Narrator: Tonight on the curse of oak island...
Terry: Whoa! We got a shaft here,
-and maybe it's the money pit. -Aaron: Wow.
That's super cool. This would indicate
that there was a structure in here.
-(beeping) -ooh, look at that.
-Michael j.: What's that? -Gary: This is old.
It's typical of early time periods.
With the narrow cork on the back, it means
-that it was scottish that did this. -Jack: Oh, no way!
This came from underneath the pathway,
and they're from one time period.
-Wow. -That's really cool.
That's stunning.
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,
mysterious fragments of human bone,
and a lead cross whose origin
may stretch back to the days of 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.
♪ ♪
-rick: Hey, guys! -Scott: Hey, guys.
-Marty: Hello! -Alex: Hey, everyone. -Rick: So...
The current update on the path...
Steve's latest estimate is 460 feet.
-Mm-hmm. -Narrator: As a new day
begins on oak island
for brothers rick and marty lagina, craig tester,
and the members of their team,
rick has gathered them to report
a potentially significant discovery
near the man-made triangle-shaped swamp.
A mysterious building foundation
unearthed next to the stone pathway
that has been determined to be extending
off the swamp's eastern border
and possibly branching off in two separate directions.
Uh, we're right where
tom's field is,
right behind the barn.
It's at that juncture where
the road seems to, uh, separate.
-Right. -Rick: There appears to be
a... What miriam and aaron both say is a foundation.
What's curious about it is-- and this is the hope--
there are voids between the rocks.
You can actually reach your hand, most of your forearm in.
-Oh, really? -Wow.
-Rick: There's a big hole. -Miriam: Oh, yeah.
Rick: You can put your hand right in there.
Narrator: One day ago, while investigating
several of these small voids,
the team speculated that they may be evidence
of a possible substructure.
It's a stone foundation,
and we now have two right angles.
The feature's about two feet high, give or take.
How much soil was covering it?
Three feet, craig.
Just seems like a lot of, uh, material to be covering it.
You know, the more material, the older it is.
I'm going to let steve tell you what his thoughts are, but, uh,
-it's certainly not the road. -Steve g.: Mm-hmm.
So, I've come across numerous amounts
of foundations from the 1700 and 1800's in nova scotia.
And, uh, coming up on this,
that's the first thing to cross my mind, and I said,
you know, we're near anthony graves,
where his house and foundation and property.
And there are stories that anthony graves had found
a treasure or cache of some sort
because of the coins he was spending.
And what are the chances that
he could have stored maybe his treasure under a foundation?
Narrator: One persistent rumor about a possible treasure discovery
on oak island
revolves around a farmer named anthony graves
who purchased most of the island in 1857.
Although never known to have participated
in organized treasure hunts,
many locals reported that mr. Graves
occasionally purchased goods on the mainland
using spanish silver and gold coins
after he began living on the island.
Look, graves spent spanish coin.
That's irrefutable, and...
Back then, when graves was alive,
there were no banks.
You trusted putting your treasure
where you deemed it to be safe.
Well, you wouldn't put it in your principal residence
because that's where people would look.
-Yes. -Rick: If I had
a sum of money, coin,
I would put it in a rock wall,
or I would put it in the floor of a foundation.
We know there are voids down between these rocks,
and I would love nothing better than
to probe deeper into it.
It's certainly interesting.
We were chasing the road, and we come upon this.
So, interesting enough to continue to pursue it,
that's for sure, and we'll-we'll figure out
a way to get at that target.
That's really cool. You know,
and the road is still an enigma.
It will lead us where it wants to lead us, so... All right.
Well, good. That's excellent. That's exciting, guys.
We'll get to the bottom of it. No pun intended.
All right. Good deal. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.
Rick: All right, see you.
-Take care. -Craig: Talk to you later.
Narrator: Later that morning, near the swamp...
Miriam: How is the stone throwing going?
David f.: Uh, so far so good.
Narrator: ...Archeologist miriam amirault
and rick and marty's nephew, david fornetti,
continue investigating the mysterious stone foundation
for additional clues.
Miriam: Nothing popping out?
No. I mean, it looks like it's deeper,
but I don't know if that's normal or not.
