Original subtitles

Tonight, on "The Curse of Oak Island"...

Whoa! We got a shaft here,

- and maybe it's the money pit. - Wow.

That's super cool. This would indicate

that there was a structure in here.

Ooh, look at that.

- What's that? - This is old.

It's typical of early time periods.

With the narrow cork on the back, it means

- that it was Scottish that did this. - Oh, no way!

This came from underneath the pathway,

and they're from one time period.

- Wow. - That's really cool.

That's stunning.

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.

*THE CURSE OF OAK ISLAND* Season 08 Episode 20

Episode Title"Fire in the Hole" Aired onMarch 30, 2021

- Hey, guys! - Hey, guys.

- Hello! - Hey, everyone. - So...

The current update on the path...

Steve's latest estimate is 460 feet.

- Mm-hmm. - As a new day

begins on oak island

for brothers Rick and Marty lagina, Craig tester,

and the members of their team,

Rick has gathered them to report

a potentially significant discovery

near the man-made triangle-shaped swamp.

A mysterious building foundation

unearthed next to the stone pathway

that has been determined to be extending

off the swamp's eastern border

and possibly branching off in two separate directions.

Uh, we're right where

Tom's field is,

right behind the barn.

It's at that juncture where

the road seems to, uh, separate.

- Right. - There appears to be

a... What Miriam and Aaron both say is a foundation.

What's curious about it is... And this is the hope...

There are voids between the rocks.

You can actually reach your hand, most of your forearm in.

- Oh, really? - Wow.

- There's a big hole. - Oh, yeah.

You can put your hand right in there.

One day ago, while investigating

several of these small voids,

the team speculated that they may be evidence

of a possible substructure.

It's a stone foundation,

and we now have two right angles.

The feature's about two feet high, give or take.

How much soil was covering it?

Three feet, Craig.

Just seems like a lot of, uh, material to be covering it.

You know, the more material, the older it is.

I'm going to let Steve tell you what his thoughts are, but, uh,

- it's certainly not the road. - Mm-hmm.

So, I've come across numerous amounts

of foundations from the 1700 and 1800's in Nova Scotia.

And, uh, coming up on this,

that's the first thing to cross my mind, and I said,

you know, we're near Anthony graves,

where his house and foundation and property.

And there are stories that Anthony graves had found

a treasure or cache of some sort

because of the coins he was spending.

And what are the chances that

he could have stored maybe his treasure under a foundation?

One persistent rumor about a possible treasure discovery

on oak island

revolves around a farmer named Anthony graves

who purchased most of the island in 1857.

Although never known to have participated

in organized treasure hunts,

many locals reported that Mr. Graves

occasionally purchased goods on the mainland

using Spanish silver and gold coins

after he began living on the island.

Look, graves spent Spanish coin.

That's irrefutable, and...

Back then, when graves was alive,

there were no banks.

You trusted putting your treasure

where you deemed it to be safe.

Well, you wouldn't put it in your principal residence

because that's where people would look.

- Yes. - If I had

a sum of money, coin,

I would put it in a rock wall,

or I would put it in the floor of a foundation.

We know there are voids down between these rocks,

and I would love nothing better than

to probe deeper into it.

It's certainly interesting.

We were chasing the road, and we come upon this.

So, interesting enough to continue to pursue it,

that's for sure, and we'll-we'll figure out

a way to get at that target.

That's really cool. You know,

and the road is still an enigma.

It will lead us where it wants to lead us, so... All right.

Well, good. That's excellent. That's exciting, guys.

We'll get to the bottom of it. No pun intended.

All right. Good deal. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.

All right, see you.

- Take care. - CraigTalk to you later.

Later that morning, near the swamp...

How is the stone throwing going?

Uh, so far so good.

...Archeologist Miriam amirault

and Rick and Marty's nephew, David fornetti,

continue investigating the mysterious stone foundation

for additional clues.

