[narrator] Tonight on The Curse of Oak Island...
[Marty] It's designed to hide something.
I want to pick it up and see what's under there.
[Alex] Well, this could get interesting.
-Oh. -[Gary] Yeah, that's a brick.
[Tom] Somebody was in here doing this.
It looks like a road toward where the vault is.
-[Peter] Yeah. -[Charles] We got something in here.
Look, it's all through it.
-[Terry] This is very, very important. -It may be the thing.
We've processed these deep samples
from the Money Pit area and found something interesting.
[Jack] We could be closer than we've ever been.
Amen.
[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.
♪ ♪
[Ethan] Hey, guys.
-[Craig] Wow. -Hi.
-[Marty] How we all doing? -[laughs] We're doing great.
[Marty] It looks like the booby trap
-in the Indiana Jones movies, doesn't it? -[laughter]
[narrator] As a bright new morning begins
on Oak Island, Rick and Marty Lagina
and their partner Craig Tester
join other members of the team on Lot 8
to continue investigating
a potentially breakthrough discovery:
a massive boulder that sits above a series of
smaller, evenly-spaced stones that strongly suggest
it is not a natural formation.
There's this trench that they've excavated that goes
well below the bottom of the boulder,
that was filled with rubble that's all over there, and--
[Marty] You dug all that out from under there?
-[Fiona] Yes. Yep. -[Jack] Wow.
This was a huge effort for somebody to do this.
We just don't know when, why and who.
-Okay. -Yeah.
There's actually voids underneath the rock.
We had a camera in there, and you could see spaces.
Okay.
[narrator] In recent weeks,
the team has found links of a chain
that could be 500 years old,
as well as a potentially 700-year-old
English bag seal near this feature.
I'll show you, there's a really
-good spot. -All right.
[narrator] And after feeding a snake camera into a small void
that was discovered below the boulder,
they've seen not only a possible iron spike
but perhaps evidence of treasure.
[Rick] Oh, my God. That looks like there's a pearl.
[Peter] Yeah.
One of the key things here is that the trench you see,
it's a trench that was made
-by somebody. -[Marty] Sure.
[Ian] So, somebody was
trying to get, and probably did get,
underneath the rock with excavation.
[Marty] Okay.
What about it's a plug? It's a plug.
It's designed to hide something.
[Rick] I think it is covering something.
Some sort of cavity where something was placed.
Yes, something's under there, in my opinion.
[Marty] That's more exciting. I mean, somebody tunneling
underneath it could have just been a searcher.
Somebody plugging something wasn't a searcher.
And it really doesn't appear to be modern.
You can see the soil stains on the bottom of
those two big rocks there.
That's an indication that these rocks have been
sitting in that soil for a long period of time.
-Right. -Possibly before the Money Pit was discovered.
[Marty] The Lot 8 boulder
is the thing we weren't anticipating.
And it's very exciting
because 100% of the archaeologists
and the scientists
who have looked at it said it was moved there.
We are quite sure nobody in the searcher record
ever said anything about this boulder.
This is our find, and we get to figure out what it is.
Is it possible
that those rocks could be excavated rocks?
From a tunnel, say?
Could be, right?
[Marty] Okay, here's the next question.
What are the rules at this point, Laird?
What's the archaeological rules?
I mean, I'll just come right out and say it.
I want to pick it up and see what's underneath it.
-We know. Yeah, we heard that. -[Marty] Yeah, no, for sure.
I mean, and nothing I've seen here
makes me not want to.
We are on a treasure hunt, and we have limited time.
I think our job is to determine significance.
Yeah. Well, I'm with you.
But what would be wrong with plopping--
picking that straight up
and then seeing what's under there?
-Is there any reason we cannot? -Let's say
-there is something significant. -Say.
The most effective way, unfortunately,
is to excavate it by hand.
I'd prefer to go to where Fiona is and work along that edge.
Well, you can do that with it out of there.
-[chuckles] -Seriously.
[Rick] You have to remember,
you know, archaeological context is important here.
If we do this in haste and we do some harm,
we cannot put it back.
I would prefer the archaeologists
do as much work as they deem necessary,
and only then, we engage in the possibility of a lift.
When would you call it done?
I would-- I think, safely,
we can only take one other side down, I would think.
And then, we'd have to look at some way to dig underneath.
Yeah. Exactly.
One thing that's limiting us are the-- are these
-three boulders. -[Craig] Yeah.
[Marty] Well, then,
we should at least make a road in here
for a backhoe, 'cause you're not gonna
move those without one, are you?