Okay.
Miriam: At the beginning of the excavation,
we were finding these voids between the stones.
It's almost like the stones were all stacked
on top of each other, and then soil was placed on the top,
and then it didn't fall into these holes,
and so it's obviously not natural.
You would never find something like that just in nature.
What it is, I think we're all still kind of baffled,
but after we remove the stones
that will help us figure out what it actually is.
David f.: What does this look like to you?
Is that charcoal or is that...
More like a burn area?
Miriam: Looks like it to me.
This is how we check.
Yes. See how smudgy that is?
-David f.: Yeah. -Charcoal.
Narrator: Charcoal discovered in the stone foundation?
Could it offer a valuable clue
as to how old this structure might be?
-Aaron! -Aaron: Yeah?
Can you come over here for a bit?
Hey, guys.
Look how big that charcoal feature is.
Aaron: Wow.
Huh. I was not expecting that.
(chuckles) that's super cool.
Wow. Okay.
Miriam: (chuckles) it's pretty much at the level
that the till would be on.
Aaron: It's interesting how it's running.
-Miriam: Mm-hmm. -David f.: Linear. -Yeah.
Like, this is almost like a corner, you got this big stone,
-and above it a big stone. -Miriam: Mm-hmm.
Aaron: You know, and in that area, you got the fire.
And then look at how red this is.
-Miriam: Yeah. -Aaron: And that's indication
that it's been a hot fire there.
David f.: Have you seen something like this before?
Yeah. This would indicate that this is the result
of the structure burning down
or that this might be some sort of hearth feature,
where it had continuous burning.
You can just see by the redness of the soil
and the depth of the charcoal.
-Miriam: Yup. -Narrator: A hearth feature
or a structure made for the purpose of continuous burning?
Could david fornetti possibly have found evidence
linking this feature to similar discoveries made this year,
like the pine tar kiln
located on nearby lot 15,
which archaeologist laird niven believes may be
connected to the construction of the original money pit?
I was not expecting to see that.
-Miriam: Yeah. -I think I would excavate that
as a separate feature, take a sample, bag it, and then take
everything right down to till.
All right. I'll let you guys continue on.
-Okay. -David f.: All right. Well, I'll keep pulling this down to till,
-and I'll let you... -Yeah.
-...Excavate that charcoal. -I'll get a bag right now.
Aaron: All right.
Well, let's get back to it.
Narrator: While aaron, david and miriam
continue investigating the mysterious structure...
Gary: That's some big rocks.
Narrator: ...Approximately 50 yards to the south,
project manager scott barlow,
metal detection expert gary drayton,
and heavy equipment operator billy gerhardt,
are searching the stone pathway for valuable artifacts
or any evidence that could offer a definitive date
as to when the feature was created.
-Getting anything up there, gary? -Gary: Not yet, mate.
Couple little, small, scrappy nail signals. That's it.
Once we start getting down to depth, though,
we have a chance of finding something good.
This is the same road?
This is the road, but we may be coming near
its destination, right?
Marty: The data is a little bit all over the board
on this road or path.
But some of the oldest stuff appears to date into the 1600s.
And, remember, with the younger things
on top of older things, that's its youngest possible age,
not its correct age.
The road could've been there for a thousand years.
You have to get the artifacts in the succession of layers
to figure out how old that thing is.
It'd be nice to find another ringbolt
or some really old ox shoes.
Or, even better, some of the stuff
that they were hauling along this track.
Hey, a gold coin would be nice.
-Oh, would it. -(chuckles)
we'll see.
Scott: I want something that we can say,
-"who did it?" -gary: Yep.
Yeah. Another 90 foot stone or something like that
-would be good. -Scott: That'd be great.
♪ ♪
is the cobble road there?
Scott: It's starting to get a little cobbly here now.
He's getting down to that level.
Pretty hard, isn't it?
There's lots of stones in here, like,
there, there, there. Oh, wow.
There's something here.
Not sure if it was buried here or if it was in place
-when they laid the stones. -Well, that's totally out of place.
What is it doing here?
-Scott: It'sn not cut -yeah.
It looks like a branch, doesn't it?
Scott: A tree root or something.
