NARRATOR: Tonight on The Curse of Oak Island.
-JACK: Today's the day, Gary. -Oh, yeah.
NARRATOR: It's the groundbreaking season finale.
This is what we saw
-in Portugal. -Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's incredible.
-Wow. -[laughing]
We can actually image the entire island
underground to find a target
-in the Money Pit. -That's great!
-GARY: We've hit the tunnel, mate. -Whoa!
-That tunnel will lead us to the treasure. -Yeah. There you go.
Oh, look at that. What we got here?
Oh, what the heck is that?
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: Alex, Rick, Craig and I
want to hear everything about Portugal.
Talk to us.
I think it was a great trip.
-We learned a lot. -We-we did.
CORJAN: Oh, morning.
-Welcome to Portugal. -Thank you.
NARRATOR: For the past two weeks...
Wow.
...Rick, along with his nephews
Alex and Peter
and Oak Island historian Doug Crowell,
have been in central Portugal
investigating numerous sites that once served
as strongholds for the 12th-century Knights Templar
as well as their 14th-century descendants,
the Order of Christ.
Over the arch, the big Templar cross.
This was their trademark.
NARRATOR: Guided by researcher Corjan Mol
and Templar historian Joao Fiandeiro...
Okay, let's see what we can find.
NARRATOR: ...they saw numerous carvings
matching those reportedly found
on historic Oak Island artifacts...
You might be interested in this one over here.
NARRATOR: ...such as the 90-foot stone
and the H+O Stone...
ALEX: The stone path looks exactly like this.
Yeah, it looks the spitting image.
NARRATOR: ...a cobblestone road and pathway
eerily similar to those uncovered two years ago
in the triangle-shaped swamp,
and even a mysterious Masonic well
matching the exact dimensions
of the original Money Pit treasure shaft.
Oh, man. So you would
perfectly see that oak tree from here, right?
RICK: The branch of an oak tree over the well.
That's exactly what the Money Pit story is about.
NARRATOR: Now, as the team is working
to conclude their fifth major excavation
in the Money Pit area this year in a location
where they have previously detected large concentrations
of precious metals...
I don't think Portugal could be Portugal without the Templars.
NARRATOR: ...Rick and Alex have rejoined Marty Lagina,
Craig Tester and the rest of the team
in the hopes of making the ultimate discovery
before they must halt their search activities
until next spring.
RICK: You know, what's been happening here on the island?
MARTY: Well, a lot of stuff.
We did a major effort, Alex,
to ground-truth your OKM swaths on the road up from the swamp.
Hey, all right!
MARTY: So, we had a mini excavator
in there, and we cut some swaths.
It's a little bit difficult to be definitive.
But I would say
-that there was some sort of road there. -Sweet.
GARY: You think this could possibly be a road, Laird?
It's a feature, it looks like.
NARRATOR: One week ago, Marty and members of the team
began investigating a mysterious buried feature on Lot 15,
extending out of the swamp from the stone road,
which Alex and his cousin David Fornetti had detected
using ground-penetrating radar earlier this fall.
It's kind of dipping down.
STEVE G.: It's filled in with rocks.
NARRATOR: Incredibly,
they began uncovering
a cobblestone path feature
similar to the one that was unearthed two years ago
running along the eastern border of the swamp.
RICK: Well, we're here. Let's go take a look.
MARTY: Yeah, I'll show you our road.
RICK: It feels good to be back.
Portugal was a wonderful experience,
but when we had left,
we had some unfinished business.
This way.
RICK: If they've encountered a stone road feature
on Lot 15, that's exciting.
That's very, very impactful.
-Look who I brought. -Hey!
-Hey. -ALEX: Hey, guys. -Welcome back.
ALEX: Oh, wow.
RICK: Wow.
MARTY: So, you've done some work here since I left.
-LAIRD: Yeah. -That's impressive.
-So, what do you think? -LAIRD: Well, we all have in our mind
that it's a nice cobble path coming up here,
-so they're hauling something up. -Oh, yeah.
So, they're still filling... they're filling in low areas
-just to make a path. Yeah. -Yes.
MARTY: What you've dug out of there looks like
what we found down there
-in the swamp. -Yeah. -Yeah.
If you look down here,
the road went through here, we think.
