NARRATOR: Tonight on
PETER ROMKEY: What if somebody was trying
to hide the evidence of underground digging?
Best place to put it would be in the middle of a wall.
-Rod's dropped. -Here we go, Marty. -Here we go.
We've got to be close to a tunnel or chamber.
-Drill's going in now. -RON: Hold it.
BRANDON VANDERHOOFT: They hit something at 11 feet.
That could be where the treasure's hiding.
-I detected gold. -TERRY: Wow! -MARTY: Wow!
-100%? -Yeah. -This is huge.
-Well, there you go, guys! -Yay. -(laughing)
NARRATOR: There is an island in the North Atlantic
where people have been looking for
an incredible treasure for more than 200 years.
So far, they have found a stone slab
with strange symbols carved into it...
...man-made workings that date to medieval times,
and a lead cross whose origin may be connected
to the Knights Templar.
To date, six men have died
trying to solve the mystery.
And according to legend, one more will have to die
before the treasure can be found.
♪ ♪
-ALEX: Hey, Brandon! -RICK: There he is.
BRANDON V.: Morning, Alex, Rick.
-How're you doing? -How's it going?
Perfect timing. We're just getting started
-with the probe drill. -Okey-doke. -Cool.
NARRATOR: Every new day on Oak Island begins with hope
and excitement for brothers Rick and Marty Lagina,
their partner Craig Tester and the rest of their team.
RON: Coming down slow.
RODNEY MACIVER: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Right there.
NARRATOR: However, today has been especially anticipated
as it marks the beginning of a new probe-drilling operation
that will be conducted from within the Garden Shaft
by representatives from Dumas Contracting Limited
in order to look for valuables just outside the structure.
This dilapidated 80-foot-deep shaft--
which is currently being refurbished by Dumas--
has not only yielded high-trace evidence of gold
through water testing,
but may also set within mere feet
of a possible treasure chamber connected
to the original Money Pit.
MARTY: It's exciting.
I'm hoping for something very substantial in the Garden Shaft.
This is where the treasure hunt actually begins.
So, Brandon, this is 55 feet, right?
-Yes, sir. -So, close to that depth
when we were drilling, we hit a void in this area.
-So, just a heads-up. -Wow. Heads-up?
Surprise, surprise, man.
Surprise, surprise.
How much you think we're missing out of that last 30 feet?
I'd say approximately ten feet.
NARRATOR: Earlier this summer,
the team drilled into a ten-foot-high void
located several feet southwest of the Garden Shaft.
This could be the indication of an offset chamber.
NARRATOR: A void that Marty Lagina speculated
may hold the fabled Money Pit treasure vault.
-RODNEY: All good. Let's try her out. -RON: Okay.
-They're just lining up and getting squared away. -Okay.
NARRATOR: Now, since Dumas has reached a depth of 55 feet
in the reconstruction of the Garden Shaft,
they are about to manually
probe-drill a number of boreholes
that will reach several feet outside of the structure
in the hopes of reaching the void
and determining just what it might contain.
If there is some sort of connection here,
-they need to know it, and we need to know it. -Mm-hmm.
ALEX: If we get lucky, this will tell us.
RICK: The drill's going in now.
-All right, brother, we're in business. -Yup.
NARRATOR: In order to probe-drill
from within the Garden Shaft,
the team from Dumas is using a powerful hydraulic earth drill
equipped to penetrate hard clay, sediment and rock.
Although they are focused on finding the nearby void,
they will drill a total of three holes
in each of the shaft's four walls, for a total of 12,
at different angles in order to look for further evidence
of man-made workings and potential valuables.
-RICK: You're grabbing soil samples? -Yes, sir.
But the other thing is,
-when you cut through this tight lining... -Yeah.
-...the old tight lining... -The wood?
-Yes. I would like that small piece on every hole. -Yeah.
I just want to put it in our XRF
because we have detected high gold values in the area.
-High gold values? -Right.
My thought was wood would act like a sponge.
If we test the outside of the shaft,
we know the water samples are indicating presence of gold.
Well, certainly the wood should, as well.
We need to get busy.
-Hi, guys. -Hey, Charles.
-Maybe our man right here might know. -Yeah.
-CHARLES: I see they're drilling right now. -BRANDON V.: Yeah.
We're drilling from here. This is where we started here.
-Going clockwise. -Okay.
So, I'll tell you what, guys. I-I'm very interested
in these wood samples and-and the soil samples.
