X-Zone Broadcast Network - James McQuiston and Oak Island

 

This week I moved from UFOs back to Oak Island. James McQuiston was the guest who has worked with the Laginas at Oak Island, been in their “War Room,” and has offered his insights into the source of the treasure. For those interested, you can listen to the interview here:

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/43032989

James McQuiston

McQuiston provided an earlier history of Nova Scotia and Oak Island, suggesting an occupation in the area going back to nearly 1600. He suggested that Scots had been induced to settle Nova Scotia and they had arrived with those who had a variety of technical skills to include blacksmiths and carpenters. Their job would be to construct, well, basically, a village or town.

According to McQuiston’s history, a couple of decades after they arrived, they were forced out of the area. They had brought with them, originally, a treasure to be used to finance building the settlements. When they were forced to leave, in April (1632, I believe he said) they decided to bury their treasure because travel on the North Atlantic was dangerous given the weather. I think Titanic proved that. You can learn more about all this here:

www.oakislandgold.com

One thing that had always bothered me was that I didn’t believe the pirates, hiding their booty on Oak Island, would have had the ability to build the Money Pit, as it has been described. But the retreating Scots would have had the people with the necessary training to do just that. So, we have moved from pirates to Scots, which is a much better solution.

Although I believe that Joy Steele had provided us with a solution that fits more of the facts, and much of what the Laginas brothers and their team have uncovered on Oak Island supports her theory, McQuiston does offer a tempting alternative. Some sort of British military facility seems to fit what the Laginas have found there. Joy Steele’s theory covers that. I do have to say, however, that extending the history of the island by a couple of hundred years does change the dynamic to a degree.

McQuiston also provides some insight into the behind-the-scenes workings on Oak Island. Although an NDA prohibited him diving too deep into what is going to happen and information about some of the finds, he did describe what he believes will be the end game here… and no, he didn’t rule out the finding of a treasure, but it seems that he’s more excited by the quest than the outcome.

Next up is Dr. Abraham (Avi) Loeb, to provide insight into his theory that an alien artifact passed through the Solar System over two years ago. If you have questions, post them to the comments section and I’ll get them answered during the show.

Oak Island - The End is Near

The end is near, I believe. There were clues in the last episode, though I confess I didn’t pay close attention. I really no longer care about all the debris they are finding on the surface because it will not lead to a treasure… though it will lead to a solution.

 

The analysis of the ox shoes found was interesting but only because their expert was able to provide such detailed information about them. We learned that there were shoes used in the winter for better traction and shoes used in the summer to protect the hooves from rocks and pebbles. It meant that the number of shoes they had found suggested a long-term occupation and the dates for the shoes put it in the range of 1650 to 1750. I’d bet it was closer to 1750.

 

The shoes and other material suggested it was the British military who had occupied the island at the time and I have to wonder if there are some records buried in some archives that would provide some documentation for this. We also have the discovery of the pine tar pit, of the infrastructure that suggests some sort of port or nautical repair facility, and the obvious use of the triangular swamp area that would have facilitated the repair of wooden sailing ships. 

All of this leads us to the point where there is no money pit, but there was an occupation of the island for the repair of ships. True, with the British military there, someone would have had the expertise to design and build the money pit. It moves it away from pirates burying their loot to a military operation to protect something of value but that just seems to be a reach too far. The alleged system of booby traps seemed to be too complex for the builders to defeat, even if they had built them. 

We know, based on the many dives and the work of the Lagina brothers that there is some sort of underground cave system that opens to the sea. So, rather than booby traps, we have a natural phenomenon that creates the illusion of booby traps. That, and a water table that is quite high seems to be the reason that those earlier diggers at the alleged money pit were unable to defeat the water. Everything they have found this season leads us to the solution that Joy Steele proposed a number of years ago. She talked about it at length on the radio version of A Different Perspective. Once again, you can listen to our discussion here:

 https://www.spreaker.com/episode/12059035 

The second clue, and I might be speculating wildly here, is what the announcer said last night. Seems to me, as he explains the situation, he used to say that the curse required the deaths of seven before the treasure would be found. I believe last night he said there had to be seven deaths before the mystery was solved. 

