Original subtitles

Tonight on The Curse of Oak Island...

So, this is the Golden Egg,

where precious metals are coming from.

It could literally be gold.

Could be. We're due for a win.

The Restalls were convinced

that they found the flood tunnel down in Smith's Cove.

If there's something here, we should find it.

- It's cement. -Wow, there's a chance we've hit

the flood tunnels?

I did do a CT scan of the surface image.

- What do you think that is? - It's related to gold.

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,

man-made workings that date to medieval times,

and a lead cross whose origin may be connected

to 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.

So, here we go.

We cover this ground properly,

then we know it's not here or we bump into something

that everybody's been hoping to find, for what,

- 200 years? - Since 1795.

Another energized morning has begun on Oak Island

for brothers Rick and Marty Lagina and their team

as they continue investigating the fabled Money Pit area

in search of the answers

to a 229-year-old treasure mystery.

As we have it plotted on our map,

borehole FN-15.5,

this is towards the southern end of the Golden Egg...

- Yeah. - ...where Fred believes the precious metals

- are coming from. - Yeah.

So, I mean, today could be a really important borehole.

- The possibilities are endless. - Yeah.

-Good morning, Rick. Good morning, Alex. -Good morning.

Two weeks ago, the team began

a new strategic core-drilling operation

in a 30-by-15-foot area dubbed the "Golden Egg."

It is here where recently conducted groundwater testing

has detected an unnaturally high source

of precious metals between depths of 80 to 120 feet.

You felt like you just caught something?

Well, it was really soft at the top here.

And curiously, while drilling a borehole known as EN-13,

disturbed soils were recovered from nearly 100 feet deep,

suggesting that a large man-made structure or object

could be buried nearby.

This whole area

needs to be explored, because those metals

are coming from somewhere.

Yeah, it could literally be gold.

- Am I right? - You are right. - Could be.

Today, the team is drilling borehole FN-15.5,

located just 14 feet to the northeast,

in the hopes of pinpointing the possible man-made feature,

and hopefully, a vast cache of precious metals.

This one particular hole has the possibility

of being highly informative.

Dr. Fred does believe

that these metals are highly concentrated

in the Golden Egg, and because we may have hit

a flood tunnel in the area, we could be close

to actually finding the treasure.

And let's not forget, y'all remember last year

when Dumas was probe-drilling at the bottom

of the Garden Shaft.

We hit a potential flood tunnel,

and I mean, we had hundreds of gallons a minute.

And we're a mere, well, you can see it, five, ten feet

off the north corner of the Garden Shaft.

There was 700 gallons a minute of seawater--

not fresh water, seawater-- coming into that Garden Shaft.

Yeah.

In 2023, as representatives from Dumas Contracting Limited

began drilling into a mysterious tunnel

located some 100 feet deep below the 18th-century Garden Shaft...

...salt water suddenly rushed in,

causing the team to abandon the operation.

This disastrous setback has made them speculate

that they encountered the legendary flood tunnel,

reportedly made of large cobblestones,

and which is believed to originate at Smith's Cove.

If that's the flood tunnel coming from Smith's Cove...

- Yeah. - ...we know the flood tunnel went directly to the Money Pit.

So, if we could follow that tunnel,

we'll know where the Money Pit is.

We still got about 60 feet to go

before we get into that horizon of interest.

- We're due for a win, Terry. -Yeah, absolutely. Here's hoping.

While the core-drilling operation

continues in the Golden Egg,

later that afternoon...

This could be one of the most

interesting efforts this year.

- Mm-hmm. - Yes.

Rick Lagina

and operations manager Scott Barlow

meet with Marty Lagina and surveyor Steve Guptill

in the research center.

Look, everybody knows

there's unfinished business down in Smith's Cove.

So I think we need an additional dig down there.

And I'm gonna turn it over to you, Scott,

because you have made a very astute assessment

of what you want to find.

So, why don't you fill everybody in?