To continue this safely, those have to go, so we can...
-[Marty] Yeah. -...have more room.
[Craig] But you're fine with us bringing
an excavator in and moving these bigger boulders out?
-Yeah, of course. -[Marty] Yeah.
Don't let my impatience give you the wrong message,
'cause I am impatient, but this is exciting.
-This is really cool. -Yeah.
So, anyway, the sooner you guys
can get back to work, the sooner we can
do all of this, so get back to work.
Get busy, eh? Would you guys?
-Geez. -[laughter]
[narrator] As the investigation
of the large boulder on Lot 8 continues...
[Charles] Looks like we have a core, gentlemen.
-Thanks, Leighton. -Thank you, Leighton.
[Terry] Okay. Okay, guys, here it is.
H.5-9, 168 to 178.
Hand me a cutter.
[narrator] ...in the Money Pit area,
Terry Matheson, Charles Barkhouse
and Steve Guptill are overseeing a new core drilling operation
in borehole H.5-9.
[Terry] Yeah, this is just gypsum, gentlemen.
Solid gypsum all the way down to 178.
-Yep. -Right into the bedrock plateau.
-Yeah. -[Terry] As we drill down,
oft times, we will intersect
the bedrock plateau, which is a gypsum ledge,
and then we'll push below it into loose, slushy areas
which we hope the treasure has fallen into.
What lies beneath is the most important thing anyway.
We're going into the solution channel,
-I would say, in about a foot or two. -Yeah.
[narrator] After drilling several boreholes
some 50 feet northeast in the so-called Peacock
and collecting soil samples
to be tested for evidence of precious metals,
the team is returning to an area
where previous water testing has yielded
high traces of silver and gold over 200 feet deep
in the solution channel.
I have high hopes for this one because it's very close to
where we were before, H.5-8.5,
where we found that piece of a drill.
Right? From the 1850s.
-Which is merely two feet from this location. -Yeah.
[narrator] While waiting for results
of the soil tests from the Peacock,
the team is once again
drilling in an area where, several weeks ago,
they recovered pieces of an iron drill rod
that may be connected to a critical searcher operation
from 1849,
one in which a drilling foreman
named James Pitblado reportedly unearthed
a 14th century silver coin related to the Order of Christ,
a Portuguese sect of the Knights Templar.
-[Terry] Yeah, core it is. -[Charles] Looks like
-we have a core, Terry. -We got it coming now.
The scientists tell us some big source
of precious and other metals
is still in the Money Pit.
It's consistent with the Pitblado discovery.
-Thanks, Leighton. -Thank you, Leighton.
So, guys, they pushed all the way from 178
down through to 210 here.
They pushed into relatively soft material.
Let's see just how soft. Let's carve it up.
Yeah, this is nicely soft.
That's very loose material at the top.
[Steve] We haven't hit bedrock yet, so we know we're in one of
the deeper portions of the solution channel here. -Yeah.
Charles, I think you can have at it, if you like.
Unfortunately, gentlemen, not in this,
but could be the next one.
I know you got to leave, Steve, but, uh,
we'll go through the core and, uh, hopefully get some more
-results for you. -Thank you, fellas.
-See you later, Steve. -Yeah, see you, Steve.
[Terry] Here it comes. Thank you, Leighton.
-What do you got, Leighton? -Uh, 210 to 218.
-210 to 218. -210 to 218.
-Thank you. -[Leighton] Not a problem.
This is the bottom.
Looks like they got well into the bedrock.
-Yep. -[Terry] So, when you're down that deep,
you're over 200 feet,
anywhere where you might encounter the treasure,
that's where we have to keep our eyes peeled.
-Thank you, Leighton. -Fellas.
[Terry] But as far as I'm concerned, this year,
we're as close as we're ever gonna be to reaching down
and touching that treasure beyond all imagining,
deep in the heart of the Money Pit.
[Terry] It's a little more promising,
but not the open, washed-out
-slurry that we hoped for. -No.
I'm gonna go over this.
Something might get driven down, you know?
Here we go. Okay.
[pinpointer beeping]
-Oh. -Whoa.
We got something in here.
[beeping continues]
I'm getting a metal hit in here, Terry.
[Terry] Wow.
Interesting, Charles.
-[Charles] Oh. -[Terry] Whoa.
[Charles] We got something in here. -[pinpointer beeping]
-Okay, you want to... -Wow.
...take it over to the table?
-Yeah, let's. -Let's do that.
[narrator] In the Money Pit area...