Yeah, it essentially comes off of the stone road in the swamp.
Well, we are in kind of like a central area.
You've got the Money Pit over there, paved area, swamp.
We're in the middle of that area.
Yeah.
The interesting thing, you know,
we were lucky enough to see an actual
Roman road in Portugal, but when we got
to the higher elevations, this is what we saw.
-Mm-hmm. Yeah. -It was somewhat rudimentary,
-just like here. -Yeah.
NARRATOR: Could Rick Lagina be correct
that the cobblestone pathway
extending from the stone road in the swamp
may match the exact design of the one
that he recently saw in Portugal?
If so, might it offer more potential evidence
that Portuguese members of the Knights Templar
may actually be connected to the Oak Island mystery?
So, what would you do next, Laird?
Unfortunately, we'd have to take this much off a large area.
Um, so it'd be a lot of work.
-Yeah. -RICK: And as you can see,
weather's going to get quite inclement here shortly.
-LAIRD: Yeah. -GARY: Yeah. -Indeed.
MARTY: Okay, well, as per usual,
-we've added, not subtracted, from the mystery. -LAIRD: Yeah.
It's a... it's a mystery waiting to be solved.
But there's time yet to gather more data.
And you need to metal-detect that whole line
and see what you find.
-MARTY: Okay. Sounds Good. -ALEX: All right.
NARRATOR: Later that morning,
as archaeologist Laird Niven
conducts a preliminary analysis of the cobblestone path
before the team continues metal-detecting
in search of clues...
JACK: Today's the day, Gary.
NARRATOR: ...over in the Money Pit area...
GARY: We got a chance.
NARRATOR: ...members of the Oak Island team
are monitoring the excavation of the B4-C Shaft.
GARY: Hopefully, we start seeing wood soon.
JACK: Hopefully, it's a tunnel to a treasure chamber
-or an offset vault. -I hope so, too.
NARRATOR: Located just five feet north of Borehole C-1,
B4-C will soon reach the approximate 90-foot depth
in the so-called C-1 Cluster,
where earlier this year,
the team not only recovered evidence
of potentially 15th-century wooden tunnels
but also detected high trace evidence
of both silver and gold.
This has prompted them to speculate
that they have either located the general area
of the original Money Pit
or perhaps a tunnel that may lead
to an offset treasure chamber.
RICK: Even though this is the final can,
we're not gonna give up.
We know that there is a tunnel
in the 90-foot horizon.
Well, a tunnel means we're close to finding
the original Money Pit.
-We got to be getting close. -Oh, yeah.
Yeah, we should be in wood soon.
MARTY: Every time we dig, you just wait and see
that next scoop, that next grab, hoping that it's it.
The fact that there's gold in the water means
there was gold introduced into the Money Pit.
It's amazing to me.
GARY: See what we got.
Wow! That's some old wood in there.
Hello, Dolly. Check that out.
-GARY: That's a post. -Yeah.
Oh, look at that.
-JACK: Uh-huh. -GARY: That's tunnel.
Got to be tunnel.
-Yeah, it has to be a tunnel. -Yeah.
It's not a shaft.
That's a big piece of timber.
Do you think that's for the support beam?
GARY: Probably.
Five and a half. Yeah.
That's gonna hold a pretty good-sized tunnel for us.
It's dimensioned, and this stuff looks hand-hewn.
JACK: Wow.
That tunnel, mate-- that'll lead us to the treasure.
This is great stuff.
NARRATOR: Hand-hewn timbers
found some 90 feet deep in the B4-C Shaft?
At the same approximate depth
that the team recovered wood which dated to as early
as the 15th century?
Is it possible the team has finally intercepted a tunnel
that might be connected
to the original Money Pit treasure vault?
-Okay, mate. We're ready. -JACK: Yeah.
-[beeping] -JACK: Hey.
-I hear that. -Yeah.
Let me see if I can pinpoint it.
Yeah, you want to get in there first, don't you?
Yeah.
-What have we got here? -Oh!
What the heck is that?
Oh, it's a fastener, I believe.
NARRATOR
the Oak Island team has just recovered an iron fastener
offering more evidence of a possible wooden tunnel
nearly 90 feet below ground.
It appears to have some square features to it.
