Why Does "Curse" Never Mention Dunfield Dig at Cave-In Pit?

[Zom]

The narrator? Filling in with inane commentary and suggesting unsupportable postulates.

Nah... we all know the narrator is an nauseating joke.

I was referring to the show's narrative that doesn't acknowledge that much of what the Laginas are acting on has been discredited... like the fact Dunfield pretty much proving there's no evidence of man made flood tunnels. The show's narrative is to not acknowledge anything that threatens the idea that there's always a bigger mystery, and the Laginas are always on the verge of some big, new, discovery.

 

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[civil_war22]

I hate to be the bear of bad news, but the only thing keeping this whole ordeal going is Rick Lagina. As a wanna be treasure hunter, he’s also a genius in engineering, wine, and apparently keeping a dead horse alive. The funny thing is since 1795 there has been not 6 CONFIRMED deaths on the island, but 14, it’s 15 if you count in Blankenship. The whole treasure tale that’s gone on for hundreds of years is the same tale we all hear when we go out detecting. My brother, and I were just discussing this the other day, as a farmer had told us that he remembers “their being cannonballs on the ground when they’d plow, and that they would pick them up, and put them to the side next to the rock pile”. We discussed between one another how many times have we been told the same type of story, sometimes in a different manner, but all sounding similar in nature.

Just as the “boy” who stumbled upon the disturbed ground at oak island with a rope, and box above it, then in other accounts he’s not a boy at all, and neither is the other “boys”. The fact that a boy let alone a man could dig 90 feet in the rock, sand, silt, more rock, and pieces of broken wood is a hoax. We all know how well a damp landscape holds up once you dig it( if you’ve ever done any kind of construction, or mining with heavy equipment or even a shovel) I’ve done both, and still do the excavator portion a lot of times due to family business. Due to the land showing a void could be a number of things: cave in from land settling, rotting natural material gives way, the natural water table under the ground eroding a certain area. I know darn good and well, that in order to dig down 80-90 foot in that kind of material you would have to dig a circumference of around 100-150’ wide just to be somewhat safe. Would I go down in a hole 90 feet down with walls 100-150’ apart, in that kind of material? No, the reason why is, if you’ve ever dug in gravel, sand, or lose fill, you know what happens when you open that hole to go deeper. The surrounding walls next to it begin to fill back on top of one another.

The fact that this was supposedly done almost 300 years ago, is more than a miracle it’s impossible. I dig in dirt, sand, gravel all the time, and one thing I’ve dealt with many, many times is you get to a certain depth, and one or two things happen first 1. The walls crumble, and go right back into the hole, 2. You hit the water table below, and then your hole starts filling with water.

Judging from their digs at oak island, one thing that always strikes me as funny, irritating, and downright false is the fact that someone would be able to dig a flood tunnel in those kinds of conditions. You would have to have a steel plated structure on both side of the ditch keeping the sides from caving in on top of you, and killing you, and the fact that they “sell” the flood tunnel theory so we’ll. It’s all right smack dab in the viewers, and the researchers faces. Look at the level in which they are digging at relative to the water surrounding the island. They are at most I’m going to say 150’ above the water level of the ocean they can see, but what you, them, I can’t see is the NATURAL water table below them, that you hit everytime you dig a deep enough hole. The items they’ve located mean nothing. That island has been dug, backfilled, dug again, and backfilled. the humans remains, some of which were probably washed ashore, or died looking for treasure were either buried, or rotted away to the point of all there was left was bone, in 200 years a body in that kind of soil, especially bones would have been literally crumbled by the rocks that filled on top of them upon burial, leaving bone fragments, whatever papers they had in their pockets, hell even some of the book binding, and other stuff they find could all very well be a part of human remains that were buried, dug up during a more recent excavation(1900’s-1960’s) then backfilled once they didn’t find anything. Then when Lagina, and crew got there, they sink a steel caisson in the ground and recover what’s been dug before, backfilled, and then natural deposits under the island. Anyone who know tidal landscape, and islands, knows that there are pockets under islands where water travels(cave, or similar water made tunnel) in which debris from the ocean, driftwood, bones, paper, anything can be deposited, and over the course of 200 years those areas of water could have shifted leaving an area, soaked with water, silt, mud, and rock, all of which make it appear as if they’ve dug up a body, artifacts that were purposely buried there 200 years ago.

