Original subtitles

Whatever this is, it's been here a while.

Ooh!

It's an old ax‐head.

This ax could be a weapon.

That sample came out to be 1741.

Whoa. What the hell does that fit with?

The raids on Fortress Louisbourg.

Rick, look at this one.

A drain system.

Looks like flood tunnel or box drains.

Whoa! ‐Whoa. We're uncovering something here

that people haven't seen for hundreds of years.

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.

Let's see what we've got.

There's a lot of water in here.

There certainly is.

In the aftermath of a powerful hurricane

which hit Oak Island and the surrounding region

with winds of nearly 100 miles per hour,

downing trees

and causing structural damage across the island,

brothers Rick and Marty Lagina

are eagerly trying to put their search efforts

back on track.

Our excavation area was full, but we're making headway.

I think we're still in good shape.

I think we are, yep.

Hurricane Dorian also completely filled

the recently drained swamp with ocean water,

thwarting the team's efforts to investigate

the mysterious stone‐paved pathway

that was discovered earlier this year.

After the extensive pumping we did,

we are currently back to square one in the swamp.

That's problematic. We've got to drain it

as quickly as we can and hope the weather holds.

Just looking at it, Scott, I think that, you know,

it‐it's gonna be wet no matter how long we wait.

So, I think we're just gonna have

to let this settle out and‐and pump down.

I'd say, two to three days before we get in here.

‐A day or two will make a big difference here. ‐Yep.

But the real impact is gonna be this place, really.

- ‐That paved area. - That's right.

So this is critical.

If we can get this dry to the point where we can

at least investigate a ten by 20 area,

come to some understanding of what it may or may not be,

whether it's natural or artificial.

I agree with that.

Every day is a new day.

Do what we can and move forward.

Yep.

Later that same day,

as the pumping operation at the Oak Island swamp continues...

- Hey. Hey, Craig. - Hey, Craig.

- Hello, mate. - Hey, guys.

...Rick and Marty gather with other members

of their team for an important meeting in the war room.

Joining them via videoconference

is Rick and Marty's partner Craig Tester.

Okay. So, you know, today is Marty's favorite day.

‐Yep. ‐It's about science and getting results.

Um, Craig has some very interesting results,

about our work in Smith's Cove.

And it's about dendrochronology, which I'm hoping

that there'll be some really definitive answers here.

‐Yeah. ‐Yeah.

Billy!

We want to get a piece of dendro off of it

for dendro testing.

One week ago, after fully exposing

a mysterious log structure in what has become known

as the bump‐out area,

the team obtained a large sample to be tested

through a process known as dendrochronology...

‐Perfect! ‐There you go.

...which analyzes growth rings on wood

in an effort to determine not only the age of a tree

but also when it was cut for use in construction.

It was this process that determined

that the wooden slipway unearthed last year

was most likely built in 1769, nearly three decades

before the discovery of the original Money Pit in 1795.

Now that the team has discovered

an additional structure, they are eager to find out

if it could have been built during the same period

or perhaps even earlier.

Fill us in and make us happy.

Okay. Well, we had one sample that we,

sent to, Colin Laroque

to do the dendrochronology.

He said it's a, red spruce.

Um...

It's a little head‐scratcher.

‐

1741.

- ‐Whoa. - ‐

1741?

Is it possible that the structure was built

more than two decades before the nearby slipway?

Knock me upside the head with a fish.

: I mean, you know, it's just amazing.

It's amazing. 1741 now?

I'm surprised. I thought the‐the date

would be contemporaneous with the U‐shaped structure.

I really did.

In 1741, there was virtually nobody.

You know, if you look at the foundings of these towns,

none of them are that old.

What was going on here in 1741?

According to historical records,

prior to 1795, Oak Island was virtually uninhabited.

Other than its occasional use by local farmers,

who would ferry livestock over to the island

so that they could graze without the need of fences,

there were no reported activities

that would require anything as elaborate as a large slipway

or loading dock.

Could it be that this log structure was built

by the same mysterious visitors who constructed the Money Pit,

perhaps for the purpose of unloading and burying something

of great importance on the island?

‐I like those 1700s. ‐Whoa, though.

What the hell does that fit with?

‐It's pushing it back further in time. Wow.

- What was happening here in '41? - Not a lot, right?

Well, there were the raids on Fortress Louisbourg.

They‐they lost Fortress Louisbourg to the British

before 1746.