Nothing popping out?

No. I mean, it looks like it's deeper,

but I don't know if that's normal or not.

Okay.

At the beginning of the excavation,

we were finding these voids between the stones.

It's almost like the stones were all stacked

on top of each other, and then soil was placed on the top,

and then it didn't fall into these holes,

and so it's obviously not natural.

You would never find something like that just in nature.

What it is, I think we're all still kind of baffled,

but after we remove the stones

that will help us figure out what it actually is.

What does this look like to you?

Is that charcoal or is that...

More like a burn area?

Looks like it to me.

This is how we check.

Yes. See how smudgy that is?

- Yeah. - Charcoal.

Charcoal discovered in the stone foundation?

Could it offer a valuable clue

as to how old this structure might be?

- Aaron! - Yeah?

Can you come over here for a bit?

Hey, guys.

Look how big that charcoal feature is.

Wow.

Huh. I was not expecting that.

That's super cool.

Wow. Okay.

It's pretty much at the level

that the till would be on.

It's interesting how it's running.

- Mm-hmm. - Linear. - Yeah.

Like, this is almost like a corner, you got this big stone,

- and above it a big stone. - Mm-hmm.

You know, and in that area, you got the fire.

And then look at how red this is.

- Yeah. - And that's indication

that it's been a hot fire there.

Have you seen something like this before?

Yeah. This would indicate that this is the result

of the structure burning down

or that this might be some sort of hearth feature,

where it had continuous burning.

You can just see by the redness of the soil

and the depth of the charcoal.

- Yup. - A hearth feature

or a structure made for the purpose of continuous burning?

Could David fornetti possibly have found evidence

linking this feature to similar discoveries made this year,

like the pine tar kiln

located on nearby lot 15,

which archaeologist laird niven believes may be

connected to the construction of the original money pit?

I was not expecting to see that.

- Yeah. - I think I would excavate that

as a separate feature, take a sample, bag it, and then take

everything right down to till.

All right. I'll let you guys continue on.

- Okay. - All right. Well, I'll keep pulling this down to till,

- and I'll let you... - Yeah.

- ...Excavate that charcoal. - I'll get a bag right now.

All right.

Well, let's get back to it.

While Aaron, David and Miriam

continue investigating the mysterious structure...

That's some big rocks.

...Approximately 50 yards to the south,

project manager Scott Barlow,

metal detection expert Gary drayton,

and heavy equipment operator Billy gerhardt,

are searching the stone pathway for valuable artifacts

or any evidence that could offer a definitive date

as to when the feature was created.

- Getting anything up there, Gary? - Not yet, mate.

Couple little, small, scrappy nail signals. That's it.

Once we start getting down to depth, though,

we have a chance of finding something good.

This is the same road?

This is the road, but we may be coming near

its destination, right?

The data is a little bit all over the board

on this road or path.

But some of the oldest stuff appears to date into the 1600s.

And, remember, with the younger things

on top of older things, that's its youngest possible age,

not its correct age.

The road could've been there for a thousand years.

You have to get the artifacts in the succession of layers

to figure out how old that thing is.

It'd be nice to find another ringbolt

or some really old ox shoes.

Or, even better, some of the stuff

that they were hauling along this track.

Hey, a gold coin would be nice.

Oh, would it.

We'll see.

I want something that we can say,

- "who did it?" - Yep.

Yeah. Another 90 foot stone or something like that

- would be good. - That'd be great.

Is the cobble road there?

It's starting to get a little cobbly here now.

He's getting down to that level.

Pretty hard, isn't it?

There's lots of stones in here, like,

there, there, there. Oh, wow.

There's something here.

Not sure if it was buried here or if it was in place

- when they laid the stones. - Well, that's totally out of place.

What is it doing here?

- It'sn not cut - Yeah.

It looks like a branch, doesn't it?

A tree root or something.

Where's the rest of it?

