Oak Island - Season Three

I suspect that we’re about halfway through the new season of The Curse of Oak Island and they have made some interesting progress. They have remotely explored the cavern at the bottom of the bore hole using a variety of technology that suggests there is a chest down there as well as some human remains. They’ve begun to clear out the bore hole so that they can send a diver down, though I’m

Oak Island in the late 19th century.

not sure that’s such a great idea. And they believe they have located the original site of the Money Pit. Some great progress, I would say.

But we are still being diverted by the nonsense. We have a couple of guys, who using some of their new technology, believe they have located other areas on the island that might hold some treasure. They did dig a pit where some iron was spotted by that technology near the surface and they did find a cable, which, of course, isn’t treasure but did suggest the technology might not be completely bogus.

A test hole dug to find gold failed, but they did find some blue clay in which gold is sometimes found. Of course that would be gold ore as opposed to gold coins, but it did suggest gold might be there. They didn’t find any though.

And they keep getting diverted by trivia. We were treated to an “expedition” to some boulders not all that far from Oak Island that had some interesting carvings on them. One was identified as a Portuguese Cross that might suggest a connection between that European country and Nova Scotia but certainly doesn’t get us any closer to what might be found at the bottom of the Money Pit. They thought the carvings were old but had no evidence of that other than their somewhat amateur examination.

Sure, I get that they have a lot of time to fill and while the results of the summer activity are known to those who were on the island last summer, getting right to that point would not allow them to fill another ten or twelve hours of programming. Why do in a two hour special what you can do over several weeks so that you can sell more advertising?

I was a little surprised by their attempts to pull one of those long pipes out of the bore hole. It was taking up space that would be needed for the diver when they finally get to that so they decided to pull it out. They had some success, but as they pulled it up and then cut off the first twenty feet of pipe, I wondered about the wisdom of what they were doing. I could see in my mind the chain slipping and the bottom of the pipe falling back into the hole. I though they should make a better effort to ensure that the pipe didn’t slip. They got the first twenty feet out, and when the cut the second section free, the other 140 feet of the pipe fell back into the hole, causing them additional work. They solved their problem. Now, before they cut away a section of pipe, they put a cross piece through it to ensure it couldn’t fall. With that, they were able to remove the whole thing. I just didn’t understand why they didn’t anticipate the problem and put in the cross pieces from the beginning.

I’m also thinking that they keep being diverted by things that don’t have much of a point. It delays what they are attempting to do, which is find out if there is anything of value at the bottom of the Money Pit. They drain the swamp (in seasons past), but find nothing of value for all the effort. It did fill a couple of hours of programming however.

They did toss dye into the bole hole to see if it connected to the ocean but that failed. I’m not sure of the mechanics of that but it simply didn’t work. Had I been there and someone suggested the experiment, I would have been on board, though I would think that if there is salt water in the pit, that would establish a connection to the ocean. I would think that the depth of the water in the pit, as it rose and fell with the tide, would have been another hint.

I wasn’t impressed with the discovery of old Spanish coins on the surface of the island (which they had to take to Florida to have a coin expert there examine… you have to wonder if there weren’t any coin dealers or experts in Canada that could have done that). Had they dug them up near the pit, that would have been something, but a coin found on the surface just smacked of someone tossing out these rather cheap, old Spanish coins to add a little drama… which is not to say that anyone associated with the program did it. Anyone who had been on the island for any reason could have done that. I know of people salting a couple of the Roswell crash sites with modern debris (such as fiber options) in the hopes of creating some excitement.

There have been some interesting revelations this season, but they keep dragging all this out. I guess the thought is that once they get to the bottom of the Money Pit or the bole hole, the show will be over. We’ll have the answers and there might not be much of a mystery left…

But wait, if there is a treasure down there, no matter what form it takes, it would seem to me that they would want to find out who put it there, how long ago they did it, and where did they originate. The coconut husks found lining the beach and the water traps suggest some elaborate engineering, and that would make an interesting follow-on series. But this continued dragging out of this with all the sideshows and nonsense trips is becoming annoying. If there is an answer, let’s get to it before this season ends. I don’t know about others, but my patience is wearing thin on this.