Original subtitles

We got two brooches and two red gemstones.

-Yes. -RICK: That's pretty amazing.

This is not your ordinary gem.

-It's super ancient. -Now we're cookin'.

These artifacts are pushing us back farther in time

-than I ever thought. -Here it comes.

RICK: For the first time in two and a quarter centuries,

we can look underground in the Money Pit.

We can give you guys some answers.

MARTY: What are the lighter spots?

I would say it's pure gold.

GARY: Holy shmoly.

We have found our first gold on Oak Island.

NARRATOR: There is an island in the North Atlantic

where people have been looking for an incredible treasure

for more than 200 years.

So far, they have found a stone slab

with strange symbols carved into it,

mysterious fragments of human bone,

and a lead cross, whose origin may stretch back

to the days of the Knights Templar.

To date, six men have died

trying to solve the mystery.

And, according to legend,

one more will have to die

before the treasure can be found.

♪ ♪

It is a moment of great excitement on Oak Island

as Rick Lagina and metal detection expert Gary Drayton

head to the home of veteran treasure hunter

Dan Blankenship...

-You have it? -Yeah.

...with what they believe to be

another exciting discovery.

-Hey, guys. -Look who's here.

NARRATOR: They are eager to show him and Rick's brother Marty

an object they recently found on Lot 21.

You guys have the look of, uh, somebody who's on a mission.

Yeah, we got a little top-pocket find.

-We do? -Yeah.

Gary was metal detecting, and he found something

he wants to show you.

I'm here. (chuckles)

Well, we found a nice piece...

of jewelry.

RICK: Wow.

It's a brooch, but it's a fancy brooch.

Definitely, a lot of work went into this.

Oh, my gosh!

It's another bobby-dazzler. Look!

NARRATOR: Just moments earlier,

while looking for possible metal artifacts on Lot 21,

Rick and Gary made an astonishing discovery.

GARY: It's a bloody brooch. Look at that.

NARRATOR: For the second time in less than one year,

they have located what appears to be

a genuine piece of antique jewelry.

Something that, once analyzed,

might validate numerous legends

about a vast treasure of gold and jewels

being buried on the island hundreds of years ago.

You can see where the pin was on the back.

-DAN: I see. -GARY: Yeah.

Aren't we looking for gold, silver, coins, and jewelry?

-Yes, we are. -Yeah.

GARY: And we're finding more jewelry.

MARTY: Yeah, it's pretty amazing.

-It's a second gemstone... -Yeah,

second one with a-a gemstone in it.

MARTY: Hmm.

Look at this, Rick. We've got it.

NARRATOR: Last year, while exploring

near the middle of the island on Lot 8,

Rick and Gary unearthed a jeweled brooch,

set with a similar red-colored stone.

-Look at that. -Oh, man.

NARRATOR: A stone that was later determined to be

a hand-cut Rhodolite Garnet,

possibly dating back as early as the 16th century.

RICK: That's gorgeous.

It's a brooch, another one.

And it's got a bright red jewel on it.

Could be valuable, spendable.

The jewel is much smaller than the find last year,

a little bit more intricate design on the setting.

This is much more well-preserved.

Is it a unique, interesting find? Absolutely.

MARTY: How old do you think that is?

It wouldn't surprise me if that's 1700s or even older.

Well, they've made jewelry for a long time, you know that.

-Exactly. -I have visions of, like,

pirates filling their pockets full of jewelry,

running across the island dropping this stuff.

NARRATOR: It has been well-documented that the waters

in and around Oak Island were frequented by a number

of Portuguese, Spanish and English pirates

dating back as early as the 16th century.

There was even one pirate-- Captain James Anderson--

who lived on the island after fleeing the United States

during the American Revolution.

Was the brooch found by Rick and Gary on Lot 21

dropped there by one of these visiting buccaneers?

Or could it be one of the jewels that,

according to legend,

was hidden on Oak Island by the maid

of Queen Marie Antoinette

while she was fleeing the bloody French Revolution?

RICK: It's quite an intricate design, though.

