History Channel - Oak Island mini series January 5, 2014

Leila

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Meteorologists who've studied weather and climate tell us that there's been periods of cooling and warming. In my lifetime, I've seen subtle weather changes as I'm sure most here have. If what is or was buried on Oak Island was buried sometime in the period of 1400 to 1700, the climate could have been vastly different than what we're seeing now. The sea level could have been lower, which allowed them to dig tunnels that are today below sea level.

A question about that tusk or whatever it was that was protruding on the shoreline in the first episode of the History Channel's presentation........where is that tusk in relation to the swamp? Also, it's my understanding that the swamp is fresh water as opposed to sea water.......is that correct? I noted the water lilies on the surface of the water and know they only grow in fresh water.

If that tusk is in the same area as the swamp, then draining the swamp may expose similar artifacts that will provide clues to solving this mystery.

I think it's obvious that something was or is buried on Oak Island. The few man-made objects that have been found at depths of between 100 and 200 feet, are proof of that.

I'm intrigued by Dan Blankenship's story. He seems positive that when he dove in 10X he saw what appeared to be a preserved corpse, a severed hand, and boxes/chests. In the History Channel presentation, it was stated that the corpse he saw was preserved in the cold Atlantic waters. Let's entertain that possibility for a moment. If this turns out to be accurate and there is a preserved human corpse at the bottom of 10X, the clothing alone could determine the time frame that individual died and DNA possibly the ethnic origin. The severed hand could belong to that corpse.

I think sending the cameras down inside 10X again is something that should be done to either confirm or refute Dan Blankenship's observations. Even better would be one of those robots that was used on the Titanic wreckage that had "hands" that could pick up items from the ocean floor. I imagine one of those robots would be expensive though.

Lastly.....just throwing this out there......is is possible that something was or is buried on the other end of Oak Island and the "money pit" was simply a ruse built to draw the curious to that location while the real treasure was safely hidden on the other side of the island?
 

ex nihilo

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Cheaper yet, send a camera with a light (like they did before, when they lost their video feed), and a claw-like grabber/unger or a magnet and pull something out of the depths. We can look at whatever gets grabbed once it's top-side.
 

Mkelly315

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At first I thought this show was awesome. After 3 episodes, I think that it's just one big mess that will have zero pay off. The first 15 minutes of the 45 minute show are just talking about what happened already in the prior episode. They should have a team digging around that hole 24/7. Why aren't they digging new holes? Hell, dig out the entire radius of the site. Why aren't they lowering camera after camera down the hole? They did that one time and gave up? Really?? If they know where these finger like tunnels are in the cove area, why not dig one out and follow it? Is there any kind of equipment available like a depth-finder/fish finder for land? Something that can detect abnormalities in the earth? If something like that exist, why not get a team to survey the island and swamp?

I think they should stop talking about ghosts and start digging more holes.
 

burlbark

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Mar 5, 2011
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Meteorologists who've studied weather and climate tell us that there's been periods of cooling and warming. In my lifetime, I've seen subtle weather changes as I'm sure most here have. If what is or was buried on Oak Island was buried sometime in the period of 1400 to 1700, the climate could have been vastly different than what we're seeing now. The sea level could have been lower, which allowed them to dig tunnels that are today below sea level.

A question about that tusk or whatever it was that was protruding on the shoreline in the first episode of the History Channel's presentation........where is that tusk in relation to the swamp? Also, it's my understanding that the swamp is fresh water as opposed to sea water.......is that correct? I noted the water lilies on the surface of the water and know they only grow in fresh water.

If that tusk is in the same area as the swamp, then draining the swamp may expose similar artifacts that will provide clues to solving this mystery.

I think it's obvious that something was or is buried on Oak Island. The few man-made objects that have been found at depths of between 100 and 200 feet, are proof of that.

I'm intrigued by Dan Blankenship's story. He seems positive that when he dove in 10X he saw what appeared to be a preserved corpse, a severed hand, and boxes/chests. In the History Channel presentation, it was stated that the corpse he saw was preserved in the cold Atlantic waters. Let's entertain that possibility for a moment. If this turns out to be accurate and there is a preserved human corpse at the bottom of 10X, the clothing alone could determine the time frame that individual died and DNA possibly the ethnic origin. The severed hand could belong to that corpse.

