The Fantasy of Oak Island

I have said it before and I’ll say it again. The mystery of Oak Island has been solved. Through the efforts of the Lagina brothers, we understand more of the history of Oak Island. Everything is beginning to line up and they refuse to see it because The Curse of Oak Island is a popular program bringing in viewers and revenue for the History Channel (and yes, I know they dropped the channel from the History Channel, but if you just say history, it gets confusing).

The Lagina boys have explained the mystery lights that had been reported on Oak Island prior to the teenagers unintentionally creating the hoax of the Money Pit. The Laginas have found the remains of a naval installation on the island. They have found the

Oak Island

remnants of the military camp, coins and buttons that belonged to British soldiers and the facilities to repair ships of the Royal Navy.

It should be clear to those paying attention that the underground tunnels and pits they have found point not to a treasure but to the search for that treasure. They talk of a booby-trapped Money Pit with drains from Smith's Cove to the Money Pit that filled the pit with water to protect the treasure. But the divers who were able to get to the bottom of Bole Hole No. 10X, found that there was a current at the very bottom. That suggests an outlet to the sea. The pit filled, not because of a booby-trap, but because they had uncorked the straw.

Think of it this way. Put your thumb over plastic straw and then put that straw into the beverage of your choice. The liquid, whatever it is, will not enter the straw. Take your thumb off and the liquid fills the straw to the level of your beverage. Remember, some of those attempting to drain the Money Pit with pumps reported that the level of water in the pit rose and fell with the tide. That should have been a real clue for them.

Once again, I could go on but what’s the point. I think we all realize what we have here. A myth created by teenagers who had visions of pirate treasure in their eyes when the found an area that seemed to have been dug up. The pirate treasure story was grabbed by others who saw a way to make a quick buck, exploiting the idea of buried treasure to convince investors to hand over, dare I say it, treasure to get more treasure. You have to prime the pump.

The Lagina boys have done me a service. I had once wondered about Oak Island (and to prove it, I mention that I wrote a book in the mid-1990s about Lost Gold and Buried Treasure that contained a long section on Oak Island). I wanted to know what was hidden there and now, thanks of the Laginas, I know. Nothing… except for the naval and ship repair facilities that were on Oak Island in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Clearly these were abandoned when better facilities were built on the North American continent.

I may tune in periodically to see the next “cliffhanger” they find and to see what wild theory they’ll exploit but that’s just idle curiosity. We now know there is no curse and no treasure and only declining ratings as the rest of us realize the truth.