1004-1, take one. Mark.
Every episode of
The Curse of Oak Island adds a new chapter
to the 228-year-old treasure mystery.
But just what does it take to create each new hour
that chronicles Rick, Marty and the team's search for answers?
Well, an equally-determined film crew.
They are to document every day that the team is hard at work.
So, tonight, I'm taking you on a one-of-a-kind journey
through one of those exciting, fast-paced,
and, hopefully, glorious days.
Get ready to go deep inside a day of the dig.
This is Drilling Down.
♪ ♪
TERRY: Oh, look who's here.
Hey, guys, good morning.
-What's going on? -Hey, guys. -Rick.
Hey, good morning, Fellowshippers.
-Hey, Marty. -Hey, Marty.
MARTY: Morning, guys!
-Good morning. -(overlapping chatter)
MATTY: Every new day of searching for answers
on Oak Island starts bright and early
for the Laginas and their team.
-MARTY: Good morning. -Gentlemen!
MARTY: Come on, baby!
Good day to find Templar treasure.
MATTY: So, for the intrepid production crew
recording every potentially historic moment,
those days begin even earlier.
They often cross the causeway as the sun
is just beginning to rise,
and immediately jump into action
to prep all of their cameras and gear.
And good morning. Channel One walkie-talkie check.
MATTY: On any given day,
the Fellowship of the Dig has several operations
simultaneously taking place around the island.
So that means the crew-- consisting of more
than 50 people-- has to have their own plan in place.
Hey. Good morning, everyone.
So, today, busy day.
Uh, first off is Money Pit.
A Unit will break off after the Laginas get up there
and head to Lot 5, go metal detecting with Gary.
Then, C Unit will be doing some scanning
with Peter and Billy and Steve.
We will end our day for A Unit, and most likely, C Unit, either
at the Money Pit or at the lab if they find something great.
So, that's kind of what today is looking like.
Bruce, safety.
Wear your PP up to the Money Pit, and show rigs there.
All the holes should be filled, but we've had a few, uh,
errant ones, uh, just sort of open up,
so watch your step wherever you go.
If we find any, let me know.
We'll get 'em filled as quick as we can.
Have a good, safe day, everybody.
MATTY: And now,
it's time to film another day of the dig.
All right, guys, you guys ready to roll up there?
All right, dig's on task.
JON L.: Oh, game on.
Let's go.
MATTY: Today, I am once again
getting exclusive access from Executive Producer Joe Lessard
to not only watch with the production crew,
but also join the fellowship in action
as they conduct their search operations.
Here you go, Doctor.
Yeah.
-Busy morning so far. -Yeah, typical day.
I'm not sure if it's going to be sunny or rainy,
so, we're just kind of plan for both.
-They are on Borehole P-10 today. -MATTY: Okay.
JOE: Rick and Marty are...
I'm hearing they're just getting on the island.
They're gonna be driving up here pretty soon
for their morning check-in.
And as you can see, the Garden Shaft
is off to our right.
-They're pretty far away from it. -Yeah.
JOE: And what's happening is, they're exploring
for a tunnel right now...
-Okay. -JOE: ...that they believe could be connected
to another, yet another candidate for the Money Pit.
TERRY: There's something going on in the Garden Shaft.
-Oh, yeah, there we go. -We got something right there.
STEVE: Oh, wow. Look!
MATTY: As we've watched season ten
of The Curse of Oak Island progress,
the team's focus in the Money Pit area
is increasingly shifting toward the Garden Shaft.
This 80-foot-deep structure has not only been carbon-dated
to as early as 1735--
meaning that it could be related to the original Money Pit--
but is also flooded with water
that has yielded high trace evidence of gold.
Faithful Acorns know
that the shaft is currently being reconstructed
by Dumas Contracting Limited
so that the fellowship can personally find out
what may lie at the bottom or in the nearby vicinity.
However, on this day, the project was on hold
pending new safety permits.
So, the team was drilling a borehole known as "P-10,"
which was located 90 feet to the southwest.
It was here that they were searching for evidence
of a tunnel at a depth between 102 and 108 feet.
A tunnel that-- according to their research--
may also be related to the original Money Pit as well.
And here the brothers come.
-Morning! -Morning, guys.
-Morning. -(indistinct chatter) -How are you?
JOE: Rick and Marty cover
a lot of ground on these 140 acres
that is the island every day.
It starts with the Money Pit.
They'll probably come back at some point to check in again.
-Right. -But, otherwise, they could be anywhere else,
whether it's the war room, whether it's metal detecting.
You're gonna get a real good sense today
of just how much activity is happening
all at the same time that we're covering
with our different crews in different places.
So, I think whenever you guys want to go down and meet 'em,
-you-you... -Oh. -MATTY: Yeah.
...it's probably a good spot.
-Well, let's do it. -All right.
Crew will follow us down there.
-Thank you very much, Mr. Levy. -Okay.
-Thanks, guys. -Here we go.
I'm about to infiltrate a scene on The Curse of Oak Island.
-(indistinct chatter) -Good morning, gentlemen.
-Hey, Matty! -Well, it's Matty Blake.
-How you doing, pal? Let's go. -Well...
-Nice warm sausage for you right there. -I love it. So,
this is a first for me. I've never walked into
an actual moment with you guys working on the main show.
We've talked about you
from over there, but this is a thrill for me.
This is something you do a lot on the island.
You're analyzing these core samples.