I think sending the cameras down inside 10X again is something that should be done to either confirm or refute Dan Blankenship's observations. Even better would be one of those robots that was used on the Titanic wreckage that had "hands" that could pick up items from the ocean floor. I imagine one of those robots would be expensive though.

Lastly.....just throwing this out there......is is possible that something was or is buried on the other end of Oak Island and the "money pit" was simply a ruse built to draw the curious to that location while the real treasure was safely hidden on the other side of the island?


Yes they must have dug the trap tunnels knowing full well that the oceans where going to rise in a couple hundred years.

Oh yeah and obviously someone had to dig the hole and put stuff down there, any debri found could have never gotten there from one of the thousands of workers that have clamored all around the bore holes and the open 100 foot pit.

While their looking for the bodies in the bore holes they could maybe send a robot down into the titanic and get a couple of the folks preserved there, its in the Atlantic ocean and all organic tissue lasts forever submerged in its magical waters.

And if they dont find anything in the sinkhole its because the treasure is located on the other end of the island....

As for the sea water being 100 feet lower 500 years ago..... I guess the city of venice which has been around for over a 1000 years with its canals would probably be proof enough that levels have not changed more than a couple feet at most. Less than the difference between low and high tide.

Do you realize how ridiculous this all is? There are so many other known and confirmed lost treasures still waiting to be located that this one is just a distraction for those that are still out there. Its a freaking sink hole and it has taken myself 20 years to finally get this through my skull.
 

burlbark

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Mar 5, 2011
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At first I thought this show was awesome. After 3 episodes, I think that it's just one big mess that will have zero pay off. The first 15 minutes of the 45 minute show are just talking about what happened already in the prior episode. They should have a team digging around that hole 24/7. Why aren't they digging new holes? Hell, dig out the entire radius of the site. Why aren't they lowering camera after camera down the hole? They did that one time and gave up? Really?? If they know where these finger like tunnels are in the cove area, why not dig one out and follow it? Is there any kind of equipment available like a depth-finder/fish finder for land? Something that can detect abnormalities in the earth? If something like that exist, why not get a team to survey the island and swamp?

I think they should stop talking about ghosts and start digging more holes.

They did dig out the site back in the 60's. There aint nothing there but dreams and sink holes. We all want a Goonies type ending but the truth is it aint going to happen. They have the cameras and numerous bore holes, but its easy to say they cut out all the boring footage of nothing found and focused on the camera cutting out one time.

Neahkahnie Mountain with its confirmed pirate ship and treasure legends are passed down historical fact and legend. I spent a week there doing research and talking to locals, the pirates where there and wrecked, or it was a Spanish ship loaded with riches heading back to Spain.

Why is there nothing on oak island that can be linked to treasure? Some carved rocks and some empty holes is all that has been found.

Coconut fiber in sea water ages 300-400 years quicker than fiber on land, its a fact that cant be denied. I am sure they wouldnt want anyone to figure that out. Did the scientist that did the testing know where it was recovered from? Was there a double blind test done on the dating? This is reality TV with big money involved.

This would put the fiber into post colonial times. The fibers need to soak before they can be made into rope or fabric, and they say that harbor has the looks of man made structure to it. This shouldnt be surprising in the least.

The whole underground area is cavernous and the surrounding mainland is full of similar sinkholes, I guess the show didnt bother to mention this? There have been numerous other supposed money pits found along with the "wood planking". It is natural occurring and the imagination gets the best of the many.
 

dieselram94

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They did dig out the site back in the 60's. There aint nothing there but dreams and sink holes. We all want a Goonies type ending but the truth is it aint going to happen. They have the cameras and numerous bore holes, but its easy to say they cut out all the boring footage of nothing found and focused on the camera cutting out one time.

Neahkahnie Mountain with its confirmed pirate ship and treasure legends are passed down historical fact and legend. I spent a week there doing research and talking to locals, the pirates where there and wrecked, or it was a Spanish ship loaded with riches heading back to Spain.

Why is there nothing on oak island that can be linked to treasure? Some carved rocks and some empty holes is all that has been found.

Coconut fiber in sea water ages 300-400 years quicker than fiber on land, its a fact that cant be denied. I am sure they wouldnt want anyone to figure that out. Did the scientist that did the testing know where it was recovered from? Was there a double blind test done on the dating? This is reality TV with big money involved.