As long as Rick is the producer, and he still has his multiple billion dollar businesses, and the money that the folks at History Channel give him, for making them a show, and gaining them viewers, it’ll still be here until A. One of the dies,B. Canadian govt shuts them down, finally saying enough is enough, C. The show begins to lose viewers, and then the History Channel has a harsh decision to make: do they lie, and say a hoard was found, or do they give in, and say we just have to give up because there’s just not enough realistic proof. The have circumstantial evidence, but definitive evidence of there being a treasure there is not a fact, it’s a tale, just like many other treasure tales, that gets bigger, and bigger as time goes on.

 

[n2mini]

Think about it. Over the course of 100's of years worth of searchers and digging if there was a flood tunnel it would have long been blocked off between the money pit and smith's cove. Dunfield would have not found it most likely even if it was ever there..It would not have water in it as that point.. The exact MP location had been lost long before Dunfield got there. Which is why he dug a wide BUT narrow hole to try to hit something...

 

[franklin]

I hate to be the bear of bad news, but the only thing keeping this whole ordeal going is Rick Lagina. As a wanna be treasure hunter, he’s also a genius in engineering, wine, and apparently keeping a dead horse alive. The funny thing is since 1795 there has been not 6 CONFIRMED deaths on the island, but 14, it’s 15 if you count in Blankenship. The whole treasure tale that’s gone on for hundreds of years is the same tale we all hear when we go out detecting. My brother, and I were just discussing this the other day, as a farmer had told us that he remembers “their being cannonballs on the ground when they’d plow, and that they would pick them up, and put them to the side next to the rock pile”. We discussed between one another how many times have we been told the same type of story, sometimes in a different manner, but all sounding similar in nature.

Just as the “boy” who stumbled upon the disturbed ground at oak island with a rope, and box above it, then in other accounts he’s not a boy at all, and neither is the other “boys”. The fact that a boy let alone a man could dig 90 feet in the rock, sand, silt, more rock, and pieces of broken wood is a hoax. We all know how well a damp landscape holds up once you dig it( if you’ve ever done any kind of construction, or mining with heavy equipment or even a shovel) I’ve done both, and still do the excavator portion a lot of times due to family business. Due to the land showing a void could be a number of things: cave in from land settling, rotting natural material gives way, the natural water table under the ground eroding a certain area. I know darn good and well, that in order to dig down 80-90 foot in that kind of material you would have to dig a circumference of around 100-150’ wide just to be somewhat safe. Would I go down in a hole 90 feet down with walls 100-150’ apart, in that kind of material? No, the reason why is, if you’ve ever dug in gravel, sand, or lose fill, you know what happens when you open that hole to go deeper. The surrounding walls next to it begin to fill back on top of one another.

The fact that this was supposedly done almost 300 years ago, is more than a miracle it’s impossible. I dig in dirt, sand, gravel all the time, and one thing I’ve dealt with many, many times is you get to a certain depth, and one or two things happen first 1. The walls crumble, and go right back into the hole, 2. You hit the water table below, and then your hole starts filling with water.

Judging from their digs at oak island, one thing that always strikes me as funny, irritating, and downright false is the fact that someone would be able to dig a flood tunnel in those kinds of conditions. You would have to have a steel plated structure on both side of the ditch keeping the sides from caving in on top of you, and killing you, and the fact that they “sell” the flood tunnel theory so we’ll. It’s all right smack dab in the viewers, and the researchers faces. Look at the level in which they are digging at relative to the water surrounding the island. They are at most I’m going to say 150’ above the water level of the ocean they can see, but what you, them, I can’t see is the NATURAL water table below them, that you hit everytime you dig a deep enough hole. The items they’ve located mean nothing. That island has been dug, backfilled, dug again, and backfilled. the humans remains, some of which were probably washed ashore, or died looking for treasure were either buried, or rotted away to the point of all there was left was bone, in 200 years a body in that kind of soil, especially bones would have been literally crumbled by the rocks that filled on top of them upon burial, leaving bone fragments, whatever papers they had in their pockets, hell even some of the book binding, and other stuff they find could all very well be a part of human remains that were buried, dug up during a more recent excavation(1900’s-1960’s) then backfilled once they didn’t find anything. Then when Lagina, and crew got there, they sink a steel caisson in the ground and recover what’s been dug before, backfilled, and then natural deposits under the island. Anyone who know tidal landscape, and islands, knows that there are pockets under islands where water travels(cave, or similar water made tunnel) in which debris from the ocean, driftwood, bones, paper, anything can be deposited, and over the course of 200 years those areas of water could have shifted leaving an area, soaked with water, silt, mud, and rock, all of which make it appear as if they’ve dug up a body, artifacts that were purposely buried there 200 years ago.