- It was right up against the rock. - Yeah. Exactly.

I'd say it is cut, because the rest...

It should go down to a small piece, right?

- Yeah. - That's it there. The stump should be

right by my knee.

Then it suggests that it may be placed, right?

- Yeah. - People laid

the sticks down and threw the rocks on top.

Exactly right, mate.

And then treasure run over the top of it.

- Hey, Scott. - Hey, Aaron.

You guys have moved a bit of dirt.

Well, we're trying to chase this along here.

How's it looking?

Right here we got a lot of cobbles.

You can see it. Then this.

We took it out. It was in amongst,

almost as if the rocks were placed within it.

- Yeah. - You know, the stump wasn't there.

Uh, there was rocks on top of part of it,

so maybe we can do c-14 on it,

and we can get an age.

- Yeah. - Look at that!

- That's cut. - Three weeks ago,

the team discovered a number of wooden survey stakes

bordering the pathway that were dated

to as early as 1636.

However, since these newly discovered wood pieces

were found beneath the pathway,

meaning that they were most likely placed there

when the structure was built,

could testing them reveal

a more precise age of the feature?

That's the sort of stuff we're looking for.

Trying to make a connection between this

and the stone feature

we just found, um, and have excavated.

And more and more we're digging, we're finding

similar building techniques,

and when you add up all these small little pieces

it makes a compelling argument that the two are connected.

What's interesting about wood going under stone...

Wood can't naturally lodge itself

under, uh, a bunch of stones.

So these were intentionally placed,

possibly as a cribbing method to keep the stones

from sinking to the bottom through the mud.

So when you add all these little things together,

that gives us a more confident date

on when this was constructed.

Just one more piece of the puzzle.

- One more little piece. - We find enough pieces,

- we'll be able to put the puzzle together. - Yeah. Hopefully.

But this is... This is looking great,

and, uh, I'll let you guys get back at it.

- All right. Thank you. - Thank you.

While members of the team

continue investigating near the swamp...

...In the money pit area...

So, change of game plan

- just a little bit. - Okay.

...Steve guptill meets with oak island historian

Charles barkhouse and geologist Terry Matheson

to update them on new instructions

from Rick, Marty and Craig

regarding the team's core drilling operation.

We've had a lot of success

with consistent wood hits in this area

in the 86 to 91 range plus or minus a foot.

- Yup. - What we want to do is head back east a little bit,

so what we're going to do is we're going to punch a hole

at cd-7, the hole I just set Mike up over. -Good.

We're looking for the eastern edge of the tunnel

- or hopefully in the center of the money pit. - Okay.

- Cd-7. - Cd-7.

- Cd-7. - Okay. I'm in.

- We're looking for the tunnel. - The tunnel.

Bingo!

This is the top of a tunnel, not maybe.

So it comes from somewhere, and it goes to somewhere.

Over the past several weeks,

the oak island team has drilled six boreholes

in the vicinity of the c-1 shaft

on the western side of the money pit area,

and in each case encountered

what appears to be a wooden tunnel

between 86 and 90 feet deep.

Now, it is Rick, Marty and Craig's hope that,

by moving some 13 feet eastward

to a borehole on their refined grid known as cd-7,

they will once again obtain more evidence

of this mysterious tunnel

and hopefully be another step closer to locating

the original money pit and the fabled treasure vault.

I'm very interested

in the progress we're making in the money pit.

We've intersected a tunnel or tunnels,

but we don't know the direction in which they're headed,

so we're following that, basically.

It's like a hound on a scent.

You pick up a scent, you need to follow it.

In this case, the prey is the money pit.

This one going up.

- 38 feet. - All right.

Although the coring drill has yet to reach

the target depth of 86 feet,

geologist Terry Matheson is ready to begin looking

for any indications of backfill

or human activity from possible treasure depositors.

- So, Terry, this is in situ material? - Yep.

Blue-gray till that hasn't been disturbed

in a very long time.

