[narrator] Tonight on The Curse of Oak Island...
[Ian] The metal we're seeing in the water
-is in the solution channel. -Absolutely.
There's metal underground that isn't natural.
We found gold.
-[Gary] Got a signal. -[metal detector beeping]
-Oh, it's here. -[Peter] What do you got?
[Rick] What the heck is that doing here?
[Peter] This right here is a key to navigation,
but it might be a key for the alignment of Nolan's Cross.
This road goes from the beach to the Money Pit.
We just got to the bottom of the solution channel.
[Marty] Where are you, little gold coin?
-[Terry] You see it? -Come on.
There you go.
♪ ♪
[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.
♪ ♪
-[Ian] Gentlemen. -[Steve] Hello.
It looks like we just touched bottom
of the solution channel here.
[narrator] While a new morning is still fresh on Oak Island...
Now he'll go back down and make another run after this
-just to make sure. -Good.
[narrator] ...in the Money Pit area,
the team's drilling operation may be getting closer
to the answers of a 230-year-old mystery.
All right, we are 178 to 208. We hit bedrock at 205.
So, everything in this core becomes
-highly interesting to us. -Yeah.
[narrator] The current borehole known as F-8.5
is located in an area where previous underground water tests
revealed evidence of gold and silver objects.
Okay. Let's have a look.
[narrator] And now the team has collected a 30-foot core
of loose materials in the solution channel.
You get a beep? Here.
Pick it right up. Could be in that, too.
[Marty] Come on, baby.
Where are you, little gold coin? Come on.
[beeping]
Oh, you got something there.
Oh. I think that is something in there.
Let's see.
[Steve] Right there?
Where the hell did it go?
[Steve] I believe that we can get Gary to come up
-with his big detector. -[Marty] Might as well.
Let's get this. Bring-bring this in, Doc.
Let's grab this.
[Marty] When the pinpointer goes off
in the core that is from the solution channel,
I'm very excited.
Very, very excited.
-Here's your go-to guy. -[Gary sighs]
Now what are you up to?
-[Marty] All right, Gary. -Hey, Gary.
-We had a phantom hit here. -[Gary] Okay.
And so we're wondering if you might...
see if it was really phantom or not.
-Just-- -Okay.
There's no nails in this table, so...
-Okay, great. -[metal detector chimes]
[Rick] We are so intense in that moment
wanting there to be something there.
I just hope it's hiding what we believe it's hiding.
-Uh, it sounds-- -She's clean, eh?
[Gary] Clean as a whistle.
[Marty] All right.
What the hell happened to it?
Regardless, we'll take that section
-and bag it. -Yeah.
[Ian] So, I want to send that sample in
and see what's in there.
That's a good idea.
We got these pinpointer hits right where we thought
the metals should have fallen to, right?
And that's frustrating.
So I think it's right to test the soils
for precious metals to see if the pinpointer hit was real.
We're very close to two sites
we had, uh, amongst the highest gold values
-in water. -[Marty] Yep.
We had outrageous silver numbers.
Maybe one of the things that's down here that's creating
our gold and silver anomaly is gold dust that isn't natural.
Yeah, Gary, if there was gold dust in there
and it was in a little spot...
-Yeah. -...and I get a hit
and then I start moving it around, would it go away,
or would you have picked it up?
I wouldn't have picked it up with this.
Even though I'm in the prospector mode
on the Manticore right now,
uh, I wouldn't have detected it.
[Marty] Okay. All right, well,
maybe there's some actual gold in that bag.
Yep.
[narrator] Is it possible that trace amounts of gold
from a buried treasure
have not only spread into the water deep in the Money Pit
but also the soils in the solution channel?
Although soil tests could take several weeks to complete,
if Dr. Spooner gets positive results,
it will offer additional confirmation
that the treasure may be in this area.
[Rick] If those results indicate or confirm precious metals
or for high-metal values in the... in the soils,
it would almost necessitate-- demand-- a big dig.
Whatever was above, we now believe
that it easily could've fallen to these depths.
So, uh, look, we just got to keep going.
Okay.
All right, well, let's get on to the next one.
[narrator] Later that morning...
[Marty] Ladies and gentlemen,
we are here today to feel the heat.