This would put the fiber into post colonial times. The fibers need to soak before they can be made into rope or fabric, and they say that harbor has the looks of man made structure to it. This shouldnt be surprising in the least.

The whole underground area is cavernous and the surrounding mainland is full of similar sinkholes, I guess the show didnt bother to mention this? There have been numerous other supposed money pits found along with the "wood planking". It is natural occurring and the imagination gets the best of the many.

Maybe, but time will tell. What about the rocks with writing on them found in the pit?

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burlbark

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Maybe, but time will tell. What about the rocks with writing on them found in the pit?

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The alleged cipher stone? The stone that was translated to say "forty feet below two million pounds is buried"?

The most important piece of evidence of all, the same piece of evidence that was used as a stepping stone or a fireplace liner? The same stone that was tossed away as pure rubbish?

Do you honestly think that anyone would just throw that stone away? That if they thought it was real they wouldnt put it on a mantel or in a display case to argue their case of digging the pit.

Could you imagine the funding something like that would develop if they could prove it to be real or maybe real? I am going to have to start my own money pit and carve up some stones and get the ball rolling.
 

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Dave Rishar

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Burlbank demonstrated my main issue with the Oak Island legend: not that any single piece of the puzzle doesn't make sense, but that nearly every single piece of the puzzle doesn't make sense. McGinnis finding the block and tackle above the depression didn't make sense. Diggers finding regular markers at every ten feet didn't make sense. All of the "evidence" recovered (that hadn't been placed their by previous treasure hunters) seems to have disappeared, which makes no sense. Scientists were paid a good sum to have a look, made their report, and the report was then not made public - this doesn't make sense either if the report was favorable. (It makes perfect sense if it was not, though.)

Incredibly complex theories have been spun about something that has no hard evidence to justify its existance, and those theories don't make sense either. Some of them make absolutely no sense at all from start to finish, much like the Money Pit. The Vikings wouldn't have done this, the pirates couldn't have done this, and Sinlair couldn't have, wouldn't have, and had no reason to even consider doing this. What frustrates me the most is that fifteen or twenty minutes of Googling would make this very clear, yet it seems that otherwise rational and intelligent people either cannot or will not even consider the possibility that there is nothing there, in spite of the existing evidence. It has become a religion of sorts, I suppose.

It truly boggles my mind. I was hoping that it would at least make for good television programming but judging from some of the comments here, it might not have. I'll try to catch up on it one of these days.
 

doverturtle

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Back in the '70's it was global cooling, then when that didn't last, it became global warming, when that didn't turn out to be true, it became climate change. They'll say anything to further their political agenda and keep the gravy train on track. There's lots of money to be made as a "Chicken Little".

You guys don't have any understanding of basic science. No wonder kids in this country are so disadvantaged when compared to Europe.
 

11rowsof3

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Just watched the first two episodes last night on Comcast OnDemand (they are free to watch if you have Comcast). I am a skeptic of all things, don't believe is paranormal, ghosts, curses... or the Knight Templar treasure. However, I love shows like this becasue they are a great escape for the mind and fun to watch.

It was a very interesting show, like the brothers (these reality shows are always more about if you like the people than the content it seems). I have heard of Oak Island before of course, but how much of the "graphics" they are using are actually true? I mean, was there really a platform of neatly cut oak logs every 10'? I find that hard to believe - that would indicate that it was certainly man-made.

The 1260-1400 dated coconut hair WAS pretty amazing though, correct? Why would that be there? Thoughts?
 

dieselram94

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Just watched the first two episodes last night on Comcast OnDemand (they are free to watch if you have Comcast). I am a skeptic of all things, don't believe is paranormal, ghosts, curses... or the Knight Templar treasure. However, I love shows like this becasue they are a great escape for the mind and fun to watch.

It was a very interesting show, like the brothers (these reality shows are always more about if you like the people than the content it seems). I have heard of Oak Island before of course, but how much of the "graphics" they are using are actually true? I mean, was there really a platform of neatly cut oak logs every 10'? I find that hard to believe - that would indicate that it was certainly man-made.

The 1260-1400 dated coconut hair WAS pretty amazing though, correct? Why would that be there? Thoughts?