Very close to what I think is the Money Pit.
This should be interesting.
MATTY: Every year, core-drilling has proven
to be one of the team's most effective methods
for recovering clues and evidence of treasure.
CHARLES: Terry, we got wood.
And that looks like a fairly good section of beam.
MATTY: We've seen the team recover wood
from man-made tunnels that predated the Money Pit
by more than three centuries,
pieces of parchment paper
and leather book binding
and even fragments of metal containing gold.
So, to be here in the moment with Rick, Marty and the team
as they unearth fresh cores, or "sausages," as they call them,
I could only imagine
the potentially valuable ingredients they might contain.
Give me, in layman's terms as best you can,
so my simple mind can understand it--
like, what type of things are you looking for?
How do you analyze this?
What are the first things that you see
that say, "Ah, this could be weird"?
You really got to characterize the whole core, right?
So, you start at the top,
go to the bottom of this core.
-So that's 69 up there, 79 down here. -Okay.
And sequentially, we go through it.
If we see something that jumps out
and says, this is not normal,
could be disturbed, something like wood,
then we stop and look at that very carefully.
This is in situ, this is normal, this is as expected.
-Got it. -MARTY: But, at any point...
Let's say you got a core, and instead of this,
you got a layer of sand, well, that's different.
Or gravel or something.
Might be natural, might have something to do
-with what went on here. -Got it.
It's the same old word you're probably tired of hearing:
anomalies.
Things that shouldn't be there. But, yes.
The primary purpose here is that tunnel.
What Rick's been looking for, for ten years,
-we're looking for today. -Correct, and we are...
-79. -...within 26 feet, give or take.
Oh, my gosh. So we're close?
-Yeah, doesn't take him long. -Three-three bars.
Three bars only away, you think, from that depth?
-RICK: Roughly. -Wow.
MARTY: Heads up, it's coming in.
Great.
-83, Scott. -Um..
-Feel that. -How heavy it is? -Oh.
-Oh, that's hot. -MARTY: Yeah.
(laughs) That's the drill? Like, the friction?
Yeah, that-that's the force that's... Yeah.
-The vibrating that did it. -Yeah, there you go. All right.
So, the heat on that, uh, sausage comes
-from the friction of the drill? Wow. -The drill.
-I never thought that would be hot. -MARTY: When you're...
when you're actually going through rock,
this cools right away, but the rock will stay warm
-for quite a while. -Wow. Wow.
That at least tells me it's natural.
-It's natural. Right. Yeah. -Right.
Here, Matty. You cut it open.
-All right. -Did he give you a number?
-MATTY: What's the depth on this? -IAN: This is 83?
-CHARLES: Yeah. -MATTY: So, we're still not
quite at the depth, but we're getting closer.
-All right. -Yeah. So, what we do is, like,
-put a line in like that. -MATTY: Yeah.
-IAN: Split it open. -MATTY: Break it open?
-This is really super stiff. -Oh, my God.
-Yeah. -Yeah. Wow.
IAN: Yeah, again. So there you go.
-The rock's inside. -The rocks, clay in between.
-Yeah. Yeah. -So, this wide range
-in class size tells us it's natural, too. -Yup.
MARTY: What did you find, shooter?
Nothing. I just... It's like a little shiny bit on the end
of the rock for a second, but I think it was just wet clay.
-Shiny bits. -MATTY: Got exciting for half a second.
Well, guys, you're getting closer to the important depth
so I'm gonna back away so you guys can get to work.
'Cause I understand you guys are gonna be doing
-some metal detecting soon. -Yeah.
So, mind if I crash that, too, a little later?
-Please do. -All right.
You seem be sort of lucky so, come on over.
I do, I have the luck of the Irish. Hey, today's the day!
-MARTY: Today's the day! -MATTY Today's the day.
LARRY: All right, so let 'em land
and we'll get the shots of them, uh, looking at the data.
Okay, yeah, Ben's got a wide with Billy.
-We got it. -JOE: So, as we've been seeing
on the show-- Lot 5, they're very excited to be searching it
-because it's a brand-new area. -Right.
Brand-new lot they've just acquired this year.
MATTY: I'm going deep inside a day of the dig
with the production crew of The Curse of Oak Island
and even joining in with members of Rick and Marty Lagina's team
as they search for clues,
which today includes the newly-acquired Lot 5.
I remember earlier in the year,
Rick, Marty and I were sitting out here
right before the premiere, and they're saying,
"We're on this lot. We can't tell you what..."
-Exactly. -"It's new to us."
But look at the finds that they have made since that day.
It's been incredible.
When Rick, Marty and Craig became involved
in the Oak Island treasure hunt back in 2006,
Lot 5-- located on the western side of the island--
was a tantalizing four-acre property
that was completely off limits to them.
It was owned by the late Robert Young,
a former research partner of the late Fred Nolan.
And according to Robert, it contained features
and many artifacts that predated the 1795 discovery
of the Money Pit.
(laughter)
Out with the old and in with the new.
MATTY: Well, after purchasing the lot earlier this season,
the Laginas and the team quickly found out
that Mr. Young was a man of his word.
So, it's looking like we have a rock-filled excavation
of some sort.
MATTY: So far, we've seen them unearth a stone foundation
dating to the mid-18th century...
My first reaction is that it's almost chisel-like.
-Oh, wow. Like a tool? Yeah. -Yeah.
MATTY: ...tools that might be 400 years old or more...
