A Beginners Guide To The Oak Island Money Pit Mystery

I've always found this subject fascinating. S&F for presentation.

Nice vids, above - I remember In Search Of.

I remember reading somewhere that the Ark of the covenant is supposed to be at the bottom.

How could people in the 1700s have dug this?
And the talk of booby traps, more than 100 feet down. Coconut fibers?

There is lots of mystery to this. Way more than can be satisfied by a ridiculously simple explanation like "Treasure buried by a pirate"...sorry, nobody goes to such lengths to bury treasure.

Originally posted by Mercurio
How could people in the 1700s have dug this?
And the talk of booby traps, more than 100 feet down. Coconut fibers?

There is lots of mystery to this. Way more than can be satisfied by a ridiculously simple explanation like "Treasure buried by a pirate"...sorry, nobody goes to such lengths to bury treasure.

its no feat of engineering its a hole with tunnels leading to the beach a single boat of men could easy do that. plus all the odd layers would be something a pirate could get on his travels

Thank you for posting this!!!

I had (surprisingly?!?!) never heard of this until recently when an ATS'er posted a thread about ten unsolved mysteries...
I appreciate the time you spent compiling this!
Peace and L

This is one of my favorite mysteries. It's truly amazing that we can tunnel through mountains, send spacecraft to other planets, but we can't get to the bottom of a pit on a small island. I've watched several documentaries about this but I can't remember if they ever said: Is there firm evidence that these flood tunnels are, in fact, man made or could they be natural? I wonder if someone could use ground-penetrating radar to locate the tunnels, dig into them from above and block them off.

Originally posted by CaDreamer
my thoughts are that the tablet was not correctly translated... here is a link to a guy that says he got something completely different from that tablet. mythandmystery.com...

This is an interesting aspect to this story. It does seem that this could be a likely possibility. As I stated in my first post yesterday, I had never heard of this before. I am sure some of you already know about this guy. I am just curious what others think of this idea.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/6d3bad6ff232.jpg[/atsimg]

The accepted translation of this stone tablet translated is this:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/c36ad5c1221d.gif[/atsimg]
mythandmystery.com...

Keith Ranville has come up with a differing translation from the generally accepted one.

Ranville says: "the forty symbols [on the flagstone] explain about an Island, that is two Islands east of Oak Island, called Birch Island. On the north end of birch Island, there is an impression of a triangle. It takes more than half of the Island.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/fd4f44fee96d.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/109874d406e0.jpg[/atsimg]

What these symbols are saying is that there is an inverted hidden triangle, that is aligned south/north. Flooding or entering the right angle of the triangle will invert the hidden triangle to up right? The rest of the symbols are instruction verse 3 ,4, 5. This is theory but exploration is needed to confirm these symbols

oakislandtreasurenewsarchives.blogspot.com...

Birch Island may also be an ancient burial site for those who were involved in the original treasure-hiding scheme. "This is a significant Nova Scotia heritage discovery....

"We should respect the civilization that is responsible for the makings of these structures.

"Oak Island and Birch Island need to be protected from further change to unlock their true history.

reply to post by Charizard


I heard that whoever owns the property has prohibited any further digging in the area.

Originally posted by lme7898354
reply to post by Charizard

 

I heard that whoever owns the property has prohibited any further digging in the area.

My understanding is that as part of the consortium, he allows no unauthorised digging. No surprise there, private property and all.

Great to see a thread collecting a lot of the basic info on the island, without all of the usual sensationalism. Anyone looking for a excellent book on the topic, give The Big Dig: The $10 Million Search for Oak Island's Legendary Treasure a try. Just ignore the author's strangely out of place rants defending dowsing, mediums and psychics. It otherwise is very level-headed and provides quite a bit of verifiable historical info.

who has made money so far ? whoever is selling the excavation rights

think about it

reminds me of a scooby doo plot

with modern digging they could easily get down there, but the people with the equipment know better

I mean why would you hide something of such great value where you can't get at it, but your enemy or a stranger might ?

doesn't make sense on any level, not for the grail, the templars treasure, gold, anything

Originally posted by Aceofclubs

Originally posted by Mercurio
How could people in the 1700s have dug this?
And the talk of booby traps, more than 100 feet down. Coconut fibers?

There is lots of mystery to this. Way more than can be satisfied by a ridiculously simple explanation like "Treasure buried by a pirate"...sorry, nobody goes to such lengths to bury treasure.

its no feat of engineering its a hole with tunnels leading to the beach a single boat of men could easy do that. plus all the odd layers would be something a pirate could get on his travels

Wrong. On so many levels.

