[Narrator] Tonight on The Curse of Oak Island...
-[Terry] Here we go. -[grinding]
Wait, wait, wait. Hey! Guess what!
-Wow! [laughs] Oh! -[Terry] Oh, wow.
-Brilliant. -[Fiona] Oh, look at that.
We're starting to get this material.
[Ian] This is blowing me away right now, because it's
nothing I've ever seen before.
-This is a covered well, right? -[Gary] Yeah, it is.
-[beeping] -Oh, this has got potential, mate.
Ooh! Look at that!
It's premodern, all the way back to medieval.
No way. [laughs]
[Narrator] There is an island in the North Atlantic
where people have been looking for
an incredible treasure for more than 200 years.
So far, they have found a stone slab
with strange symbols carved into it,
man-made workings that date to medieval times,
and a lead cross whose origin may be connected
to the Knights Templar.
To date, six men have died
trying to solve the mystery.
And according to legend, one more will have to die
before the treasure can be found.
♪ ♪
-[Alex] Hey, Dad. -[Scott] Hey, Marty.
-[Jack] Hey, Marty. -Morning, gents.
[Narrator] As their quest to solve
the Oak Island mystery continues...
You know the gist of today-- you know, we're-we're done
with Top Pocket Find 1.
And, uh,
you know, we found some interesting things, but...
-we didn't find the one thing. -No.
...Rick, Marty, and members of the team meet to plan
their next large-scale dig in the Money Pit area.
[Marty] We're still looking for where the hell
the massive collapse of the Money Pit went.
And I was hoping we'd find it here.
I really was. I mean, where the hell did it go?
-It's frustrating. -Yep.
-[Josh] We're getting there. -[Narrator] In recent weeks,
the teams from SB Canada and ROC Equipment
have excavated two seven-foot-diameter steel shafts
where high traces of silver were detected
more than 200 feet deep in the solution channel...
...Karma-1 and Top Pocket Find.
And while 17th- and 18th-century artifacts
were recovered in both,
which could be related to the Money Pit's collapse
into the solution channel,
no valuables were found.
Well, let's talk about where we need to go,
because time is pressing.
[Rick] Right. The year's been predicated
upon getting down into the solution channel.
So, you know, we're limited in terms
of where we put caissons
without encompassing
-previous work. -Yep.
[Scott] We run the risk of collapse.
Yeah.
'Cause we're going through backfill material.
It's gonna stymie your caisson from going to the bottom.
Absolutely.
[clanking]
[Jared] Stop!
It's caving.
Geez.
There's material flopping in.
[Narrator] During the recent dig of the TPF shaft,
the surrounding earth began to collapse.
This was caused by backfill
related to previous digs that the team has conducted nearby.
This has left the area unstable
and would require several days or more of repair
and regrading with tons of gravel.
But with only a few weeks left
before the harsh North Atlantic winter
will force the team to halt their search operations,
their time for a breakthrough discovery is running out.
Steve, why don't you put the map up and let's...
-let's get this figured out. -Sure.
What if we changed our minds
and went up to the Peacock right now?
The Peacock has never been explained,
and the reason it could be there
is because of a very deep
unknown tunnel.
Maybe an offset chamber.
So I'm keenly interested in seeing that hole dug.
Yeah.
Over there, they could make good progress.
-[Billy] Right. -It's virgin ground.
Subsidence is probably not gonna be so much of an issue,
like we've seen. They're not going down through backfill.
-They're gonna make good time on it. -Okay.
That makes sense.
[Narrator] Located over 40 feet northeast of the TPF shaft,
the so-called Peacock is an area
where the team has also detected precious metals
during past underground water tests.
Whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa.
[Narrator] And this year, during their core-drilling operation,
they discovered a mysterious ten-foot void
above the solution channel at a depth of 150 feet.
-[Ken] We've got an opening. -[Narrator] A void
where an underwater camera recorded images
of possible man-made artifacts,
including metallic objects.
This has led the team to believe
that they may have discovered an offset treasure chamber
that was once connected to the original Money Pit.
-I vote to go to the Peacock. -Okay.
[Marty] There is evidence
of man-made workings in the Peacock area.
And what if the reason this area of very loose material
is really where some of the treasure was deposited
in an offset chamber?
This is as good a choice as any.
-Okay. -Alex is gonna put that
on the, uh, Peacock.