So, basically, let's-let's rewind back

to last year with the Dumas shaft.

They were drilling out of the bottom of the shaft,

and then, uh, you know, we had salt water rush in.

Yeah, we did.

We looked back at the history.

The Restalls really felt confident

that they found the flood tunnel

that caused all the grief for all the years--

there were people trying to retrieve treasure

- out of the Money Pit. - Mm-hmm.

In 1959,

former motorcycle daredevils Robert and Mildred Restall

moved to Oak Island with their sons 18-year-old Bobby Jr.

and nine-year-old Ricky to pursue Robert's dream

of solving the mystery.

Living in small cabins with no electricity or plumbing,

they braved the elements for more than five years,

while focusing their efforts at Smith's Cove.

There, they worked by hand

to find the so-called convergence point,

where five stone box drains

formed a single flood tunnel connected to the Money Pit.

But on August 17, 1965,

while working in a 27-foot-deep shaft

that he believed was close to reaching the flood tunnel,

Robert, along with Bobby and two other men,

tragically lost their lives

when poisonous hydrogen sulfide gas

mysteriously emitted from the bottom of the pit.

The real tragedy of the Restalls' work, obviously,

was the passing of the four people.

But they were convinced,

as you have said, that they had locked into it.

Yep.

You'll see on the diagram Steve has up here,

it's-- this is the Restall map overlaid on all the data,

basically, that we have in Smith's Cove.

Right where he has his cursor right there

is the convergence point,

what they felt was the convergence point.

The "convergence point," meaning-- being...?

They uncovered what they felt were finger drains right there.

And they believe they followed those finger drains

to a convergence point, which they believe

led to the flood tunnel that led to the Money Pit.

So, here's the convergence point

that the Restalls denote in 1963.

One thing I really like is that if I project that line,

it projects through to the Garden Shaft,

and so, potentially, it could be what we tapped into last year.

The one issue is,

their convergence point is right where

high tide is along the shore.

So, unfortunately, we can't dig on that spot.

So, we're gonna have to come upland a little bit of it

and my hope is we're gonna find some of the tunnel.

Yeah.

Unfortunately,

the convergence point

is down at tidal level.

The environmental laws say you can't, you can't dig

without a very specific permit.

We don't have a permit to dig there to actually find

the convergence point.

Okay, where do you want to dig, Scott?

We can start on the inland side of the road,

so it'll give us a little bit of a buffer there

between the shore and that.

So, digging in a new area down there,

I suspect we're looking to find a lot more.

We're also near the area where the Restalls

found what they called a "vertical shaft,"

which they believed led to the flood tunnel.

They tried to stop the water, and they came up with a plan

where they were pumping concrete into this hole in the ground,

basically, that went vertically down.

When they started pumping the concrete,

the water started to slow in the Money Pit.

In 1961,

Robert Restall Sr. and his son Bobby Jr.

were astonished when they uncovered

what appeared to be a one-and-a-half-foot diameter,

32-foot deep, stone-lined shaft

on the beach at Smith's Cove.

It was Robert's belief

that the so-called "vertical shaft"

was created by the original treasure depositors

as a way to shut off

the flow of seawater into the Money Pit

in order to access the buried valuables.

In an effort to clog the flood trap,

Robert mixed concrete and poured it into the shaft.

But unfortunately, most of the mixture

did not properly set,

and failed to stop the water flow.

So, the-the hope with this would be

to potentially find the remains of concrete

or something there to know that we're onto the right spot.

Bottom line, this is eminently worth doing.

Let's make it so.

We have a plan. Let's dig.

As Rick, Marty, Scott and Steve

conclude their meeting in the research center...

-So, is this the spoils pile right here? -Yeah.

This is the latest one that Billy's guys moved around.

...Craig Tester and metal detection expert

Gary Drayton arrive on Lot 4,

located on the western side of the island.

All of this stuff came from

- the round feature behind us. - Oh, okay.

