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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
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