Something's wrong there.

It looks in situ, but it's relatively loose.

And that looks like it might be disturbed.

It's borderline. It's definitely till, but it could be backfill.

We could be close to something.

Disturbed backfill material?

Could the team have just located evidence

of human activity?

And, if so, is it from prior searchers?

Or perhaps someone who came to oak island much earlier?

The clues are adding up,

and I'm never sick and tired of a clue being found.

That's what this is all about. I've referenced it before:

This is a thousand-piece puzzle, you know?

Every piece counts,

so we need to stay the course.

We've got a shaft here.

And maybe, maybe, it's the money pit.

The following morning...

So here we are.

...As the core drilling operation continues

in the money pit area,

Rick lagina has invited geoscientist Dr. Ian spooner

to join archeologists Dr. Aaron Taylor

and Miriam amirault

for a further examination

of the mysterious stone feature

near the northeastern border of the swamp.

So, this was all covered

in-in charcoal.

- Right. - And you can see in that

- profile wall the depth of it. - Right. I can see that.

- Mm-hmm. - And we get that orangey color soil.

Indication of all the oxidation

that's taking place because of all the heat.

- Yeah. - It's very common

with any kind of fire, right?

But this amount of burning here is pretty...

- Pretty intense. - Yeah.

And these stones here,

you know, they look intentionally placed.

- Yes. - They don't look rubbly to me.

No. I'm starting to think of that as,

if you have that road, and all the coal,

if you have major burning here...

I mean, maybe it speaks to industrial activity.

I can't even imagine the amount of work put in and to what end?

Well, it's just, like, with the depth

that we are finding in this burn feature,

it's been burned multiple times.

What were they burning, why was it burned so much,

and where is any evidence of that?

That's what's confusing us.

There is nothing in this.

- Yeah. - This couldn't be one single burn event?

- Not with that. No. - Not with that depth.

You can see it in the profile wall.

It's similar to what we were getting up at the pine tar kiln.

Is it possible that,

like the pine tar kiln on lot 15,

which may date to the 16th century and be connected

to the construction of the original money pit,

this stone feature might have been used by someone

who came to oak island long before 18th-century settlers?

If so, what was it used for?

And could it be connected to the mysterious wealth

of previous landowners like Anthony graves?

Or, for that matter, Samuel ball?

It doesn't necessarily have to be a campsite.

It could be a workplace.

It could be an area where work was done

in association with, perhaps, the eye of the swamp.

There's all kinds of variables here,

and so we need to take a very slow, methodical approach

and give the archeologists time to put this story together.

We say this over and over again,

but I think it is worth repeating.

No artifacts here.

It's interesting and perplexing because

of all my experiences, anything like this...

Anything... You're finding artifacts.

- Right. - And in large quantities.

Right.

It seems like everything that we've excavated,

there's like a secretive component to it.

It's almost eerie

that there's so little.

Maybe there is a swamp story and a money pit story.

- Yeah. - I don't believe there's

two parallel stories here.

I think there's one story, and they're connected.

There's too much going on here

for it to be some other parallel story.

Like, what would possess people to do

what they've done here, this path,

unless it was for some real important purpose?

The swamp seems to be telling us some things

which we had previously no knowledge of.

My concern is simply this:

Is there a unique swamp story

and a unique money pit story or are they connected?

Why not go directly towards the money pit

if it is in association with that?

I don't know, but that's the point

of this whole exercise.

So, I'm going to clean off this face.

- I'm going to get some soil samples. - Yep.

- Okay. - All right. Sounds good.

- Thank you, everybody. - Yep.

While the investigation of the stone foundation

located near the pathway in the swamp continues,

in the money pit area...

Alley-oop.

...Charles barkhouse and Terry Matheson

are making timely progress

in the drilling operation of borehole cd-7

as they have nearly reached their target depth of 90 feet.

Unbroken...

