[narrator] Tonight on The Curse of Oak Island...
We found 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] If there is a tunnel under there,
I want to see what's under that rock.
Yup.
This is weird. I think
you really need to see under here.
-[Marty] It looks like gold. -Yeah.
[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.
♪ ♪
[Marty] Hello, Vanessa!
-Hello, Adam. -Hi, Vanessa. Hi, Adam.
-Hey, everybody. -Hey, guys. How you doing today?
Thanks for joining us virtually here
-in the war room. -[Adam E.] Yeah.
[narrator] An energized morning has begun
on Oak Island for Rick, Marty, Craig
and their team, as they meet
with Vanessa Lucido of ROC Equipment
and Adam Embelton of Soletanche Bachy Canada
to plan a pivotal operation in the Money Pit area.
[Marty] We've asked you to join us
because we are sure at this point
that we want to put some canisters down.
Um, the key thing, though, is we want to bring in
the equipment necessary to make sure that we get deep.
We want to get to the bottom of the solution channel.
We're ready to go. We got some ideas.
Yeah. How deep are we going this year, Marty?
Let's call it, uh, 230.
And that could be every single hole.
Wow.
[narrator] In the past three months,
the team has drilled more than a dozen new boreholes down
into the solution channel, where they believe
the legendary treasure
from the original Money Pit has fallen.
And after testing soil samples retrieved from them,
two have now revealed fresh evidence
that a massive source of silver is located nearby.
And curiously, this is in the same area
where the team retrieved an old piece of drill pipe
that may be connected to an operation from 1849,
when a drilling foreman named James Pitblado
reportedly recovered a 14th-century Portuguese coin
that is related to the Knights Templar.
You know, it's really important for us
to get down to that depth,
and it can be extremely tough material.
In the solution channel itself,
we get into some gypsum,
and there's going to be ledges.
So, I'm wondering, what extra equipment are you going
to be bringing this year to ensure we get down there?
Um, I think, knowing that your guys' goal is to get deep,
we'll probably look at a telescoping method.
So, for the first 130 feet,
you're going to be at a larger can,
so a larger diameter, and then,
from 130 down to 230,
we'll have a little smaller diameter
so that we can get deeper and achieve your goal.
So, what's the diameter that we're going
to have available for treasure finding?
Yeah. We're looking at about eight and a half feet,
outside diameter up top, and then,
around seven-foot diameter,
going down all the way to the bottom of that channel.
Okay.
And also, there is another tool
that can break stuff up.
It's basically a really big,
expensive, post hole auger.
But it's about eight foot in diameter,
five, six feet tall,
with big bullet teeth capable of penetrating
the hardest material we'll be getting into here.
It works as a corkscrew
or a big drill bit.
And then we have some other drill tools.
A drilling bucket with rock teeth on the bottom
that's able to go down
to the depth we're looking to achieve here.
-That sounds great. -Yeah.
[narrator] During past large-scale digs,
ROC and SB Canada have used a powerful hydraulic oscillator
to slowly grind the steel caissons into the ground.
A hammer grab tool would then be used to extract the spoils.
This year, they will mount a massive auger bit
onto a 135-ton rotary drill rig.
Once placed inside the steel caissons,
it can grind down through soil and debris
much faster toward the solution channel.
Once it is reached,
a giant dig bucket will replace the auger bit
to safely remove spoils and, hopefully, the treasure.
[Adam E.] We're going to be well-equipped
to, hopefully, get through anything we encounter.
No, that's really cool.
We look forward to seeing it in action.
Good.
[Marty] The treasure fell down into the solution channel,
and it's not gonna dig itself out,
so it's time to bring in the machinery to do it.
If there's anhydrite in the way, or gypsum in the way,
it doesn't matter, we have to go through it.
I'm just a sucker for big, new equipment.
I really am. I love it.
And this giant auger will be more efficient
in removing the spoils from the hole as we get down,
which will make things faster.
You both have been here enough to know the history
of what we call the Pitblado incident, right?