-It's a coin, mate! -(laughing)
Oh, that is old.
MATTY: ...and, incredibly, half of a Roman coin
that has been dated to as early as 300 AD.
So, getting the chance to join in
while the film crew documents Steve Guptill,
Billy Gerhardt and Peter Fornetti searching
for new clues here is more than a thrill.
-How are you doing, Larry? -Doing good.
What's your take on what they're getting here today?
Well, they're really excited today.
It's their first time scanning
with this high-tech gear on Lot 5.
And that's really a big deal for them.
-Yeah. -Gary has cleared some
of the metal finds with-with his equipment.
But this could go deeper,
and they can see if there's anomalies
five, ten, 15 feet underground.
But Steve, right now, is looking at the data
of their very first scan, and he thinks
that he sees something anomalous.
MATTY: As we've seen on other areas of the island this season,
Steve, Billy and Peter are using
the OKM Gepard 3-D ground-penetrating radar device
that sends radio waves into the earth,
which can detect structures or voids more than 100 feet deep.
So, what I'd love to do is
have you go in and get a little tutorial
on how this treasure-hunting gear works.
I would love to. Let's do it.
-Matty's coming in. -Hey, fellas.
-Hey, Matty. -How are you?
-How you doing? -We're doing good.
I was just watching your, uh...
-your latest and greatest effort here. -Yeah.
Um, this is always exciting to be able to kind of just,
-like, step into a scene of The Curse of Oak Island. -Mm-hmm.
-So, talk to me about the data that you saw here today. -Yeah.
So, we ran two different things.
We ran ground-penetrating radar,
and we ran a magnetometer, which is what we have here.
-Yup. -The ground-penetrating radar-- we saw a possible
anomaly in the GPR.
We ran it in two different directions, and we saw it
right around three feet to five feet,
but knowing the soil changes, it's pretty normal
for us to see a change from three to five feet.
You all agreed on the GPR results that,
because of the soil changes here, that might account
for any sort of anomaly that you... like you saw?
-Most likely. Yeah. -Most likely.
MATTY: Well, Steve, talk about your world in terms of this data.
Even though there was nothing that's going
to warrant an immediate dig right here, right now, today,
do you still record this, mark it,
get it in your system and-and do everything
-you have to do? -Absolutely.
-What's your process from here out? -So, what happens--
they create grids. I come in with my GPS.
And I tag every location.
And then what I do is, I take this data, and I overlay it
so at any point in time
if we want to re-reference that, we can.
Everything you guys are doing is being recorded.
-If there was ever any confusion... -Yeah.
...like you guys have about the historical Money Pit,
-PETER: Right. -STEVE: Mm-hmm. -...it's locked and loaded.
You can just go back to the episode and say
"Oh, yeah, we did search that area."
-Yup. -If only they did that in 1795.
(laughs) Awesome.
Do you know, one thing, if I may.
I haven't used that version of a GPR in the field yet.
-Mm-hmm. -Could I get my hands on that
-and run a confirmation grid? -Yeah, let's do it.
Great.
Marty Lagina often says
that all data is good data.
So, for the team searching on Lot 5 today,
they need to determine where potential clues are,
but also where they aren't,
so that they can focus their efforts elsewhere.
PETER: So, you want to start with the whole machine
-behind our starting point the entire way. -Got it.
And you want to hold it at the same height
-the entire time. -MATTY: Mm-hmm.
So you want to hold it six inches
-above the ground starting here... -Right.
...because any sort of up and down will change that data set.
Sure.
-You got it? Any questions? -I think so.
You're going to yell it out to me if I screw up.
I'm gonna go down... I'm going to go to the other end, okay?
-Okay. -No-no pressure, Matty,
but any time you find an anomaly,
-it's a dig target, right? -Yeah, that's right.
I'm hoping, uh...
I hope we get something. Maybe we miss something.
All right, you can run it when you're ready.
MATTY: Here we go. Boom!
(soft, rhythmic beeping)
-Is a little swing okay? -Mm-hmm. Yeah.
-Okay. Boom. -Yup.
All right, one more run.
STEVE: No pressure, but the next line is the anomaly.
Got to make sure there's a good read.
STEVE: So, what happens is you've just created
-a timer inside here. -Okay. Copy that.
STEVE: It's calculated the distance
and your steps so you have to move at the same pace.
-Try to move at that same pace. -Yup.
As well as, it's going to tell you.
So, when that grid is about halfway up,
you should be halfway through the scan.
-Let her rip. -Here we go.
(soft, rhythmic beeping)
I'm real close. I'm gonna hit it.
I'm gonna hit it, right on it. Watch this. Boom. All right.
-You ended on a great one. -That's good bicep work, guys.
-Oh, yeah. -All right.
-So, we can analyze this data? -Yup. Yup.
So, you're gonna want to hit the "X."
Here we go.
-Moment of truth. -Wow. I'm nervous.
PETER: All right, you're picking up bedrock.
MATTY: Wow, so right there at that level...
-Mm-hmm. -....you'd expect to see it.
Yup. So, you can see the two different levels
-that we were picking up. -Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
STEVE: So, those are soil changes.
And I believe our anomaly, Peter, if we start there,
should be over here.
Or it's reading a little bit higher because,
depending on how high you're holding it.
-How you're holding it. -Right? So...
-Difference in how you're holding it. -Yup.
So, it's a difference in two feet or so.