So let's be hopeful. Let's be upbeat.
Let's get out there and do some work.
-Sounds good. Thanks. -All right. Amen. -[Peter] See ya.
[Narrator] As Rick, Marty, and their team
conclude the meeting in the war room...
...on Lot 8,
located on the western side of the island...
Hey, Laird. Hey, Fiona. What's new here?
-[chuckles] Well... -[chuckles]
I mean, it looks to me like a lot's new.
...Dr. Ian Spooner joins Laird and Fiona
at the cradle-like stone feature.
It's starting to change, where we got the smaller cobblestones
up here and then the larger ones
have presented themselves down here.
We're starting to get this mortar-like material.
-[Ian] Mm-hmm. -And we're getting it in different spots.
-Can I take a look at it? -Absolutely you can.
[Narrator] After recently exposing this formation
of hand-placed rocks,
which were covered by a 40,000-pound boulder,
Fiona discovered blue clay and a mortar-like cement
that was used to bind the stones together.
It has made the team speculate that this
was done to cover something buried deeper below.
The deeper I'm going, it's really hard to dig through.
[Narrator] Now, while Fiona and Laird slowly break up
the mortar and remove the rocks,
Dr. Spooner is collecting samples
for ongoing lab testing in the hopes that he can determine
when the feature was constructed.
It's under-under every single rock,
and it's literally layered.
[Ian] This is kind of blowing me away right now,
because it's nothing I've ever seen before.
You know, that kind of appearance--
-almost a wall of rock. -Exactly.
Yeah. I'd be perplexed if we--
if we just uncovered this archaeologically
without a 40,000-pound boulder on top of it.
Yeah.
[Marty] There's something very strange going on
underneath the Lot 8 boulder.
The metal readings,
according to Dr. Spooner,
who knows what he's talking about,
are not natural.
A couple of them have silver in them.
If in fact there is a shaft directly under this cradle,
it could lead to actual treasure on the table.
Hey, the whole thing is wildly interesting,
and I can't wait to get to the bottom of it.
What I'd like to do is get some of that organic
and then, uh, get back to my lab.
Doesn't need to be a lot.
-Think that's enough? -That's good. Oh, yeah, that's perfect.
I'll take this back to the lab.
I'll see what I see in this
and get those results to you right away.
-Well, thank you. -[Laird] All righty. Thank you.
-[Narrator] Meanwhile... -[Steve] Uh, Billy,
you'll see Peter and I put a stake in here.
-So you could see it. -Yep.
...Rick and other members of the team begin a new dig
in the southwest corner of the swamp.
We've got orange flagging
a couple hundred feet north of us.
We turn straight west and we go all the way to the road.
This is the new permitted area of the swamp.
It's an extension of the southwest corner of the swamp,
and I'm excited to see where the sand road might go.
[Narrator] Earlier this year,
the team uncovered two sections
of a sand-covered cobblestone road in this area
that were lined by several eight-sided survey stakes,
which, according to new research,
could be nearly 800 years old.
So I'm looking for corroborative evidence that this is
-indeed a path or a road. -Mm-hmm.
[Narrator] While earlier permitting issues
restricted the team's ability to search for more of the road
and determine just where it may lead,
they have now obtained government approval
to continue the investigation.
When you find something, give me a call
-and I'll come back to survey it. -Okeydoke. Thank you, Steve.
We'd like to know why is it there and who did it.
Why is it lined with the survey stakes?
Might it lead to a treasure or a vault?
These questions
hopefully will be answered.
-Keep an eye out for stakes. -[Billy] Yeah.
♪ ♪
Whoa. Hold up, Bill!
Look at that.
[Katya] Wow.
[Rick] Whoa. Hold up, Bill!
Look at that.
[Katya] Wow.
-There's your sand, Billy, right here. -[Billy] Yeah.
[Narrator] In the southwest corner of the swamp,
the Oak Island team has discovered more evidence
of a sand-covered stone road.
Makes that sand
-really old. Yep. -That would go way back, right?
We have the ability to go that way.
-Right. -I'd like to know the width of it.
That sand certainly does seem to be turning that way.
-Right. -Here, this is well-defined.
-[Billy] Yeah. -[Rick] There's no question
that what Billy called the sand road is
right in front of us. We're standing on it.
Uh, that's exciting and interesting at the same time.