So, I'm going to head down to the lab, bring them to Emma.
-There you are, buddy. It's all you. -Yup, I'll take her all.
-There you go. -Okay. You guys are in charge. -Yup.
Anything comes up, give me a call.
-We'll keep you posted. -Will do. -Thank you.
BRANDON V.: All right, we'll see you in a bit.
-RICK: All right. See ya. -ALEX: See ya.
NARRATOR: As the probe-drilling operation continues
in the Garden Shaft...
MARTY: All right, Peter. This is the target.
Right here. That old girl.
NARRATOR: ...on Lot 26,
located on the western side
of Oak Island, Marty Lagina,
Jack Begley, and archaeologist Laird Niven, arrive
at a mysterious stone wall
with forestry technician Peter Romkey.
LAIRD: We're doing an excavation
on the outside of the wall.
So, having the tree grow almost directly on top
of the wall could help us say that this wall
is at least... this many years old.
If the tree predates Samuel Ball's occupation,
then it changes the significance of the wall a lot.
MARTY: It's at least as old as the wall.
-Yes. Yeah. -Yeah.
LAIRD: It's a really interesting area.
We also have a well down there.
ROMKEY: Wow.
NARRATOR: Over the past several weeks,
the team has been investigating a stone well
less than 100 feet away from this mysterious stone wall.
Because the well has not only been dated
to as early as the 11th century,
but also contains high trace evidence of silver,
the team wants to determine
if the nearby stone wall could be just as old,
and perhaps contain clues
that might help solve the Oak Island mystery.
Yup.
Any guesses before you proceed?
(laughing): Okay. Let me have a look.
-LAIRD: No pressure. -ROMKEY: Yeah, he could...
He could certainly be hundreds of years old.
-MARTY: Wow. -ROMKEY: Yeah.
-That would be interesting. -Yup. -Yeah.
-Okay. Well, let's, uh, let's bore a tree. -MARTY: Okay.
NARRATOR: Now, the team has asked Peter
to extract a core sample of an adult oak tree
that has grown up through the stone wall
in order to determine its age.
So, what we're gonna do is we're gonna drill this into the tree,
-Mm-hmm. -and extract the, uh, the core
-once we bore it into the tree. -Right. Okay.
ROMKEY: All right, let me pick a spot.
Sure.
-(clicks) -That's a good noise. -MARTY: Yeah.
It's nice and solid.
MARTY: The wall between Lots 26 and 27 is quite unique.
If we know how old that tree is,
the stone wall was there at least that long.
Could've been there much, much longer.
So, it's well worth doing.
And I slide the spoon in very carefully,
and it goes in very hard sometimes.
It's pretty good there.
It's all the way in. (sighs)
Back it off one turn.
-And then... -MARTY: Hope for the best.
All right, we've got some here.
MARTY: Well, that looks good. That looks promising.
We got a piece here that we can have a look at.
-MARTY: Good. -Jack, you want to take that down...
-Yeah. -...and I'll pull the bore out?
NARRATOR: Having extracted the core,
Peter will analyze it in a laboratory and count
the circular features, known as "tree rings,"
to determine just how old the tree is.
ROMKEY: We can estimate the age by counting the rings.
-Can-can you see any in there? -I can see a few, yeah.
-Are they tight or...? -Yeah, they're pretty tight.
MARTY: I think you're gonna have to take that back to the shop,
clean that up to get... I mean,
they-they look pretty tight to me, which is good.
That would give us the best data we could... we could hope for.
LAIRD: Can't wait to see the results.
ROMKEY: Absolutely.
Sounds great.
NARRATOR: As Marty, Jack, Laird and Peter finish their work
on Lot 26...
-The next flag is back in the bush. -Okay.
NARRATOR: ...Rick Lagina
and metal detection expert Gary Drayton arrive on Lot 4,
also located on the western side of the island.
-(beeping) -Ooh.
Yeah, that sounds great.
That's definitely "come and get me" material.
NARRATOR: Earlier today,
while detecting and flagging potential
buried clues on Lot 5,
where the team has recently made a number
of ancient discoveries,
including half of a Roman coin
that is nearly 2,000 years old,
Gary also identified several targets on Lot 4.
Okay. Let's see if you got it out.
(beeping)
NARRATOR: Now, after alerting Rick Lagina,
they have returned together
in order to find out just what those flagged targets could be.
-(rapid beeping) -It's in my hand, mate.