GARY: Yeah, a lot of work went into this.

In my opinion, what you really want is

to get a date on it.

Exactly, yeah. Exactly.

We've got two brooches and two gemstones.

Let's get this and the other one to an expert

and see if they're somehow related.

That would be interesting.

Which would mean there could be some more.

Well, get out there and find a whole chest full of that stuff.

I knew you was gonna say that.

Exactly. I'm consistent.

(laughter)

All right, let's get back to the field, then, Gary.

-MARTY: Time to search for more. -DAN: Good luck.

NARRATOR: Later that same day,

members of the Oak Island team continue to oversee progress

of an operation they hope will allow them to actually see

what lies hidden deep beneath the island's surface.

The process seems quite quick

when you have all those guys down there.

Yeah, so we go eight at a time here,

-so they're gonna get going in a couple seconds. -Okay.

NARRATOR: Working with representatives from Eagle Canada,

a geophysical exploration company specializing in

cutting-edge technology,

Rick, Marty and their partners have decided to use a process

called seismic scanning to survey the area

known as the Money Pit.

The place where, 223 years ago,

teenager Daniel McGinnis and two of his friends found

what they believed to be the entrance

to a mysterious underground treasure vault.

Using explosive charges,

each armed with approximately 20 grams of dynamite,

seismic scanning works by setting off

a series of relatively minor explosions into the ground,

and which, in turn, send sound waves

deep below the Earth's surface.

These waves are then measured by geophone receivers,

up to a depth of 300 feet.

The measurements are then processed in such a way

as to create a virtual three-dimensional map

of the area underground.

CHARLES: So how many have you done already?

We've done 225 so far this morning, so

we're averaging just over a hundred per hour.

-Okay. -So we got a good tempo right now.

We're excited. I mean, this is the first time

that anything like this has ever been done on Oak Island.

NARRATOR: Although larger seismic explosions

can map areas miles beneath the surface,

the testing being conducted on Oak Island has been calibrated

to create a map of an area some 150 to 200 feet below ground.

If successful, it is the team's hope that the map created

will reveal not only natural voids,

but ones that are man-made, such as secret tunnels,

and possibly the location of a legendary treasure vault.

If that data can be as good or better

as the 2-D, uh, line test,

we'll, uh... we'll be in business.

Well, I know I speak for all the guys that

we're really looking forward to the results here.

-Oh, yeah. -And as Dan always said,

you can't look underground. So you guys

are giving us that opportunity

-to look underground here. -Yeah.

NARRATOR: As the seismic testing continues at the Money Pit,

area archeologist Laird Niven makes his way

to the Oak Island visitors center,

where Rick and Marty Lagina

are eager to show him their latest discovery.

-Oh, here he is. -Hello! -Here's the man of the hour.

-Hey, Laird. -How are you guys?

-So, we've been busy. -Okay.

Lots 21 and 22 have been cleared off,

so I'm finally able to

-swing a detector in there. -Right.

And we got a nice little tone,

and this pops out first, doesn't it?

Wow.

It's a little pin.

Seen anything like it?

No?

No. We don't get a lot of jewelry.

-We don't tend to. -You don't?

-No. -We would really like to know.

If you've never seen one of those,

an example of that, that's very curious.

No.

It's perhaps significant that Laird says

that jewelry is not often found.

And he's here in Nova Scotia in his archaeological dig,

so that means there's something special about this.

We're finding things here that he doesn't normally find.

But it's pretty cool, isn't it?

-It is. -I mean, any idea?

It is a lighter metal, isn't it?

Yeah.

LAIRD: And they gilded the receptacle here.

NARRATOR: Gilded? As in gold?

Dating back over 5,000 years

to the time of the ancient Egyptians,

gilding is a technique by which thin layers of genuine gold,

sometimes called gold leaf,

are applied to an item, such as an ornate picture frame

or a piece of jewelry.

If the brooch discovered on Lot 21 is, in fact, gold,

it could be the first object of jewelry

containing this precious metal

that Rick and Marty have discovered

in their 12 years spent looking for treasure on Oak Island.