As we continue this process, it may go
to another area that we are currently completely unaware of.
We think people were here at different periods of times
for a significant amount of time, right?
-Yep. -And we're finding
mounting evidence that they did.
[Rick] Yeah. Right here.
Okeydoke.
-All right. -Let's see what we get.
♪ ♪
I'm gonna run back to the research center.
Hopefully there's artifacts in here.
But stakes are just as important.
So just keep an eye open. That's all.
-We'll let you know if we find anything. -All right.
-See ya, Billy. -See ya.
Ah, nothing yet.
Hey, Peter. There might be a top of a stake there.
-Right here? -[Billy] Yep.
Oh, yeah.
Might be.
It's big if it is.
Suspiciously straight.
From here, it looks cut.
-Yeah. -Cut.
But not pointed.
[Peter] It's decayed in there, so it's hard to know.
[Billy] Yeah. But it was pretty deep.
[Peter] Yeah.
[Narrator] Is it possible
that the team has found the remains
of another potentially ancient survey stake
along the believed sand road?
We'll put it to the side.
[Billy] Remember where it was for Steve.
-[Peter] Keep on finding more. -[Katya] If there's
-something here, we'll find it. -[Billy] Yep.
[Narrator] The follow morning,
as the teams from SB Canada
and ROC Equipment make final preparations to begin excavating
Peacock-1 in the Money Pit area...
[Marty] All right, Gary, it's time.
This is prime hunting ground here, right?
Lots of good finds.
We are between the structure on Lot 5 and the ocean.
-[Gary] Yeah. -...Marty and Gary arrive on Lot 5.
-This here is a covered well, right? -Yeah, it is.
We don't know how old it is.
So this would have been a busy area in between these features.
So it stands to reason,
-we should be able to find some artifacts here. -Okay.
[Narrator] One week ago,
Italian archeoastronomy professor Adriano Gaspani
analyzed the location of the round feature on Lot 5,
a feature that the lot's previous owner,
the late Robert Young, believed was no older
than the 20th century.
But, incredibly, based on its alignment
with certain stars in the night sky,
Professor Gaspani believes that the feature
was originally constructed
as far back as the early 13th century.
-Let's start here. Let's go around the well. -Okay.
[Narrator] Now Gary and Marty want to search a stone well
that sits a few yards away from the rounded feature
for clues that could help validate
Professor Gaspani's theory.
Especially since they have previously found
a bronze button and a spike in this area
that have been scientifically dated to the 13th century.
How about you get that end, I get that end,
-we flip this thing up, and you work this from the side? -Yeah.
[Marty] When we bought Lot 5,
the people who looked,
uh, into Robert Young's data
told me that this thing that was covered up in plywood...
[Gary] Ooh, look at that.
...was that this was just a modern well.
But it's weird.
I don't know why anyone would dig a water well
so close to the ocean.
If you don't mind, I'd like to get you down in there.
[Gary] I'll scamper down.
You had me at "detect at the bottom of the well."
[Marty] It's an unswept area
that has not been searched yet.
So there could be artifacts under there.
Let's get to the bottom of this.
-Thanks. -[soft beeping]
Around the edges.
Nothing in that part.
I'm gonna hand you the shovel
-and then I'm gonna crawl down in there. -Yeah. Okay.
Thanks.
Yeah, it's easy to get down here.
Whoa. [laughs]
-This thing goes a little deeper... -Yeah, it's soft.
-...a little deeper than I thought. -Yeah.
That's not even a good bottom right there.
I mean, this floor is giving way as we stand here.
-[Gary] Yeah. -Uh, we're nowhere near the bottom of this, Gary.
-[Gary] No. -It keeps on going.
Yeah, I'm standing on a bunch of leaves.
-That's all. You want to look again? -Yeah.
Let me get right on out of here.
[both chuckle]
[soft beeping]
Oh.
Boy, I'm surprised. I thought there'd be more in the walls.
Thanks.
That was crazy, wasn't it?
-Mm. -Thanks.
-Okay, but we got to talk about this. -Yeah.
Just because we're not detecting any metals down there
-don't mean-- -We're not at the bottom.
Yeah. Exactly.
And there could be pottery, glass.
All kinds of stuff.
[Gary] This is like metal detecting on a trampoline.
The fact that there are several feet of leaves below our feet.
