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- Lying in Mahone Bay in Nova Scotia, Oak Island is about
2 1/2 miles long and a mile wide and only 30 miles south of Halifax. In
1720, Oak Island, being too far offshore to be easily visited, was uninhabited
except for small game. Uninhabited and facing the open Atlantic, Oak Island
may have been a prime spot for those plying "the Sweet Trade"
to store their loot until the hangman were no longer looking to stretch
their necks. Perhaps it was pirates behind a strange event that took place
in 1720. A story told amoung the mainlanders is of strange lights burning
on Oak Island late one night. A few brave and curious men venture out in
their fishing boats to investigate. Sailing quietly, they managed to get
close enough to see the silhouette's of men against the backdrop of huge
bonfires. Two even braver men landed on the island to get a closer look
- they were never seen again. Finally, the strange men - pirates, perhaps
- left Oak Island and the terror subsided for a time, but the events of
that night were never forgotten.
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- In the fall of 1795, 3 boys from the nearby town of Chester
landed on Oak Island to do a little hunting. The boys - Dan McInnis, Anthony
Vaughn, and Jack Smith crept through the brush and came across a large
oak tree about 400 yards from shore. What was strange about the tree was
the large branch that had been sawed off and on the branch a spot worn
away on it's top side, as if it had been used as a hoist for some heavy
object. Directly beneath the branch was a slight depression in the ground
about 12 feet in diameter. The 3 boys searched around the area for more
clues but came up empty. With dusk approaching, the 3 returned home to
Chester.
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- Returning the next day with picks and shovels, they began
to dig - noticing the ground within the circle was softer than the surrounding
earth, they concluded that something was buried in the depression. At 10
feet, a wooden platform was found, confident that treasure lay beneath
the logs, they removed them and found - nothing. 10 more feet and they
struck another platform, and nothing but dirt underneath. Weeks past, and
every 10 feet the 3 boys find another wooden platform. Finally the task
became too much for 3 boys working with picks and shovels. They knew they
needed heavier equipment to dig any deeper.
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- Unfortunately, sponsors were hard to find. It took eight
years for the 3 boys, now men, to find investors willing to sink money
(so to speak) into the project. Finally, the Oak Island Treasure Company
was formed in 1803 and digging resumed. At forty, fifty and sixty feet,
platforms were hit and passed. Along with those platforms were found charcoal,
some kind of putty, and coconut fiber layers. At ninety feet, a flat stone
was found inscribed with strange markings. These markings were later translated
as "Forty feet below two million pounds are buried."
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- At 95 feet, the pit began to fill with water; by the
next day 60 feet of water now filled the pit. All attempts to bail the
water out failed, the pit filled as fast as it could be emptied. It turns
out that when the diggers reached 90 feet, they uncovered a waterway leading
to the cove over 500 feet away! This waterway kept the pit flooded. Finally,
with funds exhausted, the Oak Island Company folded and the money pit lay
semi-forgotten until 1849 when the Truro Company raised money to resume
the search. With the pit perpetually flooded, Truro resorted to drilling.
Auguring downward, the drill hit another wooden platform at 96 feet, and
another 12 inches beyond that. Then the bit hit loose metal, then casks
of some kind. Pulling the bit up, several links of a gold chain and other
bits and pieces were found. Drilling continued on and off for the next
100 years with no sign of the treasure, but plenty of mysterious materials:
blue putty acting as a watertight seal for a large 7 foot tall cement vault
at 150 feet, a scrap of parchment, a second flood tunnel linking another
cove to the pit, a layer of rocks and gravel - placed by humans - at 190
feet. At a separate drill site a layer of wood was found at 176 feet, underneath
the natural limestone of the Island! The last major discoveries were made
in 1976 when a borehole was dug 180 feet from the original money pit. At
the bottom of the borehole were found several manmade cavities - at a depth
of 230 feet!
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- Of all the strange stories of the sea, the Oak Island
mystery is one of the most bizarre. Whether treasure lies at the bottom
of the pit matters little to me. The real mystery is how this pit - that
defied all excavation attempts for 0ver 200 years - was built by a few
unknown men from 1720. The pit has never undergone any scientific investigation;
all information and 'artifacts' have been found by men with a financial
interest in the pit. Is the Oak Island money pit a fable, a hoax? All that
is really known is that 3 boys found something strange on Oak Island in
1795, and they began to dig.
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