Gunpowder booby trap in money pit

[Armchair detective]

Five items are needed for this, and 3 1/2 have been found. Flooring pole attached.with copper wire attached to a piece that goes between hammer and flashpan of pistol attached and aimed at gunpowder leg. The 90 foot stone is a warning to burier or friend that trap trigger is near.

 

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[3cylbill]

Well, at least it might bring an end to the monotony of the show. View attachment 2150267

Dizziness. Your breaking your universal...rule of conduct...

 

[DizzyDigger]

It was supposed to be funny..satire. My apologies..post deleted.

 

[Midden-marauder]

Oh man, if I was gonna hide a metallic treasure I'd situate it maybe about ten yards to either side of a high tension power line, the falsing would be so bad it would be damn nigh impossible to detect anything. Setting a booby trap is one way of doing things too I guess lol

 

[TruthbeTold]

Five items are needed for this, and 3 1/2 have been found. Flooring pole attached.with copper wire attached to a piece that goes between hammer and flashpan of pistol attached and aimed at gunpowder leg. The 90 foot stone is a warning to burier or friend that trap trigger is near.

Good story but the 90 foot stone was proven to be faked.

The 90 foot stone which some call the key to the greatest treasure in the history of mankind was dumped and used as a stone in a basement wall. The laginas "re-discovered" it on one of the episodes.

 

[n2mini]

The stone was supposedly used as a door stop, as a pounding block for a leather smith, used in a basement wall, they even looked for it under a bush on someone/some places property at one point.

 

[TruthbeTold]

The stone was supposedly used as a door stop, as a pounding block for a leather smith, used in a basement wall, they even looked for it under a bush on someone/some places property at one point.

Even more evidence it was a fake!

 

[Armchair detective]

Glad to see no one is disputing the actual construction of the boobytrap (except for being flooded of course).
The hangup seems to be the inclusion of the rock as a warning.
Apparently the rock has mutated over the years, got bigger, gained scratches and finally a cryptogram. This is sorta expected as a verbal history - people can't avoid embellishments. Unwind the history of the additions and you have just a big heavy unusual rock, all that's needed for a marker.
I'd like to get to the part in the theory where Samuel Ball helped bury the whatever in the winter of 1782, and became a cabbage farmer help hide the hole by pulling the stumps of the trees that were cut down for floors in the money pit.

 

[n2mini]

Might be some truth to S Ball finding some "treasure" as his history says he was "well" off. Not sure how well of course but for someone being a cabbage farming in that area unless he sold A LOT to ships coming by I wouldn't think there were enough people on mainland there in his time to able him to become well off from it. There are stories of him spending gold coins in town.. Plus bought another island near by from Vaughn one of the original three who discovered the MP. Supposedly for $5 but what if they was just for taxes purposes and it was really a lot more and that is how the money got shared. Plus Vaughn was also listed his Ball's estate manager when he past. What better way to keep the money hidden and out of tax system then to have someone he trusted and was possibly in co-hoots with for years to help the family he left behind with the money..

 

[TruthbeTold]

Glad to see no one is disputing the actual construction of the boobytrap (except for being flooded of course).
The hangup seems to be the inclusion of the rock as a warning.
Apparently the rock has mutated over the years, got bigger, gained scratches and finally a cryptogram. This is sorta expected as a verbal history - people can't avoid embellishments. Unwind the history of the additions and you have just a big heavy unusual rock, all that's needed for a marker.
I'd like to get to the part in the theory where Samuel Ball helped bury the whatever in the winter of 1782, and became a cabbage farmer help hide the hole by pulling the stumps of the trees that were cut down for floors in the money pit.

Please provide evidence of the trap you speak of.

The flood trap has been proven to be fiction.

 

[n2mini]

Hasn't really been proven to be fiction. Some seem to think the make shift tunnels were found in smiths cove with coconut fibers used to filter it...

 

[Peyton Manning]

Hard to believe anyone is still following any of it

 

[Armchair detective]

Please provide evidence of the trap you speak of.

The flood trap has been proven to be fiction.

