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There is an island in the North Atlantic…

I’ve been following this story since I was a kid, so are the two brothers out digging for treasure.

Story goes, in 1795, some kids saw a mysterious light on a nearby island in Nova Scotia. They took a boat out and found a pulley hanging from a tree branch over an odd depression in the ground.

Like any ingenous kids, they went “Yay! Pirate treasure!” and started digging.

10 feet down, they hit a floor of oak logs. They pulled those out and kept digging. They found another floor every 10 feet until they hit 90 feet, which had a mysterious carved stone on it.

After that, their hole flooded and people have been digging for treasure ever since. To a point where the island has been so thoroughly dug up, the location of the original “money pit” has been lost for decades.

The History Channel show has been trying for 12 seasons now. Lots of myths and legends about it.

The mysterious “90 foot stone” has been lost, no rubbings or photographs were made. A transcription and translation popped up, but it doesn’t seem to be older than the 1940s.

In the 1960s, several people died during the excavation, the show is fond of repeating the “curse” that 6 people have died, and a 7th must die before the treasure can be recovered. There is no reference to that curse prior to the 1960s or 1970s.

  • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
    7·
    9 days ago

    I’m finding it hard to believe that there is anything new to say about the Oak Island Money Pit at this point. Everyone and their grandma has stuck a shovel in it by now, and the only things of any note whatsoever that most recent excavations have found has been crap left there by the previous excavations. There is no suspense. There is no new discovery. There is no big reveal. There is no treasure there and there never was.

    Oak Island at this point is just a lame joke, a meme of about the same caliber as all those little old ladies in the tabloids who totally saw Elvis alive and walking around at a motel outside of Omaha.

    The fact that anyone can continue to blather about this “story,” and that anyone will still listen, is just a testament to just how badly our education system has failed everyone for the last half a century. The only topic about which it says anything at all is the stupidity and credulity of the public. So, business as usual for the History Channel these days.

    • jordanlund@lemmy.worldOP
      2·
      9 days ago

      They haven’t found treasure, but what they have found is still interesting from a history perspective.

      Last season they dug up the “U-shaped structure” buried under Smith’s Cove.

      The large log beams marked with Roman numerals sure seems mysterious… but the best explanation seems to be a barn that blew off another island in a storm and washed up on Oak Island:

      https://oak-island-solved.weebly.com/

      It’s an interesting story… but then I also grew up with the stories about Fort Vancouver which is under constant excavation with no expectation of finding treasure:

      https://www.nps.gov/fova/learn/historyculture/archaeology-and-collections-a.htm

      • lemmefixdat4u@lemmy.world
        2·
        8 days ago

        I also find their “discoveries” more interesting than a treasure that I find improbable. If they actually find solid evidence that the Money Pit is a human construction, it begs the question of why pre-industrial people would spend the resources to create it.

    • itsgroundhogdayagain
      2·
      9 days ago

      My dad watches this shit because he also grew up hearing stories about it. If they ever found the treasure the show would be over. They find just enough bullshit to keep people coming back but they won’t ever find the treasure they keep going on and on about.
      Also, its the damn History channel. You can’t trust them.

  • lemmefixdat4u@lemmy.world
    4·
    9 days ago

    By the earliest accounts, McGinness (and the original “kids”) gave up after digging 30 feet. It wasn’t until the Onslow group that they excavated down to 90 feet.

    I would accept that the original pit was a natural sinkhole except for the coconut fiber evidence. As we all know, palm trees don’t grow in that region. Coconut fiber, called coir, was a common trade item because it was used like hemp. Common applications were rope, mattress stuffing, and matting. It can also be mixed with pitch to make a substitute for oakum - a common material used to waterproof ships hulls.