Curse of Oak Island - Episode One, Season Five

Like many of you, I have been sucked into another season of The Curse of Oak Island, and I did, of course, watch the season opener. And, of course, was

Yes, it's the same picture that I have
used in the past.

disappointed in the way that we are teased about important discoveries that somehow never seem to be quite as important as the commercials and teasers suggest.

Yes, I thought that the “pirate’s chest” that had been mentioned would be something found on the island. There seemed to be a hint that this was going to prove that there was money in the Money Pit. But, no. What we learned was that James Anderson, who seemed to be a real pirate, though I wasn’t sure if he was only a privateer which isn’t quite the same thing, had lived on Oak Island in the middle of the 18^th century. Could he be the man responsible for the Money Pit?

Well, that is an interesting coincidence. A real live pirate on Oak Island. Could it be (as the narrator would say), that Anderson had bought his property on the island so that he might be able to watch over his treasure? And if so, would he have had the engineering background and the labor force to create something as elaborate as the Money Pit with all the booby traps and false leads?

The Laginas boys, or rather their relatives, travel some fifty miles from the island to visit with a direct descendant of Anderson. He had Anderson’s chest in a back room of his house. We get to see it, and hey, it looked like a real pirate chest, just as we see in all the movies. When it is opened, we don’t see treasure, but letters and records and other rather mundane items… which, I should point out, are literally a couple of hundred years old. It doesn’t tell us much about the Money Pit, but it gives us some clues about Anderson.

And, we’re back digging holes around the site of the original pit, wherever it might have been. They hit water (what a surprise?) but it floods one of the bore holes they had dug last year. Could it be that they hit one of the original booby traps that has caused so much trouble in the past? Or could it be that the water table of the island is so high that they tapped into one of the many natural channels that seem to run under the island? I don’t know, but my guess is that they didn’t hit anything man-made.

They also continue their assault with metal detectors and find an old Spanish coin that seemed to have been cut. This, we’re told, is something that was done back in the 17^th and 18^th century and is just one more proof that something, or someone, has been on the island for hundreds of years… but we already knew that. History has proven that. James Anderson was there before the boys began digging and starting the rumors of a treasure. History has shown a presence of British soldiers on the island before the boys got there. We all get it. People have been screwing around on the island for hundreds of years.

The thing that really bothers me here is that there are big promises about what they’re going to find, but so far, all those promises have turned out just as those before. Remember the sword they found that might have suggested a Roman presence near the island that turned out to be a modern replica? Or the constant showing of the video made in Bore Hole 10X that seemed to show a box, a tool and human remains that turned out to be images created by the poor quality of the video and an overly enthusiastic interpretation of the images.

But none of that proved, and none of these new finds prove, there is a treasure hidden there… and remember, descendants of those who dug the original hole that would become the Money Pit, told us that the boys had found three chests with treasure. Even will all that working against them, the Laginas are there with some really big machines digging up more of this island.

I had hoped we’d get an answer about the Money Pit when the series started and I think we already have it. There is no treasure there and the only money to be found is in the production of the show. I hate to be so pessimistic, but I think we’re in for another season of disappointment as they attempt to sink the island with dozens of new holes that penetrate into the water under the island… and yes, I’ll be there to watch it all.