-Correct. -So, when you mention auger,
it's kind of serendipitous,
knowing that, we believe in the past,
that process has brought to the surface a coin.
And all of us around the table here have high confidence
that more of those are in the Money Pit.
So, with your help, we believe those will come to the surface.
Wonderful. Let's find 'em.
-Amen. -Yeah.
We're wanting to get going, say, in a week.
[Vanessa] We'd love to make this happen for you guys.
I'll get with the boys, and we'll start
assembling the equipment and head your way.
-Sounds great. -Brilliant.
So, we look forward to it.
-Thank you. -Thanks.
-[Craig] Thank you. -[Rick] Take care.
[Vanessa] Thanks, guys.
[narrator] Later that morning...
[Ian] Hey, folks.
[Alex] Dr. Spooner.
Hi. Good morning. Am I ever glad you came out.
I'm always glad to be here,
because it's always a new mystery, you know.
[narrator] ...Dr. Ian Spooner joins members
of the team on Lot 8
as they continue to investigate a man-made boulder feature.
So, what did you guys find?
So, uh, we just moved these rocks.
We didn't want to do anything under them
until you were able to see what was underneath.
-Sure. -And to me, it looks like
we still have disturbed soil underneath them.
Yeah.
I find that strange.
[narrator] After noticing that the several-ton boulder
is surrounded by smaller, evenly spaced stones
that are holding it in place...
-Got a big void down there. -[Isabelle] Yeah.
[narrator] ...the archaeological team
discovered a back-filled void beneath it.
[Peter] Let's see what we can find.
[narrator] A void where the team has recently
inserted a snake camera and obtained images
of a possible iron stake
and what could be valuables.
[Rick] Oh, my god, it looks like there's a pearl.
[Peter] Yeah.
[Alex] Do we yet know
all the techniques we could employ
to figure out the age of this feature?
I think one of the key things here is
to get a sample of that soil underneath the rock.
The core we get might give us a little bit
-of dating control. -Yeah.
It might also tell us if there's metal in the vicinity.
-Yeah. -So,
there's some things we should probably look into.
I agree. Everybody's on the same page.
[Ian] All right. I'll get this core.
-That'll take no time. -Perfect.
Great.
[Ian] Using the soil core, I'm looking
to date when that boulder was manipulated.
We have hints on this island
of activity and occupation, pre-1600s,
even older than that.
This may be a part of that story.
Okay, so we've got a bit of a core here.
So, we'll put this aside.
But what I want to do is try this core, as well,
and see what we get.
If we could find elevated metals of interest--
and that's gold, silver, lead, zinc, copper, tin--
that might give us a clue as to why it's there,
what's happened there.
-Look how loose that is. -Yup.
It's quite loose, but we'll keep that.
I can't really do anything with that here.
I need to take it back to the lab.
But I'm most interested in the very end of it.
Yeah.
-[Ian] See you. -[Fiona] Thanks for coming out.
-[Ian] Thank you. Yup. -[Fiona] Appreciate it.
[narrator] While the investigation
of the boulder continues...
[Marty] All right, Gary. What's on the agenda today?
[Gary] This plowed area here.
Yeah, Billy has plowed this area up.
-[Marty] Metal detector's dream. -Exactly, mate.
[narrator] ...some 50 yards to the south,
Billy Gerhardt has churned up the topsoil with a plow
so that Marty and Gary can search for more clues
that may be connected to the feature.
So many great artifacts have come off of this lot.
And we're going to keep that tradition alive today, mate.
And hopefully, we find some artifacts today
that are connected to that boulder work.
I was kind of excited when we walked up here,
but now... now you've got me on edge, so, let's go.
All right, mate. Let's start over here.
[narrator] Recent searches
of the area surrounding the boulder
have not only uncovered part
of a potentially 16th-century chain,
but also, a lead bag seal
that could be as much as 700 years old.
When you find something as important
as that big boulder on Lot 8,
it certainly raises the bar in a sort of incentive way,
to really look for artifacts near it,
because if it's so significant,
there should be some stuff near it
that is also significant.
