Original subtitles

Tonight on The Curse of Oak Island.

Someone's coming to visit the island.

Her father and her brother died looking for the treasure.

They were too close.

Oh, God.

I'm just afraid you might get stuck there.

Spirit of a dead priest had entered my body.

I feel like I'm constantly looking over my shoulder. Like there's something

watching you from behind.

No! No!

There is an island in the North Atlantic where men have been digging for more

than 200 years So far they have uncovered tunnels

booby traps and Carved stones with strange

symbols suggesting that something incredible must lie below

so far six men have lost their lives trying to solve the mystery

and according to legend one more will have to die

before the secret is revealed

I guess we're all agreed then that what we want to do is plan the agenda. Okay.

I think we need to prioritize what we're going to do and then have a backup plan

because everybody knows whatever can go awry goes awry here.

David is in charge of all the dangerous stuff, right?

No, that's Rick's job.

I'm just going to throw a rope on him.

Six years ago, Marty Lagina, along with his brother Rick, purchased most of Oak

Island in an attempt to solve the mystery, once and for all this started

when i was a little boy 11 and read the story of oak island all of these

questions you know that you could puzzle out and think through that was that was

very attractive and so then this oak island thing became our thing that we

always shared which is how he's always done everything his whole life he wants

us to do it the classic rick was to never give up and usually sort of drag

me along with him you know come on we can finish this We can finish this, but

Rick, it's midnight and we can't see anymore.

Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter.

In the past few weeks, Rick, Marty, and their partners have managed to find

evidence of strange bits of metal embedded in rock as deep down as 235

feet.

Whoa, whoa. That's a mother load right there? That looks like it. But the big

discovery so far is that a significant amount of coconut fiber was found more

than 1500 miles from the nearest coconut tree and dated to be more than 600 years

old it's believed that this coconut fiber was used as a kind of ancient

filter needed to keep sediment and debris out of the booby traps that

flooded the money pit okay i just want to bring everybody up to speed about the

swamp fred nolan tells us that there's some sort of plank thing in there. Did

you see that? Well, there's no question about that, because like I say, when I

was walking through the mud with a wetsuit on, you know, I'd take my foot

and feel on the outside, and I could feel the circumference of a tree. I

mean, they're pretty good-sized trees.

Here's a swamp.

Where do you say in the swamps? The deep parts right there, yeah.

All of this is shallow.

The water is only maybe maximum five feet.

If anyone knows Oak Island like the back of his hand, it's Dan Blankenship.

Dan has been living on the island and looking for treasure here for nearly

five decades.

Although he was never able to fully explore the swamp, he claims to have

found metal stake markers, wooden posts, and perhaps most intriguing, the

stumps of old oak trees.

Why is that significant?

Oak trees cannot grow in water.

And if stumps are down there, it could prove the theory that the swamp is man

-made.

You think that swamp is man-made? I always did.

Well, there you go. If somebody created a swamp, they did it to hide something,

right? I mean, you don't make a swamp for the hell of it.

So we want to see what's there.

We should get a sample of tree trunks to get...

tree dating on it to find out when they're cut down that would limit

certain theories of who planted it there when when the water got there yep well

let's get to the bottom of it then absolutely okay according to some oak

island theorists the money pit never contained any treasure at all it was

nothing more than a ruse a decoy designed to throw would-be treasure

hunters off the track they believe the real treasure vault lies buried much

closer to the surface and is hidden in plain sight.

Is it possible that the swamp has been the key to solving the Oak Island

mystery all along?

Okay, guys, well, look, it's us against this island. This is thwarted.

200 years worth of people trying.

Yeah, that's winning.

No, we're going to win, David. We're going to win. This is the year. This is

the year. This is the year. All right, let's go. Let's go do it.

Hey, everybody out. We're going to have a prelim meeting right here. Okay.

Let's figure out what we're doing.

Okay, we're going back in there. All of that stuff is coming out, all of it.

This is the first one coming down.

All right, it's laying that way. Which way do you want to drop it?

I will drop it that way. You watch and see. Well, my truck is there, and I

don't want it on the truck. Don't worry about the truck.

Kind of chilly?

It's not deep, Rick.

Before they can begin draining the swamp, Rick Lagina and the boys need to

clear trees and brush so that pumps can be brought in.