-This is my favorite time. -(beeping)
A shoe? The heel of a shoe?
That's my guess-- it's a shoe. You can see the little...
Yeah, you can see the little nails right there.
GARY: Yeah. Nail holes.
Yeah, it's leather and metal around there.
That toe tap around the outside on the toes--
that's what they did back in the day.
-It's normally a copper alloy. -It is copper.
-See the patina? -Yeah, I see it. Green, mate.
NARRATOR: A leather and copper boot heel found on Lot 4?
But who did it belong to?
And might it have been someone
who visited Oak Island prior to 1795?
Brilliant find. I like it.
We got two chances of dating it
with the leather and the metal.
-I'm going to bag it. Oh, well. -I'd put it in a shoebox
-if I were you. -Ooh. I like that one.
Wow. Lot 4... producing again. All right.
-And the next flag is over here, mate. -Okay.
Way back here.
All right.
(beeping)
Not too bad sounding, mate. Right there.
(grunts)
(beeping)
-Fingers crossed. -(beeps)
GARY:-That's it.
-Oh! Nice. -Yeah, an axe.
Oh! Dang.
NARRATOR: While searching for clues on Lot 4--
located on the western side of Oak Island--
Rick Lagina and metal detection expert
Gary Drayton have just made a potentially important discovery.
-GARY: That is a gorgeous axe head. -Mm-hmm.
You can see it's hand-wrought. See that?
Yup, I do. Yeah.
RICK: We've never seen one like that design, either.
No. That's an oldie, as well.
All the way back to Viking days.
Vikings used to swing axes
-that are very similar to this. -Mm.
That is either a trade axe or a ship's rigging axe,
which makes sense.
We're not too far from the shore.
-To cut away the lines? -Yeah.
NARRATOR: A hand-wrought rigging axe from a ship?
But could Gary's notion of its potential origin be true?
(beeping)
-It's that. -JACK: Whoa.
Oh, yeah. This is fantastic!
NARRATOR: Earlier this year while searching Lot 8--
also on the western side
of the island-- Gary and Jack Begley
unearthed a metal artifact
featuring mysterious ornate symbols.
The possibilities of such an object coming to your island
really increase starting in the 1500s.
NARRATOR: And when renowned archaeologist
Dr. Edwin Barnhart examined the artifact,
his analysis stunned the team.
It could be some sort of older object.
The other possibility is... the Vikings.
There could be some friends of this here.
NARRATOR: Is it possible that Gary and Rick
have found a potentially related artifact on Lot 4?
If so, how did they come to be on Oak Island?
And what might their true connection be
to the 228-year-old treasure mystery?
RICK: There's a lot of information,
a lot of artifacts to be found in this area,
and we're gonna do it, and we're gonna do it
in a very disciplined way.
I want to make sure we don't miss anything.
-That's pretty cool. -It bloody is, isn't it?
This is exactly what I was hoping that we would find here.
RICK: Okay. Now I'm excited.
I want to find more.
All right, mate. We'll bag this for sure. You know what?
We're going to need a bigger top pocket.
And the next flag's over here.
RICK: There's probably some surprises yet to find.
NARRATOR: The following morning...
RON: All right. Yeah. We've got 18 inches on the last hole.
NARRATOR: ...while the core-drilling operation
from within the Garden Shaft continues
-in the Money Pit area... -RODNEY: We're doing good.
RICK: Hey, Peter, Laird.
-Hey, Rick. -Hello.
-Uh, you both met Peter Romkey. -Yup. -Yup.
NARRATOR: ...Rick Lagina returns to Lot 26
with forestry technician Peter Romkey
to share information with Laird Niven
and Rick's nephew Peter Fornetti
regarding the mysterious stone wall.
Peter has made an observation about this wall.
-Yup. -Mm-hmm.
NARRATOR: Although Peter is still awaiting
the dating analysis of the core he took
from the large oak tree one day ago,
after spending the morning
closely examining the wall itself,
he is eager to share a theory about its possible construction.
Peter, if you can impart to them
-what your perceptions were about the wall. -Sure. Sure.
Well, my primary employment was forestry,
but I've always had a real interest in-in stone,
and built a great deal of walls myself.
And some of the components of the wall struck me.
Just the way that the outside rocks are sort of structured
to-to lean in on a wall, which is a classic way
of holding a rubble wall together.
Almost more significant was this, uh... this smaller rock
that was at the bottom of the wall.