LAIRD: Very interesting.

-I would say, "Holy shmoly!" -(laughter)

Yeah, it's kind of off the charts for us, you know?

It's not... This is completely unexpected.

Yep. Would you recommend more testing?

Finding someone from a religious artifact background

-to look at it? -Well, yeah,

I don't think you can, you can overstudy it.

Okay. What else?

We need to follow up on the leads

regarding looking at both brooches.

-Yeah. -And I'll try and keep you even busier.

-Excellent. -Excellent.

Just, uh, just getting warmed up.

All right, Laird, it's gonna be a great summer.

-It's gonna be a great summer. -Yeah, I can't...

-You know, I'm looking forward to it. -See you later, man.

-Thanks for the help. -Thanks a lot.

-Cheers, mate. -Cheers.

NARRATOR: The next day,

after making their exciting discovery on Lot 21,

Rick Lagina and Gary Drayton welcome representatives

from Brycon Construction and Irving Equipment, Limited.

They have come to make the final preparations

for what promises to be the most ambitious

and technologically advanced operation ever attempted...

Mike, how you doing?

...in the 223 year-long history

of the Oak Island treasure hunt:

the installation of a 25-foot deep metal cofferdam

off the coast of Smith's Cove.

When completed, the encircled area

will be drained and then excavated

in an effort to find the elusive flood tunnels

and, perhaps, a direct entrance to the Oak Island Money Pit.

But before construction of the cofferdam can begin,

a new access road and platform must be laid out

to allow for the massive equipment,

including a 300-ton crane to be transported

down to the beach area.

That crane is the biggest item that will have to be moved down.

And, of course, we'll have to track out

so we have to seriously reconfigure the path

from 10-X down to Smith's Cove.

And by serious, I mean quite serious.

Okay, well, uh, I think everybody knows

what we need to do.

I think, you've all been communicating.

The whole idea is to get your gear,

Irving's gear, down to Smith's Cove

-and get that sheet pile and the crane pad in. Right? -Yep.

And then, as far as Brycon is concerned, you know,

you're gonna be bringing in a lot of material.

-Yeah, we got about 175 loads coming in. -RICK: Oh.

And then, as far as your work,

you're gonna be starting from somewhere up in this area?

-Or where? -We're gonna start right up... right about that grass.

Okay.

So, uh, gentlemen, welcome to Lift Lab.

Here we have with us our engineering folks,

as well as some of the folks

-from our pile driving department. -Okay.

NARRATOR: Two weeks ago, Rick,

Craig Tester and Dave Blankenship

traveled to the headquarters of Irving Equipment, Limited

in St. John, New Brunswick.

There they were presented with a 3-D hologram design

for a massive cofferdam.

Look at the amount of earth we have to deal with.

-It's intimidating. -Yeah, it is a big structure.

NARRATOR: Once completed, a nearly 525-foot-wide,

watertight steel wall will allow the Oak Island team

to fully drain and excavate Smith's Cove.

This will make it possible for the team to dig up

any important artifacts or evidence of treasure.

They also hope to locate and shut off

the box drain flood system

believed to feed seawater into the Money Pit.

My hope has always been

that even though the searchers

over two and a quarter centuries

did highly disruptive search agendas in Smith Cove,

my hope is that a small section

of the so-called box drains yet survives.

And I would love to lay eyes on that.

Once this process gets all done,

what's your timing look like?

Uh, we're thinking probably a week and half.

Aside from that, I think you guys got your marching orders

and if there is anything we can do, you-you let us know.

-Fair enough? -Yep. -That's no problem.

All right, gentlemen, good luck.

NARRATOR: As the team from Brycon Construction

begins work on a new road to Smith's Cove,

Rick, Marty and members of the Oak Island team

gather at the Mug and Anchor Pub

in the nearby town of Mahone Bay.

Hey, Guys.

-Hey. -DAVE: Hey, Marty.

-Started without us, huh? Again? -Again.