-GARY: Yeah, I'm hoping. -I think that's an old nail.
-GARY: I'm hoping. -Yeah.
Hey, Terry.
Hey, Rick. How you doing?
I heard, uh, finally wood, right?
Really, really interesting.
Let's take a quick look.
Look at this dimensioned lumber.
So, that's five and a quarter.
And I'm not seeing any circular saw, uh, marks
or crosshatch back marks.
That, to me, is a pit saw.
NARRATOR: As a method for construction,
the use of manually operated pit saws dates back
to as early as the 13th century.
Since most of the searcher activities
from the 19th century onward employed mechanized saws,
could that mean that the team has encountered workings
built prior to the discovery of the original Money Pit?
If so, could the team be close
to a much more valuable discovery?
RICK: The wood we hit--
I find it incredibly intriguing, because
we don't know of any previous searcher work
in this entire area.
It could be original depositor work.
But we must stay the course
and let the data tells us what we've encountered.
-TERRY: Here we go. -GARY: Let's see what we got.
God. Just bits of wood everywhere!
Look at that. That's a big old iron fastener.
Whoa!
Wrought iron, hammered round.
-That's what we're looking for. -GARY: That's cool. Yeah.
JACK: How old do you think it is?
I think we're in the 1700s or older.
-It's so crude. -Okay, so...
-Yeah. -So, pre-Money Pit discovery.
-Yeah. -Oh, that's sweet, Gary.
RICK: Lo and behold,
there is a... what we deem to be a handwrought spike.
And so, we have an opportunity with this spike
to do some types of analysis on it.
Every little clue means something.
What was that big spike I saw?
-[rhythmic beeping] -Yeah, this is old, mate.
That's an oldie for sure.
It's mushroomed in at the top there.
Hand-forged, wrought iron, nice and heavy.
Nice, big, chunky iron.
[thudding]
Looks like they're advancing the can a little bit.
More and more water.
IAN: There's nothing in that one.
I mean, there's no wood, no... no structure.
GARY: Nope, nothing.
Just limestone.
RICK: All eyes are on deck at this point,
and we all take note of the fact
that the wood appeared, and then a certain amount of footage,
and then it disappeared again.
There's only one conclusion.
That is that it's a tunnel.
-Rick, how you making out? -Hey, Sam.
Well, you tell me. How are we making out?
We've gotten into some harder stuff down there.
Our teeth just, uh, broke the 130 feet.
-With the excavation? -Yeah. That's right.
Uh, then I think we're gonna get crumbly limestone
right around that depth.
We know from past experience
it's highly unlikely there's something below that.
NARRATOR: It is a startling turn of events
for the Oak Island team.
After recovering incredible evidence
of a potentially ancient wooden tunnel,
bedrock has just been encountered at a depth
of approximately 130 feet in the B4-C Shaft.
So, long day.
-Yeah. -Appreciate all the hard work,
but we're at bedrock.
The bottom line is, I think
we're pretty close to being done.
NARRATOR: Although the team is now out of time
to conduct any more excavations in the Money Pit area this year,
the fact remains that all five
of the massive steel shafts they dug over the previous months
offered evidence
that the legendary treasure people have sought
for more than two centuries is still buried somewhere below.
The question is, what will it take for Rick,
Marty, Craig and the team to finally recover it?
RICK: I think we have all now come to the understanding
that the Money Pit is incredibly complex.
What it tells me is we need to find new technologies
and the application of those technologies to our situation.
That has been key to moving the search forward.
So,
there's reason to be hopeful.
MARTY: We're disappointed
in the results in the Money Pit, but the scientists say
there are big quantities of gold down there
and big quantities of silver down there,
and there's plenty of evidence that it's true.
So, we need to do more searching.
Look, I think
-every hole teaches us something, right? -TERRY: Sure.
I mean, we have definite
elevations for that tunnel.
We do have a significant artifact that can be tested.
-We have quality candidates for C-14. -Sure.
And we're approaching the depth at which we call the hole.
-Yup. Okay. -I agree.
That's where we're at.
TERRY: Absolutely, Rick.
-All right, See you later. -RICK: See you guys.
NARRATOR: Two days later...
RICK: So, guys, I think
this is a very important meeting, and I think it's really
gonna yield, um, benefit.