Where's the rest of it?
-It was right up against the rock. -Billy: Yeah. Exactly.
I'd say it is cut, because the rest--
it should go down to a small piece, right?
-Gary: Yeah. -Scott: That's it there. The stump should be
right by my knee.
Then it suggests that it may be placed, right?
-Yeah. -Billy: People laid
the sticks down and threw the rocks on top.
Gary: Exactly right, mate.
And then treasure run over the top of it.
(chuckles)
-hey, scott. -Scott: Hey, aaron.
Aaron: You guys have moved a bit of dirt.
Well, we're trying to chase this along here.
How's it looking?
Scott: Right here we got a lot of cobbles.
You can see it. Then this.
We took it out. It was in amongst,
almost as if the rocks were placed within it.
-Aaron: Yeah. -You know, the stump wasn't there.
Uh, there was rocks on top of part of it,
so maybe we can do c-14 on it,
and we can get an age.
-Yeah. -Marty: Look at that!
-That's cut. -Narrator: Three weeks ago,
the team discovered a number of wooden survey stakes
bordering the pathway that were dated
to as early as 1636.
However, since these newly discovered wood pieces
were found beneath the pathway,
meaning that they were most likely placed there
when the structure was built,
could testing them reveal
a more precise age of the feature?
That's the sort of stuff we're looking for.
Trying to make a connection between this
and the stone feature
we just found, um, and have excavated.
And more and more we're digging, we're finding
similar building techniques,
and when you add up all these small little pieces
it makes a compelling argument that the two are connected.
What's interesting about wood going under stone--
wood can't naturally lodge itself
under, uh, a bunch of stones.
So these were intentionally placed,
possibly as a cribbing method to keep the stones
from sinking to the bottom through the mud.
So when you add all these little things together,
that gives us a more confident date
on when this was constructed.
Just one more piece of the puzzle.
-One more little piece. -We find enough pieces,
-we'll be able to put the puzzle together. -Yeah. Hopefully.
But this is-- this is looking great,
and, uh, I'll let you guys get back at it.
-All right. Thank you. -Thank you.
Narrator: While members of the team
continue investigating near the swamp...
...In the money pit area...
Steve g.: So, change of game plan
-just a little bit. -Terry: Okay.
Narrator: ...Steve guptill meets with oak island historian
charles barkhouse and geologist terry matheson
to update them on new instructions
from rick, marty and craig
regarding the team's core drilling operation.
We've had a lot of success
with consistent wood hits in this area
in the 86 to 91 range plus or minus a foot.
-Yup. -Steve g.: What we want to do is head back east a little bit,
so what we're going to do is we're going to punch a hole
-at cd-7, the hole I just set mike up over. -Good.
Steve g.: We're looking for the eastern edge of the tunnel
-or hopefully in the center of the money pit. -Okay.
-Cd-7. -Cd-7.
-Charles: Cd-7. -Terry: Okay. I'm in.
-Steve g.: We're looking for the tunnel. -Charles: The tunnel.
Bingo!
Terry: This is the top of a tunnel, not maybe.
So it comes from somewhere, and it goes to somewhere.
Narrator: Over the past several weeks,
the oak island team has drilled six boreholes
in the vicinity of the c-1 shaft
on the western side of the money pit area,
and in each case encountered
what appears to be a wooden tunnel
between 86 and 90 feet deep.
Now, it is rick, marty and craig's hope that,
by moving some 13 feet eastward
to a borehole on their refined grid known as cd-7,
they will once again obtain more evidence
of this mysterious tunnel
and hopefully be another step closer to locating
the original money pit and the fabled treasure vault.
I'm very interested
in the progress we're making in the money pit.
We've intersected a tunnel or tunnels,
but we don't know the direction in which they're headed,
so we're following that, basically.
It's like a hound on a scent.
You pick up a scent, you need to follow it.
In this case, the prey is the money pit.
This one going up.
-Charles: 38 feet. -Terry: All right.
(grunts)
narrator: Although the coring drill has yet to reach
the target depth of 86 feet,
geologist terry matheson is ready to begin looking
for any indications of backfill
or human activity from possible treasure depositors.