-Well, you know, you know how it goes. -Yeah, I do.

-(laughs) -We're just talking about my favorite subject:

-metal detecting. -Mm. And what'd you figure out?

-That it's been going good. -MARTY: Yeah.

Can we talk about the brooch?

Yeah, that took me by surprise. I mean...

But those brooches are a good sign, because

if you're looking for treasure on Oak Island,

it isn't just going to be coins. You would imagine

-there'd be a lot of jewelry. -MARTY: Yeah.

-But what it indicates is wealth on the island. -Yes.

As regards the brooches, we are, uh, going to Calgary.

We've located a gemologist,

someone highly qualified, has an incredible pedigree.

And he's an expert in the study of jewelry.

And, uh, hopefully, he can give us some insight,

tell you whether or not you're really onto something.

Okay, so the old guys are off to Calgary

for some answers and some revelations.

We're going to find out about the brooches.

The rest of you, carry on. Hold down the fort.

-To the hunt! -Cheers.

MARTY: Well, Dave, what do Wh you think of Calgary, man? ?

DAVE: It looks nice, so far,

what I've seen of it.

NARRATOR: Having traveled some 3,000 miles west of Oak Island

to the city of Calgary in Alberta, Canada,

brothers Rick and Marty Lagina,

along with Dave Blankenship, are heading

to the Alberta College of Art and Design

to have the two gemstone brooches,

each discovered on the western end of the island,

professionally examined and compared.

You know, I'm always on about timing things, a timeline.

I'm hoping Charles can render an opinion.

My hope is that it predates searcher activity.

MARTY: Well, let's see what he says.

-Now, look, we all agreed it was worth a trip, right, Dave? -Yep.

We'll find out how spendable they are.

(laughs) Of course.

MARTY: We are going to see a preeminent gemologist.

His name is Charles Lewton-Brain

and we're excited to see what he thinks these stones are.

Here we go.

Composition, origin, date,

all the things that we're usually looking for

in Rick's information hunt and in the treasure hunt.

-RICK: Charles, I believe? -MARTY: Charles?

I'm Rick. Nice to finally meet you.

-I'm Marty. Nice to meet you, sir. -Hi, Marty.

NARRATOR: Charles Lewton-Brain is a professional artist,

gemologist and master goldsmith who has also been an instructor

at a number of Canadian universities

for more than 30 years.

So, you know, we've got these two items

-that we found on Oak Island. -Right.

And, uh, we would really like

to see what you can tell us about them.

CHARLES L.: Huh.

NARRATOR: In preparation for today's visit,

the two gemstones have been carefully removed

from their settings so that each

can be thoroughly examined.

CHARLES L.: We have a large, red gem.

When it was found, anything I should understand about context?

As you know, it was found on Oak Island last year.

It came out pretty much as you see it there.

Okay, so I placed the, uh, gem

into the video microscope.

NARRATOR: To make a visual assessment of the stones,

Mr. Lewton-Brain will use a variety of tools,

including a digital video microscope

which can magnify an object up to 220 times its original size,

as well as make recordings in high definition.

CHARLES L.: You can see the facets--

-they don't meet perfectly. -Yeah. -Mm-hmm.

And, so, definitely hand-cut, not machine-cut.

And we do have a lot of surface damage.

I can also see a number of scratches.

They're sharp in nature.

They're not blurred and rounded.

Let's try this.

I'm getting a refractive index of over 1.7.

Which means?

-Ruby is 1.74. -Oh.

So, perhaps we should look at the other microscope.

And there's cracks and grooves,

but they're sharp cracks and grooves.

-That good or bad? -CHARLES L.: That's good.

Well, if you want it to be a gemstone, it's good.

But I would say, so far, consistent with garnet.

It's a pretty stone.

-Good. -(laughs)

-We got us a gemstone. -Yes, you do.

NARRATOR: The confirmation that the object

discovered last year on Lot Eight is, in fact,

a semiprecious stone garnet offers exciting news.

