Original subtitles

previously on the Curse of Oak Island.

We've got tunnels.

We've got gold. We've got silver, rubies, diamonds.

X marks the spot. Right there. That's the gold signature.

We need to cut the riser pipe. 10X, here we go!

Okay, here we go. There's a lot of stuff on the bottom. What's to the right

there?

That's the post.

We did some really good sonar. We can see it's a man-made object.

Is it possible chest?

Really? We did find something unique. It sits right here.

There's an object down there that looks like human remains.

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 bits of gold chain, a stone slab with strange symbols

carved into it, even a 17th century Spanish coin.

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

For brothers Rick and Marty Lagina, the lifelong dream to solve the Oak Island

mystery may finally become a reality.

Let's be careful with this. Yeah. Let's get it so it doesn't roll off that edge

because that would be bad.

There we go.

Look at this, guys. It's a rectangular object.

After completing a series of sonar tests, which indicate that everything

from wooden posts, chests, Man-made tunnels and even a dead body might be

lying at the bottom of the 235-foot-deep borehole known as 10X.

They are more determined than ever to send a diver down to the bottom to find

out if the test results are true.

But getting to the bottom of 10X will be both expensive and dangerous, as more

than 40 years of harsh weather.

churning salt water, and falling debris have taken their toll.

If we're going to get to the bottom of 10X, we're going to get the junk out of

it.

There's a bunch of stuff laying in the bottom of the hole that we don't even

know what it is.

But the first things to remove are all the things sticking up from the bottom

that come either to the top or near the top.

If we're going to venture back down that hole, those things have to be removed.

You have to remove the obstructions. Yes.

All right.

These, I think, are arranged reasonably well. Yeah, let's just lay it right

across, and we'll put two screws into that to hold it.

We'll go over the rail with it.

Before clearing out 10X, the team must first secure the working platform that

has been constructed over the 8-foot-wide hole.

We want people to be as safe as possible, but also to be able to see,

you know, the various pipes and things.

Yeah, all right, that'll hold against anything.

An 8-inch wide riser pipe, one of three placed there over the years to pump

water out of the hole, will be the first to be removed.

That's enough to get on it, isn't it? But since the pipe is approximately 180

feet long, a boom truck with a 100-foot crane has been brought in to lift it up.

Okay. It will then be held in place with steel bracing, also known as ears.

Think that's good enough?

Right here, Pete.

Finally, it will be cut with a welding torch and taken away in 20-foot

sections.

Yeah, here's the deal, guys. I think you should clear off there.

If that chain breaks, it's going to spring.

Mm-hmm.

Do it, baby.

Doing anything, David?

It's not clearing from the wood yet.

I don't think you're going to get it.

Well, one thing's for sure. It's in the anhydrite.

Anhydrite, or anhydrous calcium sulfate, is a hard, rock-like substance.

usually formed by the evaporation of salt water.

When digging 10X in the 1970s, treasure hunter Dan Blankenship had to drill

through approximately 44 feet of it before reaching what he believes is a 10

-foot high man-made treasure chamber.

Just start to clear the wood.

If the drill pipe is stuck in anhydrite, it will be even more difficult to

remove.

How about just switching her on to the other side right now so it rocks it the

other way? Yeah.

Wrap around it. Yeah.

Watch it, Rick.

There we go. Got her now.

better by the balls now yeah whenever you're pulling a string of pipe you pull

it up like this and it's hanging in the derrick and then there's a thing down

here called the slips and it holds it yeah we had that

clamp to hold all the pieces if you will still left in the hole and then we could

cut this off and lay this piece down okay we're ready to cut Now it's just a

matter of David torching them off. We've got the clamp in place, so it's pull 20,

torch, pull 20, torch.

Where do you want to lay them down?

Right back here.

Lay them down right over there.

We got the first piece out. Everything worked fine.

Procedure seems to work.

Do the same thing on the next lift.

Then we come back and get onto the next one and just keep following that process

till we get that pipe out of the hole.

As Rick, Marty, and Dave Blankenship work to clear away rusted pipes and

debris from 10X, Craig Tester and his stepson, Jack Begley, along with veteran

Oak Island treasure hunter, Dan Henske, arrived near the island's fabled money

pit to test an incredible theory.