-You ready? -This is relatively precious cargo.
-Here we go. -Yep.
[narrator] ...after reaching a depth of 218 feet,
near an area where the team has previously detected
silver and gold in the solution channel...
Terry, wouldn't it be nice
to hit a silver coin or something here?
-[chuckles] Yeah. -The one thing?
[narrator] ...they have recovered a fresh drilling core
that might contain something made of metal.
-[Terry] That was a ringing clear as a bell, Charles. -Yeah.
[sighs]
[Terry] Now nothing.
[Charles] Isn't that odd?
[Terry] That is frustrating.
[Charles] Doesn't make any sense.
You know, I think we should give, uh, Katya a call,
come out and go over it with a big metal detector.
-Maybe I'll just text her. -Yeah.
[Charles] We could be
where Pitblado discovered that silver coin
on the pot auger after it was brought up to the surface.
So, when Katya comes up,
maybe she'll find something substantial
in this core that I missed.
Get 'er all on the table. Here we go.
Go that way.
Pull tight. Pull tight. Pull tight.
There we go.
-What do we have? -[Terry] How you doing, Katya?
Well, I initially got a hit, right?
-Mm-hmm. -We bring it over to this table
and I don't get the hit anymore.
-Oh. -So, uh, it's all yours.
[metal detector blips]
[Terry] Oh.
[Charles] What are those chirps?
I'm not seeing what it is.
I'm gonna try
-and pinpoint it as well... -Okay.
...because I really like to see what you're seeing
with the pinpointer.
Well, where we got the hit was right in this one,
but we want you to check everything,
-but it was right there. -Right there?
[pinpointer beeping]
Found it and then we're having that...
-[beeping] -[Terry] What the heck?
[Charles] Could it be little flecks of silver or...
-It could... -[beeping]
-It could very well be. -Yeah.
-[consistent beeping] -I wasn't even
getting that when I run it over.
[Terry] No.
-I wouldn't be able to tell you what it is... -Right.
...just with how small it is.
It's not being...
-Right. -...you know,
-fully registered by the detector. -Mm-hmm.
-But there is metal in there. -[Terry] This is loose material
at the bottom of the solution channel.
We're definitely gonna take it back to the lab
but, I mean, Charles, that's great.
[narrator] Is it possible that the metal traces could be
related to the evidence of silver and gold
that the team has already recovered
in this area of the solution channel?
-[consistent beeping] -[Terry] Oh, look at that.
[Charles] See, you're getting it again right there.
[Terry] Wow.
[narrator] To find out for sure,
the team will take the core sample
back to the lab for a thorough analysis.
-[Katya] Well, I'm excited. -[Charles] Yeah.
Thanks for inviting me over, guys.
[Terry] Thanks for coming out.
[narrator] The following day, on Lot 8...
Here they come.
[narrator] ...Marty prepares to move several large stones
away from the massive boulder
to help the archaeological team dig by hand underneath it.
Nice.
[Craig] Gonna go with the-the big one first?
-Yeah. -Okay.
[Marty] It's not only tricky, I want to make sure
that whatever I do, I don't
dislodge them so they roll down in the hole.
[Alex] That's good.
[Marty] And so, I got to make sure I keep
control of this situation.
[Fiona] Oh, look at that.
-[Tansy] Ooh! -Nice.
[Craig] You know, my biggest hope
is that we do find something significant under the boulder.
But I'm hoping at least we find some sort of artifact
to tell us who was there.
-Nice job. -Done.
[Craig] What's your plan from here?
Yeah, from here, I think the plan, really,
is that we're gonna kind of remove
some of these rocks here
because we know there's some voids
between that large rock there, and we want to explore those.
Because that'll determine whether that large rock
was placed there or whether that was already in situ.
But that really helped clear that out.
And now we can clear out more material
from underneath the boulder.
So, we've got a way better chance
at getting the camera underneath it again.
I think we need to investigate that a little further.
Good. That's all you need for right now?
Yeah. That was perfect.
This whole thing has been a conundrum.
It's-it's exceptionally odd.
Well, this is Oak Island, you know.
-It's the island that keeps on giving. -Exceptionally odd
is normal.
-You guys, carry on. -Thank you.
[narrator] Later that morning...
[Gary] Let's find some treasure, boys.
[narrator] ...Gary and Peter join Tom Nolan and Alan Andrews
on Tom's property
in the northernmost region of the swamp.
They are following a cobblestone pathway north
that is lined with eight-sided, wooden survey stakes,
which, just one year ago, led to the discovery
of an empty brick-and-slate vault
several yards to the south.