It's a very interesting bottom in here.

It really is. Yeah, what's it like?

It's like flat.

Weird. We have known anomalies in the swamp area.

Several rock anomalies, flat, huge rocks.

There's a line of stones which may or may not be oriented towards the money

pit.

One of the reasons the swamp has been so difficult and dangerous to explore is

that it's known to contain pockets of deadly hydrogen sulfide, or H2S gas.

Although colorless, it has a smell of rotten eggs.

and naturally occurs when organic matter is broken down by bacteria it is also

highly flammable and can even be explosive when trapped in small areas

you know the only reason why i'm doing this dave don't you why this water

stinks and i'm sitting in the front seat sitting right next to you no yay right

as far as what's in the swamp there are some theories that are beyond

belief

The Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Grail, the Shakespearean folios.

You don't know that these things are in the swamp.

If they are, would it be amazing? You bet it would be.

All right.

You guys got it?

I'm getting it.

We got to be pumping.

I would just put them, just leave them there for now.

You think you're in the clear and you're not? I mean, if the chainsaw's on,

something's happening and someone could get hurt. And God forbid it were you

two. I'd leave this place.

Stay conscious at all times of what's going on around you.

Rick Lagina has a good reason to be concerned about safety on Oak Island.

The island has been known to be a dangerous...

and at times, deadly place.

Since the original money pit was discovered on the island in 1795, six

men have died violently while searching for treasure.

The first of the deaths occurred in 1861, when one treasure hunter who was

trying to remove the ocean water from the booby-trapped pit using a steam

engine was scalded to death in a bizarre accident his remains were never

identified in 1897 the island claimed its second victim

when a treasure hunter named maynard kaiser fell to his death into the money

pit the island had now had its second taste of blood and it wouldn't be long

before it wanted more

Okay, guys. Initially, we're going to go off of Fred's map.

This is Fred's survey map.

Here's the area we want to explore right here, the swamp.

Once the Oak Island swamp is drained, Rick and the team will be searching the

bottom for anything unusual.

Could they find additional rocks with strange carvings on them?

Or perhaps a gateway into the original money pit?

So it looks like we're looking at this thing here. I mean, that's kind of...

Lee Lamb, this must be for you.

Oh, well.

Hello? Hi. Hi, how are you?

I'm fine.

The woman calling Rick is Lee Lamb.

She is the daughter and the sister of two more Oak Island victims.

Her father, Robert Restall, and her brother, Robert Jr., were killed.

along with two others while working on Oak Island in August of 1965.

I'm in town today, and I'd love to stop by and visit with you. And if

possible, I'd like to walk down and see the memorial that Dan put up at the site

of the accident.

Right. And I have some information that I think you might find important.

Great. We very much look forward to you coming. See you soon.

Okay, take care. You too. Bye now.

Well, that was Lee Lamb, the Restall's eldest daughter.

You know, the anniversary of the tragedies coming up, and, you know, she

has, you know, strong ties to the island. Having lost her father and her

older brother in the pit.

When that happened, they used to say they were pretty close to finding

something, or they thought so?

They thought so.

hopefully she can assist us i believe she has information that is relevant to

our present search but uh great better get cleaned up then yeah i'm excited

the arrival of lee lamb on

oak island makes the notions of a deadly curse seem all the more real it was a

reader's digest story about the rest all's search for treasure printed just a

few months before the tragedy that attracted island treasure hunter dan

blankenship it was this same article that fueled the childhood imagination of

an 11 year old boy named rick lagina a coincidence or could it be

that the oak island curse identifies and then lures its victims in advance

Hi. Oh, Dan.

Excuse me.

So good to see you.

It's wonderful to see you.

Lee Lamb has brought with her Andrew DeMont, the only living survivor

of the Restall tragedy.

He has never shared the details of what happened on that August day, nearly 50

years ago.

Pete, let's you and I hop on the way back here.

There's times when I've resented Oak Island.

Well, I've hated it for what it did to take the men out of my life.

And then my husband died a couple months later.

Oak Island started it all.

I had the most perfect life. Nobody in my life had ever died before, before Oak

Island.

The curse of Oak Island is that things go very wrong.

It's a strange place that does strange things to people.

I certainly believe in the curse and that there's some malevolent spirit on

Oak Island. I really do.