They are continuing to search

through more than ten tons of spoils

that were removed one year ago

from a mysterious rounded stone feature

located several yards to the east on Lot 5.

A feature where, in addition to a mortar-like soil

that may have come from more than 100 feet deep

in the Money Pit area,

the team has unearthed a number of stunning artifacts,

including a fragment of a 17th-century

English silver coin,

and a 14th-century lead barter token

which, like the lead cross that was discovered

at Smith's Cove in 2017,

may be connected to the medieval order

of the Knights Templar.

Let's see what we've got waiting for us.

Oh, nice little

- signal here. -That sounds good.

That looks easy digging, right in the rock.

- Okay, we'll start... - Well, actually,

it's gotta be on top of the rocks, in the soil.

It's so small there. Why don't you hit it

with your, uh, pinpointer?

Yeah, I'll try to pinpoint it.

Oh, I moved it.

Oh, I see it.

Oh, wow, look at that.

Wow, this is fantastic!

Oh, wow, look at that. It's copper?

While searching through the spoils

from the mysterious round feature on Lot 5,

Craig Tester and Gary Drayton

have just made a potentially important discovery.

It's a nice little button, mate.

- Oh, right. - Look at that.

Nice. Very round.

Does that mean anything to you?

Yeah, these rounded buttons were normally tunic buttons.

Okay.

Loop's still on it, isn't it?

Yeah.

Time period?

Could be late 1600s to mid-17s

because it is a fancier button.

This is unusual.

- We haven't found any of those. -Yeah.

A possible tunic or garment button?

If Gary is correct that it may

date back to the 17th century,

could it be connected to the cut English coin

that the team recently found in the spoils

from the round feature on Lot 5?

And perhaps also help identify

who created the original Money Pit?

That's a nice little button.

It'll be interesting once they clean it up,

- what they see. -Yeah.

All right, mate, we'll put this in the bag.

Another great little find.

Whenever we find a button,

I get excited because I know there's a chance

of getting some military insignia,

which will hopefully help the archaeologists

track down what has been happening on Lot 5,

and hopefully the Money Pit.

Oh, nice little

- signal here. - Again?

And it's just there, mate.

Okay.

Sounds like a nonferrous hit.

It's out.

Great sounding signal.

Let's see what we got.

What have we got here?

What have we got here, Craig?

That feels like lead.

I think I know what that is, mate.

I think that's a coin weight.

- Oh, really? - That looks--

Yeah, that looks like an old coin weight.

You see how it's been sloped down on four sides?

That's what they used to do.

Slope 'em down and cut pieces off to...

- to weigh coins. - Okay.

Your average person wouldn't have one of these,

- would they? - It would be someone,

kind of higher up.

It would've been the person,

like, in charge of the payroll.

- Mm-hmm. - I would imagine that

that is an older style.

I mean, coin weights go

way, way back, before Roman times.

But they went out of fashion, probably, in the 1700s.

Oh, okay.

So, this could be an old coin weight.

Prior to modern coin minting processes,

the weight of a coin would often vary.

Coin weights were used by merchants

as far back as 305 BC

to ensure the true value of the coins

they received, as well as prevent counterfeiting.

Is it possible Gary and Craig

found a lead coin weight?

If so, might it have been used

to divide up sums of treasure,

and perhaps be related to the high concentration

of precious metals that have been detected

in the Money Pit area?

That is really, really cool.

Well, we'll have to see what the archaeologists think of it.

Yeah.

I'll put it in the bag.

There.

All right, mate, good digging.

- Okay. - All right.

To continue.

Now, hopefully, we can find

- a gold coin. - Sounds good.

The following morning,

as the core-drilling operation continues

in the Money Pit area...

This is why I didn't bring a shovel.

My kind of shovel, as well.

...Alex Lagina, Scott Barlow

and other members of the team

arrive at Smith's Cove,

located nearly 500 feet to the east.

All right, guys.

So, Steve's pinned a spot on the ground here.

X marks the spot, eh?