It also supports a previous professional evaluation

that suggested the brooch could be more than 300 years old,

long before the discovery of the Money Pit in 1795.

MARTY: Can we take a look, then, at the other one?

This is the most recent find.

CHARLES L.: Right, so,

in order to know a bit more about it,

what can you tell me about the location that it was found?

It was almost a peat-like environment,

uh, but not wet, not-not soaked, certainly.

The depths were in the neighborhood

-of ten to 12 inches. -Okay.

Um, it came out pretty much as you see it there.

CHARLES L.: Well, let's just see here.

MARTY: Oh, there we go.

CHARLES L.: The facet junctions-- that is

the sharp points between the planes-- they're quite worn.

That implies a softer material.

There is an inclusion.

An inclusion means something inside the stone.

And that would be a bubble?

Let's see if I can increase my magnification.

Oh, yes. Oh, yeah.

The-the inclusion is made up out of many, many tiny bubbles.

And so, I think we're pretty sure this is glass.

-RICK: I see. -MARTY: That's maybe bad news, then.

RICK: When Charles tells us that he believes

the stone in the new brooch is glass,

you know, of course, there's an initial, "Oh."

You know, "that's not good."

I wanted it to be a ruby.

You know? We're searching for treasure, here.

That would have been a, you know, a precious stone.

So yeah, initial reaction is disappointment.

So, definitive glass, but also definitive hand-made.

Not modern.

RICK: When you say not modern...

Well, glass gems have been around at least, uh, 500 years.

Leaded glass has been used

a long time because, um,

the light passes through it well.

And, again, that's why chandeliers

-are-are made out of leaded glass. -What about the red color?

-Is there anything to make from that? -AXEL: Well, uh,

in the color red, the formulas for making red glass

have been lost and found, and lost and found again,

-several times through history. -MARTY: Lost, how?

How would you lose such a thing?

Uh, well, glass people were extremely secretive.

Each family that was working glass

would have their own little book of recipes, sometimes in code.

NARRATOR: Secret recipes...

written in code?

Over the years, many researchers

and historians have theorized

that the people behind the Oak Island mystery

were likely members of an elite secret society.

Among the most prominent of these organizations

is the Rosicrucians,

a group of 16th century European intellectuals

who are believed to have been led by Sir Francis Bacon,

and whose symbol was a blood red, or "rosy cross,"

hence, the name Rosicrucians.

Could the blood-red stones that were found on Oak Island

be linked in some way to this secret organization,

or perhaps to the Knights Templar,

a medieval order of warrior monks who wore red crosses,

and whose traditions and rituals were later adopted

by the secretive fraternity of master builders

known as the Freemasons.

Secret societies keep their secrets well.

That's why they're secret societies.

Might there be a connection or an importance

in their initiation rites or in their emblems

or in their symbology, they used the color red extensively?

Certainly, there is a possible connection.

-All right, so, perhaps we should look at the other part... -Okay.

Let's look-let's look at the setting itself.

-If we can impose on you longer. -Oh, yeah.

Okay, it's a brooch.

Might as well try our digital camera.

The part I'm really interested in is the cord.

That is, the wire that surrounds the bezel,

the bezel is what holds the stone in.

And so, if you look at this cord, or wire,

you can see that there's a spiral nature to it.

And you can see that there are these diagonal lines on here.

-Here. -This is not

your ordinary, old brooch found in the ground.

That is a super ancient way of making wire.

CHARLES L.: If you look at this wire,

-you can see that there's a spiral nature to it. -Yes.

CHARLES L.: It's called block twisting,

and this is the sign of ancient jewelry.

Interesting.

NARRATOR: Dating back to as early as the 22nd century B.C.,

in the period known as the Bronze Age,

the ancient technique known as block twisting

was common in the production of the gold wire

used in making jewelry.

It was accomplished by hammering a metal ingot

into a thin rod and twisting it

to form a tight braid-like wire.

The metal thread would then be rolled between two pieces

of hard wood to create a uniform diameter.

So the fact that it's what appears

to be a block-twisted wire--

this implies age.