So is that the remains of Hedden's Wharf?

That's it.

It's funny.

My memory doesn't have that island so close.

In 1965,

Leigh Lamb was a young woman living with her husband in Ontario, Canada.

Although she was not on Oak Island when her father and brother were killed, she

remains haunted by the tragedy to this day.

Have you seen this? This is what Dan Blankenship had put up.

What were you saying that the final pit was?

Close to this, right here, in that area right there.

Lee's father, Robert, and her mother, Mildred Restall, worked together as

motorcycle daredevils at county fairs and auto shows during the 1940s and 50s.

Their act featured the notorious Globe of Death, where both reached speeds of

65 miles per hour, crisscrossing one another in a metal cage.

If their timing had been off by even a fraction of a second, the consequences

could have been deadly.

With that kind of fearlessness, it's no wonder that Robert Rustall was convinced

he could solve the mystery of Oak Island.

His conviction later became an obsession.

In 1959, he, along with Mildred and their sons Robert Jr.

and Ricky, began living on Oak Island, while Robert and Bobby Jr.

looked for treasure there.

But on August 17, 1965, just as they thought they were getting close to

solving the mystery,

Robert stopped to check a 27-foot-deep treasure shaft when he was overcome by

deadly H2S gas.

He then fell straight down into four feet of water.

His son and four other men jumped in to rescue him.

But not before they, too.

were overcome by the deadly gas that had filled the watery pit after a frantic

rescue effort only two men came out of the hole alive oak island had

claimed four more souls and lee lamb had lost both her father and her brother

to the island's deadly curse the memories there is plain estate

i can still see it

I heard cries.

And everybody, of course, run to the pit to help.

So Sorrel and I was together.

The gas was so strong that once you got there, you know there was no going back

up. It was like a pit. It was nothing but a fog and an ugly stink and a smell,

and it was terrible.

So on the way, down probably five feet there was a big timber there stretched

across the pit leonard kaiser somehow he got balanced just like this on that big

timber so they got him right away and uh cyril and i proceeded to go down

your

brother had your father by the shoulders while he was yelling he still hit him

about his shoulders out of the water

The last I remember, I had your brother by the shoulder and...

And passed out.

Oh yeah, I was gone within seconds.

So they were still alive when you passed out. Just your brother.

Your brother held on well. He must have been really strong because the gas, he

was there way before we got there, right? Yeah. And he still had your

father underwater.

Felt so bad because we couldn't help.

for me to stand there and be told by Andrew how much

had gone on that day and to see the

emotion in him.

And he told me things that I didn't know.

So I was glad to hear that.

I was glad to hear every piece of it.

I just want to say thank you. Oh, you're welcome.

It's great to meet you guys.

This isn't just about a treasure hunt. It's not just about finding something on

Oak Island.

It's bigger than that.

Oak Island has reached its tentacles far beyond just Oak Island.

It has affected numerous people's families financially, emotionally,

ruined lives.

The Restall story, one thing it tells is, look, you have to be careful on Oak

Island.

There's danger here.

Okay.

Thank you.

Oh, it's lovely out here. That's beautiful, isn't it? Nice breeze.

Following her emotional visit to the scene of her father and brother's tragic

deaths, Lee Lamb has asked Rick Lagina to meet with her one more time before

she returns home.

I just wanted a minute alone with you. I didn't want to make a big deal in front

of people.

This is one of Bobby's maps.

Lee Lamb has spent the decade since her father and brother's deaths gathering

information about the Restall tragedy and sharing it with those who have dared

to follow in their footsteps.

Now, when we were on the island and that article came out that so tantalized all

of you, they were just buried in mail and requests and information.

People ask how many feet it is to this or whatever.

So Bobby made this map up to scale. This was helpful because an investor might,

you know.

find this helpful.

Now there's one other thing, and I hope you'll study them, but I

must have them back.

This part is not a gift.

I'm curious now, obviously.

Logbooks by your father or Bobby? These are Bobby's journals.

My father never wrote journals.

Bobby's the only one.

So in here... How old was he?

He was 18.

Yeah. Every day, too. Every day. Every day.

Wow.

It's like history coming alive.

Sunday, November 6th, 1960.

Mom found a small stone.

It has 1704 carved in it.