-So, terry, this is in situ material? -Terry: Yep.
Blue-gray till that hasn't been disturbed
in a very long time.
Something's wrong there.
It looks in situ, but it's relatively loose.
And that looks like it might be disturbed.
It's borderline. It's definitely till, but it could be backfill.
We could be close to something.
Narrator: Disturbed backfill material?
Could the team have just located evidence
of human activity?
And, if so, is it from prior searchers?
Or perhaps someone who came to oak island much earlier?
The clues are adding up,
and I'm never sick and tired of a clue being found.
That's what this is all about. I've referenced it before:
This is a thousand-piece puzzle, you know?
Every piece counts,
so we need to stay the course.
Terry: We've got a shaft here.
And maybe, maybe, it's the money pit.
Narrator: The following morning...
Ian: So here we are.
Narrator: ...As the core drilling operation continues
in the money pit area,
rick lagina has invited geoscientist dr. Ian spooner
to join archeologists dr. Aaron taylor
and miriam amirault
for a further examination
of the mysterious stone feature
near the northeastern border of the swamp.
Aaron: So, this was all covered
in-in charcoal.
-Right. -Aaron: And you can see in that
-profile wall the depth of it. -Ian: Right. I can see that.
-Mm-hmm. -And we get that orangey color soil.
Ian: Indication of all the oxidation
that's taking place because of all the heat.
-Yeah. -Ian: It's very common
with any kind of fire, right?
But this amount of burning here is pretty--
-pretty intense. -Aaron: Yeah.
And these stones here,
you know, they look intentionally placed.
-Ian: Yes. -Aaron: They don't look rubbly to me.
Ian: No. I'm starting to think of that as,
if you have that road, and all the coal,
if you have major burning here--
I mean, maybe it speaks to industrial activity.
I can't even imagine the amount of work put in and to what end?
Miriam: Well, it's just, like, with the depth
that we are finding in this burn feature,
it's been burned multiple times.
What were they burning, why was it burned so much,
and where is any evidence of that?
That's what's confusing us.
There is nothing in this.
-Yeah. -This couldn't be one single burn event?
-Not with that. No. -Not with that depth.
You can see it in the profile wall.
It's similar to what we were getting up at the pine tar kiln.
Narrator: Is it possible that,
like the pine tar kiln on lot 15,
which may date to the 16th century and be connected
to the construction of the original money pit,
this stone feature might have been used by someone
who came to oak island long before 18th-century settlers?
If so, what was it used for?
And could it be connected to the mysterious wealth
of previous landowners like anthony graves?
Or, for that matter, samuel ball?
It doesn't necessarily have to be a campsite.
It could be a workplace.
It could be an area where work was done
in association with, perhaps, the eye of the swamp.
There's all kinds of variables here,
and so we need to take a very slow, methodical approach
and give the archeologists time to put this story together.
We say this over and over again,
but I think it is worth repeating.
No artifacts here.
It's interesting and perplexing because
of all my experiences, anything like this--
anything-- you're finding artifacts.
-Ian: Right. -And in large quantities.
Right.
It seems like everything that we've excavated,
there's like a secretive component to it.
It's almost eerie
that there's so little.
Maybe there is a swamp story and a money pit story.
-Yeah. -Aaron: I don't believe there's
two parallel stories here.
I think there's one story, and they're connected.
There's too much going on here
for it to be some other parallel story.
Like, what would possess people to do
what they've done here, this path,
unless it was for some real important purpose?
Rick: The swamp seems to be telling us some things
which we had previously no knowledge of.
My concern is simply this:
Is there a unique swamp story
and a unique money pit story or are they connected?
Why not go directly towards the money pit
if it is in association with that?
I don't know, but that's the point
of this whole exercise.
Ian: So, I'm going to clean off this face.
-I'm going to get some soil samples. -Yep.
-Okay. -All right. Sounds good.
-Rick: Thank you, everybody. -Ian: Yep.
Narrator: While the investigation of the stone foundation
located near the pathway in the swamp continues,
in the money pit area...
Terry: Alley-oop.
Narrator: ...Charles barkhouse and terry matheson
are making timely progress
in the drilling operation of borehole cd-7
as they have nearly reached their target depth of 90 feet.