One that suggests there isn't only one treasure buried on Oak Island, but

several. When the Lennards came here, they had this map using satellite

technology that seems a little far out.

You're saying that you can find objects within tunnels?

We can, through the magnetic resonance imaging.

A few weeks ago...

Father and son treasure hunters, Robert and Bob Leonard, came to Oak Island to

present evidence that using highly advanced satellite-based technology,

they had identified a vast network of underground treasure tunnels.

We've got tunnels. We've got gold, bronze, silver, rubies,

ivory, diamonds.

And one part of me says this is completely impossible.

On the other hand, what if they're right?

Absolutely.

If we're able to dig up one of these hits today, it should put me at 100%

that this technology works.

So what I did, I examined the map.

Before leaving the island, the Leonards gave Jack and the team a number of GPS

coordinates indicating where both precious and non-precious metal targets

should lie buried.

Well, I picked out a bunch of small targets that are about two to three feet

down on this map, and there's one that's over here by the money pit, and I got a

GPS unit that should get us within a couple feet.

Why don't you lead us there, Dan?

Oh, is this the red line north?

Okay. All right, well, you want to lead us there?

Okay, here we go.

Oh, boy.

Getting too old for this. We better find something soon.

We really weren't looking for a treasure at this point in time. We were looking

for accuracy of this map that the Leonards presented to us.

Okay, now.

We started near the money pit.

There was supposedly a piece of metal that was buried anywhere from two to

three feet down.

What do you think? That's pretty close.

We located it based on GPS.

Right about here.

And then ran a metal detector.

to determine where it might be looks good within

seconds craig tester gets a reading so it's right on the edge could they really

have found a metal object buried in shallow ground right where robert and

bob leonard indicated it would be yeah right about where that stone's at you're

getting that

Watch your finger. Yeah back at 10x Rick Marty and the team Continue their

efforts to clear one of the corroded metal riser pipes from the shaft

We're

ready to cut

looks like we lost our pipe boys oh my how the hell did that happen

the team's plan to pull a riser pipe from 10x has just gone terribly wrong

after cutting a second 20 foot section of the 180 foot pipe the

weight of the remaining 140 feet has slipped through its brace and fallen

back down the shaft landing far below the water level

What started as an operation to remove obstructions has just become much more

complicated. My concern is that, you know, it didn't fall straight down.

I'm worried that it might have got entangled with the ladder.

If it did, then that's much more difficult for the divers.

Is it hung up? Is it just balanced somewhere? Might it fall when they're in

10X? We simply don't know.

So we need a diver to go down, hook a chain onto it or a cable and pull it up

and start all over again.

It's something that weighs several thousand pounds, dropped 40 feet.

It was cooking when it hit bottom.

And if that pipe is stuck in the wall, we need to come up with a different

plan. The island wins another one. When do we win?

I don't know.

There's a bunch of rocks.

Meanwhile, back near the money pit, Craig Tester, Jack Begley, and Dan

Henske have just detected a metal target.

Right where the Leonard's nuclear magnetic resonance imaging map indicated

they would find one.

Still nothing, Craig?

Not in this pile.

All they have to do now is dig it up.

It really makes me understand how tough it is to dig this stuff.

That's why they could dig the money pit without putting in cribbing or safety

liner. The ground is pretty tough, yeah.

Although the object they're looking for is not likely to be treasure, it could

help prove the theory that there are dozens of treasure tunnels and treasure

sites lying deep underground and all over the island.

We kept on digging deeper, and the signal got stronger, but in a bigger

area.

I'm really starting to hate this clay.

it was such a big clean target but oh my gosh i thought this was going to take me

all day people used to talk about digging down to china but i don't think

jack here is in much danger of reaching china if there is something two to three

feet down i'm gonna make sure that i get to it and find it there you go right

that's uh that looks like rust right there yes there it is

Now, what is it?

That's what we're going to find out, hopefully.

It is. It's a big piece of metal. Is that all metal coming this way?

Yeah.

Yeah, it is.

Basically, there's a wide range of things that might be, and none of them

valuable. It's just the way things are. Way to keep my hopes up.

As one of the three men who dug 10X more than 40 years ago, Dan Henske knows Oak

Island like the back of his hand.