-Make sense. -Which could be that.
-Mm-hmm. -Yeah. -Yeah, it's reading it
from where the sensor is, not the ground level.
The good news is that this area that we just figured
is about one 600th of Lot 5
so you have a few more than you can work at,
and Lot 5 is not one of the bigger lots here, either.
So, Matty, you've just confirmed something that we just ran,
right? So, Peter, Billy and I ran a grid.
We saw everything was most likely natural.
Um, but all data's good data,
and we love to put Xs through things
because we have a lot of targets.
-This is awesome. Thank you, guys. -PETER: Yeah. Thank you.
-STEVE: Yeah. Thanks for helping us. -All right.
-Well... -Thank you for giving us
-the Matty-confirmed X. -Yeah. Right. Great.
Uh, I know there's work going on at other places
on the island right now so we're going to take our crew
and try to document that and see how you guys are doing
right now as this incredibly busy day goes on.
So, thank you guys.
-Yeah, thanks for joining us. -Thank you.
-I'll leave that with the expert. -All right. Thank you.
-Thanks, pal. Appreciate it. -Thank you. Great work.
-See you Matty. -Gavin, you ready?
-Let's get to the next area. -Yup.
MATTY: Let's go see what else is going on
here on Oak Island.
-(beeping) -Ooh. -(chuckles) We like it.
Yeah, and that sounds like a coin.
-Ooh. What? -GARY: Ooh, I see
something round down there.
-Ooh, right there. -That's it.
JON L.: Let's go to the next hole. Thank you, guys.
-Hey, Jon. Good to see you. -Johnny. -Hey, Matty.
What's up, buddy? Good, man. Good to see you again.
As my day of going deep inside the dig
with the fellowship continues,
I'm still on the newly-acquired Lot 5,
where the production crew is now documenting
Rick and Marty as they search for more clues
with metal detection expert Gary Drayton.
They're out with Gary,
and they've found some amazing stuff so far, and
it just motivated 'em to keep on going and going and going.
And this is the new lot so they both want to be here for it.
MATTY: Right.
It's funny because Rick and Marty are both with Gary,
and Jon will tell you, like, this...
Since this is their new property, it's kind of like
a little bit of a brotherly competition going on.
Do it here.
Rock, paper, scissors on three.
-Like, do it on three, or...? -Yeah, do it on three.
-(bleep) -(laughter)
-This is the new toy, and they want to play with it. -Got it.
-Yeah. -They actually just did a rock, paper, scissors
to see who can start first and who can...
-As-as-as the digger. -As the digger.
-Exactly. -I want to hear it, Gary, yeah.
MATTY: I love when their, like,
15-year-old selves come out on the island, which happens a lot.
-JON L.: Totally. -MATTY: It's fun.
JOE: And just before we got here,
Jon told me that they found an ox shoe.
-MATTY: Oh, no kidding? -JON L.: Yeah.
-That's great. -JON L.: Yeah, Matty, on this lot is where
-Rick and Gary found the Roman coin earlier this year. -Right.
So, like, once that happens, it's, like, game on.
-Game on! This is now... -Things are about to go crazy.
JOE: So, there you go, Matty. Here's our shot.
He's got the hand-held out so he must be on something.
-You can see. -Oh, great. Yeah.
He's close.
(beeping)
-It's deep, huh? -That's deep.
-Ooh, all that for a nail. -RICK: Yeah.
-And a modern one, at that. -Yeah. Yeah, it is.
I mean, there would've been a fence along here.
MATTY: So, I tell fans all the time.
They go, "How does Gary keep finding so many great things?"
It's all right. It's, uh, trash so won't play.
-Move on to the next. -But for everything you see
that we show on the show, that we celebrate
top-pocket finds, there's a million of those, right?
-I mean, he's got to get... -There's a mill...
-million modern nails, tin cans. -Right, right.
-And, you know, we spare the viewers... -Yeah.
...the displeasure of seeing this.
MATTY: Well, I'm glad... I'm glad we got to see that.
-So, you ready to go behind the dig on Lot Five? -JON L.: Yeah.
Did you just ask if I was ready to go metal-detecting
with my three favorite people? Let's go.
-Head your way over, Matty. -All right.
-Bring the luck of the Irish. -Bring the luck of the Irish.
-Oh, I will. Nice! -RICK: I thought it was a little
too much of a screamer.
GARY: Yup, that's the only problem.
Like, uh, natural, like tongue-shaped.
Hey, Matty. How you doing?
-How you doing, fellas? -Hey, Matty Blake!
They just asked me. They said,
"Do you want to crash the scene?"
I said, "Treasure hunting with three
of my favorite people on the planet? Ah, let's go."
Good. Well, maybe you're... Maybe change our luck.
-You can dig the next one. -Here you go.
All right.
In keeping with provincial protocols,
Gary detected and flagged hits in the area earlier today.
Now, with team archaeologist Laird Niven's blessing,
we get to find out what they are.
Let's see what it sounds like first before you dig it up.
Copy that.
Hopefully, it will be the next bobby-dazzler.
-(beeping) -Ooh. -(laughing): Oh.
-We like it! -Yeah. -Yeah.
-That's a screamer. Just there, mate. -All right.
-And that sounds like a coin. -Ooh.
-Luck of the Irish might still be... still be alive. -Yeah.
-Or a tin can. -(laughing) Come on, Gary. -(laughing)
RICK: No, this one sounded a little...