The difference? Have they admitted, subtlety, that there is no treasure but just a mystery to be solved? The mystery has shifted from a search for that nonexistent treasure, but to who had built those facilities back some fifty or more years before the boys found the “money pit.” That answer seems to be the British military and I believe they abandoned Oak Island when better port and repair facilities were built on the main land and some what south of Oak Island. 

But they didn’t leave any treasure buried there.

The Curse of Oak Island - Season 8: Same Old Same Old

 

Yes, I have been sucked into the new season of The Curse of Oak Island. But I saw nothing new in it other than the Lagina brothers had to quarantine for two weeks before they were allowed to roam free in Canada. During that time others on Oak Island continued to march in the same direction that we have watched for the last several years.

Oak Island

Yeah, the guys working with metal detectors managed to find more coins on the surface of the island. Yeah, they found an old ax head that had been lost centuries ago. Yeah, they put a butterfingers diver into one of the many bore holes they have dug over the years. He found one of the gold “things” that we’ve heard about, but then dropped it so that it is now buried in the sand and dirt some 200 feet down. They may never retrieve it.

They have found evidence, substantial evidence, that there was some sort of occupation on Oak Island centuries ago. They have found structures that success some sort of port or repair facility, most likely built by the English in decades past. The coins and other material lead to that conclusion. The latest find, which might be a Chinese coin just suggests that the British traveled the world and as they did so, picked up coins and souvenirs in exotic locations.

What struck me as interesting was the find of what they thought might have been the entrance to a tunnel system that could lead to that mythical money pit.

Joy Steele

Archaeological examination showed that it was some sort of tar pit which would have been used to repair ships adding to the idea that Oak Island had served as a repair facility until better ports were built to the south.

And this takes us back to Joy Steele. You might remember her. She suggested that she had solved the mystery of Oak Island because some of the evidence reminded her of the tar kilns found all over the east coast of North America. You can read my assessment of her theory here:

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2019/03/curse-of-oak-island-nearing-solution.html

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-mystery-of-oak-island-solved-by-joy.html

You can listen to the interview I conducted with her on the A Different Perspective radio show here:

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/12059035

The real point here is that everything found by all the digging, metal detecting and historical research is explained by the simple fact that the English had created a facility on the island and they used it for decades. And, if there was such a facility, then the idea of pirate treasure is, well, scuttled. How would pirates sneak onto the island to create the elaborate money pit? That doesn’t even consider that a pirate wouldn’t have had the technical expertise to create the money pit.

I will note, apropos of nothing at all, that an English garrison on the island would probably have had that expertise. Given that their occupation probably lasted decades, they would have had the time to build the money pit… No, I don’t think they did, I’m just saying that the Royal Navy could have done it. Can’t think of a good reason for it, but they could have done it.

Anyway, I expect more of the same this season. Exciting finds of old coins, maybe some more jewelry and other artifacts but we have to remember the island has been occupied for centuries. Nothing found led to a treason because, frankly, there is no treasure and never was. I wish there was. I wanted there to be a treasure but sometimes reality just slaps you in the face.

Curse of Oak Island - The True Solution

The other day, as I was cruising through the various news feeds, I saw a story that mentioned that the Lagina boys had solved the mystery of Oak Island. It was another story saying the same things that had been said before with no real information in it. Besides, we here have already found the true solution. Joy Steele, in her book told us exactly what had been happened on Oak Island. You can read that information here:

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2019/03/curse-of-oak-island-nearing-solution.html

and here:

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-mystery-of-oak-island-solved-by-joy.html

And, for good measure, I interviewed her on my radio show/podcast, so you can hear her talk about her theory here:

https://www.spreaker.com/user/xzoneradiotv/adp20170607ep44emjoysteele

For those who want the short version, Steele basically suggested that during the 18^th century, the British had built some sort of ship repair facility on Oak Island.

One of the Lagina boys.

There is nothing that the Laginas have found that would negate that theory. Everything they have uncovered in the last two years of the show support that idea. The remains of buildings and piers suggest just that sort of thing. The surface debris, the coins, the nails and everything else suggest that. It also suggests a long occupation on the island by the British. Had it been used to hide a treasure, that occupation would have been of much shorter duration.