...Complete section of maroon-ish till.

You know what we're not seeing?

- Spendables? - No.

We're not seeing that 87-88 level

- where we see wood. - No.

- 86. - Yep.

87ish...

- We should see it right about there. - Yeah.

A little too continuous, and not really any wood

that we were hoping to run into.

There's the end of it.

91 feet and nothing to report.

Unfortunately for the team,

their hope that borehole cd-7

might offer the breakthrough they have been working for

this year has failed to be realized.

Is it possible that the drill rod just missed its target?

Or has the team now lost track of the tunnel

they've been tracing some 90 feet deep underground?

With the harsh winter months now fast approaching,

they will have to reassess their strategy

on how best to move forward in their quest

to locate the fabled treasure vault.

- The clock is ticking. - We're running out of time.

- Exactly. - Pretty uneventful

going on here, Charles.

We haven't been able to intersect the tunnel.

It's down there, Terry.

We just haven't found it yet, Charles.

Later that afternoon...

Here we are, mate.

...Over on lot 26...

This used to be owned by Samuel ball,

and it was farmland back in the day.

...Metal detection expert Gary drayton

along with treasure hunter Michael John

are investigating an area near the foundation

that once belonged to Samuel ball.

They are hoping to find more clues

as to why the 19th-century oak island landowner

mysteriously came to be one of the wealthiest men

in the province of Nova Scotia.

What I've done, since we have cleared out

the surface artifacts, I've brought the big mama jama.

There you go.

It's a little bit of

- a bigger coil. - Yes.

What's the maximum depth for this one?

Like a cannonball-size target?

About six, seven feet.

- Okay, wow. - This area

is now cleared of trees

and scrubs and bulrushes.

Gives me an opportunity to run the gpx 5000

with a 32-inch coil.

We're looking for deep targets.

Okay, mate. This is a good little clearing to start.

Yeah. Okay.

I want to go in these wide-open spaces.

- Hopefully we find something. - All right.

Okay. We are ready to rock and roll.

All righty.

Other than the interest in Samuel ball, the human being,

there is a little bit of a glimmer that he was...

A little bit more than meets the eye.

I don't think there's any way anybody that smart,

that aware of things,

wouldn't have known exactly what was going on oak island

the whole time he was there.

The more I can find out about this person, uh, the better.

- That was a small piece of iron. - Small piece?

Yep.

Come on. Where are you?

Oh.

Whoa.

Look at that.

- A very strong signal. - Yeah.

- Looks like it's just here, mate. - Okay.

- Check? - Yep.

See? I should be able to hit it.

That should be something good. It's deep.

So it should be old.

Oh. What we got here?

- That's it. Yeah. - That's probably it, yes.

That is...

Oh, a little baby ox shoe.

We found the shack daddy,

- the mother of all ox shoes... - Yeah.

- Yeah. - ...Uh, near the swamp.

And now we've found a little baby one.

That is a small little ox shoe.

Now we've pulled up several different ox shoes

in really good condition.

And if there is some kind of industrial operation,

you're going to need beasts of burden

to transport whatever you was doing there.

And when we show these to Carmen,

hopefully Carmen will give us a country of origin.

It is an oldie. This is an old artifact.

I've just never seen them this small.

What a nice little artifact, and I'm looking forward

to taking this to Carmen legge...

- There we go, yeah. - To give us a story behind this.

Hey, great find, Michael. Great find.

We've got to tell the archeologists

- about this area. - That's right. Yeah.

- The following - morning... - What's going on?

What's today's issue?

...Marty lagina meets with his partner

Craig tester and Jack begley

to discuss the team's current setback

in the money pit area

and to decide how best to prioritize

the use of the core drilling rig

with just a few precious weeks remaining

before the onset of winter.

So, we're chasing the money pit

- towards c1. - Mm-hmm.

CraigAnd, uh, the most recent one we drilled was cd-7.

It's not on the map yet, but it's right here.