As long as Rick is the producer, and he still has his multiple billion dollar businesses, and the money that the folks at History Channel give him, for making them a show, and gaining them viewers, it’ll still be here until A. One of the dies,B. Canadian govt shuts them down, finally saying enough is enough, C. The show begins to lose viewers, and then the History Channel has a harsh decision to make: do they lie, and say a hoard was found, or do they give in, and say we just have to give up because there’s just not enough realistic proof. The have circumstantial evidence, but definitive evidence of there being a treasure there is not a fact, it’s a tale, just like many other treasure tales, that gets bigger, and bigger as time goes on.

Great post. I agree with everything said except the part about Rick having Billions of dollars in businesses. Marty has the businesses worth maybe $100 Million. Was worth $50 Million before COOI. Rick was worth $500,000 before COOI now worth probably $10 Million?

I do not believe there was ever any flood tunnels. As you said the glacial till does not allow the excavation of drain tunnels. Dumfield proved there were no drain fields. The water was coming through the piles of glacial stone and sand.

 

[civil_war22]

Apparently I read it wrong, it said Rick had a windmill company he sold for $58 million, and several other businesses including the winery. Either way they are both making a killing off old news

 

[Zom]

I know darn good and well, that in order to dig down 80-90 foot in that kind of material you would have to dig a circumference of around 100-150’ wide just to be somewhat safe. Would I go down in a hole 90 feet down with walls 100-150’ apart, in that kind of material?

The only one who dug wide open pits was Dunfield in the early 60s. He's the one who built the causeway to get heavy equipment out to the island. We see that in this pic https://www.oakislandmoneypit.com/images/photos/dig.jpg The big open pit in the middle of the picture is the so called Cave In Pit near Smith's Cove. The other searchers built reinforced shafts. This appears to be a Dunfield dig at the " Money Pit" where he's uncovered the walls of such an old searcher shaft... http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1785736&d=1577980602

 

[skybolt]

Apologies if this has been discussed in another thread. During this week's episode, the team was analyzing core samples from a depth of approximately 29 to 30 ft, and noted that the retrieved wood was from the original Shaft 2 constructed back in 1805. They also noted that this shaft is approximately 14 ft away from the original Money Pit. If this is the case, and unless Dunfield completely missed the original Money Pit area, you have to believe that the 100 ft diameter hole he dug up would've included this area, especially at 29 to 30 ft depths. I'm really confused.

 

[n2mini]

The tunnel was not at the depth that everyone "thinks" the treasure is. They were just trying to tunnel over to the money pit and I guess try to drain/divert the water in it to be able to continue down the original MP. Dunfield did not know exactly where the MP was and his hole while it might have been 100' wide at the top was no where near that at 50'-70' down...

 

[civil_war22]

Problem with everyone’s theories is that all or most of the areas being dug are being Re-dug. So any items that were out of the hole when originally dug was pushed back in and the brothers digging it now are likely getting what was previously dug areas. Again this is a treasure story, as it being a story, there are multiple different accounts of it, from different people, and sometimes none of the features match the others story, as well as the thought behind the whole story being a hoax. I mean it would have been a hell of a genius plan to make this story up, and then purchase tracts of land for someone else to buy for seasonal homes, in order to search for this “illusive treasure”. The island, and its many many occupants over the years have deposited things that even Gary found, and they tried playing it off as being way earlier than it could have been. Like the lead cross. If that lead cross was underwater most of its life which it likely was considering how close it was to the surf, why was it so white from being oxidized by oxygen being allowed to reach it. Look at many other items being found. Iron stakes, you know how many iron stakes or spikes I’ve found in places way way out in the middle of absolutely no where. Sometimes things are left or lost by someone who’s not a pirate or someone hiding a treasure. Why would they dig that deep, how would they have dug that deep back when it was supposedly buried considering ground water entering into every single shaft that has been drilled or any hole that’s been dug

 

[Zom]

Apologies if this has been discussed in another thread. During this week's episode, the team was analyzing core samples from a depth of approximately 29 to 30 ft, and noted that the retrieved wood was from the original Shaft 2 constructed back in 1805. They also noted that this shaft is approximately 14 ft away from the original Money Pit. If this is the case, and unless Dunfield completely missed the original Money Pit area, you have to believe that the 100 ft diameter hole he dug up would've included this area, especially at 29 to 30 ft depths. I'm really confused.