Sure, you can say that the pirates, the Knights Templar, or whoever hide the treasure came back to claim it only to find the British on the island in such numbers that they had to give up on retrieving the treasure. But then, I would say that nothing found there by all those treasure hunters suggests a treasure was ever buried there.

And remember, there were stories of “strange” lights on the island in the years prior to the boys beginning their quest for treasure in 1795. But by that time, with better and more “modern” repair and port facilities up and down the coast, Oak Island became irrelevant. It was clearly abandoned before 1795.

Joy Steele

I believe that deep down the Laginas and many of those in the production company know this absolute truth. Their job isn’t really finding a treasure but in making a TV show, which is quite popular, and you say is a source of treasure. If the ratings begin to slip, then I suspect they will begin to shift the emphasis from a search for the treasure to creating a historical context for what has been found on the island. That might be more interesting but I do wonder if the revenue from the TV show covers all the expenses of the search.

I just tune in now and again to see what they are doing, but see nothing to suggest that there is a treasure. There is much evidence that the search for a treasure that has lasted for centuries without much in the way of results. Most of what they find deep underground can be explained by all those searches and not someone trying to hide a treasure more than a hundred feet underground. If you think about it, this doesn’t make much sense. Modern technology is having a tough time… just think about how hard it would have been more than two centuries ago with picks and shovels.

All this makes me rather sad. I had hoped there was a treasure and that they would find it. As I have said, I’ve been interested in Oak Island for more years than I care to admit. But, on the bright side, we do have answer and that can’t be all bad.

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.

Curse of Oak Island - Nearing the Solution? (March 2019)

I believe the mystery of Oak Island has been solved. The Laginas boys have provided many hints that have been overlooked and Joy Steele provided the history that brings it all together. The sad thing is that there is no treasure and there probably never was any treasure, regardless of what the breathless narrator tells us every week and season after season.

Let’s look at some of the evidence.

Several years ago, the Laginas boys wondered if the triangular swamp on the island was nature or manmade. They speculated that it might have been created by linking two small islands separated by a narrow, shallow channel. The evidence they have uncovered recently seems to suggest this is the case.

While “diving” in the swamp, which means using some scuba or other breathing apparatus, they searched the bottom of the swamp that was what, five feet, six feet from the surface. They found things that suggested ships had been there including pieces of planking and iron nails. At one point they wondered if a ship had been scuttled there for some reason. The point is that they were finding the sort of

Joy Steele, the woman who
solved the mystery.

debris that we’d associate with sailing ships.

Joy Steele, in her book, The Oak Island Mystery Solved, suggested that the British Navy had used the island as a repair base in the 18^th century. That accounts for the various bits of British material found there, the possibility of a British camp there, and all those coins and other metallic remnants found on the surface that can be traced back to the British. You can read Steele’s theory here:

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-mystery-of-oak-island-solved-by-joy.html

And, for good measure, you can listen to my interview with her here:

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/12059035

But what has solidified this is what they have discover as they dig up Smith’s Cove. They have found the remains of a dock or a wharf and other structures that suggest that there was a landing place for ships. The more they dig around, the more they are finding that suggests that someone used the island for years but not as a “bank” burying a treasure at an unreasonable depth, but as a port to make necessary repairs to their sailing vessels.

Remember the legend of mysterious lights seen on the island before the boys allegedly dug up the treasure or rather attempted to. Could those have been camp fires, and if so, doesn’t that suggest something more than an overnight party? (Sorry, I got caught up in the narrator’s sentence structure.) I mean, those lights would tell us that someone was on the island for some reason. And given that the lights were reported for years, it suggests something of a semi-permanent camp, which in turn, explains the lights.

We need to also remember that most of the “finds” on the island have been near the surface. Everything that was supposedly hidden deep such as the body and

Dan Blankenship, the man responsible for
Bolehole 10X.

box at the bottom of Borehole Ten X have turned out to be optical illusions. They have found evidence of deep tunnels, and claimed to have touched a vault found during the 19^th century. They haven’t located that again. Nothing of real value has been found buried deep (bones, a bit of pottery and some fragments of paper) and all that surface material is not very valuable either. In other words, their excitement is somewhat overplayed.