And we're so interested
that we've actually churned up the soil here
to make sure we don't miss anything.
[beeping]
-Oh-ho! -Good one?
Banging little iron signal.
-Well, not so little, actually. -[high-pitched beep]
-That's a screamer. -Right in that area there.
-That is a screamer. -Yup.
Is that it on the top?
-Where? -[beeping]
Little bit of the old Morse code going there.
See what we got.
-[laughing] Oh! -What you got, Gary?
Oh. Look at that. I think...
Oh, wait, wait. Is that a knife?
Yup, you are right, mate.
That's a tang, there.
-It's a small chopper. -Hmm.
Uh, they used to skin animals using this.
I found a heck of a lot of knives metal detecting,
and this is a little chopping knife.
And it would have been the middle of the 1700s.
That means man was in this area.
I can't wait to see what else we find.
Oh, the lab will have fun with that, won't they?
Yeah, they will.
All right, I'll put it in the bag.
-Bag it. Lab bag. -Yup.
-And we'll keep gridding. -Keep going.
-[beeping] -Okay.
[Gary] Oh, another strong signal.
-[high-pitched beep] -Right there?
-Right in that clump there. -Right in that clump?
Yup.
[Marty] Try that.
Seems like you've moved it.
-Oh, I see it on the top. -You do?
-Yup. -Where?
Oh. No pinpointer needed. It's this.
-Oh, wow! -[Marty] What the heck is that?
[Gary] No pinpointer needed. It's this.
[Marty] What the heck is that?
I really don't know what it is.
'Cause that puts me off--
that little hooky thing at the end.
[narrator] While searching on Lot 8, Marty and Gary
have found a curious iron artifact
just yards from the massive boulder feature.
Yeah. Isn't that a shoe?
No, because we wouldn't have
that middle piece in it.
I think it's... it's kind of pintle-ish.
Like a pintle hook?
Something that goes into something to latch it?
[Gary] Yeah. It's like a gate or a door hanger.
Then it's pushed into the side of the wood,
and then they hang a gate.
[narrator] Dating back to as early as 2000 BC,
a pintle is a kind of pivot pin used for door and gate hinges,
allowing them to open and close.
Earlier this year,
the team found a similar item on Lot 15,
just northwest of the Money Pit area.
[Gary] You can tell it's hand-forged,
but one thing that really stands out
is all this blistering on it.
And if this is a really old piece of iron,
that makes it interesting because
-of that big boulder behind us. -You're right. Even more reason
-to get it to the lab. -Yeah.
[Marty] We are keenly interested
in anything we find on Lot 8
because of this crazy, giant boulder thing.
Any piece of iron
where we can get an explanation might help us figure out
what in the heck happened with this big boulder.
Good find. Okay. Let's keep going.
[Gary] Okay, mate.
We're finding!
[narrator] The next morning...
-[Peter] Hey, guys. -[Gary] Hiya.
[Tom] Hey, guys. I see
-you've been digging. -Yes.
[narrator] ...Rick joins Tom Nolan
and members of the team
as they continue digging on Tom's property
in the northern region
of the triangle-shaped swamp.
We dug down till we found the cobble again.
You think you're into the cobble?
There seems to be a lot of rock here.
[Tom] Okay.
[narrator] Over the past month,
the team has discovered several sections
of a cobblestone pathway in this area
that were marked by eight-sided survey stakes,
and which they believe may be part of the same cobbled path
that led them to an empty brick-and-slate vault
more than 100 feet to the south in 2024.
Now, after also finding a number of metal artifacts,
loose bricks and pottery,
which could date back to the 17th century,
they hope that following the new sections of cobblestone
might lead them to another vault that contains treasure.
Just by this, what I'm observing,
the cobble ends there, and it ends here.
I think these are two platforms.
It's one possible explanation.
Well, if you're going to build a platform in here,
and you're going to bring in cartloads of rock,
you can't go through the muck to there.
-[Rick] Mm-hmm. -You need a roadway
to get to where you're going to construct.