He's also experienced his fair share of hopeful excitement, followed by bitter

disappointment.

Nevertheless, the 76-year-old treasure hunter refuses to give up. There's no

way to get in there at all.

Yeah, okay.

More than anyone on the island, He believes that the legends about deadly

curses and buried treasures are true.

Nobody get in front of me.

You're a wild man.

There you go.

And there's a piece of cable down there, wouldn't you know.

I was under the cable and this wasn't coming. There you go.

It's all yours. You worked for it.

I guess it took an old man to do a young man's job.

But what the heck is this?

Looks like a tubing. Looks like a piece of pipe that's split from one end to the

other, which is interesting.

According to the maps applied to the Oak Island team by Robert and Bob Leonard,

this exact spot is where their satellite-based technology indicated the

presence of a ferrous metal, like iron.

We found the pipe exactly where they showed it was supposed to be.

I think it gives really good validity to their whole technology.

But if the Leonard's map spotted the iron, could the readings on gold,

silver, and jewels, which are allegedly buried much deeper, be accurate as well?

That looks like it's been there quite a while and a little salt water to boot.

That's really cool, though. I feel like... It's kind of my responsibility

to help prove that this technology is something worth noticing instead of just

kind of throwing it away.

Okay, so what gets credit for locating this?

You do.

You brought it up. Who gets to carry all the gear back? That's you.

Oh, okay.

Later that same day, members of the Oak Island team gather in the war room.

Okay, guys, back on point. Where else do we want to drill?

Why don't you bring up your thing now, Jack?

I want to put the Leonard's to rest.

I dug up that piece. Was that the depth they said it would be?

Although Marty, Rick, and Dave have experienced setbacks during their

attempts to clear the riser pipes out of 10X, Jack and Craig's news that the

Leonard's map may actually lead them to treasure has rekindled their eagerness

to keep digging.

I'd really like for this spot to get drilled. Why do you believe it, Jack?

It seems to me to be somewhat feasible.

This is supposed technology, and I think that drilling it is the best way to find

out. You know, they're giving us a map that shows where jewels and rubies and

stuff are. It seems way too good to be true, quite honestly.

Well, Jack, usually that is.

I mean, what do we have to lose?

The cost to drill a well.

well yeah yeah but i am looking to prove or disprove theories that come to us but

i'm going to say something jack i don't i just absolutely do not buy at all the

photographic and mri i don't buy it but

This to me, I'm gonna just be candid. There's this want to believe thing that

you see a giant cavity filled with gold Get it it's Aladdin's cave

touch nothing bring me the lamp right but the reason I'm

It may make sense to still drill that well as the resistivity at least but

resistivity is a known technology whether their device

I don't know. Right.

Here's what I'm willing to do if you're willing to vote with me.

Okay. Yeah.

Where are you?

I'm 50-50. We do it. We'll make them right or we'll make them wrong. It

either has to be this or this. All right, then I'll go up. Let's do it.

I'll go up.

I know where you are. I don't mind. Yeah. Two thumbs.

I vote like this.

Vote with me.

Okay. But out of respect for the fellowship, then, it would carry.

Well, thank you. We're in on it. Thank you. All right, Jack. We're all going in

on this, at least partially from your enthusiasm, okay?

Way to go, Jack.

It's not drilled yet. Well, you got your hole.

I know. I know. I'm psyched.

It is the start of a new day on Oak Island.

A day of new opportunities, new information, and new challenges.

Hey, Rick, I do have a bit of a... Well, it kind of feels like bad news.

I was on the phone all day with my office, and I need to go back Saturday

and be gone next week.

And I'm kind of disappointed.

I mean, I know, I know, because the whole thing about this was for you and I

to have fun together.

Next week is fun. Next week is the busy week. Yeah, I know.

That's what I feel bad about.

You know, I woke up, not this morning, but yesterday, and I said, our luck has

changed. We're going to make progress. We're going to get to the bottom of 10X,

and it's going to happen expeditiously.

That's how I feel. I do. I feel real bad about leaving.

Look, you know, here's my thing about that.

If we don't make significant progress next week, I want to promise from you

that we will legitimately revisit the drawdown in 10x.

Look, it's a personal agenda.

Call it flawed, but I would like to stand on the bottom.