-GARY: Yeah, it did. Yes. -That one was screaming high.
-This one, not so much. -GARY: Yeah.
-All right, plug number one. -GARY: That's the beauty of it.
You don't know till you dig 'em up.
There you go.
Okay, mate. (laughing): Ooh.
-What? -I see something round down there.
-Seriously. -That's it. -Oh, right there.
GARY: Yup.
-(beeping) -Let's see.
-It fell right out. -Yup.
You know what I'm gonna say now. It's a coin!
-Yeah! -Yes, it is. -MARTY: Is it a coin?
Yeah, it's a coin, Marty. Let's see if you can see
-what's on there. -RICK: Modern?
What the hell's this, Rick? You and I dig up
-all this trash, and he finds this? -I'm...
-(laughs) -RICK: ...I'm good with it.
It's the luck of the Irish.
As long as something's found.
MARTY: Yeah, it might be a modern penny.
-Yup. -It does look penny color, doesn't it?
-MARTY: Mm-hmm. Yeah. -GARY: Yeah.
And penny size, unfortunately.
-Still, it's a lucky penny. -That's it!
-That's right. -Does make a change.
Do you see-see something? I-I almost can see Canada on there.
-See it? -MATTY: Gary, you see that right there?
-Give it to the expert. -Let's have a look. Yeah.
-Uh, it's a coin of some kind. -MATTY: Okay.
Yeah, you've got all that milling around the edge.
-Yeah, the edge. -That's a coin.
But now, I see it, it's a Canadian coin.
MATTY: Oh, you see it?
Yup, it's got the date on it, maple leaf.
-I see the maple leaf. -Yup. 1957. -Wow.
-MARTY: Been here a while. Let me see that. -GARY: Yup.
MATTY: So, recent history. If it said
-"1757," we'd be in business. -Oh, yeah.
I can see this really easy. That's clear as day.
MATTY: But at least we're trending in the right direction.
GARY: Yeah.
MATTY: I'm gonna let you guys get back to it, but I did hear
you guys found an ox shoe. Could I take a look at that?
GARY: Yeah. Of course. There you go.
Really, really great condition ox shoe, as well.
Oh, wow. Look at that. Yes.
-(beeping) -What is that?
MATTY: Over the past seasons, we've watched the team find
a number of ox shoes
that predate the discovery of the Money Pit.
Ox shoe.
MATTY: Even some that helped the team discover
a believed pre-1795 pathway
leading from the swamp toward the Money Pit.
So, given the great finds the team has already made
on Lot 5 this season, maybe this ox shoe will prove
to be another important clue.
I know you guys have been trying to kind of track
a possible path of where the ox might have gone.
Does this fit in that world?
This is brand... this is brand-new here.
We'll see. We got a lot more digging
to do to figure that out.
There was no record in the historical record
of anyone habitating here.
So, what was this hauling, is the question.
-Correct. -Yeah.
Are you gonna have that analyzed?
That's always the next step.
All these artifacts go back to the lab.
We use all that high-tech equipment and the experts,
the archaeologists,
and we get results within minutes. Yeah.
MARTY: Yeah, why don't you join us in the lab later,
and we'll see what the machines can tell us?
-MATTY: Oh, I would love to do that. -Okay.
All right, I'll let you guys get back to it.
I brought a little bit of the luck of the Irish,
-so now find a real coin. -Yeah. Not bad. Not bad, really.
MARTY: God, do I hope he's right.
-RICK: Yup. -GARY: I love that enthusiasm.
What do you think of your day going deep in the dig so far?
Well, you know, it's next level, Joe.
I'm literally doing everything I've been trained not to do.
That is, to jump into
live, active scenes as they're going on.
Yeah, well, we're about to do that again.
We're here on Lot 26, still on the western side of the island,
and it's become a really big-time spot of interest
for them because they're finding out new things about it.
-Hmm. -And just over there,
I can see Laird Niven and Jack Begley are taking
part of this wall apart. This rock wall
could be a game changer, just like the swamp,
just like all the ancient things
that they never would have thought
they would have found otherwise,
except for looking closer and-and deeper
into what this island might be hiding in plain sight.
MATTY: Lot 26 has certainly warranted a lot
of the fellowship's attention this year.
It all began when Rick Lagina asked Dr. Ian Spooner
to test the water, and organic materials,
inside a curiously-constructed stone well
right near the shoreline.
So, we got samples of the water from the well.
And, uh, it was one of our only
silver hits outside of the Money Pit.
And this is where it really, really got interesting.
The date I got on the twig at the bottom
was, uh, 1028 to 1172.
-(whistles) -Well done.
MATTY: After those bobby-dazzling test results,
the team, led by archaeologist Laird Niven,
excavated the ancient well, discovering
it was a much larger feature than they first realized.
Yeah, it's turning out to be a pretty interesting area, right?
MATTY: And although they are still in the process of finding
the source of the silver, Rick expanded
the Lot 26 investigation to a nearby stone wall.
A wall that, so far, was determined
to have been constructed sometime prior
to the Money Pit's discovery in 1795,
and may be of Scottish or English design.
So I got to say it really rocks to be able to take a closer look
at this incredible feature with members of the fellowship.
Right here is our supervising producer, Justin Zoras.
All right, Ben, bounce out to a two. Bounce out to a two, Ben.
-Thanks. Hey, how's it going, Matty? -Hey, Justin.