What I find curious is, we're following this stake line,
and the stake line's headed towards the vault.
We have rocks
on the western side of the stakes.
And right in this area,
it's turning towards Lot 5 and Lot 8.
So, we just want to follow where this pathway might lead.
[narrator] Could Peter be correct
that the team has uncovered evidence
that the cobblestone path in the swamp may also lead west
towards Lots 8 and 5?
If so, might that suggest
it is related to the boulder feature on Lot 8,
or perhaps the structures the team has found on Lot 5?
Could this be a road? Absolutely.
But in order to figure that out,
I guess we got to keep digging. Right, Al?
[Alan] Keep digging, see how far it goes.
We're going.
[Rick] It's very curious.
We have an excessive amount of cobble
in a fairly defined space.
Although we don't have a complete
and competent understanding of what we have found to date,
there might be a path between the two platforms.
And it does appear to go up into the highland.
Maybe we can see
where it projects to.
If it is a path or a road, it has to be going...
it has to be coming from somewhere
and going somewhere.
There has to be a reason for it.
Ew. Wouldn't want to step in that stuff.
Yup.
[Tom] Is that a piece of wood
right next to that rock, do you think?
This looks cut. What do you make of that?
Yeah. It does look cut, doesn't it?
Oh, it's been axe-cut. It's--
You know, it's not an eight-sided cut
like we've been finding in other places,
but it's some sort of a stake for sure.
It would have been sort of on the side of the cobble.
-Mm-hmm. Yup. -Right next to that rock, so...
I'm just gonna set it aside for now.
-Let's take another scoop, Al. -Okay.
[Rick] There was significant work done here
in the north end of the bog.
There are a number of clues associated with the cobble path.
It appears to go towards the direction of Lot 5.
Whoever did it, someone or someones who did it,
had a real reason to do it.
And that reason
may provide some real insight
into what happened here on Oak Island.
-[beeping] -Whoa!
Banging signal here, Rick.
Going to dig it out, or a pinpointer?
[Gary] Uh, I'll try pinpointing it.
It's in the darker material that came from deeper down.
I'm on it.
Oh! Look at this!
[Rick] What's that?
-[beeping] -[Gary] Oh! Look at this!
That's a beauty.
Check this out, Rick.
[narrator] In the northern region of the swamp,
Gary has just made another potentially important discovery.
That is an old piece of iron.
-Feel the weight of it. -Oh, yeah.
Yeah, you can see the striations, mate.
That's hand-forged. It could be an old iron tool.
Or it could be something like a hand chisel?
Almost certainly broken, though.
You'd think that might be the working end,
and that's probably broken?
Yeah. Yeah. Maybe it's seen some trauma.
And it came from really, really deep down.
In fact, same level as those cobbles.
Problem is, why is it there?
Yeah, well, all the heavy stuff sinks to the bottom, mate.
-Well, that's true. -Whoever did that work,
who put those cobbles there,
this could have been one of the workers who lost this.
And we really don't know what it is,
but this so reminds me
of the old iron tool that we found
at the bottom of TOT-1 last year.
-Oh, that rectangular piece. -Yeah.
Now that was the business end of a tool, and that
-could have gone into the 1500s. -Yeah.
[Marty] What is that?
[narrator] Last year, as the eight-foot-diameter caisson
known as TOT-1 entered the solution channel
at a depth of some 160 feet...
That could be a really old tool, mate.
[narrator] ...Gary and Marty found a pickax fragment
in the spoils
that could predate the discovery of the Money Pit
by more than two centuries.
And curiously, it was unearthed in the same general area
where the recent soil tests have revealed high levels
of silver more than 200 feet deep.
Could Gary be correct
that the team may have found a potentially
related iron artifact in the swamp?
It's a cool find. It really is.
Especially if it's a tool.
And as you say, found in close proximity
to a work area, which is what you're always saying.
-Yeah. Yeah. -Work area, people lose things.
Maybe it'll define that.
Is it a road? Is it a path?
Or is it a platform?