And what I mean by that is I requested Steve,
working with Emma and Jillian, to prepare a heat map.
[narrator] Rick, Marty and Craig
meet with other members of the team in the war room.
[Marty] They were charged with looking at
all the artifacts that have been found over the island
over the years, and that is, of course, a lot.
-Yeah. -[Marty] And then...
put them on the map of the island
by how likely they are old.
Yep.
[narrator] In recent years,
the team has found numerous artifacts
that predate the discovery of the Money Pit in 1795.
These include six Roman coins found on Lot 5
that are as much as 2,000 years old.
And just this year, they were shown
a 14th-century Portuguese silver coin,
one reportedly found in the Money Pit back in 1849.
Marking the team's oldest discoveries on a grid
or heat map of the island suggests where even more
important clues may be found next.
[Steve] So, we've prepared a legend.
So I'm gonna throw a few out so you can take a look
so you know what colors you're looking at.
So, you'll see pink, blue, orange and green.
Pink represents possibility of a deposit
because it's 1725 and older.
And blue, which is 1800s to now, which means it's searcher.
-Okay. -[Steve] Everything else,
like the 1730s, '40s and '50s,
that orange color starts to appear.
-All right. -[Steve] Okay?
So, right now, the two hot areas
where depositors could have been
is Lot 5 with the archaeologists...
-[Marty] Yeah. -[Steve] ...and the Money Pit.
We're obviously still searching those areas,
but we have found very old artifacts
in other places, as well.
What about the odd pink dots
over there on the head of the elephant?
[Steve] That's Lot 15.
[Craig] Even in the orange colors,
you're going back to the mid-1700s.
-That could be depositor. -Yep.
When you see those older ones up there on Lot 15...
-[Marty] Mm-hmm. -[Rick] ...I think there's
a lot more work to do there.
[Marty] Yeah. I agree.
Yeah, we got to get Gary out there.
Yep.
[narrator] Located some 200 yards northwest
of the Money Pit area, Lot 15 has produced
some of the team's most intriguing artifacts,
including burned charcoal
that could date back to the 14th century,
a Chinese coin that could be more than 1,000 years old
and a piece of pre-17th-century cannon stoneshot
that originated in the Azores Islands of Portugal.
Seeing this cluster of finds grouped on the heat map
makes Lot 15 a prime target for fresh investigation.
[Billy] 'Cause I look at the dots in Lot 15, and,
you know, we've barely touched the surface, right?
-Yep. -[Alex] It makes sense
-to concentrate there. -Yeah, well... [sighs]
you ain't seen nothing yet.
We're gonna change these colors to gold and silver, mate.
-[laughter] -[Rick] We are now convinced
the mystery is island-wide.
You go back to where you have been successful before.
So, I think it's highly appropriate to start on Lot 15.
-Okay. Thank you very much. -Yep.
[Rick] I say we get back at it.
[Alex] I agree.
[narrator] Following their meeting...
[Gary] I'm gonna metal-detect over the top of
this plowed area.
And we have a chance of finding
some great artifacts on this hillside.
I'm excited to see what you'll find today.
[narrator] Rick, Gary and Steve begin searching on Lot 15.
-I'm expecting a good day. -[Rick] Yep.
Having said that, I say we get going.
Yep. Okay, mate.
-[metal detector chimes] -Let's get stuck in.
[Rick] Okey doke.
[narrator] Before their arrival,
Billy used a two-and-a-half-ton tractor
to pull a three-bottom plow across the surface
to help them search for artifacts.
[Gary] This idea of plowing high-value areas on Oak Island,
this comes from my experience metal-detecting
on farmland in England.
The farmers turn over the fields by plowing,
and they bring older artifacts closer to the surface
and make them more detectable.
[beeping softly]
Check this out.
Here.
Is that coal?
-[Steve] It's really light, eh? -[Gary] Yeah.
If that's coal, that would be well out of place.
-Looks like it could be. -Yeah, one way...
one way to tell.
-[Gary] Oh, it is. -[Steve] I'd say so. Yeah.
Hmm.
What the heck is that doing here?
-[Gary] Very out of place. -Mm-hmm.