Now, we are left with the latest exciting discovery. The red dye they tossed into one of their holes seems to have resurfaced at Smith’s Cove. I think with all the digging, all the tunnels, all the shafts that have been sunk over the last two hundred years, not to mention the high-water table and the underground flow of sea water, that it is surprising that the dye hasn’t surfaced in other places.

I have to say, I had hoped when we reached the end of the series (which can’t be all that far off), they would have found the treasure. It would have to be a big one based on the millions they have poured into the search. But I think they know the answer and that is there is no treasure except in the continued production of the TV show.

As long as the audience is huge, as long as we all tune in week after week, and as long as I keep promoting the show here (well, I’m not that much of a factor) they’re going to find a reason to keep digging. When all is said and done, we’ll all know there is no treasure and the real tragedy are those men who lost their lives for a dream that turned into a nightmare.

Curse of Oak Island - We've Seen All This Before

Yes, it has been a while since I mentioned The Curse of Oak Island. There is a good reason for that. Nothing new is really going on. We’ve seen everything before. We’ve seen them drilling down. We’ve seen them use cameras to search the bottom of their various boreholes. We’ve seen them find structures and coins and artifacts on the surface. And we’ve seen them consult with experts only to cherry pick the responses and make huge leaps in logic.

So, they’ve found structures at Smith’s Cove where they have dug up the beach after erecting a somewhat impressive coffer dam. It seems as if these structures could have been built a couple of hundred years ago and they could have been used for ship repair as Joy Steele suggested. There is nothing there to suggest a complex system to protect a treasure.

They found a concrete or cement structure and for some reason mention that the Romans had created a form of cement. I don’t why they would want to bring the Romans into this when we’ve spent years hearing about the Knights Templar and that iron cross they found last year. It would seem that they could test that cement for its composition and that could provide a clue as to when that particular structure was build. Oh, it’s all very interesting, but it is not getting us any closer to that nonexistent treasure.

We were teased with another coin that was found and for a time I thought that it was something they had pulled up from one of the many deep holes they have dug on the island. But no, it was something else found on the surface. All these things they have found on the surface suggest human habitation but not a treasure. They have found very little actual, expensive artifacts. Everything they have is the kind of thing you’d find using a metal detector in an area where humans have lived for a couple of hundred years.

The attempts to dig down, deeper into the island, are impressive, but what they are pulling up is not; like all that wood that had been used by all those others attempting to get to the treasure. All those tunnels and shafts and other structures that suggest the island has been occupied but nothing to prove there is a treasure. I sometimes wonder if the whole island isn’t propped up by those timbers and removing them will cause Oak Island to sink beneath the waves.

The point here is that each exciting find is on the surface. The point is that they are doing a wonderful job of digging down, reaching to the very bedrock of the island, answering questions from the past, but producing nothing to tell us the treasure is still there if it ever was. So much breathless excitement over a find that is no more impressive than me finding a quarter in the parking lot at Target.

Dan Blankenship

Take bore hole 10X. We were shown those pictures made in the 1970s by Dan Blankenship that seemed to indicate a body, a tool, and a possible box at the bottom. But when they got down there, they found… nothing. Shapes in the soil that seemed to look like a body and a rock that had a square shape. We hear nothing about this any more but I have to admit it was a mystery solved.

So, we see the same things. We jump to same big conclusions. We find more structures that were built by those who were looking for the treasure. And we have evidence that ship repair was at one time the reason for human occupation on the island. But we have no indications that there is any treasure still there which is the big disappointment. I was really hoping they would find some. I do think they have solved the mystery, however.

Curse of Oak Island - In the Year 2019

Yes, I know that I haven’t written much about the new season of Curse of Oak Island… probably because there isn’t much that is new. They are still chasing that iron cross they believe was created and then dropped by the Knights Templar. Sure, they have an analysis that suggests it was made from iron mined in the Middle Ages but that doesn’t mean that it was dropped on Oak Island at that time.

We have them using seismic detonations to determine what is hidden below the surface of the island. They found a void that seemed to be in the place that a deeply buried underground vault had been located by earlier researchers. Turned out that it was a place filled with sand as opposed to the harder ground around it. There was no vault there.