-It's great to see you. -How you doing, buddy? You, too, pal.
-Good seeing you again. Good, good, good. -Good to see you. How are you?
Just on Lot 26 right now.
Just doing a little bit of a wall excavation.
MATTY: This is cool to watch Laird do his thing.
This is the painstaking side of the Oak Island treasure hunt.
Right? Like, there's big scoops,
there's massive caissons,
and then you have this, an archeological site.
Laird Niven painstakingly,
-trial by trial, digging out the right way. -JUTIN: Absolutely.
Yeah. It's this kind of work
-that leads to really interesting finds. -Mm.
I'm pretty sure Jack packed an extra trowel for you.
Oh, fantastic.
-You want to get in there now? -Can I?
Absolutely. I think now's the perfect time.
-Get your hands dirty. -Ready, Gavin?
All right, guys. Matty's coming in. Matty's coming in.
-Hello, fellas. -Hey, Matty.
-How are you? -Good. How are you?
This is incredible.
-It's different, isn't it? -Yeah, so,
you have just basically bisected this wall here.
-You've cut right through the middle of it. -Exactly.
Have you learned anything, thus far?
We've learned a lot. It looks like they dug a trench.
and then they've lined them with these angled rocks.
-And then they would have filled them in with rubble. -Huh.
LAIRD: But our problem with the rubble is,
a lot of those pieces are angular.
It implies that they were working rock
for something, not the wall.
And using?
And then they're using the fill in the wall. Yeah.
JACK: I've been trying to convince Laird
that it's not a farming wall
and that it's something different.
-But... -I just don't think it looks
like any of the other walls on the island.
Yeah, usually, they'd dig a shallow trench,
and then, as they're plowing, they would kind of store,
uh, field stones that they plowed up.
And then when they had the time, they would come
and just throw the rocks in and make a wall that way.
Right. Any theories as to why
they would build something like this in that way?
To me, what it... turns it into is an engineered wall.
-Wow. -It seems... it seems structural,
-and here I'm hitting a rock, a flat rock here. -Huh.
-Parallel... You know, it's running parallel. -Wow.
So, it's engineered.
-We're not at the bottom yet. -Well, uh, do you need any help?
Yeah, if you want to move some rocks.
Let's do it.
So, pretty straightforward.
-Yeah. -Okay, so we're just going to go from the top.
Yup.
Jack, what are your thoughts on this wall?
I thought it was always a weird-looking wall and that
it really makes me wonder how much influence
-Samuel Ball had on this wall. -Right.
The discoveries of the ancient well
and the stone wall on Lot 26 have only deepened
the mystery of Samuel Ball.
Mr. Ball was a former American slave
who established a humble cabbage farm on Oak Island
in the 1780s after serving for the British
during the Revolutionary War.
But, mysteriously, he ended up incredibly wealthy,
owning nine lots on Oak Island, including Lot 26.
So, could the well,
which contains trace evidence of silver,
and this stone wall be important clues as to how
Mr. Ball found such great fortune on Oak Island?
Laird, you excavated, very carefully,
Samuel Ball's property right over here.
-Yeah. -At his foundation, his house.
Was there anything...
in the foundation or in the basement
or around the house or on the property
that might be anything like this,
or you think maybe it could have been him?
Any telltale signs that you can connect?
Well, there's the one piece down there that...
of the wall that looks like a foundation,
and it's very similar
-to the inside of his cellar. -Ah. Okay.
So that could be, you know, a possibility.
-It is a possibility. -Yeah.
Hey, Laird, I think I'm at that modeled layer.
-Oh, okay. -Like, I'm through the organics.
So, we're gonna have to kind of sit back and
-MATTY: Okay. -do some finer work, it looks like.
-Okay, so it's time to stop. -We'll stop this for now.
Finish moving and refine the work. Okay.
-Yeah. -Yeah. -Okay, well, you know what?
-That's a good chance for me to exit. -Okay.
And, uh, thank you for letting me do some hard work.
-Oh, no problem. -Thanks for the hand.
And actually, get in on this, uh, incredible find.
-And I'm gonna head off. -Okay.
There's a lot going on today on the island.
Um, and we're lucky enough to be able to just inset ourselves
into these moments, so, keep me informed
-Yup. -of anything that you learn about this.
And, uh, we can't wait to watch you guys continue
to find out the secrets of this wall.
It's gonna look a lot different when you get...
-come here next. -Awesome.
-Thanks, guys. Okay. -Be good, Matty. See you later.
JOE: So, you're getting an idea of how versatile everyone has
to be on a day-to-day basis as they go from, like, -Yeah.
field operation to field operation.
MATTY: My exciting day of going deep inside
the fellowship's dig continues
as Executive Producer Joe Lessard next leads me down
to the Interpretive Centre, where members are being filmed
as they analyze the ox shoe
that Rick, Marty and Gary Drayton found earlier on Lot 5.
-You know our field producer Craig Ferguson? -Hey, buddy.
-How you doing, Craig? -How you doing, Matty?
-Good to see you, buddy. -Nice to see you.
Ben's got Emma. Brandon's got the three.
So, of course, he's calling his cameras, but Matty just missed
the brothers making this find earlier with Gary,
but an ox shoe to be found on Lot 5.
What does Laird and Emma think out of the gate on this thing?
They're really interested in where it was found, and
-as you know, Matty, now we've got these great machines. -Yeah.
And Emma, like, used the CT scanner
to look through the encrustation on it.