It might be that kind of coal
that was found on the stone road.
Yep.
[narrator] Because the team found
pieces of coal when they uncovered
the believed Portuguese stone road in the swamp...
I'm going to put this in the bag...
-[Rick] I would. -[Gary] ...and give it to Emma.
[narrator] ...is it possible that this discovery,
made where they have also found Portuguese stoneshot,
could suggest a connection between the swamp and Lot 15?
-Good find, Gary. -[Steve] Good find, Gary.
[Gary] Yep. Just on the top here.
-Right. Keep trucking in. -[Rick] Let's find something.
[beeping softly]
[metal detector warbling]
-[Rick] There you go. -[Gary] Yep.
-[Steve] That sounds good. -[Gary] Yep.
It's right in there. Rick, please.
Now, let me see if I can pinpoint it.
[beeping rapidly]
What do we got here?
-Ooh, look at that. -[Rick] Wow.
-[rapid beeping] -[Gary] Ooh!
-What do we got here? -[beeping stops]
Hmm.
See those facets?
[narrator] While metal-detecting on Lot 15,
the team has just made a curious find.
[Gary] I wonder if that is a rosehead spike.
-Could well be. -Could be.
They went back all the way to the 1500s.
-[Rick] Wow. -[Gary] Uh, we did find some
-in the Money Pit. -[Steve] Yep. Mm-hmm.
[narrator] First made during the 16th century in Europe,
rosehead spikes are hand-forged iron fasteners
with hammered heads resembling the petals of a flower.
They were commonly used up through the 18th century
before machine-made nails replaced them.
And the team has found a number of rosehead spikes
both near the surface on Oak Island
and more than 150 feet deep in the Money Pit area
that have all been dated to before 1750.
-[Gary] That's brilliant. -[Rick] There you go.
-We'll bag it. -Okay.
And this, I have no doubt will be going on your heat map.
[Steve] It will be. I hope so, anyway.
[Gary] We have seen rosehead spikes
many times on Oak Island,
especially connected to old features and old areas.
These are valuable finds.
We could have a connection here
between Lot 15 and the Money Pit.
[metal detector warbling]
That's diggable.
-[Rick] There you go. -[Steve] You got something?
-Just there, mate. -Center right there?
Yep.
♪ ♪
-[metal detector warbling] -Hmm.
Now, let me see if I can pinpoint.
[beeping]
Oh, what do we got here?
-[Rick] That's cool. -[Steve] It is.
[Gary] Yeah. A pintle was used for...
as a gate or a door hanger.
-[Rick] Mm-hmm. -[Gary] And it could've easily
been used to hang a lantern or even in the mines
when they were digging the shafts for the Money Pit.
You need some light.
[Rick] This one does indeed
need to go to the lab.
It could be meaningful.
[Gary] I think this is a really cool find
that could go way back.
All right. We'll put it in the bag and put a flag in it.
[Steve] Good find, Gary.
Interested to see where this iron comes from.
-[Steve] Ready? -[Gary] Yep.
[Rick] Okay.
[narrator] The next morning...
[Terry] Gonna keep our eyes peeled.
-We're going deep here. -Far below.
-We're taking it to the bedrock. -[Charles] Yep.
[narrator] As a new borehole is drilled in the Money Pit area
and the team waits for their soil test results...
[Rick] A big part of the year is the swamp work.
-Yeah. -And you look at this map,
and you realize why that is so.
[narrator] Having received new permits
for exploration in the swamp,
Rick meets with Steve and Billy in the research center
to plan their next phase of digging
in the triangle-shaped feature.
Everything we have found continues to amaze us.
And the hope is that the new permitted areas
will help explain some of the questions we have in the bog.
We've already completed
the so-called West Hill location.
Steve, if you want to bring that up.
Sure will.
[narrator] During recent excavations
at the western border of the swamp...
-[Rick] There's another one. -[Gary] Geez. They're coming up.
What in the world is happening?
[narrator] ...the team uncovered
a series of hand-cut wooden survey stakes
lining what they believe to be a log road,
as well as a strange feature made of cobblestones.
[Billy] On the edge, it looks very similar to the stone road.
It looks very similar.
[narrator] But the most compelling find
was a hand cannon of European origin
that could date back to the 13th century.