The coconut fiber was supposedly for a filtering media for the flood tunnels...

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11rowsof3

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The coconut fiber was supposedly for a filtering media for the flood tunnels...

Correct, I meant to say why ELSE would that be there? That's pretty amazing, so... do you guys really think there were flood tunnels then? Not a legend, true booby traps?
 

dieselram94

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Correct, I meant to say why ELSE would that be there? That's pretty amazing, so... do you guys really think there were flood tunnels then? Not a legend, true booby traps?

I tend to believe this part of the story. Saltwater seems to be a good preservative of things other than metal. I believe the fibers COULD be that old. The drains could also have been a tunnel network and not intended to be a booby trap as well.

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11rowsof3

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I tend to believe this part of the story. Saltwater seems to be a good preservative of things other than metal. I believe the fibers COULD be that old. The drains could also have been a tunnel network and not intended to be a booby trap as well.

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Isn't it amazing? Again, I am highly skeptical, but it is just mind-blowing that those Coconut Fibers were actually there and scientists (yes, I know, scientists for the show or the brothers) believe they were from 1260-1400. I also agree with many posting above that it's a money pit for real (as in money only goes IN) and that there is nothing really down there, but this mystery is very entertaining.

I read through and here's my issues so far:
1. There is absolutely NO proof that there were tidy little platform every 10' as the show constantly refers to on the illustration of the pit, correct?
2. Couldn't a natural spring just as easily finally filled and connected with the ocean and that's what floods the pits?
3. The rock is missing? Really? No rubs, no photos, it just vanished? The most important clue in the mystery?
 

burlbark

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Correct, I meant to say why ELSE would that be there? That's pretty amazing, so... do you guys really think there were flood tunnels then? Not a legend, true booby traps?

Nope...no flood tunnels other than the naturally occurring caverns of the region. Past treasure hunters dumped dye into the pit and it came out on the different side of the island and the supposed flood bay.

The mainland area has the same geological makeup with numerous sinkholes present. Geologist that examined the boreholes and excavations saw no signs of man made tunnels. But lets not say that on the show.

Lets just theorize that they are man made constructed tunnels. They would have had to dig these tunnels at a depth of nearly 100 feet below sea level in porous rock.

If it is dated according to the story, the years of 1300-1500 they had to use hand pumps to drain water and hand pumps to provide air. They also had to deal with high tide, cave ins, material removal and material delivery.

There would have to be a crew of people working around the clock for years to overcome these obstacles and the loss of life would have been huge. See there is not just one supposed flood tunnel but multiple levels of them if you want to get technical.

With modern equipment it wouldnt be to hard, I would just trench it and back fill. With enough people it could have been done this way also, but we find no strata changes indicating trenches where excavated and back filled.

If I spend enough time writing on this subject my brain starts to decay and lose its logic and I start to dream of treasure at the bottom of a 230 foot pit with "booty traps" that was supposedly dug by hand. I would have to disregard all the explorations and other facts. Someone please slap me.
 

Dave Rishar

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Assuming that the fibers were actually found and not introduced by treasure hunters at some point (and this is actually a fairly large assumption), there are a few problems with them.

1. We don't know who put them there, or even that anyone put them there; these things are known to wash up on beaches.
2. Carbon dating generally tells us only when plant material was harvested, it tells us nothing about what happened to it after that, unless it was contaminated. This brings us to...
3. The original carbon date is probably wrong by about 400 years. I'll leave it to the well-learned believers to explain why or why not this is the case. If there has been a more recent one done, I'm not aware of it.
4. Just how long does buried coir last, anyway? The manufacturers of coir mats for erosion control advertise them being good for 2-6 years or so. Buried fibers would not be exposed to the weather, but they would most certainly be exposed to seawater. Seawater is not a preservative as a former posted noted; very cold (and typically deep) water is a preservative due to the lack of microorganisms, but that's not the sort of water that we're talking about here. The sort of water that we're talking about here is the kind that's full of critters that feed on vegetable matter - such as coir.
 

HenryWaltonJonesJr

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We'll once you start questioning lab results and carbon dating you start losing me.

Being buried causes there to be a lack of O2. Coconut is naturally resistant to seawater. It is certainly possible to last that long underground. Grains have been found in 3000 year old Egyptian tombs.


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