Maybe that'll help tell us a tale.
I think the work
in the bog, at least currently, as we understand it,
certainly has something to do
with the efforts in the Money Pit.
I don't know what that is as of yet.
We need more of these finds to hopefully fill in those gaps
and give us those answers.
I say, put this in the bag here, and we take it back to the lab.
-Keep going. -[Rick] Okeydoke.
[narrator] Two days later...
-[Rick] Hello. -[Marty] Morning.
-[Alex] Hey, guys. -Hey, guys.
-Hey, nice to see you. -[Rick] Dr. Spooner.
He took some cores from the Lot 8 feature.
[narrator] ...Rick, Marty and members of the team gather
in the war room with Dr. Spooner,
who has just completed preliminary testing
for metal content in the soil samples
that he collected beneath the large boulder.
We're hoping that you will enlighten us
to the point where we can collectively make a decision
about how to move forward.
I've taken a look at some of the sediment,
um, underneath the boulder.
And then, the samples we collected,
we also analyzed in the lab very carefully
to get a sense of what metals were in the organic matter.
And to try to get some idea as to...
if there's sort of a... maybe a human
signature in that sediment, a signature
of activity or something like that.
What we saw was
very elevated lead.
And this was very, very odd indeed.
12 parts per million is what we've seen elsewhere.
We're seeing as high as 140 parts per million lead
in that organic matter underneath the boulder.
How does it get there?
[Ian] It would be moving
through ash that was burning.
If you're burning a lot of coal or wood,
you might have an increase in lead.
And so, that could mean that something was happening
in terms of burning or smelting.
Industrial activity, basically.
[Marty] We do know
that tunneling requires air shafts.
And we know that the old miners
from way back used burning to ventilate shafts, so, Ian,
what if this boulder covers a ventilation shaft, say?
If it were burning, the smoke would be
sort of condensing as it came out.
That could be a source of the lead, couldn't it?
Um, it could possibly. Yeah, it-it...
That's-that's a good point.
[narrator] Dating back to as early as ancient Greece,
fire was actually used as a method
for ventilating underground mining tunnels.
Workers would set fires at the base of shafts
to force smoke up and out,
while drawing fresh air down and into the body of the mine.
Did you test the soils nearby
just to see if it's a local phenomenon?
Certainly did, yeah.
And we didn't see really high lead,
maybe a tiny bit elevated.
So, that's intriguing. I just wouldn't
expect it in the normal, organic duff
that you would see around the site.
So, I think it's an indication
of local activity of some sort.
Yeah. I wouldn't think it came
from anywhere but under the boulder.
So, I'm saying,
what if there is a tunnel under there,
and somebody was burning stuff?
That would make sense.
-This is highly relevant. -That's right.
[Marty] Really exciting.
[Marty] If there is a tunnel under that boulder,
and somebody was burning stuff,
which would be really exciting, 'cause we could
follow a ventilation shaft down to whatever it was ventilating.
[narrator] In the war room, the team has heard
an astonishing report that soil samples collected
from beneath the massive boulder on Lot 8
contain high, unnatural traces of lead.
[Ian] So, whether that organic matter
accumulated on its own,
or whether it was backfilled,
the organic matter was very compact.
It's compact probably 'cause the boulder has settled
on top of it through time, which to me indicates,
whatever happened there, happened some time ago.
[Alex] Mm-hmm.
[Rick] I don't know what to make of it,
other than it certainly implies
that there was some sort of activity
underneath the boulder by humans.
Is it explainable by perhaps an air shaft for a tunnel,
and you would burn coal to draw warm air,
and thus, create enough air for people to work underground?
That covers all the bases.
It shows how lead could have accumulated.
It suggests the possibility
that this might lead to a tunnel,
which may lead to something associated
with work in the Money Pit.
I mean, to me,
we've got indications of human activity.
We have a mysterious void
that just does not form naturally underneath it.
-Yeah. -[Ian] Absolutely.
You'd never have that just naturally.
Right.
And there's other features, as well.