[Gary] Last year, we found that mysterious vault
and stone pathway that leads to the north end of the swamp.
But I'm hoping that we can discover another vault
this year along the same line.
But this time, I hope it's full of treasure.
Okay. Coming in.
When you're down there, Gary, I think that's a brick
-right there. -I'll check it out.
-[Tom] See, there. Is that a brick or a rock? -This?
[Tom] Nope, no. Right-right there.
[Gary] Oh, there. Yeah, that's a brick.
It's way down there as well, innit?
-[Tom] Yeah. -And it's a smaller, thinner brick.
What would that be doing way down there?
-Yeah. -Hmm.
-Looks old. -It does look old.
[Gary] But we should put it to one side
because we are testing all the bricks.
Shouldn't have been any structures out
in this part of the swamp.
And I see other little flaky pieces in the wall.
So, there's probably other pieces of brick
-in the area. -Yeah, well,
we'll get more answers at the lab.
-Put this aside and keep digging? -Yeah.
And hopefully, we can find a piece of metal that tells us
how old this brick is.
That would be great.
[Gary] We are noticing more rocks and more cobble.
Well, I'm hoping this leads us to another vault.
We're in for a great day.
[Peter] What are you seeing, Tom?
Tom, what are you seeing?
Well, I thought I was seeing this cobble again,
-and it is... -Mm-hmm.
-...but there's brick in with it. -Huh.
Every time we see the cobble, it's like,
"Is it natural, is it not?"
but when you can pull a piece of brick out
from inside the cobble...
...somebody was working the cobble.
There's no other way.
It's just interesting, with cobble here,
cobble here, cobble right behind us.
I'm pretty sure we're on a perfect line
going over towards the other side where the vault is.
It's really looking that way.
[Gary] Maybe we'll discover another vault in this area.
We're on a perfect line
going over towards the other side where the vault is.
[narrator] While excavating in the northernmost region
of the Oak Island swamp...
It's just interesting, with cobble here,
cobble here, cobble right behind us.
[narrator] ...members of the team have just uncovered
another possible section of the cobblestone pathway.
Want to see if Gary metal-detects in it?
-[Tom] Yeah. -That'd be a good idea.
-[Gary] Coming over. -Okay.
All right, let's see if there's any metals down there.
-Okay. -[Gary] The more time
we spend in the swamp
and the more mysterious features we uncover,
I'm beginning to think that the swamp
is a much bigger part of the Oak Island treasure story.
Where is all the metal?
No metals.
Whenever we run across the cobble area, no metals.
It's an head-scratcher all right, innit?
I'm just getting a different vantage point.
We're right in line with the other cobble.
-Yeah. -It's right along the stakes that we're finding.
We found another really tightly packed cobble platform,
probably about six feet around,
and it's right on the other side of this.
-Mm-hmm. -You know, we've found
wood chips in it, we've found cut wood,
and now you've got a-- some brick.
-Yeah. -It's nice to see something
you know man put in the cobble,
because it puts the nail in the coffin,
somebody was in here doing this.
So, we have four cobble areas that line up?
-[Tom] It looks like a road or a path, I think. -[Gary] Yeah.
-[Tom] It really does. -[Peter] I'm excited to see
what that ties into, because I'm sure
it ties into something on the other side of the swamp.
[narrator] Is it possible that the team has found
a stone road in the center of the swamp
that is related to the other stone structures
uncovered earlier this year
along the western and southwestern regions
of the brackish bog?
If so, could it lead the team to a major breakthrough
in the 231-year-old treasure mystery?
The constructions in the swamp are too numerous
for there not to be a relationship between them.
The hope is they are treasure-related
and will connect, uh, to the Money Pit
and perhaps, even, the Lot 8 feature,
because there is an intent there.
There is an intelligent design, if you will.
I think it would be really good to have Steve
pin that far extent of the cobble,
just to see if it lines up.
-Yeah. -[Alan] I'll just take a little bit off
till I feel the cobble, and that's all I'll do.
Yep. Perfect.
And we'll have to keep the twin optical scanners out,
because artifacts can tell a story.
-Could find anything in here. -Yep.
[Tom] Keep digging, see if we can find
-a little more of it. -Yep.
[narrator] While the investigation
continues in the swamp...
[Craig] Lots to sift.
[narrator] ...Craig and other members of team
continue their careful excavation
beneath and around the massive boulder on Lot 8.