So, I mean, we could look closer at those dates,

‐because maybe the French had a need to hide something. ‐Yeah.

Chipp Reid, who was a military historian, felt so, right?

- ‐Yeah. - Yeah.

Earlier this year,

naval historian and author Chipp Reid

presented Rick, Marty, Craig and the team

with an astonishing theory.

One suggesting that the incredible structures

uncovered at Smith's Cove could be connected

to an early 18th‐century French fort

located some 300 miles northeast of Oak Island

and which contained similar features and tunnels.

If we look at these structures,

I don't know if this structure looks familiar in any way.

Well, that's the L‐shaped structure.

Yeah.

It was Chipp Reid's belief

that the French, while preparing for a British siege

on Louisbourg in 1745,

might have secretly moved a vast fortune

in gold and riches to Oak Island for safekeeping.

A fortune which, following their defeat,

was never recovered.

Could Craig Tester's news, that the wood sample

dates back as far as the 1740s, provide scientific evidence

that Chipp Reid's theory might be true?

So, I think a trip to Fort Louisbourg can help us

try to come to an understanding of what may have happened here.

Yeah. That's what I'm thinking.

So, the bump‐out was a success.

We'd never have known this date.

‐That's true. ‐Never had guessed that.

Yeah. ‐Yep. Yeah.

I mean, this is certainly the absolute

earliest date we've ever had regarding any activity,

other than the cross.

Somebody can drop a coin

‐from a long time ago, but nobody dropped that log. ‐Exactly.

‐Exactly. ‐And it didn't fall down by itself

and dig itself five feet in the ground, either.

I've always said you have to look backwards

in order to move forward, but we keep going deeper and deeper

- ‐in the weeds. - ‐

I like it, okay?

Because, remember, when we first stepped foot on here, I said,

"Find me concrete evidence of substantial human activity."

I said underground, but if you take the word underground out,

prior to the discovery of the Money Pit, you know what?

You did it.

Something rather massive happened here, at least in 1741.

For me, that's a big deal.

For the longest time I thought maybe nothing happened here

prior to 1795.

I think it was a success, the way I look at it,

because we got good data.

And I'm happy that he thinks it was a success.

- ‐As deluded as he might be. - ‐

Let's deal with it, try and put it in context and move forward.

Let's go.

Yeah, see you, Craig. Thank you.

As a new day begins on Oak Island,

and as the team continues their efforts

to re‐drain the swamp...

We've got a nice day for the visit.

It's beautiful.

...Rick Lagina and historian Doug Crowell

are traveling some 300 miles northeast of Oak Island

to the town of Louisbourg, Nova Scotia.

They are eager to explore firsthand

the 18th century French fortress which,

according to naval historian and author Chipp Reid,

has a direct connection to Oak Island

and its 225‐year‐old treasure mystery.

If there was French involvement on Oak Island,

here we have some examples of their engineering underground.

At the time the French had completed construction

of the fortress at Louisbourg in 1740,

it was considered a monument

to 18th century military engineering,

with over two miles of stone walls

which were built as much as 30 feet high and eight feet thick.

But perhaps one of the installation's

most compelling features

is the vast network of secret tunnels

that were constructed beneath it,

tunnels which Rick and Doug believe may contain

design or construction similarities

to those found on Oak Island.

We now have two structures on the island that

were quite laborious in terms of their construct, right?

Louisbourg‐‐ wasn't it started in 1713

and then it falls in 1745?

Well, when you look at the dates that we got

through dendrochronology this year,

like the, the end of the wharf area,

the end of the slipway,

dating to 1741,

you're right in the heyday of Louisbourg.

In fact, I believe it was,

Jean‐Baptiste de La Rochefoucauld,

‐the Duc D'Anville. ‐‐

It was my understanding that's where

the duc d'Anville is buried.

That's interesting.

It is.

In 1746,

one year after Louisbourg fell to British military forces,

the French sent a massive armada to Nova Scotia

in an attempt to seize back their conquered fortress.

Led by the duc d'Anville,

a member of the same Rochefoucauld family

that boasted direct ties to the Knights Templar,

the 97‐ship fleet was reportedly carrying

a treasure in gold and jewels,

presumably in order to finance a local army.

Unfortunately,

before the ambitious operation could be carried out,

a series of severe storms delayed and plagued

the doomed mission.

Typhus and scurvy quickly spread

among the soldiers and sailor,

causing hundreds to die at se,

including the duc d'Anville himself.

