A Beginners Guide To The Oak Island Money Pit Mystery

I have searched and found a few threads about this story, but I couldn't find anything as extensive, I wrote this for another forum and thought I would share.

I was personally bowled over when I first heard about this, so this thread is for the people that have never heard of Oak Island Money Pit.

Have you heard about the treasure pit of oak island? well if not let me tell you a little about it:

In 1795 a 16 year old boy who was walking on the island discovered a circular depression on the ground, with some help from his friends he decided to get a shovel and dig to see what had made this depression, they dug and dug and dug until they hit some flag stones, excited they cleared the stones and carried on digging, they dug down 10 feet where suddenly there shovels hit a layer of logs, they cleared the logs and in their excitement carried on digging, after another 10 feet they hit another layer of logs, they cleared those logs and carried on again until another 10 feet down they came to more logs. Knowing that this was as far as they could go they decided to give up.

8 Years later The Onslow Company specializing in excavations decided to take the reigns as word had spread that at the bottom of this pit was treasure



They continued to dig where the boys had left off and lo and behold every 10 feet they found a layer of logs and every 3 metres they started to find charcoal putty and coconut fibre at 40,50,60 feet (12,15,18m)

THE TABLET

After 80-90 feet the drill hit something solid, to their amazement a stone tablet with strange symbols etched in to it was lifted out of the ground.



Several researchers tried to decipher the symbols but failed until one day a man Reverend A.T. Kempton of Cambridge, Massachusetts claimed to have come up with the translation: (little is known and recorded about this man)

Forty Feet Below Two Million Pounds Are Buried

News spread like wildfire around the neighboring areas of the island and soon companies were queuing up wanting to take over from The Onslow Co. However, little did they know that a group of investors had got together and formed The Truro Company who were given licence to dig and in 1849 they continued to dig for buried treasure. At 30m the drill hit something sold which was later to be indentified as 'pieces of metal' the drill kept going and strangely they were to find more pieces of oak 7 feet below the metal and below the oak clay. They carried on digging until eventually giving up.

Up steps Oak Island Association, they continued where Truro Co stopped however, things were not to be so fruitful for them.

BOOBYTRAP



As they drilled hoping to find what was apparently buried at the bottom they inadvertently triggered the collapse of the bottom of the shaft which in turn flooded the entire pit, (later on it was discovered that the money pit had been boobytrapped.

The ingenious builders of this elaborate designed conundrum had built 5 separate filtering systems which filled the shaft with water if anyone was to get too close to what was buried at the bottom. Therefore,thwarting the attempts of the so called treasure hunters.

The Treasure Seekers

Gilbert Hedden and William Chappell were next to step up to the pit and discover what lurked underneath alas to no avail and in 1939 decided to give up.

Restall family and Robert Dunfield took the baton and decided once and for all if there was any treasure to be found then they would be the ones to find it unfortunately though their efforts failed as all four died when they were overcome by fumes from a shaft near the beach, some say another booby trap.

Next up was the Triton Alliance formed by Daniel C. Blankenship and David Tobias, they excavated 72m of the shaft and introduced a new piece of technology to the equation a camera they lowered it into the shaft and to their amazement they saw what looked like a chest, human remains and tools (although to this day not verified) The shaft subsequently collapsed and the digging project was abandoned.

Cross section of the pit of what was found



Some say that the pit is not man made I think personally who ever says this is not man made has either something to hide or that they don't fully understand the complexity of the design. Whatever it is that lies at the very bottom of this pit, it is clear that whoever built it did not want others to find it so easily.

There are so many different twists and turns in regards to this 'money pit' for a more of an extensive look to this mystery please see below:







To this day the treasure has not been found

Peace

en.wikipedia.org...
www.oakislandtreasure.co.uk...

I always thought it was strange Franklin D. Roosevelt's company searched oak island. It makes you wonder if something was found but just not talked about.

I believe back in the day John Wayne even funded an attempt to see what was down there, whoever set this thing up went to a whole lot of trouble to protect whatever it is that is in there. It seems the only way its going to be possible to get to the bottom is to block off the shafts that keep filling it with water, only then will they have a chance at discovering what is down there. It seems awfully deep to be something pirates constructed though, but there must be something down there.

i heard about this years ago, thanks for the post.. this is so interesting. How did someone dig so deep in the first place with no known excavation tools? i wonder why with technology better now they havent tried to figure out a way to get to the treasure now.

Ever since I was a child and read The Hand of Robin Squires I have been fascinated by this 'local' mystery.

Another oddity is that the island is unique in the area in that it is the only one where there are oak trees growing. This has lead to the belief that the island was clear cut and then deliberately planted with them at some time in the past.

...possiblly to 'mark' the island for later.

To those whom this is new to it is indeed an interesting place/story...to date no modern technology has been able to beat what was created 100's of years ago with simple tools.

It's a great mystery that refuses to to be solved.

ETA...

If I remember correctly, there is thought to be a tie in with Sir Francis Bacon as well; apparently he wrote about an island on this side of the world, covered by oaks, where a treasure was to be found long before the actual island/mystery was discovered.