So, Steve, if you could bring the Ideon team up and Marty.
- Hello, everybody. -[overlapping chatter] -Hey, guys.
NARRATOR: ...Rick and Marty Lagina,
Craig Tester and members of the team
have gathered for a videoconference
with Gary Agnew, Doug Schouten, Max Howarth
and Kim Lawrence of Ideon Technologies
based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
RICK: They brought up something that I think you're gonna be
stunned to hear-- the possibility
of imaging Oak Island, underground,
the entire Money Pit area.
Just as a preliminary,
I would ask that the Ideon team tell us
a little bit of background about the company.
The best analogy I can give you for our technology
is a medical X-ray.
[laughs]
NARRATOR: Muon tomography is a cutting-edge
scanning technology used in the mining industry
that measures subatomic atmospheric particles
known as "muons," as they penetrate the Earth's surface.
By placing specialized muon-detecting devices
deep underground,
a three-dimensional image is captured,
displaying specific subsurface anomalies such as tunnels,
voids and large objects.
In 2017, muon tomography was used
to identify a previously unknown chamber
deep inside the Great Pyramid of Giza in Cairo, Egypt.
MARTY: How about if there was a, uh,
a solid cube of, you know, let's say, gold.
Could you see that?
-Good answer. -[laughter]
RICK: Wow.
The only problem with muon technology
is the deployment time.
It takes up to seven months
in the Money Pit for the detectors to collect the data.
But I think this technology, of everything we've tried
to throw at Oak Island, I think,
finally, for the first time, maybe,
we're gonna get some real information
about what's underground on the island.
I think this is incredible technology.
I think it's very applicable to what we're doing.
I think this is imminently doable
and-and I think it's gonna yield great results.
MARTY: You know, I find this really exciting.
If you're looking for my input, I say we move full steam ahead.
I think, we all think this is something that we,
that we need to do.
We're very grateful for you reaching out.
I feel like we're actually on to something,
-that's for sure. -Thank you so much. -CRAIG: Thanks, everybody.
-See you later. -Thanks a lot.
RICK: Who knows what lies beneath?
-MARTY: Hey, guys. -STEVE G.: Marty.
NARRATOR: Following their meeting with the team
from Ideon Technologies, Rick and Marty Lagina
join members of the team on Lot 18,
just south of the Money Pit...
TEDFORD: There we go.
NARRATOR: ...where they are eager to begin the preparations
for one of the most promising subsurface scans
ever conducted in order to solve the Oak Island mystery.
ADAM M.: Good?
RICK: So, I'm excited about today
because this is the start of the muon program.
So, the ability to look underground on Oak Island has
stymied every searcher from day one.
-Yeah. -MARTY: Basically gonna X-ray this old girl, right?
TERRY: Something like that, yeah.
STEVE G.: So, we're starting the first hole today.
Uh, we're gonna drill a series of five.
And we're gonna start here in the South Shore Pit.
-Okay. -So that will give us a good map underground
of any potential tunnels running to the Money Pit.
DANNY: Hold that right there. Stop.
NARRATOR: Because it will take the team from Irving Equipment Limited
several days to disassemble their gear
in the Money Pit area...
That's perfect. Right there.
NARRATOR: ...to begin the muon tomography operation,
Rick, Marty and Craig have enlisted
Choice Sonic Drilling to place a borehole
near the so-called South Shore Pit.
Here, they hope to locate a tunnel
that their late partner Dan Blankenship believed
might be connected to the original treasure shaft.
Ideon will come in, place the detectors downhole,
and then basically, it's allowing it time
to gather enough information
such that it can show us what is in the area.
It-it's the first time ever
that we'll be able to look underground
with some sort of certainty.
Yes.
Once we do this, then-then to image the whole island,
where do we go?
Up to... up by the Money Pit, right?
-Yes. Yep. -Great.
-I think we're ready to go. -Yeah.
MARTY: Okay, Mike, make some hole, put some steel in it.
TEDFORD: Let's do it.
NARRATOR: Later that day...
MARTY: Carmen, welcome back once again.
-It's much appreciated. -NARRATOR: ...Marty Lagina,
along with his business partner Craig Tester and Gary Drayton,
meet in the research center
with blacksmithing expert Carmen Legge
to get his analysis of the iron spike
recently discovered more than 100 feet deep
in the B4-C Shaft.