I found eight pages of

what looks like a ship's log.

According to a recently discovered journal,

the duke's crew, after his death,

was able to hide the treasure he was carrying

on a wooded island in Mahone Bay,

in hopes of keeping it out of the hands of the British.

"It has been agreed that a deep pit be dug.

"The pit to have a secret entrance

by a tunnel from the shore."

I mean, a great quantity of treasure,

and‐and that‐‐ they appear to be in this bay.

I mean, it fits in every aspect.

Exactly.

Could it be

that the surviving members of the duc d'Anville's mission

chose Oak Island not by accident

but because they knew that a vast treasure vault

had already been built there,

one that was established centuries earlier by members

of the Knights Templar?

Louisbourg is a fascinating place,

and there's incredible history there.

Duc D'Anville is buried there,

who may be part of a hypothetical reason

as to what was done here on Oak Island.

I mean, we're not that far away.

I look forward to just‐‐ actually just seeing it.

Yes.

I hope there's some answers here.

- ‐That's my hope. - Yeah.

As Rick and Doug continue their journey to Louisbourg...

All right, here's Lot 27.

Yup.

...Jack Begley, Peter Fornett,

and metal detection expert Gary Drayton

continue to search for clues on Oak Island's Lot 27.

All right, mate. I've got my magic wand.

Let's make some magic.

Look at that! Look at the size of that.

That's chunky.

Yeah. An hefty chisel.

It was on this same lot, seven weeks ago,

that Gary, Jack, and Peter

discovered what was later identified

as an ancient chisel‐‐

a chisel that Gary believes could be connected

to the 14th century tunneling tools,

known as swages, that were found on Lot 21.

Because the recent hurricane battered and stirred up

the island's surface,

Gary is eager to search the area once again,

in the hopes of finding any newly exposed clues

or valuable artifacts.

All right, here's a good place to start.

Okay.

We're here to find some good stuff.

Nothing in here.

You don't want to go for it? No.

Not feeling any love at the moment.

- Got something? - Yeah.

This is a nice repeatable signal.

‐ ‐Got to dig that, mate.

It's out.

Whatever it is, it's out.

‐ ‐Ooh.

It's in me hand.

What have we got here?

That is nice.

‐A bit of cut lead. ‐

It's always good when you find cut lead on old sites.

Let's have a gander.

What's that little knob for?

Yeah, that little knob reminds me of a sprue.

When they make musket balls,

they would pour 'em in a mold,

and then they would snip all the musket balls off

on the line, and this would've just got thrown away.

- ‐‐ - It's old.

It's 17s, early 1800s.

A musket ball?

Dating as far back as the 1700s?

Is it possible that the team has just found

another piece of physical evidence

supporting Chipp Reid's theory about the French military

burying treasure on Oak Island in the early 1740s?

Maybe there was some sort of military force on Oak Island.

We know that there were French here,

so maybe we'll find more evidence in the area

to be able to pin down exactly who it was.

All right, chaps. Let's see what's on the beach.

Okay. We will follow you.

Nice, low tide.

There's a lot of the lower beach exposed.

This looks good.

I'm gonna start zigzagging down here.

‐Just there. ‐That sounds fairly good.

Yep. Just there.

Yeah. It doesn't sound too bad.

Whatever this is, it's been here a while.

Yep.

You got that right, Jack. That deep?

That's gone undetected.

- A lot of rust. - Ooh.

I like the look of that.

Take it real easy, mate. My God.

I like the look of this.

Look. You see what I'm seeing?

I'm gonna have to get down and dirty on this one, mate.

All right.

Let's scrape some stuff off.

This could be a good one.

Watch your fingers. It could be sharp.

‐Look at that. ‐Yeah.

What the heck is that?

Is that it?

Wow.

It's an encrusted conglomerate.

So, there's something inside of that mass?

Yeah. That's nice.

And who knows what's in this?

What's that? It's just a big conglomerate.

‐ It could be anything in there.

While exploring the beach on Lot 27,

metal detection expert Gary Drayton,

along with Jack Begley and Peter Fornetti,

have just made what could be an important discovery.

You never know what's in something like this.

That's why it's called an encrusted object.

And what happens is, in a saltwater environment,

all the sand and the shells,

they become encrusted onto the piece of iron.

The salvage guys love these on the shipwrecks,

because they bring 'em up, and they find gold and silver,

mainly coins, attached to the iron object.

And that looks to me like an artifact.