The rocks around the edge of it that are spaced
at almost, um, precisely four inches each.
The fact that I think it's...
there's been activity around the side of it, as well.
Um, all of this
really conspires to produce perhaps,
from my perspective, one of the most interesting rocks
on the island ever.
Well, that's the major significance of this.
I mean, it would have been great, Ian, if you came out
-with nuggets of gold, but... -[laughter]
Yeah.
[Marty] But the lead is just as anomalous.
Regardless of what it is,
at this point, that boulder cannot be overlooked.
So, it's time to see what's under that rock, I think.
I wanna... I wanna pick that thing up.
Yeah. W-We're getting that feeling from you.
Oh, good. Yeah, well, if I'm being subtle,
-let me know, okay? -[laughter]
I think to do our job properly,
we need to move the boulder, but just not yet.
We're gonna continue going around and exposing
the wedge stones until we get to the other side,
and then we'll be good to go.
[Marty] We are all hoping so much for a positive,
discernible, credible
clue underneath that boulder.
If it was moved,
it really, really makes you think
that there's something important underneath it.
So, that's what we're hoping for.
Historical, a map,
perhaps some treasure itself,
an old, plugged tunnel.
Who knows what's under that boulder?
We don't know how deep whatever it is it's covering might be.
Well, I think everyone has articulated why the lead
may be relevant here.
But the-the macro view at this point,
given the discussion today is,
that the boulder has to be removed at some point.
-Yeah. -And I know all of us
are somewhat impatient.
From a treasure hunting
and solving the mystery perspective.
I mean, it's important.
But it's important to do it right.
-Yeah. -Yep. Yep.
So, I think everyone is in agreement.
[Marty] For sure.
That leads me to-- why don't you guys get off
sitting on your hands and get out there and do something.
-Okay? -Okay.
[Rick] Fair enough.
[narrator] As a new day breaks on Oak Island...
[Tom] All ready for big finds today?
-[Rick] Yep. -[Tom] Yep.
[narrator] ...in the northern region of the swamp,
Rick, Tom and members of the team
work to uncover more sections of the cobblestone path
to determine just where it will lead.
What do you see?
There's-there's definitely cobble on the bottom
but there's bigger boulders on top of it.
It doesn't make sense.
-Cobble down there? -Yeah.
[Rick] I mean, why don't we expose a bit more.
I would just ride the bucket on top of that cobble
and just pull back and see if it goes
that way or... or this way.
-Yep. Good idea. -[Rick] Okeydoke.
Drop her over here and we'll see what happens.
[Alan] All right.
[Rick] It's highly suggestive at this point
that this path was created
to allow people to work at that location.
Does it lead to the area where something could be hidden?
Or it was used to transport materials perhaps
across the bog to another area of the island.
♪ ♪
[beeping]
Got a signal, Rick.
Woo-hoo!
[Gary] That is nonferrous.
-Pull it down? -Yeah, please.
Let me see if you've moved it.
-[beeping] -[Rick] Ooh.
[Gary] That is getting stronger.
Banging signal. Artifact coming up, Rick.
Whoa, what have we got here?
What is that?
Some kind of an... ingot?
I think it's lead.
I have no idea what that is, mate.
I know it's really heavy for the size.
Feel how heavy it is. I mean, that is spectacular.
I don't know what it is.
-Never found it before. -Oh.
What do you got?
[Gary] No idea. That's what makes it interesting.
[Tom] You don't usually say that, Gary. "No idea."
-See those? -[Gary] Yeah.
-[Rick] That modern? -[Gary] No,
just means it was made in a mold.
Or it was decorated like that.
This could be some kind of lead weight.
Why would you need a lead weight in this area?
And you have to remember too, we're on the side
of the bog that wasn't farmed.
[Rick] Is there a possible connection to the stone path?
Maybe they were dropped
by the people who constructed it.
-Interesting find though, for sure. -Yeah.
[Gary] Well, we'll have to find answers at the lab on this one.
[Peter] All right.
-Back to work. -[Tom] Sounds good.