It was almost like it had a foundation of small rocks.
-Mm. -And that would be, uh, very similar to, uh,
uh, castles and-and large structures
that were built in-in England and Scotland.
They were all built on rubble foundations
where they excavated below frost,
filled it full of coarse gravel
like this, and then built the castle walls on top of it.
So, it's rather interesting that
this wall seems to be put together in that same fashion.
-Yeah. -RICK: You've just pointed out
that how unique this type of construct is.
But that well feature there is also unique
because it, too, is representative
of this type of construct.
But all the other wells on the island are very different.
They're stacked granite stone about this big.
Mm-hmm.
NARRATOR: Could Rick Lagina's speculation
that the stone wall might be related in some way
to the nearby stone well,
which may date as far back as the 11th century, be correct?
People have been building wells with this kind of technique
for thousands of years.
NARRATOR: One week ago,
Terry Deveau, the president
of the New England Antiquities Association,
examined the stone well
and made a startling observation.
You know, the well that does look a lot similar to that
is the one at New Ross.
-Go lower? -RICK: Yep.
It's very good clarity.
NARRATOR: Terry believed that the well
on Lot 26
matched the design of one found at a property
located nearly 20 miles north of Oak Island
in the town of New Ross.
A site where some researchers believe
a fortress was built by members of the Knights Templar,
who brought sacred treasures
to the New World from Scotland
more than seven centuries ago
and buried them on Oak Island.
So, there is another part of this wall
that I'd like to show you.
-Great. -Just down here.
NARRATOR: Is it possible
that Peter Romkey is correct,
that the stone wall on Lot 26
may be of a medieval Scottish design?
And if so, could it offer more evidence
that the Templar order
was connected to the Oak Island mystery?
So, one of the fundamentals of, uh,
dry-stone wall laying and any stone wall laying
is the principle of one-over-two, two-over-one.
And when I looked at this little bit of a wall,
you can see this construction
is very purposeful, so you can see here:
one rock over these two.
Two rocks over this one.
One rock here over these two.
And there'll always be little anomalies.
There might be three rocks over one.
But you can see that it's, uh, it's certainly
been laid by somebody who knows how to build a wall.
But the wall was to be used.
It wasn't just a border. It wasn't just a boundary. It...
There's an implied use.
If you want to make something strong and stable,
there's a reason for that, right?
-ROMKEY: Absolutely. -What is the reason?
I-I don't know. I don't know why.
Maybe it was people who were more experienced with those
kinds of construction projects that were here.
RICK: The other thing you might want to know, Peter,
is Mr. Blankenship thought it was weird, over here on 24.
Right on the surface,
-there is a bunch of this. -Mm.
RICK: Right at surface.
And he thought maybe it was a dumping ground
-from tunneling processes, right? -Right.
So, I struggle with an explanation for this.
-I really do. -LAIRD: Yeah.
ROMKEY: What if somebody was trying to hide
the evidence of underground digging?
Best place to put it would be in the middle of a wall.
NARRATOR: On Lot 26, forestry technician Peter Romkey
has just made a startling suggestion
to Rick Lagina and members of the Oak Island team.
It is his belief that the stone wall on Lot 26
may have been built with rocks
that were excavated during the construction of a tunnel.
You know, it's, uh, it certainly is interesting.
RICK: The thought on Peter's part
was it would've been an easy way to hide
any sort of tunneling attempts.
You take the spoils from the tunnels,
and you cast them about on the land,
and it's possible
that that same rubble was introduced into this wall.
-It's phenomenal. -Absolutely.
I totally agree with you. This was a purposeful build
by an experienced hand, but to what end?
Sounds like Laird needs to find an artifact.
I've been trying.
It sounds like you need
-to move more stone. -(laughter)
PETER: Oh, boy.
RICK: Peter, thank you.
We'll know more when you date the trees.
NARRATOR: The following morning...
CHARLES: Hey, Brandon.
Hey, Charles.
NARRATOR: ...Oak Island historian
Charles Barkhouse arrives
in the Money Pit area
for an update on the exploratory probe
drilling operation being conducted at a depth
of 55 feet in the Garden Shaft
in an effort to reach a mysterious void
that the team discovered earlier this year
just west of the structure.
I'm kind of anxious to see where we are.
NARRATOR: Now that representatives
from Dumas have completed 11 holes at this level,
or set, they are about to start
their 12th and final probe-drilling effort
before they cease this operation
in order to begin reconstruction
on the next level of the shaft.