Some photos seems to suggest Dunfield dug more of a trench in the money pit area that a big hole. But this photo suggests that the "trench" was a dig on the south shore.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/bf/5c/b2/bf5cb2610b69122abb1445d142d43156.jpg

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Yep. That is the "South Shore Trench" that he dug just east of where the access road makes a right angle turn after running along the shoreline (I think). The larger hole(s) he dug were inland.

It's just above the excavator in this image. You can see the larger pits NW of that.

 

[Zom]

Yep. That is the "South Shore Trench" that he dug just east of where the access road makes a right angle turn after running along the shoreline (I think).

Curse mentions that Dunfield destroyed the stone arrow down by the south shore... but never mentions why... as far as I can remember. And while the show mentions that Blankenship found the U shaped structure and the slipway... it's clear in these aerial photos that Dunfield did as well. The only thing the Laginas have added were the dates of wood.

 

[Zom]

Yep. That is the "South Shore Trench" that he dug just east of where the access road makes a right angle turn after running along the shoreline (I think).

We see Dunfield's south shore work here... top right of photo. View attachment 1788728

 

[LouMiller]

Problem with everyone’s theories is that all or most of the areas being dug are being Re-dug. So any items that were out of the hole when originally dug was pushed back in and the brothers digging it now are likely getting what was previously dug areas. Again this is a treasure story, as it being a story, there are multiple different accounts of it, from different people, and sometimes none of the features match the others story, as well as the thought behind the whole story being a hoax. I mean it would have been a hell of a genius plan to make this story up, and then purchase tracts of land for someone else to buy for seasonal homes, in order to search for this “illusive treasure”. The island, and its many many occupants over the years have deposited things that even Gary found, and they tried playing it off as being way earlier than it could have been. Like the lead cross. If that lead cross was underwater most of its life which it likely was considering how close it was to the surf, why was it so white from being oxidized by oxygen being allowed to reach it. Look at many other items being found. Iron stakes, you know how many iron stakes or spikes I’ve found in places way way out in the middle of absolutely no where. Sometimes things are left or lost by someone who’s not a pirate or someone hiding a treasure. Why would they dig that deep, how would they have dug that deep back when it was supposedly buried considering ground water entering into every single shaft that has been drilled or any hole that’s been dug

Like the " ancient crossbow bolt ". It was one tine broken off a 17th or 18th century italian fishing spear , not what was determined by their specialists. Pics are readily available on the internet.

 

[civil_war22]

Like the " ancient crossbow bolt ". It was one tine broken off a 17th or 18th century italian fishing spear , not what was determined by their specialists. Pics are readily available on the internet. View attachment 1788788 View attachment 1788790

Funny I never watched that. I wish I would have seen that one

 

[LouMiller]

Funny I never watched that. I wish I would have seen that one

It was funny. A couple seasons ago Drayton was detecting down at the cove. He digs up this one tine and starts jumping up and down claiming that it was ancient or medeival and so they send it off to a " specialist " in California. This specialist claims that " going back from 1600 the only thing he could find was a crossbow bolt. Imagine finding a piece of a fishing spear at a beach...wow.

 

[sndtracks]

In answer to your original question, the reason Dunfield and the cave-in pit are not mentioned together in the same sentence is that he didn't do a lot of work there. The picture you have posted of the excavation of Smith's cove is the Triton excavation of 1970 overseen by Dan Blankenship. It is commonly attributed to Dunfield, but Dunfield arrived on the island in 1965, took over in August of that year, and left in early 1966 when his agreement with M.R. Chappell expired. Yes, Dunfield did dig at the cave in pit, and did bulldoze material into the cove in a last ditch attempt to cover any "flood tunnels" He briefly did some digging at the Cave-in pit, but not to the extent that he didat the south shore, for example. That photo in this thread is correct. The photo of the MP area showing its NW quadrant and the top of the 1937 Hedden shaft leaning a bit, and the top portion of the 1931 Chappell shaft collapsed in correct as well. Here is a photo of Smith's Cove from 1969 before the Blankenship excavation in your picture.

Dunfield certainly went to extremes in his excavations of Smith's Cove and the Money Pit, but it looks like he did a huge excavation of the Cave-In pit near Smith Cove... as we see in this picture https://www.oakislandmoneypit.com/images/photos/dig.jpg and also there's a dig at near where the Stone Arrow was on the south shore.

I don't recall much mention of ANY dig at the Cave-In pit on Curse Of Oak Island... but recently they do discuss blasting nearby to try and disrupt the alleged flood tunnels.

So what happened to Dunfield's documentation for these excavations.