They’ve installed a coffer dam so that they can dig up a beach looking for proof of the booby trap system created to protect their nonexistent (yes, I said it) treasure. The beach may, in fact, be something of an artificial construct but I think it was to facilitate the repair of British ships in the 18^th century and not a clever way to protect a treasure.

Of course, we see that the metallic wall erected to protect the beach is now leaking… not badly, but leaking none-the-less. When the Laginas called the company that erected it, it seemed that their solution was some sort of silicon gel that the Laginas had to apply. I’m wondering why the company didn’t want to get it right the first time, especially when the problem was being broadcast to what is basically an international audience.

I could go on in this vein, but what’s the point. The problems might be new but the solutions are the same. They might be finding more “treasure” on the surface of the island, but it is more like the debris you would find in any area that had been inhabited for hundreds of years. Random losses and not some kind of hidden wealth.

As I have said, I have been interested in Oak Island for decades. I first learned about it in a book I bought in the 1960s. I have followed the expeditions and commentary on it in other books, in magazine articles and television documentaries. I applaud the Laginas for their attempts to find the treasure, but when you bring in a rock that has been squared and used in a leather tanning

Joy Steele... Oak Island Researcher.

process that smoothed it out, only to claim this is THE stone tablet found centuries ago, I lose my patience. Are we really to believe that this stone, that has no writing on it, once held the clue that treasure was hidden below?

I had hoped they would find treasure. I believe they have solved the mystery. The answer does not involve treasure but a very different history that has been exploited for profit for a couple of hundred years. I think Joy Steele is closer to the answer than a claim of pirate treasure. I don’t think the Knights Templar were involved. I think it was a repair facility created in the 18^th century. I’m sorry to say that because I really would have rather seen a huge treasure found, even if I don’t get any of it. That would be exciting. Instead we have Al Capone’s Vault (don’t get the reference? Google it.)

Curse of Oak Island - Season 6, Episode 1

So, yes, I watched the first episode of the new season of Curse of Oak Island and have to say that nothing seems to have changed. We’re still teased with what is being found, including a gold coin but we don’t know if it was found deep inside one of those holes they have dug, or if it was discovered on the surface as

Oak Island

practically everything else has been. In other words, without some sort of context, this means little and is just one more example of what we have seen season after season.

In the preview show that ran in the hour before the new season started, we saw the coffer dam that they will erect at some point. That is an impressive structure but I have to ask, how would pirates, or British sailors, or whoever, do that in the 16^th or 17^th century? If we are to believe that these long-gone people built some sort of drainage system that would flood the Money Pit, we have to wonder how they could have done it so long ago with their state-of-the-art shovels and pulley systems that would have been all they had. And, we’ve seen that the Laginas boys have scraped down, below what was the surface of the beach, and there was no evidence of that boobytrap or drainage system. In years past, we did see they found some sort of channel or stone lined ditch that didn’t seem to be the legendary boobytrap that we’ve heard so much about. It’s not really the same thing though.

Anyway, this episode didn’t give us much in the way of new data. They did test the lead “Knights Templar” cross they had found, on the surface, last year. The tests seemed to show that the lead didn’t originate on the North American continent, but we didn’t find out where the lead had been mined. But then, we do know that ships from Europe had landed on the island in centuries past, not to mention people living on the island so the cross really doesn’t tell us much of anything.

I didn’t really expect much from this first episode. They weren’t going to solve the mystery or find the treasure. In fact, I had heard or read somewhere that this season will be longer than those aired in the past. That means they’re going to drag this one out for a lot longer.

However, I have to say, that I don’t think they’re going to find the treasure. I have been interested in this since the 1960s when I first heard about it. I have read many of the books and articles about it, and for a time believed that there was a treasure hidden on the island. Since that time, I have watched each season of Curse of Oak Island and I think the Laginas accidently solved the mystery long ago. I think, once they got to the bottom of Bore Hole 10X, which Dan Blankenship had explored so long ago, and which held some interesting images, we had the answer. There was no chest down there. There was no body that seemed to be lying down there. Everything seen in those old videos or photographs turned out to be nothing more than optical illusions of the rough bottom.