Look. I can see the shape of it.

- ‐That's an old ax. - Ax. ‐

And that could be an old ax, as well.

And you know what?

Yeah.

‐This could be either a tool or a weapon. ‐

‐And you're right, it goes... ‐Yeah.

‐Yeah, it's an old ax‐head. ‐Look at that.

‐Wow. ‐Yeah, and that looks

like an oldie, as well.

This is 1700s, baby.

- ‐Could it be older than 1700? - It really could.

This could be older than 1700s.

‐Could be, for example, a ship's rigging ax. ‐Yeah.

A rigging ax?

Dating back to the early 18th century,

or even older?

Commonly kept on board large sailing vessels,

a rigging ax was used for everyday maintenance

and safety while at sea,

as well as to gather new materials

for construction when ashore.

Could this rigging ax be evidence of a ship

landing on the island prior

to the Money Pit's discovery in 1795?

If so, could it be connected to the massive wooden wharf

recently unearthed at Smith's Cove,

which was scientifically proven

to have been built in 1741?

That's nice.

‐Let's stick her in the bag, mate. ‐Yeah.

All right. Awesome.

Let's keep moving.

As Gary, Jack, and Peter

continue their search for artifacts on Lot 27...

...some 300 miles northeast of Oak Island...

Pretty impressive.

...Rick Lagina and historian Doug Crowell

arrive in the town of Louisbourg

to visit the site of what was once

a French military fortress.

Hey, Sarah!

Hello.

Good to meet you in person.

Great to meet you in person, too.

Welcome to the Fortress of Louisbourg

National Historic Site.

Assisting Rick and Doug in their investigation

is historian Sarah MacInnes.

It's a beautiful edifice.

It's just...

awe‐inspiring. It's absolutely stunning.

It's really, really, phenomenally gorgeous.

- Yes. - Yeah.

And what you see here is actually only one‐fifth

of what it originally was in the 18th century.

Wow.

Sarah, we have,

some questions that we're trying to answer

on the island.

Over the last couple years, we've uncovered some structures.

‐‐ ‐And we've had a naval historian tell us

that perhaps they're temporary siege works, of sorts.

So, we were hoping perhaps we'd find something

of a similar nature here.

‐And we understand you have some tunnels under the fort. ‐‐

And tunnels under... underground are of big interest to us.

And we're hoping to find something that might be similar.

Well, hopefully, we can find some answers for you.

That'd be great.

‐That'd be fantastic. ‐You know what I'd love to do first,

though? I'd love to see where the duc d'Anville is buried.

‐All right, let's go see him first. ‐All right.

These people,

long ago, were committed

to building this on such a large scale.

They did it because they had to,

and that's the key enigma of Oak Island.

Sometimes you think,

you know, they couldn't have gone down

to the bedrock in the Money Pit area.

They couldn't have tunneled to Smith's Cove.

And then you look at this, and you realize

it is possible.

We'll go into the chapel now.

This is where the duc d'Anville has been buried.

Wow.

In 1749,

after Louisbourg was returned to the French,

the English took the duc d'Anville,

who was previously buried in what's now Halifax Harbour,

and sent his remains here.

And they were interred under the altar of the chapel.

"De la Rochefoucauld" is the last word.

The Rochefoucauld family has been of interest to us

the last couple of years because of some other documents

we've been looking at on the island. We're tracing

some possibilities that that family

may have had some of the answers

‐for which we seek. ‐

Not only was the duc d'Anville a member

of the Rochefoucauld family, which, in turn,

had close associates with members of the Knights Templar,

but the name Rochefoucauld is also featured

on a mysterious 14th century map of Oak Island.

Given to Rick Lagina by his close friend,

the late author and researcher Zena Halpern,

it is one of three maps that were found in an ancient book

and which suggest that the Rochefoucaulds were,

in some way, directly connected to the Oak Island mystery.

So, is there a crypt beneath here that is accessible?

Yeah. It's not a crypt

as, many people would think of it,

but there are a number of burials underneath the chapel.

One of the things we were

hoping to find or see‐‐ some original works,

so that we could see it as it was built in the time.

Is there anything like that here?

Definitely. Yeah. ‐That'd be great.

Let's go.

So, the casemates were constructed to protect civilians

during times of war.

And they were one of the only structures

that remained standing after the British destroyed

the Fortress of Louisbourg between 1760 and 1768.

So, these are the ones.

You can get an idea of the construction.