The boys are just getting ready to fire it up.
-Okay. -Ronnie, Mack, how're you making out?
All right, let's fire it up and get to work.
Should be good to go.
BRANDON V.: We're just drilling on the west wall.
Okay.
This is our last hole there and then we're pulling
the drill out. That's the plan.
CHARLES: No surprises yet, other than the rocks?
No-no voids?
-No water? Anything? -No. Nothing.
Everything's been pretty good.
Good.
They're on their third rod there now.
They hit an obstruction in the hole there.
They hit something at 11 feet.
-Something solid. Yeah. -Oh, did they?
On this last hole,
they hit some kind of obstruction.
What it is, I'm not sure yet.
But they're gonna probably advance another rod
-and try to keep going through it. -CHARLES: Okay.
You know, one of the challenging things facing Dumas
in their probe drilling is identifying
what-what they're, what they're hitting.
I mean, it could be a rock. It could be something else.
So, they don't have any idea what it is yet?
No, no.
CHARLES: So, we just have to wait to see
what may be below there.
-There he goes, he's going. -Yeah.
RODNEY: Yeah.
Right now, they're bouncing on it.
RON: That was no fun at all.
So, I'm gonna grab, uh, the bucket.
I'm going to grab a sample of that.
How far did you end up getting in there, Mack?
-They-they stopped her dead. -Yeah.
There's a big rock there.
-CHARLES: It's frustrating. -Yeah.
NARRATOR: Brandon Vanderhooft's report that no signs
of human activity have been found outside the Garden Shaft
at the 55-foot depth is disappointing news
given the known void that the team has encountered
in the nearby area.
Very good, Rodney.
NARRATOR: However, since trace evidence
of gold has been detected
in the water within the Garden Shaft itself...
NARRATOR: ...could it be that the team simply must dig deeper
in order to make the breakthrough discovery
they are hoping for?
There's a story at the bottom of this-this shaft for sure.
-Very good. Excuse me. -Okay.
NARRATOR: Although the team from Dumas will collect
more wood and soil samples so that they can be tested
for signs of possible precious metals...
...they will now cease probe drilling,
and continue with reconstructing
the next eight-foot level, or set, in the Garden Shaft.
RICK: You know, certainly it's disappointing that we've
not found any cavities or voids behind the original structure.
RICK: We're hoping to find something worthy of investigating,
so you keep going.
Hey, Brandon.
-Hey, buddy. Got the samples back from hole number 12. -Oh.
Okay. Excellent.
That's your soil sample
-right there. -CHARLES: You know what?
I'm gonna take these samples and get them back to the lab.
They can start working on them right away.
Attaboy. Okay, buddy.
CHARLES: Okay. Thank you.
NARRATOR: As the team from Dumas Contracting Limited
continues their work on the Garden Shaft...
...later that afternoon...
-STEVE: Hey, guys. -MARTY: Hey, guys.
It looks like they've let up now. We're just back at it.
NARRATOR: Marty and Alex Lagina arrive
at the Money Pit area.
The next hole is DN-10.5.
-I have high hopes for this being meaningful somehow. -Yes.
NARRATOR: Because the probe drilling operation
did not yield any new clues at the 55-foot level
in the Garden Shaft...
TEDFORD: Okay, let's go.
NARRATOR: ...the team is drilling a new borehole known as
DN-10.5.
A borehole located just 30 feet west
of the Garden Shaft,
in a 20-by-20-foot area known as "The Baby Blob."
It is within this zone that recent water testing
has suggested a large source of gold
may lie buried between a depth of 80 and 120 feet.
And what we're looking for here is a continuation
of the tunnel that appears to be
under the Garden Shaft.
NARRATOR: In recent weeks, the team has encountered
a believed tunnel at a depth of some 90 feet
in three separate boreholes that has not only yielded
high-trace evidence of gold during water testing,
but also appears to be running
directly below the Garden Shaft.
-Cross your fingers. -Here's hoping.
MARTY: I have extremely high hopes
for this whole little area, this treasure area,
the Baby Blob.
Last year, we found
gold and silver in the water.
We tasked two good scientists
with saying, "Narrow it down for us, please."
We did a lot of testing.
The scientists say-- Dr. Spooner,
Dr. Michael-- "It's in this very small area."
ALEX: The core is coming.
TERRY: Here we go.
-What do we got? -All right.