[Fiona] Laird, I wanted you to see this because, look,
I've identified where the actual cut was
into the subsoil itself.
You can see it.
-It kind of comes down in a nice slope... -Mm.
...very, very clean cut that comes at an angle like this.
-[Craig] You guys find anything more over there? -Yeah.
[Laird] I think what we have to look at is:
Did they excavate that with this in place?
Or did they create, like, a cradle?
-[Fiona] Like a cradle/trench type of thing. Yeah. -Yeah.
And as impossible as I think it is,
did they create that cradle and then put that rock on top?
-Boy, that would be an awful lot of effort. -I know. I know.
I think we can say, to a degree,
-that we know this was worked by man... -Right.
-...not worked by machine. -[Laird] Yeah.
[chuckles] Why?
Wow. Deconstructing this is really helping
give us the information that we'll need to finally make
an informed decision about it all.
So, uh, so, we just need to keep getting after it.
-Yeah. -Okay.
[Craig] I got some more buckets to sift through.
♪ ♪
Hey, Laird.
What you think of this?
I don't know if that has any meaning to it or not, but...
definitely has some material or something.
[Laird] Mm-hmm.
The red part looks like cloth of some sort?
-I mean, it all looks shredded, but... -Like a textile.
-[Craig] Yeah. -Yeah.
You think the whole thing is a textile of some sort, or...
[Laird] It sure looks like it.
[Craig] The red material,
is that a dye?
Can we determine the type of dye, potentially?
It is a dye.
The red is definitely a dye.
-If it's older, it's a natural dye. -Mm-hmm.
I think we have to get that, uh, under the microscope.
It's quite possible the XRF may be able to do that.
-Okay. -Yeah.
[Craig] I see this material and, quickly in my mind,
I see somebody trying to move these boulders
and it scrapes and takes a part of their shirt
or jacket or whatever, and it's just a little piece
left on that larger rock.
[Laird] If we determine it's old,
now that's pretty significant.
-Okay. -We should be able to tell
if it's a natural fiber or not.
-Okay. -Given the lack of artifacts,
-I think it's worth bagging that. -Okay.
[Craig] We know it was under one of the boulders
that Marty had just removed,
so it was probably 18 inches below
the normal surface and below a boulder.
And it may tell us who was here and when they were here,
so I'm excited to see what the results are.
Even if a mouse buried this,
the mouse would have gone into this rock structure
-after it was made. -Correct.
-So, this is going to be younger than, uh... -Yeah.
-...than the rock structure. -Pretty cool.
-We know this had to be in place before then. -Earlier.
-And that could help date it. -Yep.
-It could be exciting. All right. -Can I bag 'er?
Yep.
[Craig] Okay. Well, we'll get 'er tested.
[Laird] All right.
[narrator] As a new morning shines bright on Oak Island...
[Marty] Okay. I don't know too much about this.
Craig, why don't you give us some background.
Yep. So, uh, you know,
I was sifting through the materials and I found that.
You moved the boulder. It was underneath that.
-Really? -Hmm. -Yeah.
[narrator] ...members of the team meet in the lab
where Emma is analyzing the piece of fabric
that was uncovered near the large boulder on Lot 8.
It's the only thing that I know of
that's been found on the site so far.
-[Alex] Mm-hmm. -Yeah. -So, yeah,
what can you tell us about it?
[Emma] Yeah. So, I did do a CT scan on it,
XRF, um, the whole shebang.
But the CT scan actually...
gave great imaging.
And you can kind of see the design
of the knitting or the loops that go inward and then outward.
So, we're seeing a style of weft knitting.
Mm-hmm.
[Emma] So, weft knitting is knitting
by interlocking strands of loops, or rows of loops.
-Okay. -Yeah.
And whether or not it's handmade or early machine-made,
first glance from the visuals,
I'm not 100% sure.
It's kind of hard to narrow down.
-Yeah. -Yeah. As for the material used,
I would like to do a simple burn test.
-Really? -Yeah. To determine
what kind of material was made,
because depending on how it was burnt,
how it melts or kind of turns into ash,
we can discern quickly what kind of material it is.
[Marty] Like, what are we looking for?
-If it's what, it's what? -If it's polyester,
it will-- it burns really quickly,
and then it kind of turns into a liquid form.
If it's more cotton or linen,
it's more ashy of-of a burn.
Um, if it's silk, as soon as you move it away
from the fire, it snuffs the fire out.
So, it doesn't burn, it just kind of disintegrates.
Wool should kind of clump up into like an ashy
or kind of burnt texture and then you can crush it.