Rick.

Come look at this one.

What's your impression of that?

A drain system.

Yeah, that's what caught my eye, Rick.

Look at that.

Look at that.

Yeah.

Now, we were talking earlier about controlling the water.

It goes into the dry moat.

A stone drain system?

Could Rick and Doug be looking

at the same kind of water‐flow system

that the Oak Island team has found evidence of

over the past three years at Smith's Cove?

A water‐flow system known as a French drain.

It's certainly one way to run water off, that's for sure.

This is very cool.

I can't wait to see what you show us next.

All right. Let's go look at that fortification

- ‐that you were wondering about. - Excellent.

I just found it exceedingly strange

that the‐the drain system in the original fortifications,

they certainly have an appearance

of some of the structures that we saw in Smith's Cove.

I just found that more than interesting.

So, the countermine tunnel was constructed

as a means of defending the fortress.

So, it's that red door down there.

It was made so that it could be filled with powder,

and if the enemies were approaching,

the powder could explode and cut off enemy attack.

Dating back as early as the ninth century BC,

countermines were a kind of defensive tunnel

commonly utilized in warfare

for the purpose of preventing enemy attempts

to dig beneath walls or other fortifications.

These countermine tunnels would often be rigged

with booby traps, such as explosive powder.

Unfortunately, we can't go in

because it's home to a bat colony right now,

but one neat thing about the countermine tunnel

is that it's one of the only features that's still

in the same condition that it was from the 18th century.

It was never destroyed, and it hasn't been reconstructed.

- ‐So it's stuck in time. - Really?

It's a lot of work, when you think about it,

because the land's really marshy.

It's a good ways out.

So, underground then, when they built it,

they had to have a way to manipulate the water?

They had to deal with that, yeah.

A tunnel?

One that was built through a marshy waterway?

Could it be that the same engineering knowledge

used to build the countermine tunnel

in the surrounding swamp at Louisbourg

was also employed in the construction

of Oak Island's elaborate network

of booby‐trapped flood tunnel?

It's what we're constantly amazed at

on the work on Oak Island, right?

All the tunneling, all the shafts.

I mean, the amount of work. You know, a tunnel is a tunnel.

Digging underground is digging underground.

It'd be interesting to see the plans.

We can definitely look into some plans if you're interested.

Yeah. Be very interested.

Well, let's head out. ‐Great.

We pulled some plans that we thought you'd be interested in.

And these actually show the countermine tunnel.

While visiting a nearly 300‐year‐old

French naval fortress in Louisbourg, Nova Scotia,

Rick Lagina and Doug Crowell have been given the opportunity

to examine not only the actual plans of the fort

but also the system of tunnels that exists beneath it.

So, the countermine tunnel is 180 feet out

and it's in the shape of a cross.

We thought that was fairly interesting.

We have a cross on Oak Island... Nolan's cross.

‐‐ ‐Which is a‐a collection

of precisely arranged boulders to form a‐a cross.

Tunnels, laid out in the shape of a cross?

Have Rick and Doug just found

their first piece of concrete evidence connecting

this 18th century French fort to Oak Island,

and more specifically, to the megalithic structure,

discovered in 1981, known as Nolan's Cross?

But you don't know if there's an engineer drawing of the tunnel?

It's at, like, a side? No.

Not that we know of. But there are some images.

‐There are? ‐Yeah.

So, it's hard to tell because of the flooding.

That's cool.

Beautifully done.

‐It's gorgeous. ‐‐

And to do that for 180 feet.

That's a significant...

‐Straight as an arrow. ‐‐

- ‐Math comes back into it, again. - ‐

Yeah, we've always, we've always wondered, you know, like,

the tunnels that are on Oak Island,

how were they able to do that straight as an arrow?

I suppose it just depends

on the time and precision you want to put into it.

But that goes to command and control,

because look what was achieved here.

Visiting Louisbourg was exceedingly interesting.

They were able to manipulate water underground,

i.e. specifically to create that tunnel.

So... what did they know?

How did they come to learn of it, i.e. moving water?

They certainly were able to do it.

Could be done here on the island.

Well, we don't want to take up any more of your time.

You've given us some great takeaways.

There's a tunnel right out here that says you can

drive a tunnel in a wet environment and keep it dry.

That's interesting.

Thank you, guys, for coming.

Can't thank you enough.

One day after his visit to Louisbourg...

This is the paved area, right there, where Billy's digging.