We need to get the archaeologists
and do some more exploring in this well.
-This looks promising to me. -Yeah.
I'm sure, when all these leaves are taken out,
there's a good chance of finding an artifact
in the bottom of the well.
[beeping]
That's a good signal.
Sounds like there's a chance it could be nonferrous
-and deep. -Yeah.
Looks like, uh, this rock has to go, Gary,
-before-- -Yeah.
[Marty] Yeah, I think so.
You do the hard work, and I'll take the glory.
Okay.
[grunts weakly]
[both chuckling]
[beeping]
-Oh. This has got potential, mate. -Really?
-[Gary] Right there. -[detector whooping]
[Gary imitates detector] Woo-woo.
What do you got, Marty?
I can see it at the side.
[Marty] Hmm.
-[beeping] -[Gary] Ah.
I see something moving. There.
You do the honors, mate. You dug it out.
You see, that's the tip of it. Just there.
-I can pick it out with my hand, you think? -Yeah.
-Yep. -[grunting]
You did all the hard work, mate.
See what we got.
Ooh!
[Marty] It's a hook!
[Gary] Oh-hoo!
That-that's probably a... an old hook.
And it makes sense if you think about it,
right next to a well.
-Lowering something in it, eh? -Yeah.
[Narrator] While searching the stone well
near the rounded feature on Lot 5,
Marty and Gary have just made an intriguing discovery.
I bet it's been a long time since that's been used.
-You know what, though? -What?
It's not a chain hook, it's a driven hook. Look.
-Yeah. -Drove that in,
-to pull something. -Yeah.
Kind of like a... a pintle.
-[Rick] It might be a pintle. -Yeah.
I kind of hope it is a pintle
because we found a pintle
20 yards away from that big boulder on Lot 8
and on Lot 15.
But if it's a pintle,
then I have a feeling this is gonna be
a real oldie as well.
[Marty] You think the metal's gonna match?
There could be a connection there. Lot 5,
-Lot 8, Lot 15. -Yeah.
[Narrator] A pintle is a kind of pivot pin
used for doors and gate hinges,
allowing them to open and close.
Curiously, the team unearthed
two other possible pintles this year.
one on Lot 15,
200 yards northeast of the Money Pit area
and another near the boulder feature on Lot 8.
Both could predate 1795.
If Marty and Gary have indeed found a third pintle,
could Gary be correct that it might be a clue
connecting all three areas of Oak Island?
[Gary] I would imagine
we're the first ones ever metal detecting down here.
This has not moved
for a very long time.
-Yeah. -Let's put her in the bag.
Whenever we found
these pintles around Oak Island,
they've always been associated with an old feature.
I know this isn't a wishing well,
but I'm wishing
that we would've explored this well sooner.
-We are not at the bottom of this by any means. -No.
This is under-searched.
Yeah, it really is.
Yeah. We need to get to the bottom of it.
-We gotta talk with the crew. -Yeah.
-[Marty] Laird should have a look at this. -[Gary] Yeah.
[Narrator] Later that morning...
[Alex] 'Kay, guys, looks like they're all set up on Peacock-1.
[Narrator] ...the team prepares
to break ground with their third
7-foot-diameter shaft of the year
in the Money Pit area.
[Alex] The Peacock has been an area where
Dr. Spooner and Dr. Michael have
indicated for years
that the gold in the water is emanating from.
[Jack] Gold, silver, it's right where we're headed.
[Alex] Terry, what are our depths?
Depth to bedrock in this area
of the Peacock, it's, uh, 211.
And this is an area where the solution channel actually
extends up to about 165 feet.
That's the most likely origin of the metals in the water
-based on the testing. -Yeah. In this area. Yes.
[Terry] We're looking for that structure that has eluded us,
the structure that perhaps is emanating the gold,
the structure that is perhaps
-the offset chamber. -Right.
[Alex] Before we reach the bottom of the solution channel,
we have to look at this
area of really loose,
what looks like disturbed soil underground
that we call the Peacock,
because there were some voids
left open down there. There could be an offset chamber.
Everything starting from about 150 feet down
and deeper, we're gonna
go through, because it has a chance
of containing the treasure.
People could've been chasing the Money Pit,
but the reality is, with the gold
in the water and the other things that we've found,
maybe, with this information, proves
that the treasure is up here somewhere.