Mainly because of that wire.

Mainly because of that wire. That wire is highly unusual.

How old? I mean...

1340s drawplates, so prior to then,

the only wires we've got are made in some manner like this.

-Potentially older than 1330? -Older?

Yep.

NARRATOR: If Charles Lewton-Brain's assessment

is correct, the brooch is the team's first artifact

that has been authenticated as being made

as early as the 14th century, or even earlier.

This would make it some 300 years older

than the 17th century English and Spanish coins

that have been found on Oak Island over the past six years.

I have been completely unwilling to believe

that what happened on Oak Island happened pre-1400s.

Completely unwilling to believe it. And now you got this.

It looks like this could be a brooch

from the 1300s or before,

so with a bit of a question mark,

and with a bit of uncertainty, yeah, it opens up

all kinds of avenues, and changes, potentially,

my thinking about what happened here.

What about the overall design?

Does that give you any clues at all?

Nothing specific,

beyond the use of spirals, which many cultures have done.

It places it as kind of crude work.

Um, countryside work, perhaps.

I would say European, for sure.

RICK: So, would there be databases for that,

a way to proceed with further testing?

The British Gemological Society in London.

Um, uh, they might have some databases.

-The data's out there somewhere. -It is.

Well, thank you for bringing it. It's been, um, a treat.

It's been interesting for us, too.

Extremely. Well, listen, thank you very much.

-Absolute, absolute pleasure. -Thank you very much.

Absolute pleasure.

On to the next task.

I think this was perfect.

NARRATOR: The next day,

as Rick Lagina supervises the building

of the new road leading to Smith's Cove...

I'm gonna predict that it is pre-1840.

...Marty Lagina joins his son Alex

and his friend and business partner Craig Tester

as they travel some 50 miles northeast

to St. Mary's University in the city of Halifax.

Thanks, Craig.

NARRATOR: They are eager to find out

if the antique brooch that was discovered on Lot 21

is, in fact, partially made of gold.

Dr. Brosseau.

Nice to see you, Christa.

Welcome down to the microscope lab.

-Hello. -Xiang, good to see you.

-Good seeing you. -Hi, how are you? -Good.

We have something here I think you are gonna find

quite interesting, actually.

Piece of jewelry of some sort.

NARRATOR: Dr. Christa Brosseau is an associate professor

of chemistry, with expertise in the field of electrochemistry

as well as the study of metals

and their chemical compositions.

Today, she is joined by her colleague, Dr. Xiang Yang.

CHRISTA: Very nice.

-MARTY: Pretty, isn't it? -CHRISTA: Yeah.

MARTY: The brooch was found this year,

and we've had it looked at by a gemologist already,

and it did appear that there were places

-that had gold. -Okay. Where did you guys find this?

MARTY: Kind of the western end of the island.

CHRISTA: It's in really good condition.

Have a look, and we'll see what your machine says.

NARRATOR: Using a high-powered scanning electron microscope,

Doctors Brosseau and Yang will be able to magnify the brooch

up to tens of thousands of times its actual size.

They also will be able to examine

its chemical composition

and determine whether it's made of gold

or any other precious metals.

CRAIG: Now, is there any manganese

in what you're seeing there?

CHRISTA: No, that's just copper,

zinc, typical brass.

It's good to check, because brass

can often imitate gold very well, right?

Mm-hmm.

-MARTY: What are the lighter spots? -Yeah, what I'm looking at--

what are we seeing that's bright?

Is that the potential gold, or...

You know, right in the very center.

CHRISTA: It could be.

This is right under where the stone was.

This is the brightest... To the naked eye, this is, by far,

the brightest.

Okay, well why don't we do a composition

on that brightest spot, right underneath?

-'Cause that's... -Okay, I think we can do that.

CHRISTA: We'll be able to tell in a minute.

Okay.

Should be good.

So, the dark area here is pure copper.

That's interesting.

But...

-The bright area... -Yeah?

Gold.

Well, how about that? Gary can go do his gold dance.

-He found some gold. -You got gold.