And she can use the XRF to really figure out, um,
what it's made out of at an elemental level.
And as you've seen on some of the other finds
we've had this year, that can really
push the dates back further than anyone expected.
-Mm-hmm. -You know?
MATTY: As we've seen this season
on The Curse of Oak Island,
the fellowship has transformed the Interpretive Centre
into a state-of-the-art laboratory
where they can scientifically analyze their finds
the very day that they pull them out of the ground.
These include a computed tomography-- or CT scanner--
which emits non-destructive X-ray radiation
that can penetrate built-up corrosion on objects
to produce clear images of their finer details,
an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer-- or XRF--
which bombards metal artifacts with gamma rays
that identify the elements they are composed of,
and finally, an X-ray powder diffraction spectrometer--
or XRD.
This machine deconstructs samples of artifacts
to determine their mineral content.
It's a process that can help identify
not only where the object may have originated,
but also its age.
There's a lot of universities in Canada that would be jealous
-of the laboratory these guys have to work with. -Mm-hmm.
We have archaeologists
and treasure hunters working hand-in-hand.
-It's amazing. -Ben's got Laird.
Brandon's got the three.
I would love to burst into yet
another Curse of Oak Island scene.
It's perfect timing. They're about to put it in the scanner.
-Great. All right. -Go on in, man.
Yeah. Go see Laird again.
-Man, this is fun. -And Gary.
-Hello, team. -Hey, Matty. -Hey, Matty.
Hi, Emma. Hi. Laird. Hey, Gary.
-Hi. -How you doing?
So, you know, I was here earlier in the year.
You guys were talking about
this lab, this pride of Nova Scotia lab.
What are your general thoughts on how it's been working?
I think it's working really well.
I mean, last year, we did have a routine.
Gary would find something, and it goes in the CT scanner.
But now with the XRF and the XRD,
-we can take it to a whole new level. -GARY: Yeah.
I was just with you earlier today,
and you made that discovery right before I got there.
This ox shoe. Is that what we're testing now?
-Yeah. -Yeah, mate, and this is a beauty.
So, Emma, if you don't mind me shadowing you
and watching you do your thing, I'd love to.
-No problem. All right. -All right.
-Well, come-come with me. -Okay.
So, the door's already open. I already have a stage in there.
So I'm just gonna insert it.
-MATTY: You know this is an ox shoe. -Yeah.
So, what can you learn from this machine?
So, this right here can really clean an image
-of an artifact and allows you to, like, -MATTY: Yeah.
know beforehand what might be on it.
-Ah. -If it's really...
You know, if that's fragile, then you don't want
to destroy it through harsh cleaning.
Awesome. All right. Fire it up.
I don't think that's probably the right lab term--
-"Fire it up." -Yeah, it's close enough.
(laughs)
EMMA: So then I scan.
MATTY: This is so cool.
All right, so the scan's done, so we're just gonna go...
-Scanning now? -Yeah.
-So we're just going back to the island. -Okay. All right.
Why don't you let Matty try it?
-All right. -Whoa, whoa, whoa.
-Well, you can... you can play with it. -Are you sure?
-Yeah, yeah. -I don't want to break anything.
-So, this is the image that you just scanned. -Okay.
So, this right here. Play around
-with this little graph right here. -Okay.
-EMMA: Yeah. -Have to kind of clean it up.
EMMA: Ah.
Am I dragging, clicking and dragging? Yeah.
-EMMA: Oh, there you go. -Oh! -LAIRD: Yeah.
Oh, and try to click this green box.
-There you go. -MATTY: Oh! (laughing)
-EMMA: Yeah. -GARY: That's-that's lovely.
-I just did that. -You're a natural.
MATTY: Oh, this is so cool. Science is cool!
-Look at that. -That is lovely-jubbly, isn't it?
It sure is, mate.
What do we know, based on this image,
about this ox shoe so far?
The really neat thing that I'm seeing--
I don't know that we've saw it on other ox shoes--
is see the top nail hole?
-GARY: Yeah. -MATTY: It's, like, square.
LAIRD: It's, like, square, and it's recessed.
And then if Emma flips it, what we notice, physically, on that.
-Look at that mark there. -GARY: Like a groove.
-LAIRD: That groove. Yeah. -MATTY: Ah.
LAIRD: Yeah, it has, like, a double groove there.
MATTY: Wow. What could that be?
I thought, initially,
that the ox stepped on something heavy.
-Ah. -But that would have to be
-really heavy. -MATTY: Really heavy.
-Cause that's going through iron. -Yeah.
-Mm. -Like a big load of treasure, perhaps?
Yeah.
LAIRD: So, the other neat part is...
Look at that. You can see the striations going down it.
LAIRD: Yeah, you can see the fibers, the way it's...
GARY: Yeah, hand-forged.
-That's an oldie. -Amazing.
-It really is, it really is. -Yeah.
Okay, Laird, so, next step.
You've got this incredible image.
-You've virtually cleaned the artifact completely. -Mm-hmm.
Uh, what do you do from here?
Well, we go to our, uh, ox shoe expert-- Carmen Legge.
-Carmen Legge. -And then we're also
going to put it in the XRF, too.
-Sure. -And do the elemental analysis of the iron.
Great. Well, I'll tell you one thing that's not a mystery
in that this system is working.
And thank you so much for letting me do this.