Today, using a survey map

that was created in 1963

by the late treasure hunter Bobby Restall,

they have chosen a location just inland from the beach

where they will attempt to uncover,

and cut off, the flood tunnel

that is believed to feed seawater into the Money Pit.

For the purpose of this,

we want to look to see if we can find

- the flood tunnel. - Yep.

So, the great thing about this area is

when the Restalls followed what they believed they were chasing,

which was the finger drains, they found, more or less,

a vertical shaft, and they believed

that it went inwards in the flood tunnel,

because that's where the water came in.

And the Restalls

pumped a lot of concrete down there.

They were trying to stop water there with cement,

and it blew out on them.

- Oh. - So the hope is

that when it blew out, it blew back into the flood tunnel,

and we're going to find some evidence of that.

- Yeah. -Any idea about depth?

30 to 40 feet.

If it's 30 to 40

feet deep, we're not going to be able

to get it with the excavator.

No, we have the long reach, though.

So, Billy can start with this machine.

-Yeah, makes sense. -Well, Billy Buckets,

let's make some treasure headlines today.

- I'll get ready for the spoils. - Okay, Gary.

We're ready.

In case there are obstructions,

such as stones or boulders covering the flood system,

Billy Gerhardt will begin digging

with a 14.5-ton excavator

to clear them away.

Then, he will use a 35-ton long-reach excavator

capable of reaching a depth of some 60 feet,

to hopefully locate the believed flood tunnel.

You know, the search for answers here on Oak Island,

200 years of it has been about

the water in the Money Pit.

The inability of people to control the water

in order to retrieve the treasure at depth.

If we can find the flood tunnel itself,

then the next step

would be to shut off the water.

Water's coming in

from the land side.

Right here. You can see it coming in there.

Yeah. I guess it could be

coming in from both sides, really.

Oh, yeah, it is coming in from both sides. For sure.

We're making pretty good progress.

Looks like we're about halfway

- where we should hit the flood tunnel. -Right.

As the dig at Smith's Cove continues,

later that morning...

Hey.

- Hi, guys. - Hello.

-Good morning. -Good morning.

...Gary Drayton joins Rick Lagina,

archaeologist Laird Niven

and archaeometallurgist Emma Culligan

in the Oak Island Lab.

Rick and Gary are eager to hear

Laird and Emma's analysis

of the button and possible lead weight

that were found in the Lot 5 spoils

just one day ago.

What about the button?

- Any info on the button? -Info on the button.

I did do a CT scan, but that's obscuring

the surface image.

Earlier today, Emma scanned both artifacts

using the Skyscan 1273 CT scanner,

a device which emits X-ray radiation to produce detailed

three-dimensional images of objects.

Additionally, she also scanned them

with the X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, or XRF,

to determine the elements that make up their composition.

It's a copper-iron alloy, and it does have

a high content of lead in it.

No aluminum, so that's good.

There's no severe indicators that it is modern.

- Okay, good. - Yeah.

So, I would fit the composition

to 1700s to early 1800s,

- English. - Hmm.

So, this is the best image I could get.

I think what it says

is it points more towards a gentleman

than a farmer, again.

Yeah, yeah.

And that could tell us something about

what the round feature was used for.

We have a lot of questions left

about the round feature.

I think what we're finding now supports several of the theories

that ties the deposition of something on Oak Island

by the British military.

I feel that's where the evidence we have on Lot 5 is leading us.

Okay, the next one.

Yeah, I think that's probably the most interesting.

What do you think that is?

It's lead.

It weighs 26.2 grams.

Gary thought it was a coin weight.

Whenever you find a shaped piece of metal like this,

especially if it's bronze or lead,

it's usually a coin weight.

Now, this is large,

but I was thinking maybe it's a weight

for a large coin.

It would be a very large coin.

When you say... when you say very large coin, what?

Well, the largest coins

back in the day,

uh, would've been gold.

This is a great find.

Maybe it's a weight for a large coin.