-So, that's 89 feet. -89.
After we cased, the rods dropped
down to 89 and a half, which is a good sign.
It means it's softening up down there.
-That is a good sign. -Thank you.
-MARTY: Right at the right depth, too. -The right depth.
TERRY: Absolutely. Perfect.
NARRATOR: An opening, or void?
At a depth of nearly 90 feet?
Is it possible that
the Oak Island team has found
more evidence of a tunnel in the believed treasure zone...
Here we go.
NARRATOR: ...which also may run
directly underneath the Garden Shaft?
CRAIG: Here we go.
It's a little bit soft.
Yeah, you get that when you're close to a structure.
DN-10.5 looks like it could yield up a few mysteries here.
ALEX: Hey.
STEVE: Hey, Rick.
-What is this? -We're at 90 feet
basically and the last foot, it dropped a little bit.
TERRY: The rods fell a foot, so that bodes
very well for us being in the structure.
NARRATOR: It is an exciting moment in the Money Pit area,
as the team has encountered a mysterious void at a depth
of 90 feet in borehole DN-10.5.
A borehole just 30 feet west of the Garden Shaft,
located in the Baby Blob, or believed treasure zone.
MARTY: All right, well, let's hope something
anomalous happens here.
-Yeah. -TERRY: We've got to be close to a structure,
due to softness. We're only five feet away
from a hit of a fairly substantial tunnel.
We'll see.
TERRY: Okay, guys. It looks like they're peeling
another one off for us.
What do you got, Colten?
-That's 99 feet. -TERRY: Thank you.
I mean, I don't see any little chips or chunks of wood.
MARTY: So, we sort of just missed, probably.
Yeah, I would say based on this, Marty, we just missed.
So, a near miss is-is very likely.
And that soft area there
speaks to us of being close to a structure.
Well, how deep will this core be?
99 to 109 will be the next stroke.
Well, we took that other one deeper, didn't we?
The last one?
Uh, we took it to 120.
-Yeah. -RICK: How many times
in the Money Pit have we said to ourselves,
"If only we had gone deeper"?
NARRATOR: Although the team has not found evidence
of the tunnel that they have recently encountered
in this area,
since they may be close to a structure,
and because the believed treasure zone
extends down to the 120-foot level,
could they still be on course for a major discovery?
RICK: We might as well go two more runs.
-We call it at 120. Okay. -Yep.
NARRATOR: As the core drilling operation
in borehole DN-10.5 continues in the Money Pit area...
ALEX: Hey, guys. What do you think?
I'm looking at walls differently now.
-Right. -And I think we've learned a lot from it.
-Yeah, there's been some strange things about it. -Yeah.
And I'm surprised at how many questions
we haven't been able to answer yet.
Yes. Yeah, that is a surprise.
NARRATOR: ...Alex Lagina arrives on Lot 26,
where he joins archaeologists Laird Niven and Miriam Amirault
to help them investigate the stone wall.
I'm glad we listened to Rick because he tagged this
-as not being like any other wall. -MIRIAM: Mm-hmm.
-Mm-hmm. -MIRIAM: And maybe this area
has more importance than others.
LAIRD: That's what Rick thinks.
-Okay. -I mean, look at those.
He may be right.
NARRATOR: While they are still
awaiting the tree-coring results
conducted two days ago,
which may help date when the wall was constructed,
Laird has decided to continue methodically
excavating a section of the wall
in order to search for important
and potentially valuable clues.
So, I think the plan for today
is probably start
-where that large rock is... -Mm-hmm.
...and take that end off.
-Okay. -ALEX: All righty.
MIRIAM: We are doing
a cross section of the wall.
So, basically, we're taking it apart
to determine how it was built,
as well as to see if we can find some artifacts
that can help us date it.
ALEX: You want to do the edge, yeah?
-Yeah, I think so. -Okay, we'll work our way towards you, maybe.
-Yeah. -Okay.
Leaves can go wherever.
MIRIAM: Leaves, go away.
LAIRD: And one thing Rick noticed,
this is the rubble fill,
they're putting these smaller rocks to support
-these other rocks... -Yeah.
-...which is a deliberate act in his mind. -Mm-hmm.
LAIRD: I would just keep your eye out for any unusual rock, too.
This isn't a field stone. This is
-coming from probably the shore. -Mm-hmm.
And it shatters. It's broken off, so
that's what's perplexing to us. What...
