that no Royal Corps of Engineers is needed to explain how a tunnel open to the sea would flood a 90 foot deep shaft on Oak Island, booby trap style. I do believe in this theory because nature is in charge of its own land. It creates and destory its proprety. But what about the man-made things found in the shaft? The three that are most often talked about are: the links of gold chain, the tiny piece of parchment or paper with writing on it and the stone with the carvings. If you are a trusting type of person you would say these things are proof that someone made the tunnel and that maybe something really valuable is buried below. But if you are less trusting you might say these things were easily planted by diggers hoping to get people to invest money to dig down deeper. Unfortunately, although described, these things supposedly found in the shaft no longer exist, like the carved stone that went missing in the early 1900's. According to Secrets of Oak Island, by Joe Nickell, most Oak Island researchers now consider the writings on the stone to have been a hoax to get more people interested in hunting for the treasure 40 feet below. I do believe in this theory because there had been so many physical evidence over the years. According to Brian Dunning, In the committe of skeptical Inquiry, he states that, "No photographs exist of the stone, nor any documentation of where it might ever have physically been. The transcribed markings are in a simple substitution cipher using symbols borrowed from common Freemasonry, and they do indeed decode as "Forty feet below, two million pounds lie buried", in plain English." The stone tablet made its appearance in the Onslow Company's records, coincidentally, about the same time they were running out of money and their pit flooded. Most researchers have concluded that the stone tablet was probably a hoax by the Onslow Company to attract additional investment to continue their operation. The reason I believe in this theory is because there are historical symbols that dont appear in modern life. So if the pit itself can be explained as being made by nature and not man, and if the few things found in the pit can not be examined by scientists today, because they have been lost overtime, and if people often exaggerate to raise money, can we really believe the money pit holds hidden treasures?
From what I have continued reading on my topic of the Oak Island Mystery, treasure hunters have still not found any major evidence on believing that there is possiable treasure buried in the pit. As for the theories there has not being any definite proof on what is creating so many problems figure the pit. They have tried digging equipment, dynamites, they also have tried to get rid of all booby traps that are stopping them from getting to the bottom of the pit. One of the theories that I believe in is evidence that have been found in the pit that are physical artifacts. Ultimately from doing all this research I believe that it will take more years to discover that Oak Island Mystery.