The largest coins back in the day,

would've been gold, right?

In the Oak Island Laboratory,

archaeologist Laird Niven

has just suggested

that the lead artifact that came

from the mysterious round feature on Lot 5

may have been designed to weigh coins of great value.

So start looking at big gold coins

- 'cause that would be great... - Oh, yeah. Yeah.

...finding one of those on Lot 5.

It'd be a big coin.

Emma has a dissenting opinion about it.

Oh, okay.

So compositionally,

I do think it's modern.

The phosphorous content,

it's extremely high and you don't see that

in lead alloys until mid-20th century.

However,

I don't, you know, lead isn't my...

- Wheelhouse. - Yeah, wheelhouse.

So we have a conundrum because I think

the problem with it being modern is

we're not finding other modern artifacts on Lot 5.

It really does look old.

-Yeah. -I mean that looks really nice and old.

Yeah. I mean,

lead was used for coin weights, but early on, too.

- Yeah. - Like earlier,

- and then replaced by, uh, brass. - Mm-hmm.

In general across the world,

there seems to be a transition from lead coin weights

to brass coin weights somewhere after 1066.

If we can prove that this trade weight is very old,

it puts the other old coins we're finding on Lot 5

into a more clearer perspective.

Emma's analysis is suggesting the lead weight is

more recent than the archaeologists think,

but this is

a point where we need to, uh, consolidate

the archaeology and the science together

and come to a new understanding

of what this artifact is.

So I do think that it is an excellent candidate

for laser ablation.

Great. That's what I was gonna say.

-Yeah. - It's fantastic.

Laser ablation is a testing method

that uses a high-powered laser

to remove a microscopic sample from the surface of objects

that are composed of lead.

The sample is then analyzed

to determine its specific isotope value,

which can reveal not only where the object may have

originated but also its approximate age.

Well, I think we can follow this up in two ways.

The laser ablation

and finding an expert or experts

- to weigh in on this. - Mm-hmm.

It's a very curious find.

It feels right in your hand for some reason.

- It's up to you, Gary. - Yeah.

Well, we got to find some more stuff.

- We got to find some more stuff. - Yeah.

I'm rooting for you guys.

Later that afternoon...

We have to exhaust

the reach of the excavator before we move on.

...as the excavation in search of the flood tunnel

proceeds at Smith's Cove...

- Whereabouts are we? - Just about to bring up the...

...Rick Lagina arrives

in the Money Pit area to check on the progress

of the core-drilling operation

in borehole FN-15.5.

The next core or two is really gonna tell a story.

Ninety-nine.

It's looking relatively competent.

Nothing there.

Ah...

It's competent, but it is a little soft.

We still got another ten feet

where we could hope to see something.

Yep.

We have a core.

FN-15.5,

it's the closest we've ever drilled to the Garden Shaft.

So the possibility

not only of treasure being here but perhaps

intercepting the flood tunnel.

There's something going on in this area

that may be associated with a deposition of treasure.

You have to be very observant.

- 109. - 109.

It looks pretty in situ.

Nothing to write home about, unfortunately.

I see no structure.

Unfortunately, I don't see anything.

We were hoping to find something

in the Golden Egg that would say

there's something there at that depth.

We haven't found it yet.

But I-I emphasize "yet."

There's still a high confidence that something exists

in these areas that they have delineated.

We just got to keep going.

On we go, for sure.

As members of the team plot their next borehole

in the so-called Golden Egg...

Hey.

I'll give you this, Peter.

I'm pretty proud of you for sitting out here

in this kind of heat.

...Rick heads to Smith's Cove

where Billy Gerhardt is now using

the massive long-reach excavator

in the hopes of uncovering the legendary flood tunnel

that is believed to feed seawater into the Money Pit.

We're probably at depth about seven feet away.

So I think we could be in anything, any time now.

Okay, well, then it's just

a matter of keeping an eye on the ball.

- Right? -Yeah.