[Alex] There is a lot that speaks
to the Peacock as being the location
of the Money Pit treasure.
And we're gonna find out with this caisson, hopefully.
So, the more spoils we pull out of this can,
the more chance we have of finding treasure.
-It's virgin ground. -[Alex] Yep. Speaking of that,
it looks like we have the first
bucket from Peacock-1 coming up now,
so I'm gonna grab some shovels and we can get going.
[Jack] Can't wait.
[Narrator] As the dig proceeds,
later that afternoon...
-Okay, we're here to analyze an object. -...Alex,
Gary and Marty
join Laird and Emma in the lab to hear their analysis
of the possible pintle
found earlier today on Lot 5.
It was found near the supposed
-well on Lot 5. -[Laird] Yeah.
Robert Young refers to it as "the 20th-century well."
Anyway, I'm sort of proud of that find
because it was so difficult to get.
So, let's find out, Gary. Shall we?
What do we know about it?
We both thought it was
either a pintle or an hook.
-And we're hoping it's old. -[Emma] Well,
here it is, kind of cleaned up.
We are leaning towards hook rather than pintle.
[Gary] Maybe driven into something
to lower that bucket down the well.
The iron's composition, um,
so it is minimal impurities.
This one is just really clean iron that makes it
harder to locate.
[Marty] Well, that's interesting, 'cause most
of your artifacts tend to point towards Britain,
-don't they? -Yeah.
Yeah, and here's one that doesn't.
Yeah. It does have a higher
chromium content and a copper content.
I do see European regions
with a higher copper impurity,
so that could be kind of a region of interest
to look into.
There's no modern alloying elements, so that brings it
before 1800s.
There is a lack
of potassium in its base metal.
It does point towards
mid-1700s as the most likelihood.
-Oh, wow. -[Marty] Well, that fits with
-the bulk of your artifacts. -Yeah, it does.
Well, except that then they're way off on the age of the well.
-Yeah. -But the takeaway is exciting
because it implies that that well could potentially
be older than we've thought.
-[Marty] That would be very cool. -[Alex] Mm-hmm.
It implies that that well could potentially be older
-than we've thought. -Yeah.
And it also says there's more to learn about Lot 5.
Yeah. I think so.
[Narrator] In the Oak Island Lab,
the team has just been informed
that an iron hook found near the well on Lot 5
could predate the discovery of the Money Pit.
The potential,
what you can find at the bottom of a well
-is so great. -Always good. Yeah.
-Yeah. -So, Laird, my information
is that Robert Young felt like that well was recent.
But I'm wondering whether this
could lead us to some action, because just about
everything Robert Young touched,
God bless him, seems to be
not what it seems.
Mm-hmm, and you have looked at
the surrounding areas of the well, obviously,
-that's where that came from. -Yeah.
The well is-is circled with rocks,
very similar to
the original round feature.
-Yes. -Here it is.
[Marty] Whoa. It's almost perfectly circular.
[Narrator] When the team began investigating Lot 5
in 2022, after acquiring it from Robert Young's estate,
what is now the large rounded feature,
where artifacts that may date between
the 13th and 17th centuries have been found,
was mostly buried and surrounded by stones
that Mr. Young had placed above it.
Everybody drops artifacts down the well,
because you're leaning over it...
-Yeah. -...getting the water out.
And they're used to hide things you don't want people to see.
-[Gary] Yeah. -[Narrator] Could Laird be correct
that the well, which was also reported
to be a modern structure,
is actually a much older formation?
So, I think, again, the well...
it's worth putting a little bit of effort into it.
Yeah.
Just for the potential rewards at the bottom.
It might be a lot deeper than you think.
-Well, that's a good thing. -That's a great thing, yeah.
Well, we're tied up until the end of the week
with Lot 8.
But we can go down, reevaluate.
-I really think you should. -Yeah, I like the idea too.
-It was puzzling. -Yeah.
-Okay, well, let's get after it. -Yep. -All right. -Thank you.
-[Marty] See you guys. -[Laird] See you.
-[Emma] See ya. -[Marty] Thank you.
[Narrator] As a new morning breaks on Oak Island...
[Gary] Let's get stuck in.
-[Terry] Here we go. -[Gary] All right.
[Gary] All it takes is
-one good find, Terry. -I know.