They also have put a diver down, in a new hole they drilled, and he found that there was a current down there. It seemed that the area was connected with the ocean, and that the reason the Money Pit flooded was not really a boobytrap, but they had tapped into that underground water source. The flooding was the end result of tapping into the source of the water that filled the pit.

But we also have to ask, once again, who had the technical ability to build a structure of that nature. While the engineering capability might have existed in Europe or China in that time frame, it wouldn’t have existed on a pirate ship or a British man-of-war. They simply couldn’t have dug down more than 90 feet, created the elaborate drainage system that boobytrapped the Money Pit, and certainly wouldn’t have been able to block the boobytrap to get back at the treasure if and when the wanted to retrieve it.

Joy Steele

Joy Steele, I think, have provided the true story of Oak Island. I think her theory, that Oak Island have been some sort of way station, a place where British ships could go for repairs, is the correct one. Her theory explains everything that has been found to this point without inventing a treasure. Her theory is based on history rather than speculation. I have reported on this in other blog postings. You can read more about it here:

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-mystery-of-oak-island-solved-by-joy.html

When we get to the end of this season, which will probably be the last season, there will be no treasure found. Given all that we have seen in past seasons, and all the speculation that has not panned out, there really is nothing more to learn. I hate to say it, but I don’t think there was ever a treasure. I think the story evolved from a trio of boys who had heard tales of pirate gold, found something that they didn’t understand on the surface and wildly speculated on what they would soon dig up… They found nothing, family legends notwithstanding, but that didn’t mean that others didn’t buy into the story. We’ve had two centuries of digging, mythmaking, and speculation but we’ve had nothing in the way of real evidence. At the end of the season, I think that everyone will agree that even if there was a treasure at some point, it is no longer there.

Curse of Oak Island - Season 5

Yes, I have seen the promos for the new season of Curse of Oak Island and it is filled with the same sort of hyperbole that has been teased in past seasons. Yes, they show an old key that unlocks an old chest but, of course, we don’t see the contents. And, yes, we hear the Laginas boys say that they have found the money pit. I still believe that if something truly spectacular had been found, the informtion would have leaked and the suspense would have been killed at that point.

Let’s unpack this and see what we can deduce.

Take that chest… we don’t know if they found it buried on Oak Island, though I suspect if it was, that would have been mentioned. It seemed that it was too good, meaning that a wooden chest buried for two hundred plus years would have deteriorated, especially in the environment of Oak Island. Too much water permeating the soil. It is difficult to believe there would have been much more than a pile of rotting wood and whatever was contained in the chest, unless it was clothes and books and the like. If the contents were metallic, they probably would have survived with the rotten wood collapsed on them.

Take the coin they find… once again it’s on the surface and looked like a blank disk in the promo. We’re told it’s from the 1600s but that doesn’t prove much of anything since it was apparently on the surface. This just fits in with what we’ve seen in past seasons. Coins found on or near the surface that are very old and look as if they have been out in the environment for a long time.

Take the claim they found the money pit… which could very well be true. But. They could be referring to the first excavation dug in 1795 by the boys who began digging there. It doesn’t mean that there is treasure at the bottom of the money pit, only that they know where that first pit was dug so long ago and have identified that location to their satisfaction.

In other words, the tease is just that… a tease. When we get into Season Five, which begins November 7, we’ll see the same thing that we’ve seen in the past. Remember the sword they found… that turned out to be a relatively modern replica? Remember the single coin they found that they took to Florida for someone to identify as being of Spanish origin in the 17^th century? Remember the campsite from British soldiers that proved… what, British soldiers had once camped on the island? Remember Bole Hole 10X with its chest at the bottom guarded by the remains of a human? Remember how they showed that over and over until the diver proved that there was no chest or human remains?

I will predict that when we get to the end of the season, there will be no treasure, except for the 1.5 million that Nova Scotia provided for the production. There won’t be a big treasure hidden by pirates or Knights Templar or the French crown jewels or the manuscripts of Shakespeare. There will be just another hole dug deep into Oak Island that will yield nothing of real value.