If we find the tunnel of water,

seawater, being artificially introduced

through a man-made tunnel,

we perhaps can track that tunnel back

to "X marks the spot" in the Money Pit.

That's the important aspect of this,

of this particular endeavor.

There's a lot of cobble in that one.

-Yeah. -All kind of uniform.

And that's the description of the flood tunnel, right?

Uh...

about the size of a, of a human head,

you know, packed in.

So, there's a chance we've hit the flood tunnels?

-That is the description. -Of the flood tunnel.

So there's a chance, we've hit the flood tunnels?

This is the first bucket

that has a bunch of same-size cobbles.

At Smith's Cove,

Rick Lagina and other members of the team

have just uncovered large cobble stones

more than 30 feet below the beach.

Yeah. That is a good observation, Rick.

Cobble stones matching the historic description

of the believed man-made flood tunnel

designed to protect the Money Pit treasure vault.

They're all roughly the same size.

That.

That. That.

This.

This.

- Yeah, those rocks are as big as heads. - Yeah.

That is the description of the flood tunnel.

Packed with stone.

Yeah.

The tunnel was three foot by four foot.

Packed with stones the size of a human head.

And, and look at how many there are here,

- just right here. - Yeah.

And look how sloppy this is.

- There's a lot of water coming in. -Exactly.

- The cobbles should extend the whole way. - Yeah.

Because they didn't want it, you know, closing off,

so it should be packed with stone

all the way to the Money Pit.

That's the first bucket that we saw that...

Let's come over on this side, Rick.

Can you see where I took that last bucket?

You see where the water's coming out down the hole?

Yeah.

That's, that's where the rocks came from.

But if you scoop there, that ground is pretty cobbly.

It's almost like, it looks like, that was dug out.

Yeah.

I would love nothing better

than to confirm

the old narrative, i.e.

that there are box drains

and a flood tunnel system that might lead

to a chamber or a void,

or a place where treasure was deposited.

The Restalls were onto something in Smith's Cove

and that something might help us as we put X's on the ground

in the Money Pit for the caisson work.

I think we should

take a scoop there and maybe have Steve come down.

I would dig wider on both sides and see if more cobbles come up.

If we found the same cobbles, that'd be interesting.

But we still have to clean it out deeper

because that's the line there.

-Yeah. - So, we got more work to do.

The following morning,

as a sudden rain storm has caused the team

to temporarily halt the dig at Smith's Cove...

We got a core.

...in the Money Pit area,

Alex Lagina and members of the team

continue their strategic core-drilling operation

in the hopes of locating the source of precious metals

that have been detected between 80 and 120 feet underground.

No gold,

no treasure chamber can evade us.

We have to be sure that we've covered the ground

and that's what we're doing.

They are currently drilling

borehole GN-16 located

in the so-called Golden Egg

and just 13 feet north of the Garden Shaft

where the team encountered

a possible flood tunnel one year ago.

You okay?

We're drilling in this area

where we have very few boreholes.

So that's exciting to me because this is

fresh ground, fresh territory

with a, a very plausible indication

that there might be treasure buried here.

109.

- 109. -Thank you.

GN-16. 99 to 109 in front of us.

Let's see what we got.

Sadly, it's a little firm.

Not really terribly impressed, I wouldn't say.

No water passage at this point.

On the flip side, what did they drill into

to cause the Garden Shaft to flood

if this can't transmit water?

It's got to be a structure, then.

The-the evidence tends to lean that way.

I'd certainly love to perforate

- that structure... -Yeah.

- Absolutely. -...and get some

empirical evidence of its existence.

This is great stuff to tunnel in.

Yeah.

- Hi, Craig. - Hey. How deep?

- 119. - All right.

- Anything above it? - Nope.

Soft or anything?

- Nothing. - Okay.

- Thanks, guys. - Still seeing, you know,

usually it falls open

and it's all saturated.

-129 or 119? -119. I got...

This has a little bit of sand,

but there's still some silt in it,

so it wouldn't carry much water.