- Yep. - A-and we didn't find the tunnel there.

So, that didn't work. What do you want to do?

Well, the question is:

Do we continue following these tunnels that

we're finding because, you know, we're running out of time.

Do we have any other options?

Anywhere else to move that rig?

We have the barringer anomalies.

- The nonferrous anomalies? - The nonferrous ones.

- Yeah. - JackCan we go after one of those?

I would.

Earlier this year, while searching through the files

of Rick, Marty and Craig's late partner Dan blankenship,

oak island historian Doug crowell

discovered a 30-year-old survey

that had been conducted by a company known as barringer.

A survey that used low-frequency radio waves

which identified four targets some 100 feet deep

in and around Smith's cove that were nonferrous in nature,

meaning they could be composed of silver or gold.

Because the COVID-19 pandemic

delayed the start of their drilling operation this year

by nearly two months, the laginas and Craig

had planned to focus their efforts on trying to locate

the original money pit.

However, now that they have hit

an unfortunate setback there and with only a few

precious weeks remaining before the onset of winter,

perhaps investigating the targets on the barringer survey

could lead to a significant discovery.

The barringer survey has not one, two, three,

but four nonferrous targets delineated.

It's a vlf survey: Very low frequencies.

And it was never followed up on.

I-it's sort of risk-reward ratio.

If it hits, it would turn everything.

JackMm-hmm.

You know, if there's gold or silver at that location,

it would change everything.

Yeah.

There is certainly some belief

that the barringer survey was accurate.

That is supported by some inferential data.

In the money pit, we found an area

that may have been interpreted

by the barringer survey as a tunnel.

I think there's some value in it.

And it's interesting enough to follow up on.

I'd go do the barringer thing.

What the hell? Let's have a go at it.

Yeah, I have no problem going to the barringer survey.

We're not giving up on these.

- It's a time issue. - There's so much more to do here.

- So that's where I'm at. - Okay. I'll go meet up with Rick.

- See you out there in a little while. - Yep.

- JackLet's find some gold. - Let's do it.

Later that afternoon,

Jack begley and Charles barkhouse

have traveled some 50 miles north of oak island

to Centerville, Nova Scotia

where they have arranged to meet

with blacksmithing expert Carmen legge

to have him examine the artifact found one day ago

on the property once belonging to Samuel ball.

- JackHey, Carmen! - Well, hello. - Hey, Carmen.

CarmenWhat do you got today?

JackWell, this is from lot 26.

It was found metal detecting.

Let's see if you can identify this.

- Oh, a little fella. - Yeah.

Very nice.

Well, this is a... The hind shoe off an ox.

- Right. - CarmenThe front cork

and the back cork are fairly parallel.

With the narrow cork on the back it means

it was Scottish that did this.

- Really? - Yes.

Do you have any idea what a date on that might be?

Uh, I would say 1610

- to 1740s. - Wow.

JackThis would have been made before Samuel ball.

Yeah.

A Scottish ox shoe?

Possibly dating over a century prior to the arrival

of Samuel ball and the discovery of the money pit?

Is it possible that this ox

was used to haul valuable cargo across the island,

and, if so, how were the Scottish involved?

Uh, just trying to figure out why the Scottish would be there.

There's a theory that the Scottish may have buried

uh, a treasure on oak island.

JamesSo here's the theory in a nutshell:

Followers of a group of Scottish knights

settled in Nova Scotia during the early 1600s.

One week ago, author and historian

James Mcquiston shared an incredible theory

that the oak island treasure might be connected

to a 17th-century Scottish order

known as the knights baronets, an organization

with strong ties to both the freemasons

and their predecessors, the knights templar.

Unfortunately, the French

attacked Nova Scotia,

leaving the Scots ousted in the spring of 1632,

and I believe they took shelter in mahone bay

and buried the oak island treasure.

That's remarkable.