I'm gonna head back up to the Money Pit
'cause it's getting late in the day,
and I want to find out what's going on up there,
maybe meet with the brothers if they're there.
So thank you, and, uh, continued success.
-Cheers, mate. -See you, Matty. -See you soon.
-MATTY: Happy hunting. -LAIRD: Thanks.
-MATTY: Hey, John. -JON L.: Matty Blake.
-How are you, buddy? -What's going on, dude?
Good to see you.
The sun is now beginning to hang low
in the sky over Oak Island,
but at the Money Pit,
Rick, Marty and members of the fellowship
and the tireless film crew are still looking for answers.
This time, in a new location
from where I left them earlier this morning.
-Day's winding down. -Day is winding down.
What's happening in the Money Pit now?
I see they're in the tent.
You're doing a scene? What's going on?
Yes, they are putting a camera down, uh, Borehole L-15.
-Great, great. -They found this cavern,
and now they're putting the camera down there to explore it.
-Awesome. -And see if there's treasure in there.
-Yeah. I'm in. -That's the bottom line.
-Let's go. -Yeah.
You know, and if it's not treasure,
-are there signs of human activity? -Right.
STEVE: You got something?
SCOTT: Something's coming in. Yeah, so let's...
See how weird that is?
Yeah. I can see that. There's the edge of something.
MATTY: Earlier this season,
we saw the team investigate this mysterious cavern
some 145 feet underground,
which Marty nicknamed "Aladdin's Cave."
So, wait. No. Stop.
That's pretty square.
Some sort of, like, pedestal sticking out.
RICK: Wow.
MATTY: Although they saw intriguing features
that might have been man-made workings,
nothing definitive was found.
MARTY: I don't see anything.
We're done here.
-Yeah, I have our four cameras there, -Yeah.
plus the camera that is right there.
MATTY: Oh, that's-that the feed of-of the hole.
-A void. -That is the feed of the hole
-so we can really follow along -Great.
-with what's happening. -Yeah. Wow.
So tonight, after they cleared up the water
with a product known as flocculent,
I'm lucky to be here as they take another look
to see if Aladdin's Cave
can grant their wish for the ultimate answers.
-Yeah. -Matty, you know what would be awesome
for you to do right now is crash their viewing party.
Yeah, I'm gonna look for a chest.
-Do it. -Thank you. Great way to end the day.
-Thanks, guys. -Yeah. Yeah, Cheers.
How's it looking? Is it... Did we, uh, disturb it?
-A little more focus. -No.
Here we go.
Unprecedented access to a moment of discovery
with the fellowship, who are literally looking down
in the Money Pit.
-Whoa, whoa, whoa. -Hey, fellas. -Hey, Matty Blake.
-Hey, how you doing, man? -How you doing, guys?
We're all right.
So, uh, what's going on?
You guys are actually looking in the Money Pit right now?
-We got the camera down in a void. -Uh-huh.
Directly underneath us, by the way.
-Really? -Yeah.
MATTY: Is this a void, Marty and Rick,
that you think
is natural or possibly man-made?
That's what we're trying to figure out.
MATTY: Oh, Yeah. Wow, that's clear.
MARTY: Yeah, but we're not seeing very far.
We know there's a roof out here.
-Okay. -And we can't see it.
Right now, we know we've seen this far
into a cave that's at least 26 feet long, 12 feet wide.
-Wow. Wow. Wow. -So we've seen this much of it.
Oh, I want to stay here
and see the final reveal, but, um, I'm gonna get
out of your way and-and let you guys work, but
I've been on lots of metal-detecting.
I've been up here in the Money Pit talking to you guys.
I've been all over the island.
Is this a typical day for you guys
or is this pretty rare
with that many things going on at once?
It's not an average day. It's every day.
-Yeah. -Every day.
-I think that's right. -PAUL: There's a lot of activity
going on all at once.
We can't be everywhere all the time.
But we're still in the "figuring out where to dig"
-sort of portion of this here. -MATTY: Yeah.
And so we're doing all this stuff at once,
and it's the exploration phase.
I much prefer the digging part, as you know. Yeah.
MATTY: Yeah, yeah, well, I'll let you get back to it.
Just one last thought if you-if you might, guys, um,
just your thoughts on the growth of the show
and how it's helped reach the world after ten years.
When we are lucky enough to interact with people
beyond Oak Island, what I always say to them is,
"It's not the searchers who have kept this mystery alive.
It's not us that have fostered the growth and the interest."
It's them.
We owe the viewing public a debt of gratitude
because it is because of their interest,
their passion, their commitment, their desire to know,
says to us there's worth here.
It's incredible.
Well, you guys let me literally come into things
as it was happening, not talk about it afterwards,
and not talk about it before, not tease it,
but to actually be present.
I can feel the excitement,
the possibility 'cause this could literally...
You could turn a corner with this camera and see a big vault.
-Possibly. -Yup.
All right, remember, if this is the void,
where the vault lies, we were here
when they first started exploring it.
Thanks, Matty.
MARTY: All right, so we got
to figure out what to do.
Well, there you go. Another day of searching
and filming is just about done.
And even though the Fellowship of the Dig's quest
for the ultimate answers continues,
I think it's safe to say
that the Fellowship of the Film Crew recovered
some great gold here today.
But how will it play out in an upcoming episode?
Keep watching to find out for yourself.
Have a great night, and as always, keep the faith.
CAPTIONING PROVIDED BY A+E NETWORKS