GARY: This came out
of the Money Pit spoils when we was digging.
Oh.
GARY: A rock drill?
Used for what, Carmen?
Okay, so, uh, used in the digging process.
You come to a big boulder, you need to break it up.
Well, those swages were old, so is this old?
GARY: Wow.
Whoever made this did it a long time ago.
NARRATOR: Two years ago, while investigating Lot 21...
GARY: And this is even bigger.
NARRATOR: ...which was once owned by Freemason Daniel McGinnis,
one of the men who originally discovered
the Money Pit in 1795,
Rick Lagina, Gary and Dan Henskee discovered
two heavy iron swages, or rock drill sharpening tools,
which Carmen believed could date back
to the mid 15th century.
Is it possible that this rock drill,
found in the B4-C Shaft,
could offer more evidence that the team was
within striking distance of the fabled treasure after all?
That's absolutely fantastic, because that was brought up
by the hammer grab.
This is very interesting.
With these dates, though, this has got to be an artifact
from the original Money Pit construction.
MARTY: This rock drill could go back to medieval times.
So, when you let your mind wander,
it could have been used to chisel out a chamber.
If that's the case, maybe we're looking in the right spot.
I mean, this speaks to me.
It says medieval, baby.
MARTY: We're coming to the end of the season,
so we're out of time, but are we eventually gonna
investigate it? Yes.
We can't walk away from that discovery
without looking more closely.
I mean, this really is, this is holding a piece
of history in your hand from the Money Pit,
which makes it even more special.
MARTY: Carmen, thanks for explaining things
to us once again.
Um, Gary, go find some more stuff.
-GARY: I can do that. -MARTY: Thanks, Carmen.
CRAIG: Take care.
NARRATOR: Later that afternoon...
-GARY: We're here? -MARTY: We're here.
NARRATOR: ...Marty, Gary and surveyor Steve Guptill
return to Lot 15 to search
for more potentially important clues
along the mysterious stone pathway
between the swamp and the Money Pit.
We've got lots of targets inside of this potential road.
-GARY: Good. -MARTY: And we'll find what's findable.
GARY: All right.
-Let's see what this one is. -MARTY: People drop things on roads,
and we can search all along
this road if we know where it is.
[device beeping]
GARY: It is just there.
MARTY: We want to see artifacts,
which could reveal its secrets.
See if I've loosened it up in there, bud.
-Okay. -[beeping]
GARY: It's sounding stronger, so we're getting closer to it.
-Pinpointer time. -Yep.
GARY: It's... I'm on it.
-Oh, ho, look at that! -MARTY: All right!
-STEVE G.: Oh, there we go. -GARY: Right on the road!
Oh, look at this.
[laughs]: It's an ox shoe.
-All right, a find! -Oh, there we go. -Right on the road!
What is it I always say, mate?
Sometimes you get a nice surprise.
NARRATOR: On Lot 15, between the swamp and the Money Pit,
Marty Lagina, Gary Drayton and Steve Guptill have just found
a potentially significant clue
along the mysterious stone pathway.
Yeah, that is brilliant. And it's an oldie by the look of it.
-STEVE G.: How old? Do you know? -I have no idea.
Something serious went on here.
Something requiring lots of oxen.
Yeah.
MARTY: What were a bunch of oxen doing out here?
-They weren't farming. -GARY: Exactly.
There's no way they were farming.
[chuckles] It's just not possible.
RICK: Check that out. The top of a keg.
NARRATOR: One year ago, while investigating
the stone road in the swamp,
the team found pieces of 14th-century
wooden keg barrels and iron ring bolts,
offering evidence of cargo being hauled from the swamp
to somewhere on the island.
-MARTY: A road ox shoe. -GARY: Yeah.
-Yep. -That's why it's here.
It couldn't sink any deeper
'cause of the rocks that were put here.
NARRATOR: Is it possible that the team has now uncovered
the pathway used in that operation?
And if so, could it prove to be leading
to the original Money Pit?
GARY: If you're hauling treasure up to the Money Pit,
you would use a very large animal,
uh, with a big ox shoe on it like this for hauling.
So, that leaves us with more evidence
as to what massive undertaking occurred here.