It was found on top of a pile of stones we tossed out of an area of paving on

the pit to cave-in shaft line.

the seventeen o four stone had been part of a buried man-made reservoir the

restalls uncovered at smith's cove that fed ocean water to the booby trap

tunnels that flooded the money pit could seventeen o four be the year the money

pit was constructed and the treasure buried on oak island here's september

twenty second nineteen sixty this is exactly what we were talking about

Jack Adams located approximate position of his mystery box.

I started cutting wood necessary for a working platform.

According to Bobby Restall's journals, he and his father believed they were

close to finding a so-called mystery box, or vault, that Jack Adams, a former

caretaker on the island in the 1930s, claimed was buried underneath the water

and muck of the Oak Island Swamp.

Of the numerous theories about Oak Island, many suggest that something of

great value may have been buried on the island and then hidden at the bottom of

a man-made swamp.

Could this mystery box be proof that those theories are true?

I have pictures of this, Rick, just pictures of him working in the swamp.

like leaning over the water and probing with this big long pole. You know what

would be immensely helpful because then we have a way to reference what

we're looking at. Okay.

Perhaps one of the Restall Expedition's greatest discoveries was made in the

winter of 1962.

According to his journals, Bobby and his father had discovered a spiral-shaped

tunnel in the Money Pit.

One that wound downward in a clockwise direction.

Approximately 104 feet below the island's surface.

Could the mystery box in the swamp be somehow connected to this strange

corkscrew-like passageway?

Perhaps as an entrance or gateway?

For the next two and a half years, the Restalls worked day and night hoping to

find a way into the strange tunnel.

And whatever.

might be hidden there.

They believed they were on the verge of solving the mystery of Oak Island.

Unfortunately, they would never live to prove it.

I want you to look at this entry.

Monday, August 16th.

Dozer got down to about 13 feet.

Water getting in from drill holes and beach pits.

That's Cave and Pit.

And he puts the day he stayed in for the next day, and that was the day they were

killed.

Wow.

I just want to give you some advice.

I've been so impressed with how much you respect the island.

It's just that I'm just afraid that you might get stuck there.

You know, it becomes difficult to go day after day.

I mean, are you suggesting that I stop working? No, I just have a little

trouble letting go of things, but I'm sorry. I know you'll understand. Sure,

sure.

You know what? I mean, we can't change this. We can't do anything about it.

perhaps on the end of this book you and i can fill in here excuse me that we

finish yeah finish the search

let's make a promise

thank you oh you're welcome

give us one big hug before you i've had so many hugs

i'm so spoiled

I'm not much of a hugger, but, you know... You're getting good. I'm getting

good.

Lee Lamb is convinced her father and brother were close to making a major

discovery before the accident that took their lives.

Now that Rick Lagina and the other members of the Oak Island team are

turning their attentions to the swamp, could history be repeating itself?

And if so, will the outcome be the same?

as it was on that August day in 1965.

Hey guys, what are we doing?

Truck should be behind us.

Pumps are going to get offloaded down there. We're running hose up to the

uplands, flip the switch, water goes up there, swamp gets dry. All right.

all the permits are in place swamp water dry finally i get it

with all the government permits and permissions they need

secured rick dave and the boys begin the process of draining the swamp but it

isn't going to be easy covering an area close to four and a half acres

the swamp holds approximately 3 million gallons of brackish water.

Because of environmental laws, the team cannot simply pump the water into the

nearby ocean, so they will have to move it from the swamp to another part of the

island.

To do this, they're going to use two 95-horsepower pumps and five miles of

hose.

Four right here. Four? Yup.

It's an operation that will take several days and cost tens of thousands of

dollars before the team will be able to find out what might have been buried

there hundreds of years ago.

Male end toward the pumps, female end away from the pump.

Now this one is rolled perfect right, the right way, so you plug it in and

just unroll it.

This is the male end, smaller and has the grooves for the female end.

to clamp in on it make sure you got the rubber in it yeah gotta have a rubber

yep you don't want a bunch of baby hoses running around

we'll

take both hoses about 30 feet up that road yeah and then take one that way and

one will go straight yeah they're gonna work because i got a twist in it that's

no that's right

It's like you're going to come off a loon door.

Do they get heavy after about the 50th one or something? Yes, they're heavy

right now.

We've always wanted to drain the swamp for one simple reason.

It's never been done before.

