Treasure hunt resumes on Oak Island

[kenb]

Treasure hunt resumes on Oak Island
New consortium is latest group to test centuries-old Nova Scotia legend

CanWest News Service


Thursday, November 29, 2007


So far the island has refused to yield its secret.

But in the next few weeks a team of five men will once again try to uncover the treasure believed to be buried on Nova Scotia's Oak Island.

The 43-hectare island in Mahone Bay is rumoured to hold everything from a wealth of Spanish gold and silver to the lost manuscripts of William Shakespeare, but years of searching have confounded any and all treasure-hunters - from Franklin Roosevelt to John Wayne. Up to 100 holes have been drilled in fruitless searches.

The most tenacious of the Oak Island treasure-hunters, Dan Blankenship, has now teamed up with four Americans, and they are prepared to initially sink $200,000 into drilling and research.

Now in his early 80s, Blankenship - a former Miami construction contractor - lives on the island that he has explored for more than 30 years.

Craig Tester, a partner in a Michigan-based oil and gas firm and one of the consortium members, said in a phone interview yesterday he believes the island holds gold and silver from the Inca or Mayan empires. Tester figures Spanish or British ships raided the fabled empires and buried it on the island.

He compared treasure hunting on Oak Island to prospecting - or wildcatting - for oil wells. "Being in the oil and gas industry, we're also used to drilling wildcat wells where you're hoping to find something significant, and you may find nothing and just walk away from it."

Tester said he didn't have a clue what the treasure, if any, might be worth. However, when Blankenship tried to sell the island for $7 million in 2004, he said the price tag should really be $50 million to take into account the legendary riches.

The five treasure-hunters, who met over a decade ago, last year bought out Blankenship's former partner, David Tobias.

Tobias, a Montreal businessman, helped put together a group that bought roughly 78 per cent of Oak Island and put up nearly $500,000 toward exploration.

In coming weeks the new consortium plans to focus some of their work on the so-called Borehole 10-X, a 235-foot-deep hole that Blankenship drilled in the early 1970s and which nearly took his life when the shaft collapsed beneath him.

The group hopes to carbon- date some of the material previously excavated in the area near Borehole 10-X.

The belief Oak Island harbours treasure began in 1795, when a teenager first discovered a man-made underground shaft, since infamously called the Money Pit. It is believed Captain William Kidd or other pirates stashed their treasure there

The shaft regularly floods with seawater and defeats searchers.

© The Gazette (Montreal) 2007

kenb

[lates]

Just thought you should know that several years ago I informed Mr. Nolan when he owned half of the island that the petroglyphs and other signs he found on his half of the island were all Spanish and I could prove it. Lou Layton

[Yarrum]

I've been wondering about this mystery for years. I really hope they find something conclusive.

[Demrok]

Bout time they started again
This off and on again digging has been going on far too long!

Time for some results =)

[Tricia]

Isn't there a riddle or curse or something that goes with this story? Something about when the 13th body floats to the surface from the depths of an underground chamber the island's secrets shall come forth?

It's what, 6 deaths so far?

Wait, I think that's the wrong story. Oh well.

Here's hoping no more lives are lost in search of something that probably isn't.

[Shpenny]

I absolutely love the fascination with Oak Island. Even if there isn't any treasure located there, it just makes such an interesting story to follow. I've read a few histories on the island and figure that if they ever do find treasure there, it probably won't be as exciting as all the speculations and curses and catastrophes that have happened over the years.

Jake