Is it possible that the team has now found evidence

that could corroborate that treasure theory?

And on property that once belonged to Samuel ball?

And the time frame for that is?

Uh, right around that time frame.

- Carmenls that right? - Yeah.

We're coming up with so much different information

of people all over Europe, at least,

having some sort of a stop on oak island.

Not just around the money pit, either.

Given the date, as far as we know, there was nobody living

on oak island at that time.

So, to me, that says a lot. It really does.

We've dug up a lot of ox shoes on the island over the years.

These guys were not just settlers that were making

these ox shoes, so there's a lot of activity

going on the island.

This could be from the depositors.

We keep bringing you iron.

Hopefully, we can bring you some precious metals.

Oh, wouldn't that be nice? Yes. Yes.

- Make sure you bring it here first. - Okay.

- Thank you, Carmen. - CarmenVery good, see you.

- Bye now. - CarmenOh, yeah.

As the team from choice Sonic drilling

repositions their rig at Smith's cove

in preparation to drill in search of

one of the nonferrous targets

identified on the barringer survey...

Oh, wow.

Hey, Aaron!

Do you want to come check this out?

...In the uplands near the northeastern border

of the oak island swamp,

archeologists Miriam amirault and Dr. Aaron Taylor

continue to search for more evidence that might tell them

which direction the mysterious stone pathway is heading.

- Ooh, what do you got? - Look what I just found.

Oh, nice.

Hand-painted.

I haven't seen colors like that.

Yeah.

- Blue, pink, and green. - That's great. Wow.

Hand-painted pottery?

Discovered near the pathway in the uplands?

Was it left behind by someone

after the discovery of the money pit in 1795?

Or is it evidence of much earlier human activity

- on oak island? - It's almost, like, uh,

a base of maybe a teacup or something? Or a bowl?

- Do you see that base? - Yeah.

- Hey. Good morning. - Hey, Rick.

- Hi. - Hey.

- Miriam just had an interesting find. - Look what I just found.

Oh. In the black or in the...?

Yeah.

Here you go.

What do you make of it?

- That's hand-painted. - Hand-painted.

- Isn't it pretty? - It's very pretty.

The thing about doing the archeological work

with Aaron and Miriam is that you learn to pay attention.

You learn that the most insignificant find

might be highly revealing.

This is what archeology is about.

Finding artifacts, studying them, dating them,

and then weaving them into an understanding...

A "story," if you will... Of what happened.

This is certainly quite unique.

What the ceramics do tell us

is that this was exposed

when those ceramics

- came down on it. - Yeah. - Right.

But right now, the question is:

Does this connect to the road?

I mean, is it believable to think that this is all man-made?

Well, we know parts of it are definitely man-made.

- In here is definitely man-made. - Right.

I think it's-it's stronger that it moves upland

at some point, and the road connects to there,

it's coming along here, stops, and turns up here.

And that's why I want to see if Billy is available

to take another bucket-width back

to see if this is something.

So, for right now, I'll talk to Billy about digging this

- and digging that. Okay. - Great.

- All right. - Thanks, Rick. - All right, thank you.

- Good find, Miriam. - Yeah, it's exciting.

Aaron and Miriam have decided

that they're going to take basically a leap of faith.

This road has to go somewhere,

and there are significant clues

that have led them to believe that the road has turned upland.

And, thus, they've chosen to open up

some test pits around the stone path.

The hope is that we can follow it in some way, shape, or form.

Billy, if you would be able to pull back this area

then maybe we can see if the road's, uh, coming up there.

Okay.

That's the perfect depth, Billy.

That's great, Billy. That's perfect.

I think this is good for now. Thank you.

- Okay. - So we can

get in here with our shovels and trowels.

If maybe just we can get that little blob out of there?

- I'll get that with a shovel. - Yup.

What's that?

Did you see this?

- There's stone here. - Wow.

I'd say that's exactly what

- we're looking for. - Yeah.