What were they doing? Why is this here?
Yeah.
ALEX: The unusual thing
about this wall is that there's
part of it that looks like the stones
were actually shaped
and cut. This is really the only place
on the island that we see this.
As we take this wall apart,
we'll kind of go back through time,
and as we get to the base of the wall,
that's where we have the best chance of finding artifacts
from when it was constructed.
I mean, you can kind of see how much more work it is
to make this, based on how many more
scoops we have to take, to take it apart.
-Yeah. Mm. -Each handful is only like two rocks.
See that?
Yeah.
LAIRD: That's worked.
That's been knocked off.
If that stone is worked, why?
-Yeah. -ALEX: There's no other worked stone around here.
LAIRD: Yeah.
-That's red granite. -ALEX: Yeah.
Do you think that that cut piece,
the worked piece was deliberately cut to go there?
LAIRD: It was done for some other purpose
and made its way in here.
ALEX: What I find interesting about that is
it was split off of something deliberately.
-We don't see that stone. -LAIRD: No.
ALEX: The Kingdom Stone. That was red granite.
-Right. -ALEX: If that stone was placed there,
what better place to hide the rest of it
-than in a stone wall here? -Hmm.
NARRATOR: On Lot 26,
Alex Lagina has just noticed
a potentially important clue
while investigating the stone wall
with archaeologists Laird Niven and Miriam Amirault.
We investigated the Nolan's Cross theory
that that represents the Kabbalistic tree of life.
-LAIRD: Right. -It's got all these points, and we investigated
-with Petter Amundsen, the Kingdom Stone. -LAIRD: Mm-hmm.
-PETTER: This is Nolan's Cross. -MARTY: Good.
NARRATOR: In 2013,
Norwegian researcher and filmmaker,
Petter Amundsen presented the team his incredible theory
that the megalithic formation of six boulders,
known as Nolan's Cross,
included four additional smaller stones
called sephirot,
that were used to form
an ancient Kabbalistic symbol - known as the tree of life,
which has often been connected to the ancient
religious and military order known as the Knights Templar.
The geometry indicates
that we are talking about a tree of life.
NARRATOR: According to Petter's theory, the man-made feature
represented evidence that priceless, religious treasures
of the Templar order were buried on Oak Island.
Is this it here?
Yeah. This is it. Good.
NARRATOR: And in an effort to prove
his research to the Oak Island team,
he took Marty and Alex Lagina out
to Lot 30, where they uncovered
one of the sephirot, known as the Kingdom Stone.
Yeah. Here it comes. Oh.
ALEX: Well, the stone itself is interesting
because you'd think there'd be the other half of it somewhere.
NARRATOR: Is it possible that Alex,
Laird, and Miriam have found
a missing piece of the so-called Kingdom Stone
hidden in the wall on Lot 26?
If so, could that mean that whoever built this feature
also created Nolan's Cross
and the Tree of Life formation on the island as well?
Out here on the island, in order to figure this thing out,
we have to go down these avenues of thought and remember them
for later because it wouldn't be the first time that something
we did years ago turns out to be relevant as we're digging today.
LAIRD: It's very strange.
At the time, I thought it was naturally split,
but it was split, and the other half of it
-was nowhere to be found. -LAIRD: Right.
ALEX: But I think that's interesting
that we're finding these offcuts,
-but not the stone that they came from. -LAIRD: Yeah.
ALEX: We're getting a lot of really small,
broken up fragments of rock.
Maybe this is a piece of the Kingdom Stone.
If the stone wall predates the discovery of the Money Pit,
there could be a connection there.
LAIRD: It is interesting because
granite is not easy to work.
-ALEX: Mm-hmm. -It takes some ex-expertise.
I think so. It's-it's also worth recording.
-LAIRD: Yeah. -ALEX: But if we're seeing signs
of shaped stone here that correspond to the boulders
we found at those points, then maybe
that adds a little bit more weight to that theory.
LAIRD: Cool. This is exactly
what Rick wants us to find.
ALEX: So, finally, we got one.
LAIRD: We do it.
-Cool. -(Miriam chuckles)
ALEX: Well done.
MIRIAM: No, it's a great find. That's awesome.
NARRATOR: Later that afternoon...
IAN: Hello.
Hello, Doc.
-Hey, Ian, how're you doing? -Good to see you.
It's everybody.