‐

...Rick Lagina and his nephew Alex

arrive at the triangle‐shaped swamp.

Now that the area has once again been drained

to the point where it is now safe to begin excavating,

they are eager to resume this year's plan

to fully reveal the mysterious stone‐paved walkway

discovered earlier this year.

Hey, Bill!

You know, Dr. Spooner's

gonna want to come out and take a look at it.

‐Yeah. ‐As you dig,

maybe you might want to swing some of it over there?

Yeah, this one pile is already there.

‐It's dry. ‐All right.

How deep do you want to dig here?

I say we dig until we can't dig any deeper. ‐Yeah.

Because the recent hurricane

has significantly stirred up the bottom of the swamp

and, once again, buried the possible stone walkway,

the team will have to carefully drench out

several feet of water and muck without damaging the structure.

I have to remove myself.

I've got another, errand to run,

so you'll be Billy's eyes and boots.

Okay. ‐Anything you see that might be

‐"out of the ordinary..." ‐Yep.

If I stop us down, I'll call you.

‐Okay? Thanks, Alex. ‐Yep.

We're going for the...

whole enchilada, if you will.

We're gonna try to expose it in its entirety,

and hopefully we'll get an idea of the length, the width,

get a cross section of it and look at it

and see how deep it really is.

I think we all have some hope that it's much bigger,

because then, lends itself to the belief

that it's man‐made.

Hey, Billy!

That's a lot of stones in the side there.

But if we clean this off, maybe it's something.

I would think we're looking for flatness, too.

I‐I'm not sure.

I'll get a little more of that brown stuff off

and then we'll pick 'em all out and see what's there.

Yep. Sounds good.

As Billy Gerhardt

uncovers the rocky surface...

Alex! How you doing? ‐Hey, Terry.

...geologist Terry Matheson arrives to help identify

if the feature is natural or man‐made.

Unfortunately, the water's come up quite a bit in here,

‐so you can't see the edges as well. ‐Right.

Approximately what depth did you get the boulders?

Probably about five feet below that, maybe a little bit more,

- ‐at the maximum depth. - Okay, so

those are probably clastics. They're not limestone...

‐

...and they're not the gypsum we find deeper, so...

I'm surprised to see what I think

I would not encounter until about 120 feet down

in the Money Pit area.

Boulders near the surface

that would otherwise be found more than 100 feet underground?

Has Terry Matheson just identified potential evidence

that the stone‐paved area is man‐made?

I'm hoping it'll reveal

a little bit more of the wall to you.

Let's keep digging.

That's what it's all about.

As another new day begins

on Oak Island...

‐Rick, good to see you. ‐How are you? Good to see you.

...Rick Lagina joins his nephew Alex,

geoscientist Dr. Ian Spooner,

and heavy equipment operator Billy Gerhardt at the swamp,

where they are continuing their effort

to expose the possible stone walkway.

Having located what they believe to be

the outer edge of the structure,

the team is now carefully washing away

layers of mud and debris

that was deposited during the recent hurricane.

There's a lot of water in there.

What is the area that you want to see

‐over here in the paved, "paved" area? ‐I just want to get

maybe a ten‐foot‐long by the whole width section.

Get it cleaned, see what it looks like.

The paved area is certainly a well‐defined target.

We want to remove the organics and the sediments

and visually inspect the paved area

to ascertain whether there's anything there

worth investigating.

That looks strange to me.

It looks strange to me, too, so we're in agreement,

there's something strange.

The main thing about it is, you've got all these rocks

that are all fitting together, and my problem is from

a geo point of view, straight geo,

all those rocks,

that's not common.

It's almost as if the rocks were brought in,

and I don't‐don't quite know why.

That is very strange.

That's the paved area right there.

‐It's fairly flat and fairly consistent. Yeah.

Is this different enough for you to say

this is natural or

the hand of man being introduced here?

It's different enough for me to consider that.

I would like to clean off, like, a ten by 20.

‐See if it is exactly what we see here. Yep.

The paved area in the swamp is exceedingly interesting.

It truly is an unknown, you know?

When we go looking for a shaft here and there,

we have some background, we have some history.

This thing has materialized out of the ether.

It's quite uniform.

It's level.

My initial thought is, this is indeed man‐made.

Having finally exposed a portion

of the paved stone area...

‐Hi, chaps. ‐Hey, Gary.

Hi, Gary.

...Rick has called archaeologist Laird Niven

down to the site to examine i.