Okay.
So, who would like to be my assistant?
-Peter. -I will.
[Emma] Even though
burning a fabric is a bit of a destructive method,
it's one of the most telling methods
that can identify or actually cancel out
what kind of material that fabric is.
And that could help determine
whether the material is modern or not.
Okay. You are just going to light it on fire.
-Okay. -[laughs softly]
-[Marty] Wow. -[Alex] That was it?
[Emma] Yeah. And then we'll let it cool.
And then we can crush it.
And that is wool.
-Really? -Wool? -Yeah.
-[Marty] Amazing. -[Laird] That's interesting,
because not far away from where that wool was found,
Katya found the bag seal...
-Wow. -Okay.
...which has a very distinctive sheepskin symbol on it,
and that is associated with the city of Leeds in England,
which is a major manufacturer of wool products
dating back to the 1300s.
Oh.
And this makes it all the more interesting.
Yeah.
[narrator] Could Laird be correct
that this piece of wool fabric may be related
to the potentially 700-year-old bag seal
that was found just yards from the massive boulder?
If so, might it be the first key clue
that could help identify who created the feature?
What about the red dye?
I know they can date dyes if there's, you know,
enough material for you to look at there.
Yeah, so, I was looking at the dye,
and there's no modern, like, 20th century dyes
that I-- or chemicals that I'm detecting,
so that's a good sign.
[Laird] Yeah, and the red dye is interesting
because it was desirable
but it was very difficult to make.
-Yeah. -[Craig] An average person
would not have "red" material?
Except the British military, 'cause they were the redcoats.
The French military had it.
I guess it was relatively more expensive,
but it was still widely, widely used.
-Okay. -Yeah.
-What are the next steps? -[Emma] I think getting
an expert into knitting patterns
and then with dye mechanics and recipes
will point towards something more accurate.
-Yeah. Well, it makes sense. Yeah. -Yeah. Yeah.
[Marty] Okay. Extremely interesting.
Maybe it's the tip of the iceberg
in terms of what we might find
-under that boulder, right? -[chuckles]
And actually, what we might find under the boulder itself
-might shed a little light on that. -[Emma] Yeah.
[Rick] We've got to dig deeper under it,
as carefully as possible, under your guidance.
Yeah. Absolutely.
[Marty] Good job as always.
Uh, enigmatic as always.
More things to do, as always.
-Let's do them. -Mm-hmm.
-[Craig] Sounds good. Thank you. -[Peter] Thank you.
[narrator] As the meeting concludes in the lab...
...in the Money Pit area...
[Terry] J.5-7.5 is well underway here.
It's at the southern end of the actual opening
which is the solution channel, and that's where
-the deeper areas are. -Yeah.
[narrator] ...the team is drilling a new borehole
known as J.5-7.5.
It is located less than 20 feet southwest
of their previous borehole,
where traces of metal were detected in soils
brought up from nearly 220 feet deep
in the solution channel.
[Terry] Coming up now, we've hit the actual bedrock plateau
at about 160 below grade.
We're gonna punch through that
and go under the ledge that has formed.
And we should pop out, you know, in another ten or 15 feet
-and into the open solution channel. -Yeah.
We have a core, gentlemen. What have you got, Leighton?
-Uh, 158 to 166. -166.
[machinery whirring]
That's solid in there, isn't it?
-Yes. -[Terry] He's jammed it
in there very tight because he's drilling in solid gypsum.
-It's a tough one, eh, Leighton? -We're fighting with it.
Yeah. Thank you.
Oftentimes, when we're drilling down,
looking to get to the base of the solution channel,
you have to drill through a ledge.
But here's the thing: there could be any amount
of treasure or artifacts laying underneath that ledge.
And we're gonna find it.
Here we go. Let's open 'er up and see what we got.
So, we just have, uh, ground-up gypsum.
And this is the plug on top, full of a lot of sand.
-[Charles] Yeah. -You don't usually see that.
Charles, I think you might as well do
-your due diligence there. -Let's do it.
I'm gonna run the pinpointer over it.
I know this is the ledge, but I'm gonna do it anyway, right?
-Sure. -Never know what could've got pushed down.
Nothing so far.
-[pinpointer beeping] -I'm getting a hit right there.
Here, Terry, can you lift that up just to make sure?
-Right here. -[rapid beeping]
No, there's something there.
[Terry] Oh, wow.
-[Charles] No, there's something there. -[Terry] Whoa.
[Charles] Right in here.
-Why don't we take this one right over to there. -Okay.