Last spring.

the Oak Island team held a meeting at Marty and Craig's offices in Traverse

City, Michigan.

There, Rick Lagina made it known that rather than send divers in wetsuits down

10X, he favored an approach that would pump the shaft dry, a strategy that

would offer broader access and visibility.

I think it can be done cheaply. It's my belief that it can be done safely.

and we'll learn certain things. I'm just going to be real clear. I don't want to

do that. I think it's undefinably dangerous.

The problem is when you evacuate any sort of tube, if you have water pressure

on the outside and there's nothing inside, just air pressure on the inside,

then that force becomes enormous.

It tries to collapse.

Oh, Rick, I hate the idea of you going down that hole. I hate the idea of

anybody going down that hole. I'm willing to take the risk.

And I believe that the shaft will stand.

I'm not asking you for a promise that we will do that. I'm asking you for a

promise that we will legitimately revisit that issue.

Wow.

You got my promise.

Okay, fine.

I will in good faith sit down and we'll discuss it, right?

You got it, brother.

Promises, mutual promises.

Done. Done.

Oh, yeah. To the bottom of 10X.

And it will reveal its secrets.

While Marty, Rick, and the rest of the team return to the task of clearing the

riser pipes out of the shaft,

Craig Tester, along with his son, Drake, and stepson, Jack Begley, have traveled

to the middle of the island, northwest of the Oak Island Swamp.

Hey meeting with them is Jordan Rogers and his assistant Cody pinio from Valley

well drillers Well, let's show him where the spot is. You got him. All right.

Yeah It was at this same spot that Robert and Bob Leonard Indicated there

could be a large treasure cavity containing gold lying approximately 140

feet below the surface

It's pretty much right here. This is pretty much the middle of the cavity,

and then it's even longer that way.

Okay. All right. Let's get going. Today's the day.

The cavity should be around 140 feet down. That's what they're projecting.

The slate should drill quite fast. I would think three hours, and we should

be down to that depth.

So we should know something by noon today.

The first 10 to 15 feet of earth that Jordan will be drilling through.

is hard glacial till composed of soil, gravel, and boulders.

Steel casing will then be inserted to ensure that the hole doesn't collapse

during the process.

Once through what is called the overburden, the ground changes to hard,

solid slate.

How deep are we?

This is the third joint, so it's going from 40 to 60 feet.

And that's all the way down to 60 feet.

He's moving at a great pace.

We should be there in no time.

What we're looking for is for that bit to also drop down into the hole. We want

it to drop into that cavity.

Slates don't have cavities. If we find something here... it should be man-made

so with this one we're at 120 yep getting pretty close yeah that

means this next section should hit it yeah it should be really easy to see the

drill drop because it will literally drop just about there gotta be almost

130. yeah a little bit to go yet

Congratulations, Al.

Will you hit it? Water.

The presence of water is not a good sign.

It could mean that instead of a man-made treasure vault containing gold, there is

nothing more buried here than a natural underground spring.

Can we keep going the extra 20 feet to see if we can hit that supposed cavity

then? Yeah, sounds good.

Jackson's enthusiasm has been sky high.

but he was the one out here when they ran the resistivity he saw where they

indicated the cave was and seeing is believing jordan and his team

drill through the water an additional 10 then 20 feet down in hopes of finding

the cavity but still nothing only water hey jordan well

you didn't see anything at all did you no okay you can

start breaking down here.

So, appreciate it.

We did hit a water zone.

That may be proving that the resistivity part of the test that they had run was

working, that maybe it's not a cavity they were seeing, it's just fractured

slate, and we're getting water from that fractured slate.

I'm not done searching with the NMRI. There's a couple more hits that we can

drill, and I might be able to talk you guys into it if I find those other

subsurface hits.

I think after this one, it's going to be much tougher to talk the group into

drilling.

Could finding only water really be an indication that the Leonard's treasure

map is flawed?

Or is it possible that the map's numerous treasure sites, just like the

original money pit, have been booby-trapped?

by means of an ingenious network of underground flood tunnels.

It's not cheap by any means to drill wells. We need to focus our money on

finding the treasure.

And if this could have led to it, great.

But we spent the money here, and we need to move on to other areas, other

technologies that'll take us to the treasure.

