The Curse of Oak Island - Season Seven

Yes, I know that a new season of The Curse of Oak Island is beginning, but I’m just not sure I have the patience or the stamina to participate in it. There are too many unanswered questions that no one on Oak Island wants to answer.

Oh, you want an example.

Oak Island

They mention that stone tablet found at the 90-foot level with a strange code on it, that has been deciphered as saying that below is more than two million pounds. No one seems to want to know why those who buried the mythical treasure would leave such an artifact. It serves no useful purpose for those who buried the treasure. They know what is down there. They put it there. They would have no reason to advertise the fact.

However, if I’m looking for investors in my company with a mission to find the treasure, then such an artifact would be valuable. It is hard evidence (pun intended) that the treasure exists. Of course, the stone has disappeared… or rather, it seems to have been traced to a book bindery operation that used the stone in part of the binding process. They have found what might be a couple of letters on that stone, but why, if it is valuable and related to the treasure, was it allowed to be ruined in that fashion?

And there is one clue that no one seems to notice. The alleged code refers to two million pounds… is that the weight of the treasure (unlikely) or a reference to the monetary system of the English. Doesn’t this rule out pirates and others who weren’t from England? Doesn’t that suggest something about the treasure that tells us that it wasn’t the Knights Templar (as opposed to the Night King)? Doesn’t that rule out the manuscripts of Shakespeare, or the Arc of the Covenant or some of the other speculations?

No one seems to question the story of the teenagers who started this whole thing with their attempted excavations back in 1795. Has anyone ever seen teenagers get obsessed with something? Can you imagine the teenagers sitting round, spotting what they think might be an indication that something had been buried and escalated that into pirate gold and buried treasure? Has no one ever wondered if they just didn’t make it up about the treasure as a way to spend an afternoon? Maybe there is treasure down there. Maybe it’s pirate treasure. We might be about to become rich… and then overwhelmed with their speculations and imagination they begin to dig.

Has no one worried that nearly everything they have found is on the surface of the island? It is no secret that people had been around it for more than 200 years. But the discoveries in Smith’s Cove seem to suggest something of a port facility or an

Joy Steele

emergency repair facility rather than anything to do with pirates. Joy Steele’s theory makes more sense each time they make another find in Smith’s Cove. The island wasn’t used to hide a treasure but as a repair facility for British ships.

Has no one wondered why the “discoveries” of the past haven’t been found again. I mean, there was talk of a buried vault found decades ago. Though they know the approximate location, they have not been able to find it with all the modern equipment and technology that they bring to the search. Could it be that the “evidence” of the vault was little more than finding the remains of attempts to get at the treasure some time earlier? I mean, they hit the beams and logs bracing those tunnels dug early in the search rather than some sort of a treasure vault.

Does no one remember the exciting finds that would suggest a treasure that have shown nothing of the sort? Dan Blankenship dug Borehole 10X and put a camera down it. The poor video seemed to suggest abandoned tools, a box of some sort and human remains. This was touted as evidence of the treasure in the early years of The Curse of Oak Island. But when a diver finally reached the bottom of the hole, he found nothing of the sort. The alleged artifacts were optical illusions recorded by the video camera rather than actual artifacts.

I could go on but there really is little point. We have been disappointed time and again by this hunt. Last week’s “astonishing” find is replaced by this week’s “astonishing” find. Do any of you remember the Roman sword found so long ago? Here was evidence that Europeans had arrived at Oak Island centuries before Columbus… but analysis showed it to be a modern replica.

Yes, I have been interested in Oak Island for half a century. I have mentioned this before. I have read the books and the magazine articles. In fact, in a book I wrote in the mid-1990s, I had a long chapter on Oak Island. I concluded the long discussion of Oak Island, writing:

It seems that we’ll have the answers in just a few years. When the story began in 1795 the technology to recover the treasure didn’t exist. The booby traps were big and clever enough to prevent the boys from finding anything. It could have been recovered fifty or hundred years ago if the work had been well planned and sufficient financing had been in place. Those problems are being resolved. Once they are, it seems that the Triton Alliance, or any of the treasure hunters that follow them, will finally solve the puzzle. The only downside will be if the treasure is so small that it doesn’t cover the expense of the search.

The Laginas have done everything they possible could to find the treasure. Their efforts have been extraordinary. What they have discovered, instead of a treasure, large or small, is that nothing of consequence is buried on Oak Island. It had been an exciting journey, but one that should have ended a couple of seasons ago.