-Let's take it over. -Yeah.
[narrator] In the Money Pit area,
after reaching the solution channel
at a depth of 166 feet
in Borehole J.5-7.5...
-[pinpointer beeping] -[Charles] Yeah, it's right in here.
-Right in there. -Sure.
[narrator] ...the Oak Island team
is detecting evidence of metal in a fresh drilling core.
[Scott] Th-This is exciting,
and it definitely has to go back to the lab.
-Yeah. -[Charles] Yeah. -[Marty] Any sample
that comes up from the sonic drilling
that has indications of metals in it,
we're gonna send it out for more complex analysis,
in the hopes that they will reveal
a very clear clue
-as to where the treasure is. -Hey, guys.
-I'm gonna run this back to the lab. -[Terry] Excellent.
-[Steve] All right. See you, Scott. -Keep us in the loop.
-Thanks, guys. -[Marty] And if we get
positive results from samples we took,
I want to put down a caisson
deep into the solution channel,
and after all these years, we recover it.
[Terry] All right, let's, uh, see
what they got for us, guys.
Now we're down into the solution channel,
-so let's keep on going. -All right, guys.
I've got to run. Uh, I will be back, though.
-Okay. -Great stuff. See you later, Steve.
-Thanks, man. -Yeah. See you, Steve.
[Terry] Okay, won't be long now, Charles.
J.5-7.5 is about to reveal its secrets.
-[Rick] Hey, guys. -Hey, Rick.
-What did you find? -[Terry] We're at 183.
But, uh, we found interesting results
up around 158 to 160.
-Right, Charles? -[Charles] Yeah. Yeah.
We had it on the table here, and I ran the pinpointer.
-I was getting a chirp. -Oh.
So, little flakes of metal or something in it.
[Rick] Interesting elevation. Well, we'll know
with this core whether something heavy
-could have fallen down through it. -Yeah.
[Rick] You cannot dismiss the fact
that this is very hopeful.
[Terry] Here we go.
There's something metallic in the core.
It could, uh, reflect precious metals.
[Charles] What's the bottom?
Uh, 183 to 207.
-Okay. -[Rick] The sonic drill program
has been slow and arduous at times.
But maybe we are on the cusp of finding the treasure.
-This is relatively loose. -[Charles] Yeah.
It's a good sign, though.
[Terry] Things could move around down there.
For right now, I think maybe just the pinpointer.
-Yep. -Yep. Okay.
[pinpointer beeping]
Terry, can you lift that up? Rick?
[beeping]
-[Terry] Wow. -Something there.
-Very near the bottom. -Yeah.
I think we should take this whole thing over.
Wh-Why don't we try to do that.
[narrator] Because previous underground water tests
have already revealed evidence of silver and gold in this area,
could the repeated positive signs of metal
from 160 to nearly 210 feet
suggest that the team may be narrowing in
-on a vast cache of treasure? -[pinpointer beeping]
[Charles] Right there.
[Rick] Everywhere.
-Look, it's all through it. -This is very, very important.
May be more than important, Terry. It may be the thing.
-This warrants taking the whole core. -Oh, yeah.
Yeah, no question, Rick.
Now we have metal-detecting hits
at the bottom of the solution channel.
Does it represent actual treasure?
I don't know. That's why it needs to go to the lab.
[Marty] For weeks, Dr. Spooner has done an analysis
of the actual sediments we found, um,
at the base of the solution channel,
including this area.
Dr. Spooner is going to present those results very soon.
So, we're keen to know what that is.
Is it exciting? Yeah. I mean, this is what we're looking for.
And I'm hoping that this will lead to some answers.
[Terry] This has the potential, for sure.
So, let's bag it up.
[Charles] Yeah. Sounds like a plan.
[narrator] Two days later...
[Rick] So, ladies, gentlemen,
we have, uh, Dr. Spooner,
Emma and Jillian here.
They have results looking for precious metals
from the sonic drill program this year.
So, we'll turn it over to Dr. Spooner, Emma and Jillian.
All right.
[Ian] Okay.
So, what we have done is we've taken samples
from deep down in the solution channel
and processed them for XRF analysis.
Okay.
[narrator] Having collected soil samples
over the past two months across the Money Pit area
in boreholes that reached the solution channel...
-That does it? -[Charles] Yeah.
[narrator] ...Dr. Spooner, Emma and Jillian have conducted
X-ray fluorescence testing, which can identify
specific metallic elements
that are not natural to the ground soils.
So, everyone can see the locations?