[Steve] And we picked that area because
maybe the depositors potentially would have
pushed and had a path through the swamp itself,
because the road that we use around the swamp didn't exist
-at that point in time. -Correct.
[narrator] Now, having fully searched that location,
the team must decide where to move next.
[Steve] I think finding the cobble platform
and finding the stakes and what appears to be a road,
but not finding it north,
makes it that much more important that we move south now
or southwest.
And we've done very little work with the southwest.
You can see it called permit area 25-1.
[Rick] Mm-hmm.
Well, in drier times, people would've... would've walked
-through there, right? -[Steve] Mm-hmm.
Surely, it should be a pretty good spot for people traffic.
[Rick] You would think.
We've done nothing through there.
So there's a whole big area that we, you know,
maybe don't know much about but we're gonna learn more
-in the next corner, right? -[Rick] Yep.
There are very selected areas in the bog
where people long ago did work.
As we moved our way north, we didn't encounter stone.
The hope is that as we continue to move
towards the southwest corner
we will find artifacts and/or stakes
that may help provide an explanation
as to the purpose for these features.
It's a big, open area that we need to take a look at.
But in order to do that, you've got to get in the excavator.
-Exactly. -Sounds good.
-All right. -And your rubber boots.
And your rubber boots. Exactly.
-All right, thanks, Steve. -[Steve] See you guys out there.
[narrator] Following the meeting...
[Peter] Hey, Billy.
-[Billy] Morning. -[Gary] Hey, mate.
-[Billy] Ready to jump in? -Oh, yeah.
[narrator] ...the team gets to work
in the southwest corner of the swamp.
[Steve] We've got quite a large area here.
It's gonna be one of our bigger permit areas we've ever done.
You can see all the stakes. Uh, we start here.
We head a couple hundred feet north, along the bank.
Yeah. You know, closer to the trees
-might be the most artifacts. -Yep.
-Okay. Let's get to it, then. -[Gary] Yep. Let's get stuck in.
[engine starts]
♪ ♪
All right, guys, I've got a little bit of work to do,
-so I will be back. -[Gary] Okay, mate.
[Peter] Sounds good.
[Rick] Obviously, uh, the swamp has provided
some really unique discoveries.
And we have very little understanding
of what they represent in terms of,
is there any association with th-the Money Pit mystery?
With the southwest corner, I feel very hopeful for answers.
-[Peter] Lot of rocks. -[Gary] Yeah.
♪ ♪
[Gary] It really does look like a line of rocks along there.
[Billy] Not just big rocks.
-It's mixed in with-- -[Peter] Yeah.
[Billy] Gravelly stuff, right.
[Gary] Big'uns.
All those rocks here.
[Peter] Yeah.
What do you make of all the rocks, Billy?
[Billy] Peter, I'm surprised to see, you know.
-It's very road-like. -[Peter] Yeah.
[Billy] They wouldn't normally, you know, occur together,
so seems like somebody might have threw them in there.
Yeah. I want to get my Uncle Rick up here.
[Gary] Absolutely fantastic.
-[Rick] Hey. -[Peter] Hello.
-[Gary] Hey, Rick. -[Billy] Hey, Rick.
[Rick] Wow. Rock.
-[Peter] Lot of rocks. -[Gary] Yeah.
[narrator] In the southwest corner of the swamp,
Rick joins the team after being alerted
to a potential new discovery.
Is this how a bog would develop?
How do you explain the amount of rock in here?
[Billy] When you look at the cobbles,
it has all the makings of what we're looking for.
But that rock really shouldn't be up in the till like that.
It should be deeper.
[Rick] So, you're thinking some sort of effort
because they're sitting on top of the--
Yeah, it just seems like it's...
it's possibly land clearing or road.
I-I don't think that all these rocks got put in here
other than by hand of people.
[Gary] Yeah.
This area reminds me of where we were digging
and where we found that potential cannon.
There's a heck of a lot of rocks here.
This might be a way to get from the beach
-to the upland, right? -[Gary] Yeah.
If you're coming around the island on a ship,
then you're gonna come in this area here.
So I am expecting to find some great finds here.