Nice, solid ground.
[Gary] Ooh!
What have we got here?
Oh, yeah.
[Gary] Ooh! What have we got here?
Oh, yeah.
[narrator] In the northern area of the swamp,
Rick, Gary and other members of the team
have just made another curious discovery.
Yeah. This is either the top or the bottom of a keg.
No mistaking that. No mistaking that.
And we have found them in this area of the swamp
as well before.
[Rick] Strange, eh? Just to find
part of a keg. I mean, they were well-made.
You know? Took some force to break them up.
-Yeah. -Strange though, you know,
that top of a keg out here.
[Gary] It's been down there a while.
Emma might be able to do some XRD work
and figure out what was in there.
Well, we'll find out, mate.
[Rick] Barrels and kegs were used to transport
all kinds of goods.
Especially goods that were meant to be
protected or safeguarded
for years, even for centuries.
So, my hope is that Emma can
make a determination as to what might have been in the keg.
Huh. Gary.
-What do you got? -What does that remind you of?
[laughs] Oh, yeah.
That's another barrel top or barrel bottom.
Piece of a keg.
Wonder if that fits the one you found earlier.
[Gary] Yeah. It could fit. It's that same shape,
-same width as well, isn't it? -[Rick] Mm-hmm.
-Yup. -You might learn something
from that if it fits together.
And we could have a chance of detecting some precious metals.
Because I know, that in the old days,
the French, the English and the Spanish
used to put treasure coins in kegs.
And it came from down at the bottom there.
So, this is a good chance this is old.
I'm hoping we're onto another vault.
Mm-hmm.
[narrator] Could Gary's notion be correct?
Is it possible that the team has found part of a barrel
that once stored something of great value?
If so, could it be evidence that this section of
the cobblestone path may be leading to another hidden vault
in this region of the swamp?
[Rick] What is the stone road? Why was it put in?
Where was it going?
There's a lot of unique opportunities
in the north end of the swamp.
Who knows what else is out there?
Yeah. Great find. I'll put it to one side.
Okeydoke.
-Okay, well, let's keep digging. -[Tom] Yep.
[narrator] Later that afternoon...
-[Marty] Hey, Laird! -[Laird] Hey, guys.
And archaeologists.
-Been any developments? -Yeah. Well,
the reason we called you down is
Fiona has done a lot of excavation.
-[Marty] Yeah. I see that. -[Laird] Exposed a lot.
But our next step now is to reinsert the camera underneath.
-Okay. -We thought you might want to see that.
-That sounds great. -Yeah.
-[Marty] Gather around down there? -Yeah.
All righty.
[Fiona] You can see we just finished clearing out this area.
So, now we have access to the back area,
kind of underneath the boulder.
So, that's what we thought it was worth another look.
-Let's have a go. -[Fiona] Let's get the--
Make sure it's clean. All right.
Seeing anything?
[Fiona] One sec.
I got to go a little... little farther.
Okay.
Oh, well, look at that!
I would say we are probably
a good two feet underneath right now.
-Mm-hmm. -I think you really need to see
-what I'm seeing under here. -Give me that.
I think you'd better. I think you'd better. You guys...
You guys hold that while I hold this in place.
[Marty] I mean, this looks like a cave, okay.
But I have no idea of scale.
We shouldn't be having voids underneath the rock
-to this degree. -No, this is a big void.
Got to wonder if that void gets even bigger
-back there, don't you? -[Alex] Mm-hmm.
It's very clear that there are voids all over under there.
It's like a matrix of voids.
So, it's consistent with something
significant underneath there.
[Rick] I think people went to a lot of work
to try to deposit something that they valued
and went to a lot of trouble
to deposit it there and to protect it.
I believe it will have an impact
on trying to understand what happened here on the island.
-Let's see where we are. -[Marty] All right.
Let's keep going.
Okay.
♪ ♪
Ha.
Okay, this is not what I was expecting to see.
-Whoa. -I want to just pull back.
Okay.
This is really, really weird.