Is it soft enough to indicate

that we're next to a tunnel or shaft?

No, it doesn't give us an answer or a solution.

I think I'd call it quits.

I'd rather get moving to the next location.

Although the team has yet to find

hard evidence of the precious metals

that have been detected in the Golden Egg,

they still have nearly 200 square feet

of the area to investigate.

Dr. Spooner and Dr. Michel have suggested all along

that there are concentrations of metals

in a very well-defined area that may lead to a treasure.

Unfortunately, the results have been less than positive,

so I'm a little disappointed.

But we're not giving up on finding

whatever this thing is that's gonna come out of the ground.

I'm gonna head on out and, uh, talk to Dr. Spooner.

Talk to you guys later. Give me a call.

-Okay, yeah, we'll keep you posted. - Okay.

Onward and downward.

Well, guys, we all know that we've followed

the water sample testing protocols

to try to determine where to find the "treasure," really.

And, uh, Ian and Fred

proposed the so-called Golden Egg area

we are currently drilling.

In the Oak Island war room,

geoscientist Dr. Ian Spooner

has asked to meet with Rick Lagina,

Craig Tester and other members of the team

after conducting new groundwater testing

for precious metals in the so-called Golden Egg.

Ian has some serious concerns about progression

of the drill program and-and where we locate it.

And so, Ian, I'm gonna turn it over to you.

So, the water samples I've taken in the Egg,

we-we haven't seen any data at all for precious metals.

That's the challenge we're facing.

So, why? Because this anomaly we're chasing is precious metal.

And the metals accumulate in the water

because it's probably coming from

the bottom of a shaft or a tunnel,

where it is sealed, quite nicely.

And so, the problem with just continuing

to drill in the Egg is, when we do penetrate it

with a drill, that water disseminates.

That anomaly disseminates.

We call it, in my world, a dispersal plume.

And so, our worry is if we continue to drill,

if something is happening there, uh, we could dilute it.

We could confuse ourselves.

A geological dispersal plume

refers to small particles contained in water,

in this case, particles of gold, silver and other metals,

that are possibly being stirred up and spread out

by the team's core-drilling operation.

This makes it difficult to detect

just where their ultimate source,

such as a treasure chest,

may be located within or near the Golden Egg.

What does that mean for the drill program?

- How do we proceed? -Well,

we'd like to stand down on drilling in that area right now

and let this site sort of settle, if you will.

You want cessation of drilling within the Golden Egg.

Yes.

We'd like to send in those new water samples.

We'd like to see what those samples show,

and then be able to look at the data.

And give you folks a sense of what the potential is,

if we do do further drilling there,

for some kind of success.

Yeah.

Well, I think we have to do that, because otherwise,

there's no point in chasing the data.

-Yes. -Yeah.

Dr. Fred and Dr. Spooner

are suggesting that we cease drilling activities

in the area of the Golden Egg

because we don't want to dilute the water,

and every time we put a hole down,

you're introducing water as part of that drill program.

So, we need to gather more evidence

to actually bingo where a treasure might reside.

Hopefully, the doctors can look at all of the samples

we obtained and come back and say, "Hey guys, we found it.

Here's where you need to look."

So, yeah. That's where we stand.

- Okay. - I think we've all

- got work to do. - Yeah.

-Okay. -Okay. Thank you.

Thanks.

Later that afternoon...

-Is that another timber? -Oh, it is, yeah.

Eyes and boots.

That's what it takes.

...at Smith's Cove,

while searching for more evidence

of the legendary flood tunnel,

Rick and other members of the team

have unearthed a number of mysterious wooden planks.

It is amazing how these boards are all the same dimension.

Wow, you really are the chairman of the boards.

Where do you think these pieces of wood come from, Rick?

Certainly no later than the Restalls.

Yes. Maybe they just...

- repurposed them. - Maybe.

I-I don't find it unreasonable

that they would, you know, take whatever they found

in order to facilitate the work they were trying to do.