It'd be really something if we found
another Portuguese-style road on this side of the swamp.
Yeah.
[narrator] When the team first uncovered
the believed Portuguese stone road in the southeast corner,
it was speculated that it may have been part of a ship's wharf
used to unload cargo onto the island.
Is it possible that the team has just found
a similar structure in the southwest corner?
[Rick] We couldn't get a nicer day,
so we might as well put it to good use.
-Let's keep going. -[Billy and Gary] Yep.
[Gary] Foggy with a chance of artifacts.
[Rick] There you go.
[narrator] While the dig continues in the swamp...
...later that afternoon...
[Ian] Hey, Charles, Terry.
-[Terry] Hey, Ian. -[narrator] Dr. Ian Spooner
joins members of the team in the Money Pit area.
Water samples. I got to take some water samples.
-So I could use a hand. -No problem at all.
-Let's get at 'er. -Okay.
[narrator] After a disappointing few weeks
in which the team has been unable
to find hard evidence of treasure
while drilling in the solution channel,
Dr. Spooner will collect and test new water samples
to look for signs that the team is drilling in the right place.
We did get some samples last year,
and they were high metals.
And so, we got to get more water samples
and send them in and see what they show us now.
-Absolutely. -[Ian] So, I'm gonna start
right with B-.5 and 11.
[Terry] I think that's a good idea.
Great.
Yep. B-.5-11 right here.
So, if we have high metals
in these samples that we've been taking, it could mean
that the metal that we're seeing in the water
-is in the solution channel. -Yeah.
So it follows that the solution channel
may be moving metal from the Money Pit.
-It's a conduit. Absolutely. -It's a conduit.
It's a pathway. Yeah.
-Lot of water moving down there. -Yep.
[narrator] Because the massive underground solution channel
is full of moving water,
Dr. Spooner will take water samples
from previously drilled boreholes
where precious metals have been detected in the past.
I'm gonna get you to hold that.
[narrator] Depending on the test results,
he may be able to determine where water
with the highest trace evidence of gold and silver
is flowing from deep underground
and help the team pick new drilling locations
in this area to search for the treasure.
I'm going down to 110 feet.
-That's 105 right there. -Yeah, and I'm just gonna
-let this fall on the ground. -Okay.
[narrator] To collect the water samples,
Dr. Spooner is dropping
a single-valve bailer into the borehole.
As it descends, an open valve allows water to flow through it.
Once the desired depth is reached,
a metal ball drops into place, securing the sample.
[Marty] There are metals in the water
that the scientists say those metals are not natural
that's still there.
And that's what keeps us going to find it.
Hopefully, the water testing will tell us
where to actually find the treasure.
Hey. Look at that.
[Terry] Oh, my gosh.
There's the dye.
-That's pretty amazing. -Yeah.
That's the dye we put in, uh, last year
-in the Money Pit. -Yep.
[narrator] In 2024,
Dr. Spooner and members of the team
conducted a series of tests to locate
the source of gold and silver in the Money Pit area.
This involved pumping red dye some 200 feet deep
into the solution channel through several boreholes.
Dr. Spooner then resampled water
in other boreholes across the area,
looking for remnants of the dye
to track the direction of water flow underground.
Be very interested to see
-what metals this has in it. -Yep.
[narrator] Now that Dr. Spooner has just recovered water
with red dye from just 105 feet deep...
Here we go.
[narrator] ...could that mean that the water
in the solution channel is flowing upwards
and into other locations in the Money Pit area?
-[Ian] And that's all we need. -[Terry] Yep.
-So, that's one down? -That's one down.
And we'll send them in today and see what we got.
Yeah.
[narrator] Compared to soil testing,
which is time-consuming, the new water samples
can be analyzed for signs of precious metals
in just a matter of days.
Okay. Let's take this back and we'll go get another sample.
Yep.
[narrator] As Dr. Spooner and Terry continue
gathering samples in the Money Pit area...
-[Peter] I really like this lot. -[Katya] Me, too.
[narrator] ...Katya Drayton and Peter continue
searching for clues on Lot 15.
[metal detector beeping]
-[Peter] Sounds good enough. -[Katya] Yeah.
[metal detector warbles, beeps]
[Katya] Anything in front of me is okay.