This-- I'm seeing, like, lumps--
lumps of-- looks like rock.
With golden, yellowy colors in it that look like veins.
[Marty] Holy smokes.
I swear, if I didn't know any better,
-I would say this is gold. -Give me that.
Yeah. You'd better look at that.
I don't want to get too excited.
Sorry, I might have to change the angle a bit.
What if I pulled it back just ever so slightly.
-Okay, a little bit more. -I'm going backwards now.
[Marty] Yeah. Stop right there.
Some very "shinies" there.
All right. I see what you're looking at.
I mean, I've got to admit, it looks like gold.
-[laughter] -[Fiona] It does!
I know, it's crazy.
-[Fiona] I am really excited. -[Marty] Yeah.
-You're going to want to see this, guys. -Right now,
-I'm seeing things that I wasn't expecting to see. -Yeah.
[narrator] On Lot 8 of Oak Island,
after removing more soils from under the huge boulder,
the team is seeing stunning images
of what may be buried beneath it.
-It's gold-looking. -[Doug] It certainly is.
-It even has the right luster. -Yeah.
Do you really think that's gold?
Well, yeah. I would say yeah.
Well, it could be subsoil. My concern is that if,
usually you have to dig and move dirt to find subsoil.
Yeah.
We haven't touched anything under the rock.
-Yeah. -If it was a soil, you'd think
it would be less defined.
[Laird] Exactly. Yeah.
[Marty] If there is gold underneath there--
this new thing that came out of the blue this year,
this boulder on Lot 8--
could be the most substantial thing that's ever happened here.
And maybe we will get a very substantial clue
as to where the treasure is, and what happened here.
Anybody know why that would be under a boulder here?
Somebody wanted to hide it, perhaps.
-[Alex] I guess. -[Marty] And if somebody
thought that that was here, they probably
would want to cover it up and they never came back.
[Fiona] And you know what? That was one of my thoughts.
-That could be the marker. -Yeah.
[Jack] There might be, and hopefully there is, an artifact
around this boulder or underneath it
that can tell us a date or a who.
Yeah. Exactly.
[Rick] It looked like gold.
It was interesting and exciting all in the same moment.
All the more reason to
get access to what is underneath that boulder.
It potentially could raise the stakes
here on the island, i.e.,
create a different understanding
of history literally.
What's it going to do to convince you people
that we need to pick this thing up?
It's really up to the archaeologists.
And if they're on board, then who am I to say no?
Yeah. We've gotten all the information we need
from this area here,
that's giving us enough to make informed decisions.
I think we've reached the limit of what we can do.
Now, I think it's time to transition to
the logistics of moving it safely and properly.
You don't have to make the argument anymore.
[laughter]
[Marty] I'm extremely happy
that the archaeologists have done their job properly.
But it's now time to lift it.
We have to do this safely.
And that's going to take a big crane.
This lifting of the Lot 8 boulder is
a really close second place
in terms of the most exciting thing
that's going on, on the island this year.
And everybody is excited to see what's under that boulder.
Well, I'm keen to get it out of your way.
-I'm with you now. -[Marty] All right. Good.
Somebody get this rock out of the way!
[laughter]
[narrator] This year, Rick, Marty, Craig and their team
have methodically searched for compelling clues
to justify the most effective operation yet to try and solve
the 231-year-old mystery.
Incredibly, they have found those clues
in multiple locations.
One of which appears to have never been searched
by anyone before them.
Will the team finally recover the fabled gold
and silver that has cost
countless fortunes, and even lives, to pursue?
There's only one way to know.
It's time to dig.
Next time on The Curse of Oak Island...
[horn blaring]
[Marty] SBC and ROC are here.
We want something found today.
Find some treasure, boys!
That thing looks unstoppable.
-[beeping] -[Katya] Ooh!
I think this is a key.
A key? We'll want to get this one to the lab.
-[Rick] Hundred percent. -[Craig] It's very interesting.
It's saying super early time period.
-No way. -We're finally moving
in a direction that could give us some answers.
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