Almanac of the Gods
Oak Island
Photo: New York Daily Herald · Public domain

Place No. 20 of 44

Oak Island

Canada (Nova Scotia) · 44.515° N · 64.293° W

For more than two hundred years, people have poured money, machines and even their lives into one small Nova Scotia island, and the pit still floods every time.

Size
about 1.6 km long and 0.8 km wide
First reported dig
1795
Depth where early diggers hit seawater
about 27 m (90 ft)
Borehole 10-X depth
about 72 m (235 ft)
People killed in the search
6 (4 in a single 1965 accident)
Treasure recovered
none confirmed
Curse of Oak Island on air
since January 2014

What it is

Oak Island is a small wooded island in Mahone Bay, on the south shore of Nova Scotia, Canada. It is about 1.6 km long and less than a kilometer wide, one of hundreds of islands in the bay, and a causeway now links it to the mainland. The island is privately owned. It is famous for one thing: the longest-running treasure hunt in the world.

The legend begins in 1795. As the story goes, a teenager named Daniel McGinnis found a hollow in the ground near an old oak, with signs that a block and tackle had once hung above it. He and two friends started digging and hit a filled shaft with layers of logs every few meters. Later groups dug deeper and reported more log platforms, charcoal, putty and coconut fiber. Near the 27-meter mark, the shaft filled with seawater.

Every generation since has tried to beat the water. Diggers have sunk dozens of shafts and boreholes, built a cofferdam, and chased what they believed were flood tunnels leading from the beach. The island is now pitted with old holes, and six people have died in the search. Written versions of the story do not appear until 1857, so parts of the early tale may have grown in the telling.

Since 2014 the hunt has been the subject of History's reality series The Curse of Oak Island, made by Prometheus Entertainment, the same company behind Ancient Aliens. Brothers Rick and Marty Lagina lead the dig under a provincial license. The shows often cross over, which is how a colonial treasure legend ended up tied to the Ark of the Covenant and the stars.

The ancient-alien case

Ancient Aliens treats Oak Island as more than a pirate story. In the 2017 episode The Pharaoh's Curse, Giorgio Tsoukalos and David Childress suggest that the Knights Templar may have carried the Ark of the Covenant across the Atlantic and buried it here. In the show's view, the Ark was not a simple chest but a powerful device, possibly of alien origin, which would explain why it had to be hidden so well.

The same episode leans on the island's so-called curse, the local saying that seven must die before the treasure is found. David Wilcock claims the lost 90-foot stone, said to carry strange symbols, is like curse stones from Egyptian tombs. He suggests a dark force guards the secret. Childress openly wonders whether something extraterrestrial is at work in the island's long run of accidents.

Other episodes find patterns in the landscape. In The Constellation Code, Travis Taylor, a physicist who also appears on History's paranormal shows, argues that stones on the island are placed to mirror the stars of the constellation Taurus. The Curse of Oak Island team also points to Nolan's Cross, a giant cross of boulders, as a sign of planning by someone with a message to leave.

Theorists see the flood tunnels and deep platforms as engineering far beyond what pirates would bother with. For them, the effort needed to hide something this well points to a treasure of great importance, and possibly to knowledge that came from outside ordinary human history.

What archaeologists say

Historians and geologists say the island's mystery has a simpler base. The ground is laced with limestone and anhydrite, rocks that dissolve and leave natural sinkholes and caves. A 1995 Woods Hole study found that the flooding follows from the way the island's fresh water sits on top of seawater that rises and falls with the tides. What early diggers took for booby-trap tunnels fits natural channels in this rock.

The written record is thin. The first printed account of the 1795 dig dates to 1857, more than sixty years later, and the inscribed stone has been lost for over a century. No reliable copy of its symbols survives. Each new dig also disturbs the evidence left by earlier ones, so finds of wood, iron and fiber are hard to tie to any original shaft.

The Templar and Ark theories have no support in the historical record. Henry Sinclair, often named as the link, lived after the Templars were dissolved, and there is no evidence the order sailed to North America. The dated finds reported on the TV series, such as coins and wood from the 1600s and 1700s, fit the known history of European fishing, trade and settlement along this coast.