We're running out of daylight. I say we call it a day.
You got to get your equipment up there, Gary.
GARY: Brilliant. A great find to end the day.
-MARTY: Yeah. -See you later, chaps.
STEVE G.: Great find, Gary.
MARTY: Hey, Craig.
-CRAIG: Hello. -I see our old friend the rig is back.
Yep.
NARRATOR: ...after the departure of representatives
from Irving Equipment Limited and ROC Equipment,
Marty Lagina arrives in the Money Pit area
as the team from Choice Drilling has begun
putting down the boreholes for the upcoming
muon tomography scanning operation.
Tell me a couple things-- how many wells
are we going to drill around here
-so we can see this whole area? -CRAIG: Uh,
five in the Money Pit, one in... right in the very heart of it,
and four on the outside-- north, south, east and west.
We should be able to see by springtime
any high-density treasure.
Something a little farther away, partially collapsed tunnels,
-it's gonna take longer. -All right, well,
I'll try and set up a meeting in the war room.
We need to kind of go over all of this stuff.
And then maybe talk about, you know,
where we're at and where we're going.
-Okay. Sounds good. -All right. You carry on, bud.
-Yep. -Go, muons.
NARRATOR: Later that afternoon...
MARTY: Gentlemen.
Welcome, all.
The Fellowship of the Dig assembles
for the final time this year.
NARRATOR: ...Rick, Marty and Craig
have gathered their team
to take stock of the year they have spent together
working to solve the Oak Island mystery.
And the purpose of this meeting is basically to just make sure,
as we go our separate ways for this season,
that everybody's on the same page.
Uh, we had super high hopes.
We were digging this year, I'd say,
more for treasure than we have ever before.
We've done an awful lot.
This table is testament to all of the finds
and all of the clues that we've been pursuing all these years.
RICK: Gaze at the table.
I mean, we've made progress.
There is information in front of us, and we need to digest it.
We need to understand it.
STEVE G.: It was on this day a year ago
I talked about having a big year and we found 700 artifacts.
Well, we've pushed that number to about a thousand this year.
-MARTY: Wow. -CRAIG: It just seems like
there's been a lot of information found,
but there's a tremendous amount to go yet.
-Yep. -MARTY: Right.
Okay, where do we dig?
[laughter]
What are we gonna do next?
-What say you, Rick? -RICK: Everybody knows
that I've always been fascinated with the swamp.
I-I... I think there are answers there.
-I've always thought that. -Yeah.
DOUG: The swamp truly is a time capsule, though.
I mean, look at the dates on the wood we've gotten.
Mm-hmm.
GARY: Oh, that's interesting.
-What do you have? -We don't know, mate.
Some kind of wooden plug.
NARRATOR: Over the past year...
RICK: Look at this.
NARRATOR: ...no location on Oak Island proved
to contain more clues and evidence
of man-made workings
predating the discovery of the Money Pit
than the triangle-shaped swamp.
JACK: Yeah, it's cut to a point!
NARRATOR: Near the southern border
of the brackish bog,
in addition to a number of survey stakes
potentially dating back more than four centuries,
the team unearthed numerous wooden artifacts
believed to have come from ancient sailing vessels.
One time frame.
-224 to 376 A.D. -ALEX: Wow.
NARRATOR: While some where carbon-dated to the late 17th century,
a section of possible deck planking
could go back more than 1,000 years earlier.
-What you got? -I have a piece of pottery.
NARRATOR: However, after the team unearthed
a mysterious stone path near the stone road
in the southeastern corner, archaeologist Laird Niven
discovered ancient indigenous Mi'kmaq pottery,
which triggered an unforeseen and shocking response
from the provincial government.
The archaeologists asked that we stop down.
MARTY: Our ability to work
and function on our own island is getting eroded
in leaps and bounds.
Well, I-I think we did extremely well
with the cards we were dealt with this year.
-We have a road that we don't know where it started. -Yeah.
Well, bureaucracy is holding us back.
That was the most promising area, wasn't it?
-The southeast corner? -IAN: It's closest to the Money Pit.
It's right by the road.
And I think there was a ton of promise.
So for me, it was also a disappointment
that we couldn't continue the work that was very carefully
and very respectfully-- to history-- being done.
Yeah.