[Narrator] ...Rick and other members of the team
are continuing their investigation
of the possible sand road
in the southwest region of the swamp.
You see how much deeper that is there?
Right here.
Yeah, well, like here-- here, we're on ground
and look how it steps right off there.
-Yeah, just... -Yeah.
No sand.
Not over there, no.
I wonder if it's going that way,
toward the center of the bog.
It's early on
in terms of trying to understand
the, uh, proper orientation of the sand road.
Does it have anything to do with the stakes?
Is it going towards the Money Pit?
There's no way to make that determination yet,
but I intend to figure it out.
[grunting]
Wait, wait, wait.
[Gary] Ooh, Rick just found a stake!
[Terry] Whoa!
-Okay. -Let's go have a look.
Yeah.
-Is it a eight-sided stake? -Five.
You can see it's been bounced,
it's been cut with an axe. You can see
those bounces on that side there.
[Rick] Well, one thing's for sure,
that's exactly where it was...
-[Terry] Yep. -...so we need Steve to pin that.
-For sure. -You know what? There's two of 'em.
[Gary] Two of 'em!
That's eight-ish.
-And look how the-- -One, two, three four... how many,
-how many you got left? -[Gary] Five, six, seven,
-eight-sided. -[Terry] Eight-sided.
-Good eye, mate. -They're right there, together.
-No clue what either of them mean. -No. Yeah.
I struggle with this find being coincidental.
To me, it's intentional. Five-sided stakes
and eight-sided stakes, I think each
is telling a different story.
-We've never seen a five and an eight together. -No.
[Rick] One has to remember dates in the bog indicate
a multigenerational attempt to accomplish something
as far back as the 13th century.
So, I think they represent
two completely different timelines.
The five-sided stakes could represent the later occupation.
-That's cool. -Yeah.
[Gary] This is a good sign. Whenever we found stakes,
we normally find some kind of
a boulder or rock construction.
We don't know if it's a platform or a path.
[Rick] That's why we find multiple stakes
in different areas of different designs.
The stakes represent multiple attempts to do things
over an extended period of time,
and I think we need to do a lot more work
to try to understand what they may mean.
-[Rick] The sand is back. -[Billy] Hmm.
And it doesn't look very haphazard,
-it's so perfectly straight. -[Rick] Perfectly straight.
-The road's still here. -Yep.
Or the path. Whatever it is. Whatever you want to call it,
-it's right here. -Yeah.
I found another stake.
What kind, Gary?
The good kind.
One, two, three, four, five,
six, seven, eight-sided stake.
It's snapped off.
How the heck did we not see that?
But yeah, just... just wedged in there.
It was like this. [grunting]
It was kind of like that.
The point was in, I saw the angles.
There's a, there's a 5-pointed one right there.
[laughs] Right next to it.
And now you've pulled this up.
It's just like the other one.
...two...
yeah, five-sided next to an eight-sided.
Look where these are, Rick, and then look behind you. Look.
We're in the line with that other stake.
If this is gonna be
lining up, we should find
a couple more stakes just over there. Same distance.
Two stakes, different size.
-Two stakes, different size. -Two stakes, different...
If you're right about this alignment,
then, as you said, there should be
-something right there. -Yeah.
[Rick] You know what?
Let's pace it off. One,
two, three,
four, five,
six, seven.
[Gary] 21 feet?
-Gary, can you keep me on track here? -Yeah.
One, two, three,
four, five, six, seven.
-[Gary] There. -Should be right here.
It'd be nice if there were some more stakes there.
Should be right here. Billy, why don't you
-just see if there's anything here? -[Billy] Yep, we'll check.
[Rick] I just find it impossible
to believe that this is a coincidence,
that two different people at two different times
put two stakes in that touch each other.
Does it have anything to do with the sand road?
Does it have anything to do
with Professor Gaspani's archeoastronomy work
that there are significant, accurate
stellar, solar and lunar alignments
associated with the positioning of the stakes in the swamp?
[Rick] Guess what? Hey!
Come on over!
[Gary] Wow!
-[Rick] Hey! Come on over! -You found one, Rick?
[Rick] Right where we said.
[Gary laughs]
Brilliant.
[Narrator] While uncovering more of the sand road
in the southwest part of the swamp...
-[Terry] Oh, wow. -[Gary laughs]
...Rick has made another compelling discovery.