'no feat of engineering'

'a single boat of men could easy do'

'something a pirate could get on his travels'


Really? that's what you've come away with, after all of this.

Please U2U me the number for 'your guy' - I'm running low.

It does seem however that the technology does exist to close off the incoming water and drain the pit. After all they were able by robotics to seal off the well in the gulf. It would be a matter of the property owner letting someone make the attempt. If it was mine I would let whoever wanted to try it go ahead and sign an agreement that I would get half of whatever is down there if anything.

reply to post by franspeakfree


This story is amazing, my dad got me hip to this years ago. One can only wonder what is that important down there to go through some much trouble and elaborate traps to stop others from getting it..EVER.

but here is a link to a sketch up 3d interactive model I did for another thread, here on ats.
sketchup.google.com...

reply to post by SquirrelNutz
its a 200 ft hole in the ground with channels its not even that old. look around the at building tech from the time we have been able to mine for thousands of years. its well thought out placement does not mean its an amazing build. the trick is its easy to build outward from the hole and allow the water to cover your work

so instead of just saying i'm wrong try putting forward how, where and why i'm wrong

sorry to piss on your fire but its not going to be anything of great importance

Originally posted by hangedman13
reply to post by franspeakfree

 

In a book on the subject I read years ago they mention that near the first hole a block and tackle was found. That would at least explain how the builders got up and down.

That is right, a block and tackle was found but not until after the first two digging companies had given up, it is suggested that the block and tackle could have been theirs. To this day there has been no confirmation either way.

If I recall correctly the kids thought pirates upon seeing it near the hole. I will have to try and find that book I may still have it somewhere.

Pirates, maybe? but how would pirates build the 5 booby trapped shafts without being seen? if i recall the area where the shafts flood the pit is deep under water, to this day this has been explained fully. If it was done before the water was there then the pit must be much older than previously thought.

Originally posted by Aceofclubs
its no feat of engineering its a hole with tunnels leading to the beach a single boat of men could easy do that. plus all the odd layers would be something a pirate could get on his travels

I have to disagree with you here, if we take a good look at the design we can see that the 5 shafts that carry the water to the pit were under 150 feet of water, when the excavators dug down and set the booby trap off which filled the pit with water up to 90ft we can start to work out that this was far more than a hole in the ground where a couple of pirates had hid their treasure chest.

If this pit had been dug and the shafts constructed before the sea level was lower by 200 - 300 feet then this must have been done over 16,000 years ago, Constructing this type of pit was simply not possible with the primitive tools they had back then. This is why there is so much to this 'no feat of engineering' hole than meets the eye.

reply to post by franspeakfree
i would bet a months wages it was built around the time the fisher men never came back after going to see what the explosion was. pirates would kill others who came to the island, the explosion would have been the opening of the last section of booby trap tunnels activateing the natural defence system. the pit was build in a very smart way and location

if it was 16,000 years old then it was built to wait 1000's years for the water to rise and activate the booby traps(crazy build) and what ever is in there is older than any other find of its kind. i'm sure if this was the case it would be handeled in a much more the professional manner

oh and the kidds that found it found a hoyst and rope above it 16000 year old rope is dust

good topic though and well presented

A few facts about this story that have alway bothered me.

First of all, the original story of the two friends who first found it. I want you to imagin two teenage boy digging a 40 foot deep hole while removing oak timbers. (How large were the timbers? How were they layed? Were any saved during the entire digging process and if so, were they dated?) Thats not an easy task by any means.

Then, Where is this stone tablet now? Why are there no recent photos of it or was it suspiciously lost?

And finally, if modern excavation practices can not sucessfully dig out this hole with out flooding it, then I highly doubt that a band of pirates armed with shovels and pick axes could build it without flooding it. Unless, as some suggested, it dates to a time when the seas were lower and these flood shafts were actually air shafts.

The easiest fix for this problem today is to drive 90' sheet piling along the coast to seal off the water flow, then as you excavate the pit, drive down steel shaft wall sections to prevent cave ins and provide a secondary guard against flooding. The company I work for could do it, but I can't convince them to spend the resources.

My guess however, it this pit is a trap and the real treasure is on Birch Island.

just wondering but were the coconut fibers and/or the oak plank 'barriers' ever carbon dated, or have they been lost through time?