So, I hope we can move forward with the work we've been doing.
-Yeah. -MARTY: Laird, are we gonna
get relief on this issue?
I don't really hold out a bunch of hope
that that's going to happen.
No? Really? You think, six months from now,
we'll still be off-limits down in that southeast corner?
Uh, you know, I don't know which way it's gonna go.
Oh, boy.
NARRATOR: In the war room,
as Rick, Marty, Craig and the rest
of the Oak Island team contemplate
the future of their quest to solve
the 227-year-old treasure mystery...
I'm not that optimistic.
NARRATOR: ...archaeologist Laird Niven
has just shared his concern
that key areas of interest in the triangle-shaped swamp
could remain off-limits in the coming year.
LAIRD: Hopefully, we'll have an opportunity
to suggest radical changes.
-Yeah. -What would our proposal be?
-Just go back to what we were doing, right? -LAIRD: Yeah,
and trust that we know what we're doing.
There you go. Yep.
BILLY: You know, for me, I have hope
because the premier came to the island.
-Yeah. -Mm-hmm.
We have a commitment to meet with,
you know, new management and new government at CCH,
and I-I have... I have great hope going forward.
So do I.
Yeah.
MARTY: This is the fabled Money Pit.
NARRATOR: Earlier this year,
after the Provincial Department
of Community, Culture and Heritage
restricted the team's search activities in the swamp...
-CAROL: Wow. -MARTY: Those are something, aren't they?
-[laughter] -A little big.
NARRATOR: ...Billy Gerhardt arranged for the newly elected
premier of Nova Scotia Tim Houston
and his wife Carol to visit Oak Island.
Anything that's worth doing is worth doing right and, uh...
-Agree. -...and you guys are doing it right.
-We're trying very hard. -Yeah, I feel that way.
NARRATOR: Although no guarantees were made
about lifting any restrictions
that have been imposed on the team's search agenda,
Premier and Mrs. Houston offered support for the quest
and acknowledged how it has positively impacted
the province of Nova Scotia.
It's a big thing that's happening here,
and I think it's gonna have a happy ending.
RICK: I hope so.
[laughter]
RICK: Like Billy, I hold out great hope.
We need to get in a room with CCH
and have a very frank and proper discussion.
And I think we're-we're close to doing that.
And I really am quite positive about that.
-Yeah. -MARTY: All right.
So there's hope for the swamp. Oh, good.
-Yay. I'm happy. -Yay.
[laughter]
I hate that thing.
GARY: And treasure's where you find it.
I mean, look at the table.
These finds are from all over the island.
-MARTY: Yep. -GARY: All these artifacts--
bona fide artifacts-- because we've been searching
for anomalies on different lots,
Lot 8, Lot 4.
Some of my favorite finds have come off the western side.
Yes.
CRAIG: It's right in through here.
-I'll lead the way. -All right.
NARRATOR: This year, Rick, Marty and Craig
commissioned a magnetometer survey
across the western side of Oak Island
in an attempt to locate the so-called
Hole Under the Hatch,
a site marked on a believed 14th-century map
that the late author and researcher Zena Halpern
believed to have been created by members of the Knights Templar.
The data revealed two compelling anomalies.
The first was on Lot 4, where the team would unearth
a number of compelling clues,
including copper sheathing from a possible treasure chest
and a fragment of a cannon that chemist
Dr. Christa Brosseau believes could be of Portuguese origin.
The second anomaly was located on Lot 8,
a lot that Freemason Scott Clarke suggested
may have once been the site of Masonic rituals
memorializing the burial of holy Templar treasures
believed to be buried on Oak Island.
JACK: If we explore Lot 4 further,
we might actually, really discover where the hatch is.
But we haven't cleared the lots well enough yet
to allow metal detectors and other technologies
to go in there.
-MARTY: That would be a project for next year. -Yeah.
MARTY: And there's the Lot 15 road
to put on the agenda for whenever
-we gear back up. -SCOTT: Yeah.
Yeah, in regards to that lot 15 road,
-my thought goes to the road in Portugal. -Yeah.
RICK: It does look like the stone road.
That type of technique has survived,
certainly in Portugal, for generations.
And to me, this Portugal trip, it presented another culture
that might explain what happened here on Oak Island long ago.