Well, let's go. Let everybody know. All right.

Okay, let's get this thing down the hole.

With his brother headed back to Michigan on business, Rick Lagina returns to the

task of clearing away the riser pipes from 10X.

Put your fingers here. Yep.

First, he will need to partially drain the 235-foot deep borehole in order to

expose the pipes and allow easier access.

To do so...

he will insert a high-powered water pump into another borehole known as 201X.

This is a hole that Dan Blankenship drilled more than 30 years ago when he

needed to flush water and debris out while widening the shaft.

It is connected to 10X through tunnels that are approximately 235 feet deep

underground.

Today, Mark Verge is here.

He's going to do the pump install.

There she goes.

In addition to the 140-foot section of riser pipe that fell down the shaft,

there are also two others that will need to be removed.

All right, I think we're good to go.

We get a 40-horsepower pump that will allow a drawdown of 30 feet and keep it

at 30 feet.

So we'll get that going, a four-inch discharge line, onto the beach.

You ready to hook that up?

Uh, yeah.

In order to draw the water out of borehole 201X, Rick and the team have

laid more than 200 feet of hose down to Smith's Cove.

They've also built a berm, or embankment, to ensure the pumping

doesn't cause erosion to the beach.

Good job, boys.

Okay, we're ready.

We've got our fingers crossed on the borehole. Can it perform as we hope?

With the pump in place and running, the water level in 10X slowly begins to

drop. The goal is to remove the three pipes simply because it allows the

divers a less obstructive dive.

So we remove the three pipes, and it's three less things they have to encounter

on their way down.

Get your horses in gear. Let's go.

What's your problem? What do you think? You think you can latch on that six

inch? I think so.

Stand the torches up and unload them right here. Give me 40 foot of hose.

We pull up, we tie off, we can torch them off at surface, lay the pipes down,

and just keep pulling up and extracting the obstacles.

Beautiful.

Hey, Dan.

You got the best job.

You want to take this seat?

No, I wouldn't want to take anything away from you.

Now that the water level has been drained down, the team has been able to

locate the 140 foot section of riser pipe that fell down 10x.

But before they can remove it, there is another pipe that will have to be taken

out first.

You want to do it? I'll do it.

When Charles suggested that he would like to go down, I was a little worried

because before today, the one thing that he had never done was put himself in

10X. Watch the lips. That's where you're going to get hung up. Okay, we're clear

on this side, David.

It can be a real tough nut.

You got it, Rick.

It's a confined space.

You have to make sure the basket is properly oriented.

All right, we want to go down a little bit more.

and also make sure that all the equipment to accomplish the task it's at

hand but that guy lives and breathes this place there we go and he knows

sometimes you just want to get your feet dirty and get it done okay all right so

far everything is going according to plan but on oak island the only thing

that can be expected is that the unexpected will happen touchdown

As Rick, Dave, Charles, and their partners know all too well, the island

lures those who would know its secrets with the promise of treasure.

You trust that joker?

The jokers I do, but the nylon is the one I'm worried about.

But when the seeker gets too close, tragedy strikes, and usually without

warning.

Such was the case on March 26, 1897.

Maynard Kaiser.

One of the men hired by Frederick Blair to help excavate the money pit was being

lifted out of the shaft when a hoisting rope mysteriously slipped off a pulley,

sending him to his death some hundred feet below.

Clear the deck when he starts coming out.

Everybody off.

Straighten the deck out.

Come on, baby, you can do it.

Come on,

baby, you can do it.

Whoa.

The weight of the second riser pipe has snapped the cable, dealing Rick Lagina

and the Oak Island team another serious setback.

Have to go down and get that one again, won't we? Mm-hmm.

All right, Charles, you think that we could... Want to try that one? You could

go on that. Yeah.

Harness yourself up and see if you can put this through the loop.

Okay, hop in.

Back in the bucket.

The pipe we lost, the fact that it was still vertical was great.

What do you want, Charles?

To buck it up a bit, David.

That's good. Right there. Hold it. Charles went down hole and latched onto

it. Got it, Charles.

Okay. Pull me up.

That was a bit of a struggle.

Want to get through the shackle there?

Yeah.

We'll try one last pull on that riser pipe.

Hopefully it'll come.

There we got it.