If they found something, an old shaft or something,

and they were doing work on their own,

- you know they would salvage whatever they could. - Yep.

Because Rick and the team are excavating an area

where the Restall family believed

that the legendary flood tunnel that feeds seawater

into the Money Pit might be located,

could Rick be correct that they used this lumber

as part of their efforts to stop the booby trap

more than 50 years ago?

Or could it have been placed here

by whoever created the flood tunnel long ago?

Billy. Hold up.

What do you make of that?

- Cement. -Yeah.

Wow.

This could be connected to the flood tunnel.

-Cement? -Yeah.

Gary, Peter.

At Smith's Cove,

while searching for a man-made flood tunnel

that is believed to divert seawater

into the Oak Island Money Pit...

What have you found, Rick?

Well, you know what we've been looking for, right?

The story of the Restalls pouring cement.

...Rick Lagina has just made

a potentially significant discovery.

- Is it concrete? - Yep.

-It's good eyeballing. -Mm-hmm.

I would remind you that the Restalls,

when they tried to shut off

the supply, if you will,

of water for flooding the Money Pit,

they poured concrete down into the shaft,

and then, supposedly, it let loose.

Could Rick Lagina be correct

that he has found a piece of the concrete

that Robert Restall made more than 50 years ago

in an attempt to clog up the vertical shaft?

If so, might it offer more evidence

that the team is close to uncovering the booby trap

that leads directly

to the fabled Money Pit treasure vault?

To find concrete

in the area of the associated

flood tunnel line, well, that's exactly

what we're looking for.

And if we can find it, actually find the tunnel

and put eyes on it, then we can try to do

what they tried to do:

shut off the water once and for all.

- I think we need to take that to Emma. - Mm-hmm.

Maybe put it in the XRD and she could,

from an analysis perspective, determine

- how old that type of concrete is. - Mm-hmm.

It's definitely worth testing for sure.

What it says is that there's a possibility

that there's more and we should definitely

keep our eyes open for it because

you're not gonna find it with that.

- No. - Unfortunately.

It's gonna be the twin optical scanners.

Well, think about what this may mean.

We're doing sonic drilling in the Money Pit.

We're looking for locations for the caissons.

We're trying to prove the old story.

The old story leads

to an increased belief

that there was a flood tunnel system.

The flood tunnel system, if we can delineate it,

will lead us to the Money Pit.

The Restalls started this process

and we need to finish it.

When you endeavor to do something

and you make a commitment

with something that is that impactful

that this young man and his father

and two others lost their lives...

if you can't tie into that,

that sacrifice, the ultimate sacrifice,

then maybe you shouldn't be here.

And I think all of us on some level, every day,

live that because it's important to pay respect to their efforts.

And certainly in this endeavor, that's what we try to do.

We're slowly working towards the "X marks the spot."

So this could be a very important clue.

-Yeah. - And talk about concrete evidence, eh?

-Mm-hmm. -Here it is.

Every clue builds on another clue,

which ultimately, hopefully will get us

to where we want to go.

All right, let's get the results.

First step, bring that to Emma.

- Yeah. - See what she has to say.

All right, I'll let you guys know.

And we'll keep working.

- Okay, let's get back to work. -Yeah.

For Rick, Marty, Craig and their team,

perseverance is perhaps the most valuable asset

that will enable them to solve

the 229-year-old Oak Island mystery.

While setbacks are likely to continue,

they will leave no stone unturned

in order to find new pathways to the answers that they seek.

And with every new clue that is unearthed,

a legendary treasure

may soon be within their reach.

Next time on The Curse Of Oak Island...

-That's a beam. - Yep.

And somebody stacked those cobbles.

This might be a part of the flood tunnel.

Wow.

If that is strapping,

it could be on a chest.

Yes, now that is interesting.

We're gonna insert this radar to look for voids.

Okay.

127 feet from the surface

we get a void space.

This could be the fabled offset chamber.

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