-You definitely struck gold. Yep. -(laughing)

We struck gold.

MARTY: Yeah, I guess I'd have to say that's the first piece

of verified gold found on the island.

ALEX: That's a first for us, right?

It's a first for us, for sure.

I think this would be considered actual treasure.

-Yeah. -ALEX: All right. -CRAIG: Yeah.

Well, here's the deal: we found treasure on Oak Island.

Yeah. We did.

-(whoops) -We've been in it... (whoops)

Woot, woot. And we've proven it right here, in this lab today.

-Excellent. -So that's pretty cool.

-Not bad. -I mean, yeah.

-That's a pretty good day. -(chuckles)

MARTY: The brooch that was found this year

is motivating and exciting,

'cause it's a real piece of treasure.

You just can't deny that.

It's a piece of treasure,

in the elaborate setting found on Oak Island.

This is just the tip of the iceberg.

There is more that awaits us this year.

-Now we need to bring in the mother lode. -Yeah.

-Thank you very much, as always. -Oh, you're welcome.

-Xiang, a pleasure. -Congratulations.

I'm gonna pick up all kinds of things to put in that machine.

-Thanks. -CHRISTA: Thanks, guys.

NARRATOR: Returning to the island later that afternoon,

Marty Lagina calls a meeting in the war room.

He is eager to share the exciting news

with his brother Rick and members of their team.

Guys, I am freshly back from St. Mary's University.

Craig and Alex and I went up there,

and I-I shouldn't be excited about this, really,

in a sense, but I am, because, David...

...this little gem has gold on it.

(chuckles)

We have found our first gold on Oak Island.

DAVID: I want more gold than that.

Well, come on, man.

-(laughter) -Small victories, right?

Yeah.

MARTY: You know, when, uh, Dr. Brosseau

put the scanning electron microscope on it

and it came up "Au," you know, gold.

I-I think that's pretty cool.

NARRATOR: For Rick, Marty and their team,

the discovery of an actual piece of golden treasure

is a momentous development in the 223-year history

of the Oak Island treasure hunt.

It is also a major step forward in their quest to prove

that something of even greater value

may have been buried here centuries ago.

We had a gemologist look at this in Calgary, too,

and he thought that there's one little style

that's called block twist,

which is the braided around the gem.

And he said that went out of fashion

as a method of doing things in the 14th century.

-Really? -Yeah. So we keep getting

some really odd potential dates.

Now, this is not a super quality gem piece,

in that it's gold-plated,

but it's gold, and it could be very old.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, but it occurs to me that "old" and "gold"

are two good words to use if you're on Oak Island.

Yeah, exactly.

So we have this brooch,

which could be a lot older than we ever thought.

We have the lead cross not mined in North America.

So these artifacts are pushing us back farther in time

than I ever thought we would see here.

Well, you know, Rick, I never thought we'd be finding stuff

from the 12 or 1300s.

I can't say that I ever thought that, as well, David,

but we're finding answers.

-Way back. -Way back.

NARRATOR: Could both the gold-plated brooch and the one

containing the hand-cut garnet be somehow connected?

If so, could they have been brought to the island

by pirates sometime in the 18th century,

or possibly much earlier?

As far as Rick, Marty and their partners are concerned,

as close as they are to getting answers,

the 223-year-old Oak Island treasure hunt

has only just begun.

So, guys, you're all up to speed,

you all have all the data, we've discussed where this might lead.

I think we should get back to actual work.

Let's go.

NARRATOR: Before another long day

of both questions and answers ends on Oak Island,

Rick Lagina and Dan Henskee

head over to the Money Pit area

to check on the seismic team's progress.

-ALEX G.: Hey, guys. -Hey.

-It's a wrap. -Really?

-Absolutely. -It's a wrap?

Is that the celebratory, uh...

-That was the last one. -That was the last one?

-It's officially in the books. -Where's-where's my last one?

-There you go. Yeah. -I'll take it, I'll take it.

-Program souvenir. -That's fantastic, guys.