Timeline

  1. 1795According to later accounts, Daniel McGinnis and two friends find a depression and begin digging the 'Money Pit'.
  2. c. 1802–1804The Onslow Company reaches about 27 m and reports finding an inscribed stone before the shaft floods.
  3. 1849The Truro Company drills into the pit and claims to bring up bits of metal, then hits more flooding.
  4. 1857The treasure story first appears in print.
  5. 1965Robert Restall, his son and two others die in a shaft, overcome by gas; a causeway is built to bring in heavy machinery.
  6. 1971Triton Alliance lowers a camera down Borehole 10-X and claims blurry images of chests and a hand; nothing is ever confirmed.
  7. 1995A Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution study concludes the flooding comes from natural links between the island's groundwater and the tides.
  8. 2011Nova Scotia's Oak Island Treasure Act sets up licensing for treasure hunting on the island.
  9. 2014The Curse of Oak Island premieres on History, following the Lagina brothers' search.
  10. 2025–2026The show's team reports carbon dates and coins from Smith's Cove and the Money Pit area, but still no treasure; the series continues into a 14th season.

Still unanswered

  • Was there ever an original man-made shaft in 1795, or did early diggers find a natural sinkhole?
  • What was really carved on the 90-foot stone, and did it ever exist as described?
  • Where did the coconut fiber reported from Smith's Cove come from, and how old is it?
  • How much of today's evidence is left over from two centuries of earlier treasure digs?

Did you know?

  • Franklin D. Roosevelt took part in a treasure-hunting company on the island as a young man in 1909.
  • The same production company makes both Ancient Aliens and The Curse of Oak Island, which is why their casts often cross over.
  • The 1965 accident that killed four men was caused by gas in a shaft, not by any flooding trap.

On Ancient Aliens

  • S12E05 The Pharaoh's Curse Tsoukalos and Childress suggest the Templars buried the Ark of the Covenant on Oak Island, and Wilcock ties the 90-foot stone to Egyptian curse stones.
  • S13E08 Island of the Giants A crossover in which Oak Island's Marty Lagina joins Tsoukalos to explore Bronze Age ruins in Sardinia; Oak Island itself is only a link, not the setting.
  • S14E13 The Constellation Code Travis Taylor argues that stones on Oak Island map the constellation Taurus.

Episode numbers follow Wikipedia's episode list; History and some reviewers number a few seasons differently.

Visiting

Getting there. Oak Island sits off Western Shore and Martin's Point on Nova Scotia's South Shore, about an hour's drive southwest of Halifax near Chester and Mahone Bay.

What you can see. The island is private and an active dig site, so you cannot wander it on your own. A licensed operator runs guided tram tours in season from the Oak Island Interpretive Centre in Martin's Point, and advance booking is required. You can also see the island from the causeway area and the shores of Mahone Bay.

Tip. Book the tour well ahead in summer, since it often sells out and runs rain or shine.

Sources

  1. Oak Island – The Canadian Encyclopedia thecanadianencyclopedia.ca
  2. Oak Island mystery – Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org
  3. Oak Island – Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org
  4. Oak Island Tours – Tourism Nova Scotia novascotia.com
  5. Oak Island: The State of the Search – thecurseofoakisland.com (fan site) thecurseofoakisland.com
  6. Review of Ancient Aliens S12E05 'The Pharaohs' Curse' – Jason Colavito jasoncolavito.com
  7. Review of Ancient Aliens S13E08 'Island of the Giants' – Jason Colavito jasoncolavito.com
  8. Review of Ancient Aliens S14E13 'The Constellation Code' – Jason Colavito jasoncolavito.com
  9. List of Ancient Aliens episodes – Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org
Research notes: what we could not confirm
  • Recent finds reported by the TV series (coin dates, carbon dates, human bone fragments, tumbaga metal) come from a fan site summarizing the show, not from peer-reviewed reports, so they are only described in general terms here.
  • The year of the Oak Island Treasure Act (2011) follows Wikipedia; some sources give 2010 for its passage.
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1909 involvement is from general knowledge and was not checked in a source opened here.
  • Travis Taylor's role is as described in Colavito's review; whether he was a regular Curse of Oak Island cast member was not confirmed.
  • The old entry's S16E3 'The Galactic Keyhole' and S1E4 were not confirmed to discuss Oak Island.
  • Wikipedia lists the episode title as 'The Pharaoh's Curse'; Colavito spells it 'The Pharaohs' Curse'.