Oak Island Money Pit

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The Oak Island Money Pit is an excavation on a small Canadian island off the coast of Nova Scotia that has been the object of attention of treasure hunters since 1795. As the name suggests, their efforts to date have not produced anything of value. The pit has been repeatedly filled and re-excavated. Perhaps the most ridiculous aspect of its continuing history is that, unlike other treasure-hunting locations (such as Cocos Island), it had no accompanying legend about anyone actually hiding anything there - the motivation of the original diggers was "it looks like something was buried here, let's dig". Later, various authors were inspired by the excavations to put forward theories of their own.

The general consensus among skeptics is that the Money Pit is actually a natural sinkhole.

Contents

[edit] Popular interest

The Oak Island "Money Pit" would have remained an obscure treasure-hunter's curiosity, if not for a 1965 article in Reader's Digest that was condensed from the Rotary Club's monthly magazine.[1] The article was a sensationalistic piece, taking its cues only from the people who really believed there was something buried there and that someone had gone to a lot of trouble to keep it hidden.

With this Reader's Digest article, the Oak Island Money Pit surged into the national spotlight. It often appeared in anthologies of "unsolved mysteries" (cough) alongside the Abominable Snowman and the Loch Ness Monster. A 1979 episode of In Search Of... devoted to the "Money Pit" deepened public interest further. Oak Island got so popular with curiosity seekers that they had to beat the tourists off with a stick.

[edit] Why no treasure will ever be found

Oak Island is dotted with natural sinkholes; surface depressions surrounded by disturbed earth and sand. If one were to excavate one of these sinkholes, they'd find fallen trees preserved as log fragments as well as natural layers of clay and rock located at various depths. And they'd run into the island's many natural subsurface channels and caves, also located at various depths, that act as conduits for sea water from the bay.

However, if one were convinced a secret cache of fabulous treasure was buried there, any natural explanations would be ignored. The disturbed earth and sand on the surface would be seen as "evidence" that something was buried there. The log fragments would become "regularly spaced oak platforms." And unexpected flooding from natural subsurface channels and caves would become "booby traps" cleverly installed to thwart would-be treasure hunters. Throw in some rumors of mysterious stone plaques[2] and links of gold chain or gold coins,[3] and you've got a tantalizing hook that will continue to sucker believers into investing incredible amounts of time and money[4] for many years to come.

[edit] Enter the History Channel

Following the principle that "no 'mystery' is stale enough be unexploited", the History Channel has featured the Money Pit in a show called The Curse of Oak Island. Two brothers now own most of the land on Oak Island because one of them is obsessed with finding buried treasure there. After a summer's worth of digging and draining, they were shown to have recovered (A) some coconut fibers taken from the beach dating back to the middle ages, and (B) a 17th century Spanish copper coin taken from the swamp— proof that humans visited the island before the pit started being excavated, but nothing more.

Of course, that evidence was only presented after the show had slogged through the usual ridiculous claims, including pirate treasure, the Knights Templar burying the Ark of the Covenant, a curse that will claim 7 victims (6 have died so far trying to excavate the pit), maps of Oak Island hidden in the works of Shakespeare, and ghosts messing with metal detectors.

The show follows the typical "anything can be an anomaly" format pioneered by History Channel shows such as Ancient Aliens and UFO Hunters. In one episode, the brothers decide to explore an old excavation adjacent to the money pit that was dug and lined with metal by previous treasure hunters in an attempt to prevent flooding. They pump it full of water, theorizing that "artifacts" will be pumped out in the process. Sure enough, the bits of rusted metal that inevitably come up are promptly pronounced "anomalous". Later, one of the brothers goes on a boat ride around the island and comes back with the pithy observation that "It looks like a place that could have attracted pirates who buried treasure here."

[edit] External links

[edit] Footnotes

  1. Reader's Digest article scanned into PDF format here
  2. The legend is that a stone was found in the pit that bore the inscription "forty feet below, 2 million pounds lie buried". Supposedly the stone was conveniently lost, but there is no evidence this stone ever even existed.
  3. Again, supposedly lost. More likely never existed.
  4. In that sense, it really is a money pit.
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