-Is it possible, Steve, to bring this up? -[Steve] Sure.
Yeah.
Okay.
[Ian] The samples that we took were I-9.5,
J.5-8.5,
K-2.5-8.75,
K-9.5,
and then we also did three samples in V3,
one of the old caissons.
The interesting information was that
I-9.5, which had hits with the pinpointer?
-Yes. -Uh, that was written on the bag.
And K-9.5 had,
on my XRF, silver...
...at significant concentrations.
-[Marty] Oh, really? -[laughter]
[Marty] Fantastic.
[Ian] So, I-9.5
and K-9.5
had silver at significant concentrations.
[Marty] Fantastic.
[narrator] In the war room,
the team has learned that soil samples collected
in at least two boreholes
near where they're currently drilling in the solution channel
contain high traces of silver.
This could be an indication we are actually close
to finding the treasure.
-Amen. -That's very true, Jack.
[Jack] There should be some local source.
We're not finding silver like this everywhere.
-[Emma] Yeah. -It's down there deeper.
-Yep. -Yep.
[Jack] And we know there has been collapses,
and no one's really been this deep.
-Correct. -It seems like
we could be closer to finding it than we've ever been.
-Right. -[Marty] Yeah, so, you're talking about
pieces of elemental silver, correct?
It would be elemental silver, probably attached
to clay particles.
Right, but-but not dissolved?
No. Absolutely, you're right.
-Yeah. -[Marty] Dr. Spooner
does detect elements of silver, and it's not dissolved.
It's exciting as heck. That's just amazing.
I mean, it strongly implies to me
that the source is not natural.
Isn't K-9.5 the deepest part of the solution channel, too?
Yeah, 217, I believe, the end of that hole.
-Yeah. -Okay.
[Rick] You know what's interesting about
the silver, though, is the so-called Pitblado coin.
There was silver in that coin.
-Yeah. -[Steve] And another piece of data
is we're really close to H.5-8.5,
where, at about 174 feet,
we found that piece of iron, possibly a drill rod.
Emma dated that to the mid 1800s.
And that date's really important because it dates
to the time of Pitblado.
We're starting to piece these little bits together.
[Charles] Absolutely.
[narrator] Is it possible that the traces of silver
may be connected
to the 14th century Portuguese coin?
If so, might it suggest
that there were many more in the original Money Pit
which could have fallen to the bottom
of the solution channel?
[Marty] Here's the deal from my standpoint.
We came to the table with a theory this year,
that our great treasure fell
down into this solution channel.
You know, it-it seems to be working out.
-Borne out. Yeah. -That's a victory.
And I'll tell you what, Rick.
There's enough here already to bring in SBC, so, Scott,
let's set up a meeting with SBC.
-Sounds good. -[Rick] At the end of the day,
this has always been directed towards finding something
at depth in the Money Pit.
That is the culmination of the year.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
Yeah, I-I'd ask each of you to start thinking about that,
where you would like the caissons to go.
-Yep. -Because we're going so deep--
deeper than any man has ever worked
in the Money Pit on Oak Island--
so we're gonna be pushing the envelope.
Right.
We have plenty to indicate that we cannot
abandon this hunt until we get down
into the solution channel.
Plenty. And we're gonna go much deeper this year.
So, it's time to line up, uh,
SB Canada and ROC
to get back in here to-to, uh,
place some canisters down in the solution channel.
So, everyone needs to take a step back,
take a deep breath and be patient, clearheaded.
It's up to us now to-to move this thing forward
and try to understand what happened on this island.
So, let's get outside and do it.
-[Marty] Good stuff. -All right. See you, guys.
Thanks, guys. Sempre Avanti.
[narrator] After weeks of patient
and determined searching,
the team may be closer than ever to realizing a dream
that Rick and Marty have shared
since they were just boys.
But as they plan their most ambitious dig yet,
to find a legendary vault in the Money Pit,
are they on the verge
of uncovering other secrets as well?
Secrets no other treasure hunter ever knew
that Oak Island was hiding?
Next time on The Curse of Oak Island...
We found the cobble.
[Peter] It's headed towards the vault,
and it's turning towards Lot 8.
[Rick] There has to be a reason for it.
[Ian] We analyzed underneath the boulder.
It's one of the most interesting
on the island ever.
[Marty] But if there is a tunnel under there,
-I want to see what's under that rock. -Yep.
This is weird.
I think you really need to see under here.
-[Marty] It looks like gold. -Yeah.
CAPTIONING PROVIDED BY A+E NETWORKS