Very cool thread.
I always wondered how anyone from that century contrived a genius design like the Pit.
It almost seems too perfect and too deep to be dug by just shovels.

My thoughts are either there was a team of men who built it, or it was a natural tide pool.
A really deep one that was layered with traps and clues.

One would think with the technology we have today,
GPR(ground penetrating radar), we could spot something.
But from what I've read, once they triggered the booby trap,
it will continually fill with water. Forever.

So who knows.





pS: I have a money pit too: My house.

Originally posted by kaoticf8
I believe back in the day John Wayne even funded an attempt to see what was down there, whoever set this thing up went to a whole lot of trouble to protect whatever it is that is in there

Yes, looking into it a little deeper, it looks to me as though this was designed and constructed by a secret society or some lost civilization there is so much more to this mystery than meets the eye.

. It seems the only way its going to be possible to get to the bottom is to block off the shafts that keep filling it with water, only then will they have a chance at discovering what is down there. It seems awfully deep to be something pirates constructed though, but there must be something down there.

You can view a video on Youtube that shows how they are going to tackle the water problem, alot of money is being invested right now to get to the bottom of this pit once and for all. Something tells me though we won;t by privy to its secret.

Definitely interesting, and something that I have never heard of before.
This is Nova Scotia?

One thing I am having trouble understanding is reasoning.
I can't really think of a good reason why someone would actually bury a large amount of something valuable, then engrave a stone saying it is there, but set up traps along the way.

Bury it, because you want it to stay hidden.
Engrave information on a stone, because after you are dead, maybe you wouldn't mind if someone found it.
Set up booby traps, because you don't want anyone to find it.

The 2 contradicting elements here, cause me to think that there is nothing at all down there. The purpose was to make people think there was, just so they would dig down farther and fall victim to the traps.

Originally posted by BrokenCircles


One thing I am having trouble understanding is reasoning.
I can't really think of a good reason why someone would actually bury a large amount of something valuable, then engrave a stone saying it is there, but set up traps along the way.

This is exactly the view I have been thinking.

What I find most most incredible is that the translation of the tablet, forty feet below, two million pounds lie buried it just seems too easy. too simple. I mean million pounds back then would be alot of money wouldn't it and would they have used the word? I just don't know.

I think its a bad idea to go digging for something that somebody has gone to great lengths to hide, there would be a very good reason why there is such a complex structure to deter people from ever finding what it is

reply to post by daveyboy1991


I'm thinking along the same lines... It definitely wasn't only money that was buried. Probably more like an old object of power. The idea of a treasure could be to make sure that if the object was found, it would be discarded as non-important compared to the "pounds" to be found...

Also, about the Oaks, they are trees with magical reputation since a long time ago... so...

Kind of an elaborate Fool's Errand. I bet the treasure is not down in that hole but elsewhere on the island in a simple hole. And how were the oaks planted? Are they laid out in a gridlike fashion, or is there a peculiar prominent cluster somewhere? Methinks the hole is the wrong place to be looking.

reply to post by CAPT PROTON


Wow! You might be right! Surely we can see it on Google Earth, to see what is, effectively, the pattern of the planted trees? Absolutely great idea!

I should add the idea of the treasure being elsewhere is also great!

I went to see it on Google Earth, and it looks like an elephant without legs... Could it be part of the symbolism used by whoever buried whatever?

Aside from the obvious roads, its easy to fall prey to pareidolia when looking at the trees...

reply to post by franspeakfree

A subject near and dear to my heart. It would be nice if we got a definitive thread on the subject, though there has been much discussion on ATS already.

My favourite theory on who built the money pit is the Knights Templar during the time of Jaques de Molay and the situation they were in then.

Tempting tales of a large stash of gold disappearing as the king of Spain went after the loot for a crusade.

Originally posted by JohnnyCanuck
reply to post by franspeakfree

 

A subject near and dear to my heart. It would be nice if we got a definitive thread on the subject, though there has been much discussion on ATS already.

Yes, I agree, it would be nice, in fact I had a hard time deciding which forum it best suited. I ended up putting it in this forum as I believe that it was designed by a lost civilization, the intriguing design of the booby trap shafts holds similarities of that of the great pyramids. Fascinating!

I dont think anyone dug the hole, in that area there are a lot of sink holes

i.e



I think they found the sink hole and used it, just a idea

Originally posted by rutters1983
I dont think anyone dug the hole, in that area there are a lot of sink holes

i.e



I think they found the sink hole and used it, just a idea

Its a valid idea, and one that I take on board, however, there are a few unanswered questions

1. How did they get down?[/B]

2. How did they get back up?

3. How did they fill in the hole, without people noticing a great big hole dug to fill it it

4. How did they construct the 5 booby trap shafts without being seen and bearing in mind they are underwater.

5. Why use coconut fibre not found in that particular area

All these questions and no tangible answers......

edit on 21-4-2011 by franspeakfree because: (no reason given)

And who's to say someone didn't find the treasure and decided to keep quiet to avoid thieves and paperwork?




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