ALEX: When you ask yourself, who was responsible
for what happened or may have happened on Oak Island,
the Portuguese have to be on there,
-on the list of suspects. -Yeah.
-Mm-hmm. -ALEX: It's not impossible
that the Knights Templar or a group
that traced their lineage through the Knights Templar,
through the Order of Christ, came here
with something important that they wanted to hide.
RICK: I don't think anybody can deny the fact
that the Portuguese, they were here in the area.
Oh, yeah. True.
DOUG: The Portuguese,
they are a very likely suspect
for involvement here on the island.
They were in the neighborhood probably earlier
-than most other countries... -Mm.
...at a very early date.
BILLY: When you think about it, if you're...
if you got this most valuable treasure
in the world, you're gonna put it on your ship,
you'd want to go somewhere that you'd know, right?
Yes.
You look at these things
on the table in front of us,
they all tell the story.
NARRATOR: With the discoveries that the team has made
in recent years across the island,
from the stone-paved area in the middle of the swamp,
which could date to 1200 A.D.,
and the 500-year or older stone road
in the swamp's southeastern corner,
along with the discoveries on Lots 4, 8 and 15,
could the team finally be zeroing in
on just who was behind the Oak Island mystery?
If so, then what is it that was so ingeniously hidden
deep in the Money Pit?
There is a nice progression here,
at least in terms of metals.
I mean, lead...
...copper, silver, in the water.
And then, early this spring, gold in the water.
And then, later on in the year, gold out of the Money Pit.
And those trace elements of gold
on those pieces of metal, mate,
they're just our starting pistol.
It's down there.
We just got to put our hands on it.
[laughter]
RICK: We have a huge opportunity with the muon technology,
which will-- that data will not come in for another
-seven or eight months. -JACK: We got to just wait
until the muon collects the data and see
-what's in the Money Pit. -Seems like it.
-Yeah. -SCOTT: Right now, I think
-the muon is the way to go. -Yeah.
RICK: The hope is that the muon,
uh, technology will actually find
a target "treasure" in the Money Pit.
And that-- we can say to ourselves,
"We put a rig or a caisson at that location,
we're going to find the one thing."
Well, I feel better. I don't know about you guys.
DOUG: I will say one thing.
I feel very fortunate to be able to participate with you all
in a world-class mystery, so...
-IAN: Hear, hear. -No question about it.
-Definitely. -Yeah.
For me...
...it's been an absolute pleasure and a, and a...
uh...
I owe everyone a sincere thank-you
for continuing to stay involved
in what I have always thought since we were little kids.
This is a wonderful story, a wonderful mystery,
and it has only gotten better because of all of you.
And now it's inspirational.
That's real treasure.
And I am grateful for the experience.
And I thank you all for it.
And then he makes me follow that.
-I mean, come on. -[laughter]
No, look, here's... I would just say,
we didn't win this year, but we can no longer lose.
It's not possible to lose anymore because...
...there's gold on Oak Island.
There's gold in the Money Pit.
We ain't gonna give up. It's down there.
-We're gonna find it. -MARTY: Yeah.
We got a good thing going, and we need to think about it
and advance the ball next year.
-Hear, hear. Yep. -Yes.
-Shall we? -Cheers.
NARRATOR: When they were just boys,
Rick and Marty Lagina
dreamed about a legendary treasure
buried deep in the Money Pit on Oak Island.
As grown men, the fact that so many capable searchers
had tried for more than two centuries to find it
inspired the brothers to take a chance themselves.
-ALEX: See you. -MARTY: Gary, bud.
-[laughter] -See you.
Till next year. Charles. And Billy.
NARRATOR: And now, after more than a decade of tireless work
with the help of their dedicated team...
-Keep the faith, guys. -We will.
...they have not only proven that the Oak Island mystery
is more profound than anyone ever thought possible
but are closer than anyone who came before them
to finally recovering the treasure.
MARTY: Honestly, I feel better
about this whole thing than I ever have.
There's no way to say we were on a wild-goose chase,
because we can prove,
for sure, that there's gold down there.
RICK: Now the hunt for information
is every bit as important.
And it will ultimately, hopefully,
yield results.
It will find what we seek.
CAPTIONING PROVIDED BY A+E NETWORKS