Terry: Unbroken...
...Complete section of maroon-ish till.
You know what we're not seeing?
-Spendables? -Charles: No.
We're not seeing that 87-88 level
-where we see wood. -No.
-86. -Charles: Yep.
Terry: 87ish...
-We should see it right about there. -Yeah.
Terry: A little too continuous, and not really any wood
that we were hoping to run into.
There's the end of it.
91 feet and nothing to report.
Narrator: Unfortunately for the team,
their hope that borehole cd-7
might offer the breakthrough they have been working for
this year has failed to be realized.
Is it possible that the drill rod just missed its target?
Or has the team now lost track of the tunnel
they've been tracing some 90 feet deep underground?
With the harsh winter months now fast approaching,
they will have to reassess their strategy
on how best to move forward in their quest
to locate the fabled treasure vault.
-Charles: The clock is ticking. -Terry: We're running out of time.
-Exactly. -Pretty uneventful
going on here, charles.
We haven't been able to intersect the tunnel.
Charles: It's down there, terry.
Terry: We just haven't found it yet, charles.
Narrator: Later that afternoon...
Gary: Here we are, mate.
Narrator: ...Over on lot 26...
Gary: This used to be owned by samuel ball,
and it was farmland back in the day.
Narrator: ...Metal detection expert gary drayton
along with treasure hunter michael john
are investigating an area near the foundation
that once belonged to samuel ball.
They are hoping to find more clues
as to why the 19th-century oak island landowner
mysteriously came to be one of the wealthiest men
in the province of nova scotia.
Gary: What I've done, since we have cleared out
the surface artifacts, I've brought the big mama jama.
There you go.
Gary: It's a little bit of
-a bigger coil. -Yes.
What's the maximum depth for this one?
Like a cannonball-size target?
About six, seven feet.
-Okay, wow. -Gary: This area
is now cleared of trees
and scrubs and bulrushes.
Gives me an opportunity to run the gpx 5000
with a 32-inch coil.
We're looking for deep targets.
Okay, mate. This is a good little clearing to start.
Yeah. Okay.
I want to go in these wide-open spaces.
-Hopefully we find something. -All right.
Gary: Okay. We are ready to rock and roll.
Michael j.: All righty.
Marty: Other than the interest in samuel ball, the human being,
there is a little bit of a glimmer that he was...
A little bit more than meets the eye.
I don't think there's any way anybody that smart,
that aware of things,
wouldn't have known exactly what was going on oak island
the whole time he was there.
The more I can find out about this person, uh, the better.
(beeping)
-that was a small piece of iron. -Small piece?
Gary: Yep.
(beeping)
gary: Come on. Where are you?
-(beeps loudly) -oh.
Whoa.
(laughs) look at that.
-A very strong signal. -Michael j.: Yeah.
-Gary: Looks like it's just here, mate. -Michael j.: Okay.
♪ ♪
-michael j.: Check? -Gary: Yep.
(buzzing)
see? I should be able to hit it.
Gary: That should be something good. It's deep.
So it should be old.
Oh. What we got here?
-Gary: That's it. Yeah. -That's probably it, yes.
That is...
Oh, a little baby ox shoe.
-(michael j. Chuckles) -we found the shack daddy,
-the mother of all ox shoes... -Yeah.
-...Uh, near the swamp.
And now we've found a little baby one.
That is a small little ox shoe.
Now we've pulled up several different ox shoes
in really good condition.
And if there is some kind of industrial operation,
you're going to need beasts of burden
to transport whatever you was doing there.
And when we show these to carmen,
hopefully carmen will give us a country of origin.
It is an oldie. This is an old artifact.
I've just never seen them this small.
What a nice little artifact, and I'm looking forward
to taking this to carmen legge...
-There we go, yeah. -To give us a story behind this.
Hey, great find, michael. Great find.
We've got to tell the archeologists
-about this area. -Michael j.: That's right. Yeah.
-Narrator: The following morning... -Marty: What's going on?
What's today's issue?
Narrator: ...Marty lagina meets with his partner
craig tester and jack begley
to discuss the team's current setback
in the money pit area
and to decide how best to prioritize
the use of the core drilling rig
with just a few precious weeks remaining
before the onset of winter.