Evidence will never reach a level of confirmation required to make something into an established fact, but I will try to make the case.
#1 The history of the Onslow company and later the Truro co. states flooring material every 10 feet of logs. Would you grant that a wire wound around such a log when pulled up could activate a trap?
#2 When the Truro co company augers penetrated into the assumed treasure room, they found amongst many things pieces of wire, so wire was present.
#3 The piece between the trigger and flashpan - there was an episode of OI where the blacksmith pronounced a piece of metal recovered from the MP as a part of a booby trap (used a French name I don't recall). It looked like a rectangular box with tapered spikes at each end. Wrap the other end of the wire around it, when you pull up the log, pulls the piece out of the gun and allows the hammer to fall firing the gun.
#4 The gun - not found yet.
#5 The gunpowder keg the gun was aimed at - again an OI episode, where they were pulling lots of wood out of the MP.
An archeologist who name I don't remember (but very enthusiastic about being on the show) made a pronouncement of seeing pieces of yellow painted keg. It makes sense to me that you should paint the dangerous stuff a bright color but I can't state for certain this was done in 1782 for ships, but reckon the possibility. Only 1/2 point for this.
Someone should go to a military historian and ask.
I'll supervise.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Five items are needed for this, and 3 1/2 have been found. Flooring pole attached.with copper wire attached to a piece that goes between hammer and flashpan of pistol attached and aimed at gunpowder leg. The 90 foot stone is a warning to burier or friend that trap trigger is near.

If you have ever used blackpowder you know that ANY priming charge buried below ground level has zero percent chance of working because of capillary action of groundwater and just being a stupid idea.

 

[Armchair detective]

If you have ever used blackpowder you know that ANY priming charge buried below ground level has zero percent chance of working because of capillary action of groundwater and just being a stupid idea.

Perhaps I misunderstand you. The powder charge was not buried in dirt.
Back to the Truro history - it was established that a room existed with a roof at 98 feet, floor at 104 feet making it 6ft tall.
Measurements from other places (guesses maybe) say the pit was 13 ft diameter.
I proposed that within this room probably sealed with blue clay was an air space, and the gun was in here, not in contact with any soil.
Hmmm. You do raise an interesting point.
How long can gunpowder stay strikable in open air? If you took a gun onto the surface and held the hammer back, how long would it take for the powder to absorb enough moisture so that it no longer worked? I know that northern latitudes humidities are usually drier.
Anyone?
Hey I thought of a way to test for a gunpowder trap.
Let me go look up some stuff.

 

[TruthbeTold]

More like Truro fiction.

Like many other individuals and companies, whenever they realized that there was nothing to be found in their digs, they would make up fabulous stories of rooms, chambers, flood tunnels, etc. This was especially true for companies that had lost money in mistakingly believing in the original tall tale.

Dunfield finally said enough and dug vast, deep holes and proved nothing ever existed on the island. No money pit, flood tunnels, etc. He then buried all the trash and wood debris from other’s excavations, the same debris that the laginas “find” on the show and claim to have “mysterious” origins.

 

[Armchair detective]

More like Truro fiction.

Like many other individuals and companies, whenever they realized that there was nothing to be found in their digs, they would make up fabulous stories of rooms, chambers, flood tunnels, etc. This was especially true for companies that had lost money in mistakingly believing in the original tall tale.

Dunfield finally said enough and dug vast, deep holes and proved nothing ever existed on the island. No money pit, flood tunnels, etc. He then buried all the trash and wood debris from other’s excavations, the same debris that the laginas “find” on the show and claim to have “mysterious” origins.

View attachment 2150773

 

[Armchair detective]

First thanks for the info. All data is good, but you left me some holes to weasel out of.
The story I remember of the Dunfield excavation is he dug 30 ft deep and 100 ft diameter. He was looking for side tunnels.
He stopped digging because water was coming in from the forest layer.
There is a black/white aerial photo showing this crater which does not have the conical shape of your drawing.
I tend to believe 30 ft is where he stopped digging because that's the tide line and the MP was tidal.
That which is labeled the MONEY PIT doesn't intersect the conic cross section between 98 and 106 ft, where the assumed gunpowder room was.
Still this is very interesting. I would like to know the source and pedigree of this information.
Meanwhile, the promised test for a gunpowder trap is more a test for gunpowder.
Here I read (quotes are more or less), "When black powder dissolves in liquid, it breaks down in two ways. The sulfer and the charcoal precipitate out, and the nitrates go into solution." Since the wood extraction exercise probably stirred everything up, a water sample is taken from the MP should be positive for nitrates.

One more thing. It has been pointed out to me how condescending, presumptuous, arrogant I seemed by posting the line "I'll supervise." It will surprise no one to learn that this is my first chat room EVER, and still must be potty trained on communicating nuances. I was going for humorous.

 

[n2mini]

Yes, Dunfield's "hole" was very wide at the top but as he got down to whatever depth he got to it was only "bucket width" wide. People want to say he dug a hole 100' wide and 100' deep and it may or may not been 100' deep but it was no where's' near that wide at the bottom.. There is a pic of him and Dan standing part way down in the hole for reference..

 

[n2mini]

For Reference