Yep, nice and cut.

He's still got another three or four feet.

Yeah, but we got to put that I-beam across.

Okay, well, drag it over here, put it in.

All right, push over as far as you can, Pete.

Finally, progress is being made.

Now, there are only two more riser pipes left to be removed.

Here it goes.

Once done, professional divers will be called in to clear out the debris that

lies deeper down under the murky water.

There we go.

For Dan Blankenship, the man who dug 10X more than 40 years ago, the sight of all

the discarded riser pipes is a bittersweet one.

Because for him, Each one represents decades of back-breaking work, personal

struggle, hopeful planning, and chronic disappointment.

These splits are put in to pull the water in, to allow for the water, see?

But now, if all goes well, Dan may soon have the answers and the validation he

has been seeking for half a century.

There is only time to remove one more pipe before nightfall.

The pipe that slipped the team's grasp two days ago.

And Dave Blankenship is up for the task.

I can tip them over.

No, you can't. Just get us some pipe up the surface, David. That's all you got

to do.

he's caught take me up a little bit

hold that all

right down easy hold me right there

hold everything right there

Okay,

that's good. Get me out of here.

He's getting it. He's getting it. There she comes.

Well, the truth of the matter is, it hadn't been a very successful day, and

we thought, okay, we're going to get even.

Coming up easy.

All right.

We're going to take one punch at this thing, and that was the punch.

Get that riser out of the hole.

Watch your fingers, Rick. Yeah, I got it.

That's free.

Coming at you.

What's important is that we're actually working together as a team.

Watch it, Jack. That's part of the fun of Oak Island.

So, between us.

David, Peter, myself, Dan Henske, Charles, and Jack.

We were able to get those pipes out of the hole, and we felt pretty good about

it.

Beautiful.

Is that something hydrate at the bottom?

Dan, there's a hook about 10 inches long of anhydrite. Right here. Yeah.

That's a mystery.

That is a mystery.

When Dan Blankenship dug 10X in the 1970s, he hit anhydrite at the

181-foot level.

He continued to drill through the rock-hard substance for another 44 feet

until he reached what he believed to be a 10-foot-tall man-made treasure vault.

How the hell can you have a core in there?

When she dropped, when we lost it, maybe she drilled itself a nice little plug.

Bedrock is too hard for that. Too hard for that? Then I have absolutely no

explanation.

Is it possible that the riser pipe managed to fall past the 181-foot level

and through the 27-inch-wide hole?

If so, could we be looking at a piece from the floor of an ancient treasure

vault?

good so far you didn't you didn't drop any pipe did you are you getting it out

of the hole how's that coming typical oak island we were able to pull the 10

inch but we broke the wire cable pulling on it really yeah but we got it all out

and then the pipe that you dropped the eight inch we actually got a core out of

the anhydrite with it because it went rocketing down Holy smokes. That pipe,

did that one go down into the cavity? Yeah, that one went in the cavity, yes.

You know what's weird then?

Then you took a core of the floor, not a core of the cap.

Well, it's easy enough. We'll go measure it again.

Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see that, Rick. It might tell us

something about rock properties.

We got RMI coming to clear the bottom of the hole, and right now we have two

pipes out of the hole.

I think they have plenty enough room to do their work.

So when are you coming back?

Soon. A few days.

Okay, well, make it sooner rather than later because you know what I want to

do. I want to get down there.

We will. We'll get to the bottom of it. All righty. See ya. Bye.

It is the end of another long day on Oak Island.

A day of setbacks, but also possible breakthroughs.

Two of 10X's old riser pipes have been removed.

And it won't be long before another attempt is made to reach the mysterious

cavern that lies 235 feet beneath the surface of the island.

But once there, what will be found?

Ancient tools?

Treasure chests?

A dead body?

Or will it lead to even more questions?

Questions that will only be answered if and when.

The island is ready to reveal them.

Next time on The Curse of Oak Island.

That'll move some dirt, Rick.

That's a nice machine right there. Ooh, baby. It's time to dig, and you told me

that you know where.

30 rods to there lands right on that line. X marks your spot.

Is that it?

Right there.

I claim this spot.

Ready, Rick? We're digging on Oak Island.

At X marks the spot.

Hold up. I think I see something. Wait, what's that?