-[metal detector beeping] -Oh.
-[Peter] Out? -[Katya] Yep.
[pinpointer beeping]
[rapid beeping]
Oh, my gosh.
[Peter] What do you got?
Um...
Think we found ourselves a button.
That's certainly a button.
[Katya] Looks to be green, so it might be copper.
[Peter] What kind of button do you think it is?
It's pretty big.
I think this would be
-more of a shirt button. -Yeah.
[narrator] Is it possible that Peter and Katya
found a clue that will help identify who left the artifacts
previously found by the team on Lot 15?
We don't see a design, but there could be a design there.
Mm-hmm. Well, I'm excited to get this one back to the lab.
[Peter] Yeah. And your dad always says,
people who had buttons had pockets,
and people who had pockets had coins.
Exactly.
All right, let's bag, tag it, keep going.
Yeah. Good start.
[metal detector beeping]
-[rapid beeping] -[Katya] It's a little chippy,
but it's two-way...
-Mm-hmm. -...and it could be something
just really deep and on edge.
-We're here to dig it. -Let's do it. Let's try it.
[pinpointer beeping]
-[Katya] Okay. It's out. -[rapid beeping]
[Peter] What do you got?
[Katya] I'm not sure.
-[rapid beeping] -[Peter] What do you got?
I'm not sure.
[narrator] On Lot 15, Katya and Peter
have just unearthed an intriguing metal artifact.
Do you know what this looks like?
What do you think?
This looks like a pin on a compass almost.
Oh. I can see that.
[Katya] What do you think?
Yeah, here's the top of it.
Might even... might have both pieces for the navigation tool.
-Mm-hmm. -Like this.
[Katya] That is so cool.
[narrator] A possible compass found on Lot 15?
Dating back to the times of ancient Greece,
a compass is a drawing instrument
used to measure distances on maps
and for designing the layout of structures on land.
For centuries, it was a standard tool of architects,
navigators, craftsmen and astronomers.
And it makes sense...
-Yeah. -...where we are.
We have the beach just down here.
-Mm-hmm. -Obviously, at some point,
boats came to shore.
And that could be used on a boat
-or on land. -Mm-hmm.
Whenever my Uncle Rick's talking and...
and we're talking about Nolan's Cross...
-Mm-hmm. -...they're very precisely
put in place, and they're put in place due to the stars.
-Yeah. -Which is the same way
that people long ago would travel across the sea.
So, to your point, this could be nautical,
but it also could've been for the alignment of Nolan's Cross.
Mm-hmm.
[narrator] If this is a compass,
could Peter be correct
that it may have been the kind of tool
needed to create some of the megalithic structures
that have been found on Oak Island,
such as Nolan's Cross,
a feature that some scientific experts believe
could date back to the 13th century?
That's amazing.
[Rick] We have sought mightily to create a timeline
of human activity in the Oak Island mystery.
Where people work, they drop things, lose things.
And in order to figure out
who, what, when, where, why and how,
it begins with finding artifacts that tell a story.
This... this right here is a key to navigation,
but it might be a key to Oak Island, as well.
I know we don't find many nautical things on the island,
so this is something I really want to take back to the lab.
-[Katya] All right. -[Peter] Okay.
-Let's keep on going. -[Katya] Keep going.
[narrator] As another exciting day dawns on Oak Island...
[Gary] Let's find some artifacts.
[Alex] Let's get going.
[narrator] ...Alex and Peter join Billy and Gary in the swamp
as they continue to search the southwest corner.
[Gary] I'm going in.
[Alex] We think we are seeing signs of a...
a structure or a road
on the west side of the swamp along the edge.
[Gary] Wow. There's nothing in here.
This is quiet.
[Alex] But like everything,
we need to investigate it further
and look for artifacts
to see if we can prove
one way or the other what's going on here.
[Gary] Now we're getting rockier, past the sand.
Mm-hmm. There's this really dark stuff.
Can't tell where it's coming from.
There.
[Peter] Organic stuff?
There's some organics in that.
There's a layer of rocks
that's more than one rock thick.
And in between those rocks
is swamp material, sort of decaying plant matter.