So, that is the feature that

we are troubled by, right over there.

Okay.

It doesn't look like any natural formation.

It looks like what to you?

It looks like it‐it‐‐ they've been introduced.

‐You do think so? Okay. ‐Yeah.

I can't see any natural way for it to get here.

‐So you've never seen anything like this before? ‐No.

- ‐Billy, would you finish this? - Yeah.

I'll get that water moving,

‐Bill, and then you can remove the rest of this. ‐Yeah.

My mind rounds to

all the work it took

to build this paved area.

I've done a lot of stonework myself

in my younger days, and,

this is an enormous undertaking.

Building it was probably a lot more difficult

than it is uncovering this,

but we have to uncover it because we need to know

what, when, where, why and ho.

And the hope is that we will be able to investigate it.

So here's the thing, I don't know to make of it.

I mean, I think we all, to varying degrees of belief,

that this is

something out of the ordinary.

But I do know this, it's just made the swamp

- ‐that much more interesting. - Absolutely.

- ‐Yeah. - So to that end, I think

tomorrow morning we'll have another go at it

‐and see what it looks like. ‐Yeah.

There's something strange here.

That's a puzzle.

One day after successfully exposing

part of the paved stone feature at the swamp, Rick Lagina

and geoscientist Dr. Ian Spooner

return to the site to see what else

may have been revealed

now that even more water has been removed.

My issue is,

if this was just dumped by glaciers or something like that,

it would be piles. It would be a little less horizontal.

You'd see these undulate a bit, but it's straight across.

You have to have somebody to do it.

In my mind, somebody created a surface.

You know, I‐I truly want to send my brother

some photographs of this.

And then I'm‐‐ I'll give him a call.

I'm sure he's gonna ask your opinion, I'm certain of that.

We have this significant mystery ongoing in the swamp

because the paved area has proven to be

quite a puzzle within a puzzle.

Hey. Morning.

I have, Dr. Spooner here,

and we're looking at the so‐called paved area.

I sent you some photographs, which I think you have.

I'll be honest, my eyes and boots perspective,

it's man‐made.

There's these layers of stone

above the till that have no clay around them,

and yet have swamp sediment around them.

It has to be manipulated.

I can't find a natural process that would have led to this.

It's a manipulated site.

I've worked in these environments

and in a similar environment, but it's nothing like this.

To me, it's like

somebody came in and put the small rocks on the bottom,

just like building a road, and then

put the bigger rocks on top of that.

It's that, I think, precise.

He said he has no explanation other than it's man‐made.

‐I don't know. ‐Well,

if you go seaward, we're on a line,

like, if you have the eye as a excavated site.

If you have this paved area as a filled‐in site,

maybe trying to make a platform, something solid,

and then if you go seaward,

you have the deepest portion of the swamp,

where it was actually an inle.

It all lines up

with the peninsula cutting through it.

And, so, was this some kind of work surface if people

brought boats in?

A work surface, like a dock?

Possibly used for boats or ships?

And located in the middle of the Oak Island swamp?

Could the team have finally unearthed definitive proof

that the swamp was artificially created centuries ago,

and that a ship or sailing vessel was offloaded here

and then sunk in such a way as to hide all evidence?

It's as wide as a two‐lane road,

no question about that.

This is not what I expected to see

in how clear the interface is and how

orderly the stones look, as if they're placed.

I've always thought the swamp held some sort of information,

maybe not everything, but something.

I mean, it's just very strange. It shouldn't be there.

Yeah, we can. Yeah.

‐Bye. ‐Take care. Bye.

For Rick, Marty, and their team,

unearthing what appears to be a man‐made stone platform,

or wharf, in the middle of the swamp

is nothing short of a historic breakthrough discovery.

One that may prove to be just as critical

to solving the Oak Island mystery

as finding the original Money Pit.

But who built it? When?

And for what purpose?

Those are the questions that, when answered,

might very well provide

the keys to solving the entire Oak Island mystery,

and could, in turn, change the history

not only of North America

but of the world.

Next time on The Curse of Oak Island...

The 90 Foot Stone is the most important artifact.

- Rick, look at this one. - I think we found it.

- Yeah. - Whoa!

The eye of the swamp is connected to the paved area.

Ooh! Look at that!

That is a really old tunneling tool.

That's awesome!

‐Holy crow. ‐What the heck is it?

‐This is old. We found the smoking gun.

- ‐The paved area is man‐made. - All right!