You know, look, we really appreciate it.

I-I can't speak highly enough about your team, yourselves.

But here's the key:

when are we going to Calgary? When are we gonna see the data?

Well, we got a push on it.

We're really hoping for a couple weeks.

NARRATOR: The news that the seismic team

has finished collecting their data

represents an important milestone

for Rick Lagina and the Oak Island team.

Once processed, the information collected should produce

a comprehensive, three-dimensional map

of the area, some 200 feet below the surface.

It should also reveal the presence of possible tunnels

and underground structures,

potential hiding places for a legendary treasure.

I can't say thank you enough.

My hope is that, you know, when we do come to Calgary,

you guys are gonna be able to put a map down in front of us

and say, "Okay, here's your target.

Here's what this is, Here's what that is."

I certainly think you, uh, got some more believers here

on the island with our time here,

and, uh, we can give you guys some answers.

Be careful about your wish that you'll give us all the answers,

'cause we won't want you back with your geophones,

we'll want you back with shovels.

(laughing)

We can do that as well.

All righty. That'd be great, guys.

Thank you very much.

Let's go, Dan.

DAN H.: Yep.

NARRATOR: With the new road to the beach completed,

brothers Rick and Marty Lagina are finally ready

to break ground on this summer's most ambitious

and most eagerly anticipated project...

...the excavation of Smith's Cove.

Today the team from Irving Equipment, Limited

has begun delivering the heavy machines and equipment

that will be needed in order to construct

a massive steel cofferdam.

(horn honking)

They're here.

Here we go.

-Pretty remarkable, isn't it, David? -Yep.

NARRATOR: Over the next few days,

the team will assemble a 300-ton crane

at the Money Pit area, before it can be staged

on the nearby beach,

where some 2,200 tons of earth have been moved

to build a perfectly flat work surface.

And in a couple days, that'll be put together.

-Yep. -And roughly two, three weeks from now,

we'll be down at target depth.

-It's cool. -Just think how long it took your father.

-We didn't have the technology, then. -Exactly.

NARRATOR: Once the crane is in place,

construction can finally begin

on the nearly 525-foot-long watertight barrier.

When it is completed, the ocean water will be drained out,

and then the entire area, nearly 12,000 square-feet,

will be excavated.

This will allow the team to uncover not only

important artifacts such as the mysterious lead cross

discovered at Smith's Cove last year,

but also possible evidence of an ancient flood tunnel system.

RICK: Because of the find of the cross,

we have to do a very disciplined,

archaeologically-driven dig,

in order to see if there are other similar artifacts.

We've always thought that there may be a treasure trove

of information at Smith's Cove.

At the end of this exercise, we're going to know more about

Smith's Cove than has ever been known before.

MARTY: It's a big operation.

It's scary, in a sense, it's daunting.

And it's exciting.

There's a story here.

-Yep. -And it's constantly un-unraveling.

-Yep. -For me, the quest is really

to find out what happened here, long ago.

And I hope that there's answers down there.

I do, too.

NARRATOR: After a week that saw the discovery

of an actual piece of gold jewelry

thought to be nearly 700 years old,

the Laginas and their partners are more confident than ever

that their decades of dreaming

and years of searching are finally paying off.

But as they become the first in a long line

of Oak Island treasure hunters

to actually look beneath the surface, what will they find?

Evidence of a vast network of booby-trapped flood tunnels?

An enormous, underground vault

filled with pirate riches or Templar gold?

Or could they discover secrets so sacred

and so forbidden

that they have been fiercely guarded

against any who might dare to reveal them?

Next Time on The Curse of Oak Island...

MARTY: We're going to get a look at the seismic results.

This is definitely the largest anomaly.

It is a confident structure, whatever it is.

Is that consistent with a chamber?

Yeah. It is.

MARTY: Now we have a target, so we need to drill it right away,

find out what it is.

TERRY: Wow, look at that. This is a lot of wood here.

MARTY: Maybe it is the old Money Pit.

GARY: Look at this! This is old.

we're talking, like, Templar old.

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