So, we're chasing the money pit
-towards c1. -Marty: Mm-hmm.
Craig: And, uh, the most recent one we drilled was cd-7.
It's not on the map yet, but it's right here.
-Marty: Yep. -A-and we didn't find the tunnel there.
So, that didn't work. What do you want to do?
Well, the question is:
Do we continue following these tunnels that
we're finding because, you know, we're running out of time.
Do we have any other options?
Anywhere else to move that rig?
We have the barringer anomalies.
-The nonferrous anomalies? -The nonferrous ones.
-Yeah. -Jack: Can we go after one of those?
I would.
Narrator: Earlier this year, while searching through the files
of rick, marty and craig's late partner dan blankenship,
oak island historian doug crowell
discovered a 30-year-old survey
that had been conducted by a company known as barringer.
A survey that used low-frequency radio waves
which identified four targets some 100 feet deep
in and around smith's cove that were nonferrous in nature,
meaning they could be composed of silver or gold.
Because the covid-19 pandemic
delayed the start of their drilling operation this year
by nearly two months, the laginas and craig
had planned to focus their efforts on trying to locate
the original money pit.
However, now that they have hit
an unfortunate setback there and with only a few
precious weeks remaining before the onset of winter,
perhaps investigating the targets on the barringer survey
could lead to a significant discovery.
The barringer survey has not one, two, three,
but four nonferrous targets delineated.
It's a vlf survey: Very low frequencies.
And it was never followed up on.
I-it's sort of risk-reward ratio.
If it hits, it would turn everything.
-Jack: Mm-hmm. -You know, if there's gold or silver at that location,
it would change everything.
Yeah.
There is certainly some belief
that the barringer survey was accurate.
That is supported by some inferential data.
In the money pit, we found an area
that may have been interpreted
by the barringer survey as a tunnel.
I think there's some value in it.
And it's interesting enough to follow up on.
I'd go do the barringer thing.
What the hell? Let's have a go at it.
Yeah, I have no problem going to the barringer survey.
We're not giving up on these.
-It's a time issue. -There's so much more to do here.
-So that's where I'm at. -Okay. I'll go meet up with rick.
-See you out there in a little while. -Yep.
-Jack: Let's find some gold. -Marty: Let's do it.
Narrator: Later that afternoon,
jack begley and charles barkhouse
have traveled some 50 miles north of oak island
to centerville, nova scotia
where they have arranged to meet
with blacksmithing expert carmen legge
to have him examine the artifact found one day ago
on the property once belonging to samuel ball.
-Jack: Hey, carmen! -Well, hello. -Charles: Hey, carmen.
Carmen: What do you got today?
Jack: Well, this is from lot 26.
It was found metal detecting.
Let's see if you can identify this.
-Oh, a little fella. -Yeah.
Carmen: Very nice.
Well, this is a-- the hind shoe off an ox.
-Right. -Carmen: The front cork
and the back cork are fairly parallel.
With the narrow cork on the back it means
it was scottish that did this.
-Really? -Yes.
Do you have any idea what a date on that might be?
Carmen: Uh, I would say 1610
-to 1740s. -Wow.
Jack: This would have been made before samuel ball.
Yeah.
Narrator: A scottish ox shoe?
Possibly dating over a century prior to the arrival
of samuel ball and the discovery of the money pit?
Is it possible that this ox
was used to haul valuable cargo across the island,
and, if so, how were the scottish involved?
Uh, just trying to figure out why the scottish would be there.
There's a theory that the scottish may have buried
uh, a treasure on oak island.
James: So here's the theory in a nutshell:
Followers of a group of scottish knights
settled in nova scotia during the early 1600s.
Narrator: One week ago, author and historian
james mcquiston shared an incredible theory
that the oak island treasure might be connected
to a 17th-century scottish order
known as the knights baronets, an organization
with strong ties to both the freemasons
and their predecessors, the knights templar.
James: Unfortunately, the french
attacked nova scotia,
leaving the scots ousted in the spring of 1632,
and I believe they took shelter in mahone bay
and buried the oak island treasure.