[Rick] That's the first time we've ever said,
"Hey, there should be one there," and there was.
[Gary] I mean, Rick measured it out.
-21 feet in between them all. -[Terry] Absolutely.
-And there it is. -[Gary] There it is.
[Terry] Yeah, it's getting all the more interesting, isn't it?
[Gary] Yeah, I mean, that's no coincidence, mate.
[Terry] Absolutely.
Now we know there's an alignment.
-What the heck? -[Rick] Yep.
[Gary] It's the first time we've ever got excited
about finding wood in the swamp.
-[laughs] It's true. Yep. -[Gary] It is, it's exciting.
And you were spot-on.
You nailed that one up there,
lined it up with that one, put me on the line.
-Bingo, there it is. -[Gary] Yep.
We've got a road and it's leading to something.
[Gary] Seem to be the northwest
-end of the swamp. -[Terry] Are we interested?
[Gary laughs] Yep.
I'm hoping to uncover
a heck of a lot more
-of this sand road. -Absolutely.
[Narrator] Could the team be correct
that the stakes they have found
mean that the sand road
is heading in a northwesterly direction?
If so, just what might they find at the end of it?
The relationship between the stakes, the sand road,
all of this speaks to some effort
to facilitate an operation in the bog.
There is a trail to be followed here
and, uh, we have to proceed.
[Billy] We call it the swamp, but when
you think about it, it's so much more
because look at all the industrial
-purpose that it has. -Yeah.
Everything just screams just a ton of activity.
-It's too much to ignore. -[Billy] Yeah.
[Rick] This path, this road
-it continues to be amazing. -[Gary] Yeah.
Who knows what else is hidden, as well?
I think what we're uncovering is work pre-swamp.
And when people could get out here and do all this work.
[Rick] There are strong hints here
that this sand road is man-made,
hopefully from long ago.
My mind goes to
Fred Nolan's belief
that the swamp was an artificial creation.
And that once you understand the totality
of the work in the bog, then you can understand the mystery.
Well, we've got to prove it.
So, let's get to work.
It's been a really good day.
-Yes. -You know, unfortunately,
every day, there's an end of the day.
But there's more to learn, and that means
-coming back. -Oh, absolutely.
Just need to figure out how to make
the days longer, we'll be all set.
[laughs] You work on that tonight, Bill.
-All right, Billy. -All right, see you.
-[Gary] Good digging, mate. -[Terry] Okay, see you later.
[Rick] Kudos to everybody.
[Narrator] Later that evening...
[Rick] So, ladies and gentlemen,
what we have in front of us are two samples
of the mortar/cement-like substance
that we believe is part of the matrix
of what's underneath the Lot 8 boulder.
[Narrator] ...before another productive day
comes to a close,
the team gathers in the war room
for a highly anticipated scientific report.
So, I'm gonna turn it over to Emma
and Dr. Spooner and Fiona and Jillian
to let us know what the results of their analysis is.
I'm prepared to be astonished.
[laughter]
-[Marty] Go ahead. -So, I think I would have
to ask which samples you brought with us today?
So, this is the blue-gray soil and this is the gray soil.
Okay, great.
Emma, would you call this a clay?
I don't think I would call it a clay.
[Ian] Call it a nice sand-silt-clay mix.
-Okay. -[Ian] It's been manipulated
to remove the sand, probably the gravel,
-as much as possible. -Yeah.
[Jack] It is a mortar, it's not
natural, though, right?
It's natural in ingredients
that you find in Lot 8, but it isn't
natural in its formation.
[Ian] Yeah. If we were just presented with this sediment,
if you presented it to me and say,
"Is that something we naturally find?" I'd say no.
I just think the people who did it
just used materials at hand.
It's quite gel-like, and
you were doing strength testing of it,
it's got a lot of elasticity to it.
It could be used to support
rocks that you want to support.
-Yep. -[Jack] Is there any way that
we can date when this was made or when it was put down?
[Emma] There are certain things that
I do look for
to firmly date concrete
or cement, which is its binder.
-Mm-hmm. -And, right off the bat,
there is no modern binding.
But I'm also not seeing any
of the classic minerals
that I would expect to find
in, like, really old mortar
and it's not typical ingredients that I see in modern.
Right.
[Ian] So, I'm a little bit more bullish in
the feature being quite old.
Like, what dates would you give to "quite old"?