There we go.

Now we only got 98 more.

As far as what we expect to find, I don't know. And that's what's so

exciting. The unknown is always exciting.

So as soon as we start draining of the swamp.

Then we'll find out the answer.

Think she's going to work, Dan?

No. It'll certainly fill the hoses with water.

A self-proclaimed hermit, Dan Henske has been searching for treasure on Oak

Island for nearly 50 years.

He is also firmly convinced that the island is haunted and that the legends

about a deadly curse are all too true.

While helping Dan and Dave Blankenship dig borehole 10x back in the 1970s, Dan

often complained of having a series of nightmares.

Nightmares that nearly scared him to death.

Back in 1973, an experience happened to me which was quite strange.

It involved what appeared to be possession by a spirit of someone long

dead. I thought that the spirit of a dead priest had entered my body and that

the priest had his throat cut.

I do remember falling down, feeling that I was experiencing

the death of this person.

I don't actually know if what's happened to me on Oak Island was real or

imaginary.

There is this long-standing legend about pirates killing somebody in such a way

that the spirit of the dead person would guard the treasure forever or until the

pirates came back and got it themselves.

Could Dan Henske's belief that his soul was possessed by a murdered priest

simply be dismissed as a strange hallucination?

Or is it possible that there really are dark forces on Oak Island?

forces that guard the secrets of the island and protect whatever it is that

is buried there.

Some say the first instance of something not quite right about the island was the

evening in 1795 when 18-year-old Daniel McGuinness spotted three strange green

lights that eventually lured him and two of his friends across the bay to the

area where they would discover the money pit.

Since then, other eerie encounters have been documented, from sightings of the

ghosts of 18th century British troops to those who believe the ravens on the

island are actually possessed by the souls of the slaves who dug the treasure

tunnels hundreds of years ago.

Before they drain the swamp, Rick and Marty Lagina have invited a group of

paranormal investigators to join them in an effort to find out if the Oak Island

legends about ghosts and curses have any basis in fact.

We've had lots of different experiences here. Linda has brought some pictures

for you guys to see.

This was the first one that I had taken at 10X, and I wasn't really sure what

this was.

So I zoomed in on it Still

not really sure what it is looks like a skull doesn't it

We try to debunk as much as we can once we can't debunk it anymore

then it's just kind of left unexplained

Well, let me ask you guys a question. You do this all over the place, right?

Is this place different?

Yeah, there's a mystery and an aura.

There's an energy to it. Yeah, there is.

Some of you play the skeptic. Harold's a skeptic.

Yeah, and I did hear what we thought were footsteps. I was down by the swamp

area.

Out of my right side, I could hear these footsteps, and I was shining the light

in the swamp, expecting to turn around and see somebody there, but there was

nothing.

We got a boogeyman.

The investigators lead Marty, Rick, and the team to the swamp, one of the places

where many of them have experienced strange, unexplained phenomena.

Out of all the spots on the island, this is the spot that I get creeped out the

most in.

I actually don't even really like being down here. Can you articulate why you

don't like it? It's just the energy that's down here. It's focused on these

trees over here.

We intend to do extensive work here in the swamp looking for clues to what

happened. Who knows what that activity will engage.

So you're going to make it creepier for me is what you're saying. Yes.

We're good to start. Voice recorder start at 8 o'clock.

We have our K2s. One of the little green lights light up. There's five little

indicator lights on it.

So what does that read?

Yeah, any energy or power sources.

There are those who believe that if something really is buried on Oak

Island, it is something best left undisturbed.

I feel very, very creeped out and uncomfortable, like I'm constantly

looking over my shoulder.

Like there's something watching you from behind.

Yeah, exactly.

Oh, we got hit on the K2.

Yeah, that's a big one.

What exactly have the researchers on Oak Island encountered?

Could it be just a simple mechanical malfunction?

Or is it something much more profound?

That is an indication that there's something here trying to communicate

with us.

Is the curse valid?

I don't know. Do strange things happen on Oak Island? Yes, they do.

There's another hit there.

I'm not a big believer in curses. You know, it seems like there's a pile of

stuff that happens. But no, honestly, in my heart, I don't believe it's the Oak

Island curse.

We would like to get more gear, but you know. We don't want to hinder the search

progress, but I think we can cooperate.