That's remarkable.
Narrator: Is it possible that the team has now found evidence
that could corroborate that treasure theory?
And on property that once belonged to samuel ball?
And the time frame for that is?
Charles: Uh, right around that time frame.
-Carmen: Is that right? -Yeah.
We're coming up with so much different information
of people all over europe, at least,
having some sort of a stop on oak island.
Not just around the money pit, either.
Given the date, as far as we know, there was nobody living
on oak island at that time.
So, to me, that says a lot. It really does.
We've dug up a lot of ox shoes on the island over the years.
These guys were not just settlers that were making
these ox shoes, so there's a lot of activity
going on the island.
This could be from the depositors.
We keep bringing you iron.
Hopefully, we can bring you some precious metals.
Oh, wouldn't that be nice? Yes. Yes.
-Make sure you bring it here first. -Okay.
-Charles: Thank you, carmen. -Carmen: Very good, see you.
-Charles: Bye now. -Carmen: Oh, yeah.
Narrator: As the team from choice sonic drilling
repositions their rig at smith's cove
in preparation to drill in search of
one of the nonferrous targets
identified on the barringer survey...
Miriam: Oh, wow.
Hey, aaron!
Do you want to come check this out?
Narrator: ...In the uplands near the northeastern border
of the oak island swamp,
archeologists miriam amirault and dr. Aaron taylor
continue to search for more evidence that might tell them
which direction the mysterious stone pathway is heading.
-Aaron: Ooh, what do you got? -Look what I just found.
Aaron: Oh, nice.
Hand-painted.
Miriam: I haven't seen colors like that.
Aaron: Yeah.
-Blue, pink, and green. -That's great. Wow.
Narrator: Hand-painted pottery?
Discovered near the pathway in the uplands?
Was it left behind by someone
after the discovery of the money pit in 1795?
Or is it evidence of much earlier human activity
-on oak island? -Miriam: It's almost, like, uh,
a base of maybe a teacup or something? Or a bowl?
-Do you see that base? -Yeah.
-Rick: Hey. Good morning. -Aaron: Hey, rick.
-Miriam: Hi. -Hey.
-Miriam just had an interesting find. -Look what I just found.
Oh. In the black or in the...?
Yeah.
Here you go.
Rick: What do you make of it?
-Aaron: That's hand-painted. -Miriam: Hand-painted.
-Isn't it pretty? -It's very pretty.
The thing about doing the archeological work
with aaron and miriam is that you learn to pay attention.
You learn that the most insignificant find
might be highly revealing.
This is what archeology is about.
Finding artifacts, studying them, dating them,
and then weaving them into an understanding--
a "story," if you will-- of what happened.
This is certainly quite unique.
Aaron: What the ceramics do tell us
is that this was exposed
when those ceramics
-came down on it. -Miriam: Yeah. -Rick: Right.
But right now, the question is:
Does this connect to the road?
I mean, is it believable to think that this is all man-made?
Well, we know parts of it are definitely man-made.
-In here is definitely man-made. -Rick: Right.
I think it's-it's stronger that it moves upland
at some point, and the road connects to there,
it's coming along here, stops, and turns up here.
And that's why I want to see if billy is available
to take another bucket-width back
to see if this is something.
So, for right now, I'll talk to billy about digging this
-and digging that. Okay. -Great.
-All right. -Thanks, rick. -All right, thank you.
-Rick: Good find, miriam. -Yeah, it's exciting.
Aaron and miriam have decided
that they're going to take basically a leap of faith.
This road has to go somewhere,
and there are significant clues
that have led them to believe that the road has turned upland.
And, thus, they've chosen to open up
some test pits around the stone path.
The hope is that we can follow it in some way, shape, or form.
Billy, if you would be able to pull back this area
then maybe we can see if the road's, uh, coming up there.
Billy: Okay.
That's the perfect depth, billy.
♪ ♪
that's great, billy. That's perfect.
I think this is good for now. Thank you.
-Okay. -Aaron: So we can
get in here with our shovels and trowels.
If maybe just we can get that little blob out of there?
-I'll get that with a shovel. -Yup.
Rick: What's that?
Did you see this?
-There's stone here. -Aaron: Wow.