-We got enough guys here now? -(laughter)
NARRATOR: ...Rick and Marty Lagina
arrive in the Money Pit area
as the core drilling operation in borehole DN-10.5
has proceeded deeper into the target depths
of the believed treasure zone.
What've we got coming next, Terry?
TERRY: It looks like they're pulling it up right now.
It's gonna be interesting.
We're getting very close to target horizon.
Yeah.
-120 feet. -Thank you.
Yeah, it's pretty stiff the whole way down.
CRAIG: Okay.
TERRY: Interesting.
Firm. Very dense,
maroon till.
-Yeah. -Same old, same old.
TERRY: It is still the same old, same old.
And, at this point, we're the closest
we are gonna be with this run to what we hope to hit.
And I don't see any wood right there.
We didn't, we didn't hit it.
RICK: You know, every search agenda that we try to follow,
it's disappointing when you can't prove it.
But you have to let the process continue.
-Hello. -Oh, look who's here.
-Gang's all here. -The gang's all here.
-Come on in. -Come on in.
Oh, my God, it's a crowd.
Hello. How're you doing? Please.
Emma's got some news.
-So, you guys gave me these. -Right.
This piece right here, 'cause it's small,
I could do a map scan of it.
What-what-what is that?
EMMA: That's the Garden Shaft inner lining that--
the wood pieces.
-The original shaft. -Yeah.
And from this one,
I detected gold.
Wow.
IAN: This is huge.
From this one, I detected gold.
-MARTY: Wow. -To confirm your theories.
Gold?
-Gold, yeah. -Yeah.
-Gold in the wood? -Yeah.
-Wow. That's wild. -TERRY: Wow.
NARRATOR: In the Money Pit area,
archaeometallurgist Emma Culligan
has just shared some astonishing news.
Yeah, I confirmed it.
I had to make sure, but there's definite gold, yeah.
NARRATOR: The wood samples extracted two days ago,
from a depth of 55 feet inside the Garden Shaft,
contain high-trace evidence of gold.
What degree of accuracy do you believe that to be?
This one's accurate.
-MARTY: 100%? -Yeah.
Well, there you go, guys.
And it's adhered to the organic material?
-The wood? -EMMA: Yeah.
0.11%, so it's 0.1,
but still, that is enough.
-This is huge. -Isn't that like a big number?
That's a big number for my-- in my book,
-that's a big number. -It is 'cause it's
a lot of parts per billion.
So, I mean, all we can do is continue, like,
with the water to cross-check, like, check other samples,
see if we can duplicate.
This girl can find gold.
That's a superpower around here.
(laughter)
The results are incredible,
fantastic, gob-smacking, to use one of Gary's terms.
ALEX: That's huge, isn't it? That's a lot.
-Pretty big, like, significant. -Yeah.
MARTY: We could be close to the actual treasure.
We've got a little bit of time to pull it all
together, and we're
gonna work together to do that.
That's where we are right now. I'm hopeful.
RICK: We've always said that,
you know, science had to be a real component
of this search, and now,
this analysis is incredibly invigorating.
Look at the smiles around the table.
I mean, everybody's smiling, so
it's-it's a great component,
and we always said that
this shaft would provide a unique opportunity
if we were humble enough
and smart enough to learn
from lost opportunities, right?
-Yeah. -RICK: But, anyway,
I think we all owe Emma
-a round of applause actually. -Oh, God.
(applause)
TERRY: You find gold around here, you get applause.
(laughter)
Well, thank you for bringing the news.
We appreciate it.
It's all good news and the search for the truth.
MARTY: Absolutely. Find us some more.
-(laughter) -TOM: Yeah, more gold.
NARRATOR: After more than a decade of searching for the answers
to the 228-year-old Oak Island mystery,
Rick and Marty Lagina may be closing in
on a discovery that they have dreamed about
since they were just boys growing up in Northern Michigan.
Although there is still much work to be done,
and many more clues
that must be uncovered,
thanks to the efforts of the Fellowship of the Dig,
the days that Oak Island's secrets
remain hidden may finally
be numbered.
Next time on The Curse of Oak Island...
RICK: We're following the trail of the gold.
MARTY: A highly unusual source of gold here.
Hey, look at this.
LAIRD: Nice.
If you can get a date off of that,
you could date this wall.
We're talking about 1650 to about 1690.
RICK: Come on in, Bill.
We're digging up a hidden well.
-(beeping) -Oh, look at that.
That's fantastic!
There's definitely higher counts of gold here.
That's exciting.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
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