The Claim
There’s hidden pirate treasure at the bottom of a pit on Oak Island, Nova Scotia.
The oak island money pit is one of the most well document treasure spots, with several excavations taking place over the years in and around an old mysterious shaft built in the 1700’s.
To date no notable treasure has been found on the island and especially not in the pit itself, so why do people think there’s treasure there? The answer lays within stories of hidden treasure and the odd placement and time of building of the shaft.
There have also been several strange things found within the pit, such as a mat made of coconut fibre and a large shaped stone with mysterious symbols on it. The strange thing about the coconut fibre is it seems to have aged correctly if picked during the 18th century, but there’s no coconut trees anywhere near Oak island, meaning it was probably taken from South America somewhere, sailed all the way up to Canada, made into a mat and placed sever meters down a pit on a small island for seemingly no reason.
So where do the stories of treasure come from?
Good question and the answer is the same as it always is with these kind of stories. There are word of mouth accounts of people mentioning treasure in the pit, such as a crew member of the infamous Captain Kidd who told settlers in the area of the treasure as he was dying.
Many other stories similar to this one have surfaced over the years, with such talk normally being dismissed as nothing more than “just another treasure tale” but this one has remained in the spotlight for so many years because there an actual pit in the area some of the stories said it was, and so far no one has reached the treasure.
So why has no one found it yet if there’s an obvious pit?
Well this isn’t any ordinary pit, and information of whats been found in it so far is nothing more than taking peoples word for it, as the earliest excavation was in the late 1700’s when the land owner, Daniel McGinnis discovered a small sunken spot on the island that seemed rather out of place, so he enlisted the help of 2 of his friends and started to dig.
Just 2 feet below the surface they found a layer of square cut stones, and ran into oak platforms every 10 feet. They reached a total depth of 30 feet and abandoned the project supposedly due to superstitious dread.
The next attempt was in 1861 when the The Oak Island Association began a project to find the treasure, however after suffering 6 deaths the company finally ran out of money in 1864 and abandoned their efforts. One of the deaths was due to a boiler exploding on their pump, but information on the others is sketchy. It has been suggested that the pit is connected to the sea through a small tunnel which will fill the shaft with seawater when one of the correct layer has been disturbed, though this is mostly a rumour.
In 1909 the Old Gold Salvage Group attempted another dig reaching a total depth of 113 feet and took numerous bore sample from in and around the pit, but nothing of significance was found, so again the project was abandoned.
Various other attempts have been made over the years but have been called off for various reasons and non finding anything notable.
The most surprising claim comes from a dig by Triton Alliance who in 1967 drilled a bore hole 235 feet down into oak island and lowered a camera down it. 2 of the founders of the project claimed that it went into a cave and captured images of human remains and wooden chests, but non of these pictures have been verified.
This project was called off as the shaft ended up collapsing. An attempt was later made to re drill it to the cave but ran into bedrock at a depth of 181 feet and had to be called off due to lack of funds.
There’s Pirate treasure in a pit on Oak island, Could that be true?
Who’s to say? normally these kind of stories are nothing more than myths, but the strange thing about this one is there’s and actual pit, and if all the things they say they found in it over the years are true it more than worth investigating further.
The main question is who would dig a shaft over 100 feet deep, layer every 10 feet with oak logs and place layers of clay above some of the platforms? and lets not forget about the tunnel dug to the sea to act as a flooding trap should the pit be disturbed.
It is well known that many pirates buried their treasure for several reason, mostly because they didn’t have the option of a bank and it was simply to risky to carry everything you own with you at all times. Pirates also buried treasure to act as their ransom payment in the event of capture, as anything on board their ship would be claimed during capture.
But why go through so much trouble to bury some treasure, with there being so many easier spots to put it where it wouldn’t be found, why make such a deep booby-trapped shaft with strange, seemingly meaningless platforms every 10 feet?
The answer could be that the amount of treasure down there would be beyond substantial, as it probably would have cost lives to make it in the first place it wouldn’t be worth making if you weren’t going to hide something special.
Currently the island is privately owned and attempts by independent treasure hunters to have a go at the Oak island money pit are always denied.
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