Sounds great.

Did Rick and Marty Lagina just experience one of the mysterious forces?

that are rumored to exist on Oak Island?

Perhaps. But that isn't enough to prevent them from trying to solve the

200-year-old mystery.

They've invested too many years and too much money to stop now.

After the strange incident that happened at the swamp the night before,

Rick, Marty, and the Oak Island team meet one last time before they begin

their biggest and possibly most challenging operation so far, the

draining of the swamp.

I just want to talk about, okay, when we drain the swamp, what are we going to

do? I mean, what are we looking for? How are we going to look for it? Well, we're

looking... If we start in this corner of the swamp, that's where our pump is,

basically, right? Right. So we were probing in this general vicinity, and we

came upon, you can describe it. A smooth rock.

Just smooth as this table. There's no silt on it, no nothing.

About three by eight feet.

That was two years ago. We looked last year, and we couldn't find it again.

Dan also claimed there was a tunnel from the ocean to the swamp. I mean, you're

looking at... The money pit. Maybe there's a shaft. They had to have a way

to introduce air down to those lower depths.

Smooth stone structures?

Tunnels into the money pit from the ocean?

Could these findings be connected to Bobby Restall's journal entries about a

mystery box?

And strange corkscrew-like tunnels?

Okay. Which brings me to the last thing I have, then. What about safety?

We know...

There's poison gas on this island.

H2S will kill you very quickly. It basically paralyzes you.

Right. We're going to be pumping the swamp down. We're going to be in a low

-lying area. I mean, usually the ocean breezes will keep the air moving. We

should be fine. Yeah, I'll look, though, but it's dangerous. How much

concentrated are we going to get in being in such a big area?

David, it can behave really weirdly. On a calm day, it could pool, right? Yeah,

it pools up. But that's just it. I would like to see us have part per million.

detectors. The reason we know about this is it's a common contaminant in natural

gas and at concentrations that'll kill you so quickly you can't, one breath,

one breath and you're dead.

Yeah, you're paralyzed.

And the other insidious thing about it is that at higher concentrations, it

deadens the olfactory cells in your nose. So you're going along and say, oh

man, that stinks, sour gas, but I'm still okay. Then all of a sudden you

don't smell it again.

And then about 10 seconds later, you're dead.

It's very important.

It sounds insignificant, but no one goes in there alone ever.

I'll accept that. David can speak to that.

If it's going to go wrong, it's going to go wrong.

On that note.

Okay, let's go. Let's call this meeting.

All right, everybody else, get the hose in the water and get after it.

If Rick and Marty can successfully drain the swamp, they could discover what

might be the final piece in a 200-year-old puzzle.

But will solving the Oak Island mystery really be the end of the story, or only

the beginning?

All the previous searchers, the early discoverers, the early explorers, came

with a sense of, I can solve what's unsolvable, more so than I think the

singular pursuit of treasure.

I think that's what has driven a lot of people to this island.

I can do what others have failed to do.

I'm not thinking I'm the guy to do it, necessarily.

I'm thinking he's the guy to do it. Well, I have no intention of failing.

See?

Keep going, Rick.

We believe in you.

How cold is that water, by the way, big brother? It's not fun.

No, I'll bet not.

All right.

Okay. Start it up.

Let's go.

There he goes.

Yeah, I want to see the discharge point here.

Yay!

High five. The swamp is actually being drained.

Rick, Marty, and the other members of their team are within hours of finding

out whether the Oak Island swamp hides the key to solving a 200-year-old

mystery.

Could it really be a gateway to a vast underground labyrinth of tunnels and

treasure vaults?

Or will it lead to a dead end?

And what of the legend that seven must die in pursuit of the treasure before it

can ever be found?

So far, six men have lost their lives in pursuit of a dream.

A dream that became an obsession.

but was it the island that claimed these souls or was it their own blind desire

to go farther and deeper than man was ever meant to go and if so

who will be next who will be the next victim of the curse of oak

island

Next time on The Curse of Oak Island. I found the treasure map leading to Oak

Island.

It is concealed in holds in the manuscripts of William Shakespeare.

And it also tells you what the treasure is.

You believe that the menorah of the Temple of Solomon could be buried on Oak

Island? Yeah, this is it.

I'm actually getting multiple signals.

I'm jumping in. Hey!