In my head, the only way that could be there
is if the rocks were added to the swamp
after the fact deliberately.
In my opinion, there's a chance that it's not natural.
It definitely looks out of place.
[Peter] And if it is man-made,
the artifacts are gonna help us date it.
-[Gary] Yep. -So, that's what we got to do
-is find the artifact. -[Gary] Yep.
All right, coming in, Billy.
♪ ♪
[metal detector warbling]
[Alex] There's a signal.
-[Gary] Got a signal. -[Peter] Got something?
It's a good, strong iron signal.
Sounds fairly shallow.
Yeah. It's just there. It's in that area.
All right, see if I can pinpoint it.
Oh. Oh, look at that.
-[chuckles] Ox shoe. -Oh, yeah.
[Gary] But look how unusual it is.
-Look how long that body is. -[Alex] Mm-hmm.
But, I mean, I wouldn't imagine you'd have
oxen in the middle of a swamp, so I think this is telling us
that either there's a road here
or, at this time, this was passable.
[Gary] Yeah.
We find a lot of French and English ox shoes
on the island, but this is totally different
to any of those ox shoes.
[Alex] We're very close to this road, if it is a road,
and finding an ox shoe here kind of reinforces that.
That's where the draft animals would be...
would be walking and, you know, dragging a load.
So, hopefully, we can find out when it would've been used,
why it might have been used
and who might have been using it.
So, yeah, we'll put it in the bag...
-[Peter] Yeah. -...and we'll find answers
-at the lab. -That's right. Nice.
If it's a road, there should be more,
but that right there is a little bit of proof
that there is a road here.
Let's-let's leave it at this:
indications that it could be man-made.
Dr. Spooner needs to take a look.
[Peter] Yep.
-Nice work. -[Gary] Good start.
-[Derek] Dr. Spooner. -[Gary] Hey, Ian.
We've got another head-scratcher for you.
Hmm.
[narrator] Now that the team has unearthed
more of the strange rock feature
in the southwest corner of the swamp,
Dr. Ian Spooner arrives to examine it
for signs of human construction.
[Gary] You look at this area here now.
The more we're digging, the more we're uncovering,
the more rocks and boulders,
and they all seem to be in, like, a...
a linear feature,
-like a road. -[Ian] I agree.
This is... this is manipulated.
You know, it's-it's pretty obvious.
Uh, it's what we call in geology, it's "open work."
The air space around those boulders means
that those boulders aren't naturally in place.
There's no till in between the boulders.
So they're moved.
[Billy] It's not perfectly smooth like you
would expect to see if it was done
-with more modern machinery. -Right.
One thing to look at is that this area here is elevated
somewhat above that side and that side.
So, it has the look of a very crude beginning of something.
The key thing is the age.
Any artifacts?
We did find one ox shoe on the far end there.
-Yeah. -Okay.
But it was actually amongst the rocks.
[Ian] Oh, really? Okay.
[Billy] Yeah.
Do you think all these rocks and boulders
could've been the start of the road?
Like, the foundation before they put the cobbles on?
Yeah, possibly.
Maybe they were pushing stuff.
Maybe they were using oxen. I don't know.
The reoccurring theme here is, people were here with purpose.
[Billy] It has a purpose. We just don't know
quite yet what that purpose is.
Yeah.
[narrator] If Dr. Spooner is correct
that this stone feature may have been used
to move heavy cargo, just what kind of cargo was it,
and where did it end up?
[Ian] At this stage, what we need to do is just excavate
-the length of it... -Yeah.
[Ian] ...and see if what we've got is some
beginning of something.
[Rick] There are answers in the swamp,
but we only have a limited understanding
of the possible interactions between the work in the bog
and the work conducted in the Money Pit.
The Money Pit was an attempt to hide something.
What was the bog work about?
I don't think we have that story
close to being written or understood.
The good news is we got two directions to go.
Okay. Good. I'm gonna head back to the lab.
[Gary] Okay, we'll start digging.
[narrator] The following afternoon...
[Marty] Ian, I understand you've done some
work on the water samples and you have some results
-you want to talk to us about. -Yeah.
[narrator] While the results of the soil tests
are being completed, Rick, Marty and members of the team
meet with Dr. Spooner in the war room
for an update on the water samples
he recently collected in the Money Pit area.