Miriam: I'd say that's exactly what
-we're looking for. -Yeah.
Narrator: Evidence of more cobblestones?
Could dr. Aaron taylor's intuition have paid off
with the discovery of another section of the stone pathway
leading further into the uplands, away from the swamp?
If so, just where is it leading?
And what will the team find when they reach its end?
The stones are here, and then they stop.
I'm thinking that's telling me the road is
probably stopping here,
and coming up this way.
The path appears to have
turned to the upland at this point.
And all the treasure-associated thoughts
around oak island,
are, of course, based in the money pit.
Well, we're certainly headed in that direction, and so
I have every reason to hope
that we're following the right path.
Do you want me to shovel this out?
Yes, please. (laughs)
-rick: Okay. -Miriam: Yeah.
Narrator: Later that afternoon...
We all recognize the amount of work that we've done
trying to uncover the stone pathway.
Narrator: ...Rick, marty and their partner craig tester
have gathered members of their team in the war room
for a highly anticipated scientific report
regarding the hand-cut wood recently found
beneath the mysterious stone pathway.
I believe craig has a c-14 test result,
so, craig, fill us in.
Well, this sample came from,
uh, right before fred's road.
We found this piece of wood underneath the rocks.
It was obvious it was, uh, in place
when the road was put in place there, the pathway.
And, uh, we got two different time periods,
but, really, they're so close together,
basically one time period:
From 1489 to 1654.
-Wow. -Oh, wow.
Great!
Craig reveals these dates of, uh, 1489 to 1654.
Those are stunning, uh, there's no question about it,
but they do fit.
I've always believed that the road
was quite a bit older than, uh, the 1700s,
and here we have dates that support that.
Look, that is a very exciting date range.
Okay? That's a fabulous date range.
That's really cool.
But is this a shaped piece of wood
or a twig or something?
It was like a branch, a small branch.
-You feel good about that? -Yeah.
Marty: Great. Fantastic.
But I think the dates that come from
organics under the road are more telling than
the artifacts found on it, because once that road is built
-it could have been used for hundreds of years. -Yeah.
Alex: This is a great one.
It's good for the theory the road might be quite old.
If we keep getting these numbers,
then it becomes more and more conclusive.
Miriam: And that's basically what we do.
If we find an artifact that seems completely
out of the ordinary, but then we find more with those dates,
that's how we conclusively say,
"yes, this is... This is right."
I-I'll just reference fred nolan:
"duplication, duplication, duplication."
-marty: Yeah. -Craig: Yep. Absolutely.
I'll tell you what those results mean to me.
They mean that this thing is real.
Somehow, this thing is real,
and remember who you're talking to.
For the longest time, my number one theory of what happened
on oak island was nothing of significance
prior to 1795.
We've already proved that's not the case.
That makes me enthused to keep going.
We haven't solved this yet and we're going to.
That is an extremely
intriguing and exciting range.
-I agree. It's exciting. -Marty: Yeah.
-Absolutely. -Marty: Carry on, guys.
Hope the weather holds for you.
-Rick: Take care. -Doug: Take care.
Narrator: As another week comes to a close
for rick, marty, craig and their team,
despite a frustrating setback in the money pit,
there is new hope that a breakthrough discovery
may still be within their reach at smith's cove.
And new revelations at the swamp
provide strong encouragement that they are getting
closer and closer to unraveling
the 226-year-old treasure mystery.
But as they continue to research,
drill and dig,
will they ultimately reveal
that the carefully-hidden truth about oak island
revolves around one story?
Or a number of them?
Whatever the case may be,
their story could re-write north american history
as we know it.
Next time on the curse of oak island...
Gary: I love the smell of treasure in the morning.
Oh, look at that!
I would say this looks military.
This particular artifact was found in the swamp,
and I've never seen anything like that.
Marty: Wow. What the hell is that?
We are hoping you might have an idea of what it is.
Well, this is really, really old.
-Middle 1400s. -Jack: Oh, wow.
Scott: What do you got?
Looks like a piece of finished wood.
It looks like railing. It looks like ship's railing.
-Steve g.: It was on the ship in the swamp. -Billy: Yeah.
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