[Ian] Well,
everything I've seen
lends itself to
before mid-1700s.
[Emma] Then I would put it somewhere between
pre-1800s, post-1200s.
It's pre-modern and
all the way back to medieval.
[Marty] Excellent.
[Emma] I would put it somewhere between
pre-1800s, post 1200s.
It's pre-modern and
all the way back to medieval.
[Narrator] In the war room, Emma
and Dr. Spooner have just revealed that
the composition of the mortar-like material
found on Lot 8 suggests
that the man-made boulder feature
may be nearly 800 years old.
We have features on the island
that date back very old.
We have good examples
of the techniques that were used
in the 1700 and 1800s,
maybe even into the late- to mid-1600s.
And we don't see any construction like this,
which, to me, is suggesting that this
was done outside of those time periods.
Probably earlier.
[Jack] With your XRF machine,
you were picking up silver. Emma, are you still seeing
traces of that silver?
So, I haven't made sense of it yet,
but I am getting, um,
some low detection hits of silver.
-[Alex] Mm-hmm. -Lovely.
Where did the traces of silver even come from,
to be in the soil like that?
It doesn't typically happen, right?
No, I haven't seen it in organic matter.
[Alex] Okay, so my dad's theory,
if this is a shaft for something deeper
through which silver was taken at one point,
could that have moved that silver signal up
from deeper and then left it there as a residue?
[Ian] It could have, with the organic matter.
If you had an object that was laying,
even for a short period of time,
in the organic matter, an object that was silver
like a candelabra or something, you know, something like that,
it would probably show the trace amounts we're seeing.
-[Alex] We're not there yet... -No.
...but the idea that this could be related
to a deeper signal through
maybe the shaft is still a valid idea.
Yeah.
The organic will soak up available metals.
Mm-hmm.
[Narrator] Could Marty and Alex be correct?
Is it possible that the traces of silver
detected in the soils beneath the Lot 8 feature
might be related to a shaft
that contains a cache of silver?
If so, after nearly two decades of searching,
has the team found where the truth
behind the Oak Island mystery may lie buried?
Fiona, it is a very weird archeological site
that has no artifacts. Is that not true?
[Fiona] I think this is
very special, and I think that the fact
that we don't have any artifacts
gives it a hint of being much older.
[Marty] If, in fact, that
40,000-pound boulder was placed, intentionally placed,
with a cement mixture of some sort underneath it,
it didn't happen in the 1900s.
It didn't happen in the 1800s.
It didn't happen in the 1700s
by normal people.
Which means it's very, very old.
I mean, medieval brings you back to the Templars
and their descendants.
It's difficult to overstate the importance of that.
[Rick] The dates that Emma mentioned,
it's exciting.
Zena's Templar map references this area,
the so-called December Triangle.
This lot does indeed hold mystery.
[Marty] Here's my next question.
And it is the question.
I want to know
what's underneath it,
like all the way down underneath it.
-We're running out of time. -Correct.
We are on a treasure hunt.
I want to know what's under that boulder.
What are we doing next
and what is the prognosis?
[Fiona] We've removed some very large
rocks down at the bottom and we're
examining the soil that we're seeing under there,
and it seems to go deeper,
so we're actually at that point
where we are gonna continue going deeper and deeper.
But we really don't want to miss anything
and I think it's really, really important
that we continue the way that we are doing it now.
[Marty] Okay, well, I said
I wanted to be astonished, and frankly, I am.
The consistency amongst the experts
that this thing is so significant astonishes me,
but in a very good way.
[Rick] It's quite complex.
A good problem to have.
Fascinating problem to have.
[Marty] Usually, it's time to dig.
I would say this time, it's time to keep troweling
so that we can eventually dig.
So, let's go get it.
-Sounds good. -Okay. -All right. -That works.
See ya.
[Narrator] The road to answers on Oak Island
has inspired long and trying journeys
for generations of dedicated searchers.
For many, it led to incredible evidence
of buried treasure in the Money Pit.
For others, it took disastrous
and even deadly turns.
But now, Rick, Marty, Craig and their team
have found that it may lead to valuables all across the island.
As they forge ahead and dig deeper below,
will their journey end with the ultimate rewards?
Or will the island lead them
to a curve that they won't...
...be able to pass?
CAPTIONING PROVIDED BY A+E NETWORKS