I think we've shown, at least to our satisfaction,
that there's metal underground that isn't, uh, natural.
And then, of course, we found gold.
-The problem has been, "Where?" -[laughing] Yeah.
So, we've got some monitoring wells.
These samples are from the west side, from your area
that you're drilling right now.
What's that one?
[Ian] Over here, we've got the east side,
sort of near the Garden Shaft.
-Mm-hmm. Oh, this is the dye. -It's dye.
Yeah, I see.
It's a rhodamine dye.
And last year, we did a bunch of dye tests.
We put the dye in at depth in the solution channel area,
or in the traditional Money Pit area...
-Mm-hmm. -...and now it comes up
in wells near the Garden Shaft.
So it just tells us that water can move that direction.
There's precious metals in these samples.
So, where are the metals coming from?
And what the dye has told us in this little collection of wells
is that there's every possibility it's coming
from the south, from the solution channel,
through that conduit that the dye traveled very rapidly.
[narrator] Dr. Spooner's new test results suggest
that the traces of precious metals
are indeed coming from the solution channel.
You're saying that water is moving south to north.
Yeah. So, the way that the water is moving
from deep down in the solution channel-- uphill, basically--
is all the work we're doing with all the drilling.
We're pushing down in one area,
and that's pushing water up in another area.
And that's why we're getting water moving uphill.
Almost as if there was a pipe
just connecting the two, you know?
So, you know, you're flushing water--
-And it's... and it, bam, down. -Pushing it down, forcing it out
-and drawing it back. -Yes.
-It's a giant plunger, right? -Exactly.
It's like a plunger in a toilet, yeah.
-Hmm. -It's validating that we're
looking for the treasure in the right area.
That's amazing.
[Marty] You think at this point, given all the data,
that the source of the metals are deep,
-down in the solution channel. -[Ian] Yeah.
It's validating that we're looking for the...
the treasure in the right area.
[narrator] Rick, Marty and the Oak Island team
have just received encouraging news from Dr. Ian Spooner.
After testing new water samples
collected from boreholes all across the Money Pit area,
he has found evidence that the water deep underground,
which contains the highest amounts of precious metals,
is likely originating in the solution channel.
[Marty] Well, here's what I heard.
I heard that your cumulative data
is consistent with our prevailing theory this year.
-[Ian] Mm-hmm. -[Marty] If, in fact,
a great treasure or even a minor treasure fell down
into the solution channel, it explains everything.
-Yeah. -It explains what happened.
It explains why people didn't find it.
It explains the metals in the water.
Yep.
Where you're looking is a good place.
[Marty] Yeah. That's really good to hear.
-[Billy] Yeah. [chuckles] -[Rick] What Dr. Spooner related
substantiates our belief, currently,
that the treasure had fallen to greater depth.
An area like the Money Pit that has been so investigated
for 230 years, to still have under-investigated areas
where the treasure or treasures may still lie,
is really quite interesting.
And that's where we're going to focus our efforts, justifiably.
[Marty] The solution channel is the number one thing
that makes sense with regards to where
the treasure might still be.
Everything I've heard this year makes me want
to get back out there and implement our plan.
Sounds like we're doing the right thing,
and I hope we do focus in and really do the right thing
-and actually solve this thing. -Mm-hmm.
I think we've got a chance.
Let's define that solution cavity
quantitatively and qualitatively.
We have to find the place in the solution channel
very in the conventional Money Pit area
where it's wide open enough
to accept something dropping from above.
[Rick] That's what this has told us today,
that we are on the correct path.
Let's just keep moving forward, and I appreciate the effort.
Well, we'll keep... we'll keep on.
And I'm calling the end of the meeting
-right there, okay? -[laughter]
-Let's move on. Well done, Ian. -[Ian] Okay, okay.
-Thank you. -Yep.
[narrator] The true history of Oak Island
remains a tantalizing secret,
but with every dig and each scientific test,
Rick, Marty, Craig and their team
find evidence that something extraordinary
was buried here long ago.
So, as they peel back new layers of this mystery,
just how much deeper must they look for the answers
and finally break the curse believed to protect them?
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