Evidence of more cobblestones?

Could Dr. Aaron Taylor's intuition have paid off

with the discovery of another section of the stone pathway

leading further into the uplands, away from the swamp?

If so, just where is it leading?

And what will the team find when they reach its end?

The stones are here, and then they stop.

I'm thinking that's telling me the road is

probably stopping here,

and coming up this way.

The path appears to have

turned to the upland at this point.

And all the treasure-associated thoughts

around oak island,

are, of course, based in the money pit.

Well, we're certainly headed in that direction, and so

I have every reason to hope

that we're following the right path.

Do you want me to shovel this out?

Yes, please.

- Okay. - Yeah.

Later that afternoon...

We all recognize the amount of work that we've done

trying to uncover the stone pathway.

...Rick, Marty and their partner Craig tester

have gathered members of their team in the war room

for a highly anticipated scientific report

regarding the hand-cut wood recently found

beneath the mysterious stone pathway.

I believe Craig has a c-14 test result,

so, Craig, fill us in.

Well, this sample came from,

uh, right before Fred's road.

We found this piece of wood underneath the rocks.

It was obvious it was, uh, in place

when the road was put in place there, the pathway.

And, uh, we got two different time periods,

but, really, they're so close together,

basically one time period:

From 1489 to 1654.

- Wow. - Oh, wow.

Great!

Craig reveals these dates of, uh, 1489 to 1654.

Those are stunning, uh, there's no question about it,

but they do fit.

I've always believed that the road

was quite a bit older than, uh, the 1700s,

and here we have dates that support that.

Look, that is a very exciting date range.

Okay? That's a fabulous date range.

That's really cool.

But is this a shaped piece of wood

or a twig or something?

It was like a branch, a small branch.

- You feel good about that? - Yeah.

Great. Fantastic.

But I think the dates that come from

organics under the road are more telling than

the artifacts found on it, because once that road is built

- it could have been used for hundreds of years. - Yeah.

This is a great one.

It's good for the theory the road might be quite old.

If we keep getting these numbers,

then it becomes more and more conclusive.

And that's basically what we do.

If we find an artifact that seems completely

out of the ordinary, but then we find more with those dates,

that's how we conclusively say,

"yes, this is... This is right."

I-I'll just reference Fred Nolan:

"Duplication, duplication, duplication."

- Yeah. - CraigYep. Absolutely.

I'll tell you what those results mean to me.

They mean that this thing is real.

Somehow, this thing is real,

and remember who you're talking to.

For the longest time, my number one theory of what happened

on oak island was nothing of significance

prior to 1795.

We've already proved that's not the case.

That makes me enthused to keep going.

We haven't solved this yet and we're going to.

That is an extremely

intriguing and exciting range.

- I agree. It's exciting. - Yeah.

- Absolutely. - Carry on, guys.

Hope the weather holds for you.

- Take care. - DougTake care.

As another week comes to a close

for Rick, Marty, Craig and their team,

despite a frustrating setback in the money pit,

there is new hope that a breakthrough discovery

may still be within their reach at Smith's cove.

And new revelations at the swamp

provide strong encouragement that they are getting

closer and closer to unraveling

the 226-year-old treasure mystery.

But as they continue to research,

drill and dig,

will they ultimately reveal

that the carefully-hidden truth about oak island

revolves around one story?

Or a number of them?

Whatever the case may be,

their story could re-write north American history

as we know it.

Next time on the curse of oak island...

I love the smell of treasure in the morning.

Oh, look at that!

I would say this looks military.

This particular artifact was found in the swamp,

and I've never seen anything like that.

Wow. What the hell is that?

We are hoping you might have an idea of what it is.

Well, this is really, really old.

- Middle 1400s. - JackOh, wow.

What do you got?

Looks like a piece of finished wood.

It looks like railing. It looks like ship's railing.

- It was on the ship in the swamp. - BillyYeah.

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