And yes, I would love to see them recover a treasure but does anyone think that

Joy Steele

those in the 17^th century could have dug a pit 200 feet deep with a series of booby traps to protect their treasure? The engineering problems seem to be just too great for this to have been done. The water table on the island suggests that there are no real booby traps and that would mean that the pit couldn’t have been dug so deep.

This will be another season with great teases but no payoff. They might have reached the “end game,” but that end game won’t provide treasure. Joy Steele probably found the real answer to this, as mentioned in my interview with her about this on the X-Zone Broadcast Network (xzbn.net). The money pit is the remains of a ship’s stores operation and not any sort of treasure. You can read my original post about it here:

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-mystery-of-oak-island-solved-by-joy.html

and, of course, listen to the interview with Joy Steele here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIwY6yiuN1w

But, as I say, I’ll be watching the new season and will undoubtedly be disappointed in what I see. But then, isn’t reality television about unreal situations?

The Mystery of Oak Island Solved by Joy Steele

While the Laginas begin to power up for a new assault on the treasure hidden beneath Oak Island, a new theory about the Money Pit has been revealed. Joy Steele, in her book, The Oak Island Mystery Solved, has provided an interesting idea. According to her, there is no treasure, never had been, and the alleged Money Pit is nothing more than a tar kiln, used in the early 18^th century to produce material to repair ships. And, given what has been found on the island by the Laginas and some of those others, this does make some sense.

According to the history, back in the early eighteenth century, the British received their naval stores from Sweden which apparently included tar. But that supply was cut off and the British looked to their colonies in the new world to replace that source. They induced colonists in the Carolinas to create the tar kilns because of the dense pine forests (Can you say Tar Heels?). It would seem on my quick research that they built dozens of these kilns in the Carolinas, but it seems they also built them up and down the east coast of North America.

The question becomes, “Would they have built tar kilns on Oak Island?”

I have learned that pine trees are considered resinous trees, but oaks are not. They don’t produce resin when cut or “injured” which makes them good for furniture, cabinets and fire wood. Pines do produce the resin which can be rendered to tar which makes them bad for furniture and fire wood.

Would the British have established a camp on Oak Island and used it to produce tar? Well, oak trees aren’t any good for that, but there are pine trees in Nova Scotia. Would Oak Island have been a place where the British would build these kilns even if the pine trees were not in abundance on the island?

We know there was a British camp on the island. That was established by those guys the Laginas brought in and who, using metal detectors, found British coins and other debris that suggested a camp. So, there was a British presence on the island that predates the discovery of the Money Pit. And remember that the residents of Nova Scotia reported seeing lights on the island in the early eighteenth century.

I don’t know all that much about sailing ships of the eighteenth century, but it would seem that docking at an island for repairs might have been simpler than sailing all the way to the mainland (and yes, I know it’s not all that far, but the tides and depth of water might have made it somewhat problematic). That might also explain the artificial nature of that swamp that the Laginas are always attempting to drain, might explain some of the debris found in the swamp, and might explain why some believed that a ship had been scuttled in the area. It would might also explain the artificial beaches, the coconut fiber and the alleged coffer dam.

I also know that some of you might say, “Yes, but what about that stone with the strange carvings found 90 feet down in the Money Pit?”

I would say, “I believe that was created as an inducement for selling stock in another attempt to penetrate the Money Pit. They could say that they had found this plaque proving that there was a huge fortune just a few feet down. Buy stock in my company to recover it.” I would note that no treasure has been found a few feet below where it is the alleged stone was found.

There are those out there who will complain about this debunking of the Money Pit, but I have to say that you need to follow the evidence. The Laginas have provided some of that evidence from their searches. They have found coins on the surface, have pulled iron nails out of the swamp that suggest they had been using on sailing ships, and they have found evidence of lots of tunnels… but they have found absolutely nothing to suggests there is a treasure hidden anywhere on the island.

For those interested in seeing the other side of the coin, might I suggest you take a look at Joy Steele’s book, The Oak Island Mystery Solved, which can be found in many places including Amazon at:

https://www.amazon.com/Oak-Island-Mystery-Solved-ebook/dp/B00Y3BGVDM