Oak Island mystery facts for kids
The Oak Island Mystery is about stories of hidden treasure and strange objects found on Oak Island in Nova Scotia, Canada. For over 200 years, many people have tried to find this treasure. Some think it's pirate gold, while others believe it could be important old writings by William Shakespeare. Some even wonder if it's the Holy Grail or the Ark of the Covenant, possibly buried by the Knights Templar. Over the years, many old items have been found, some dating back hundreds of years. While these finds are exciting, the main treasure everyone is looking for has not yet been discovered. The first big hole dug by early explorers is called "the money pit." There's also a legend, or "curse," that says seven men must die looking for the treasure before it is found. So far, six men have lost their lives trying to solve the mystery.
Contents
The History of the Oak Island Mystery
Early Treasure Hunts (1790s–1857)
Not much is truly known about the first treasure hunts on Oak Island. Most of what we know comes from old stories passed down through families. It wasn't until much later that newspapers started writing about these events. The first story about treasure, found by a settler named Daniel McGinnis, appeared in print in 1857.
One popular story says a dying sailor from Captain Kidd's crew (he died in 1701) claimed that treasure worth £2 million was buried on the island. Around 1799, Daniel McGinnis supposedly found a dip in the ground. He thought it looked like a place where treasure might be hidden, based on the Captain Kidd stories. With help from two friends, John Smith and Anthony Vaughn, he started digging. They found flat stones about two feet down. Later stories say they found oak platforms every 10 feet. The ground they dug through was loose, not hard like the soil around it. The three men reportedly stopped digging at 30 feet because they felt a "superstitious dread." Another version of the story says all four were teenagers and gave up after digging as much as they could.
Around 1802, a group called the Onslow Company came to Oak Island. They continued digging the pit down to about 90 feet. They found layers of logs, charcoal, putty, and even coconut fiber. They also found a large stone with strange symbols on it. The pit then filled with 60 feet of water for unknown reasons. The Onslow Company tried to dig a side tunnel to reach the treasure, but that tunnel also filled with water. The Truro Company, formed in 1849, was the next big group. They dug the pit again, but it flooded once more. They then used a special drill called an auger. The auger went through a spruce platform at 98 feet, then hit layers of oak, "metal in pieces," another spruce layer, and clay. Each time, the drill brought up metal pieces, wood, and coconut fiber.
Another shaft was dug 109 feet deep, and a tunnel was made to try and reach the treasure. This new shaft also filled with seawater. Workers thought the water was connected to the ocean because its level changed with the tides. The Truro Company then explored a nearby area called "Smith's Cove." They found a system of tunnels that seemed to bring water in. When they couldn't stop the water, they dug one last shaft 118 feet deep. A tunnel from this shaft went under the original pit. At some point, the bottom of the original pit collapsed. People thought the treasure might have fallen into a deeper hole, causing the new shaft to flood too. The Truro Company ran out of money and stopped digging in 1851.
Later Excavations (1861–1898)
The Oak Island Association started digging in 1861. They dug the original pit down to 88 feet and made two more shafts. These shafts also filled with water when they hit what seemed to be flood tunnels. At one point, some platforms in the original pit collapsed, dropping the treasure deeper, to about 119 feet below ground. The first of six accidental deaths during the treasure hunt happened in 1861 when a pump engine boiler exploded. Another shaft was dug in 1862 to help pump water out of the main pit. They found tools from earlier companies, but the pumps couldn't keep up with the water. The Oak Island Association also tried to seal the flood tunnels at Smith's Cove, but the ocean tides always broke through. The original pit became unsafe, and the company ran out of money.
In 1866, The Oak Island Eldorado Company tried to find the treasure. They also tried to stop the flood tunnels from Smith's Cove, but it didn't work. They then focused on the main pit, drilling holes that brought up bits of wood, coconut fiber, and mud. They didn't find anything exciting and stopped searching in 1867.
In 1896, another group arrived with steam pumps. They claimed to find a tiny piece of sheepskin parchment with two letters, "vi" or "wi," written in ink. On March 26, 1897, a worker named Maynard Kaiser died, the second accidental death. In 1898, this group poured red paint into the flooded pit. They said it showed three exit holes around the island.
The Old Gold Salvage Group (1909)
Captain Henry L. Bowdoin came to Oak Island in 1909 with the Old Gold Salvage Group. One famous member of this group was Franklin D. Roosevelt, who later became a U.S. President. By this time, the "money pit" area was cleared to 113 feet. Divers went down, but no interesting items were found.
Bowdoin also looked at Smith's Cove, where old drain tunnels were supposedly seen. He found parts of an old dam from the 1850s, but nothing else. He also examined the "stone cipher" (the stone with symbols) in Halifax. He found it was a hard rock with no symbols. He doubted that any symbols could have worn off such a hard stone. The group left in November 1909, but Roosevelt stayed interested in the Oak Island mystery for the rest of his life.
William Chappell and Gilbert Hedden (1928–1939)
In 1928, a New York newspaper wrote a big story about Oak Island. William Chappell became interested and started digging in 1931. He dug a large shaft 163 feet deep. At 127 feet, they found several old tools, including an axe and a pick. The pick was identified as a Cornish miner's pick. However, the area was full of debris from earlier digs, so it was impossible to find out who owned it.
Gilbert Hedden, who owned a steel company, was fascinated by the challenge of finding the treasure. He visited Oak Island six times and collected many books about it. He even went to England to talk to an author about a possible link between Oak Island and a map in one of his books. After Chappell's work, Hedden started digging in 1935. In 1939, he even told King George VI about the progress on the island. His digs in 1935 and 1936 were not successful.
Restall Family and Robert Dunfield (1959–1966)
Robert Restall, his 18-year-old son, and their work partner Karle Graeser came to Oak Island in 1959. In 1965, they tried to seal what they thought was a storm drain at Smith's Cove. They dug a shaft 27 feet deep. On August 17, Robert Restall was overcome by dangerous gas fumes. His son went down to help him and also passed out. Graeser and two other men, Cyril Hiltz and Andy DeMont, tried to save them. A visitor, Edward White, was lowered into the shaft but could only bring out DeMont. Sadly, Robert Restall, his son, Karle Graeser, and Cyril Hiltz all died.
That same year, Robert Dunfield rented parts of the island. Dunfield used a huge 70-ton digging crane to dig the pit area. He dug it to a depth of 134 feet and a width of 100 feet. To get the crane to the island, a special road was built from the island to the mainland. Dunfield's lease ended in August 1966.
Triton Alliance (1967–1990s)
In 1967, Daniel C. Blankenship, David Tobias, Robert Dunfield, and Fred Nolan formed a group to explore Oak Island. Two years later, Blankenship and Tobias bought most of the island and formed Triton Alliance. In 1971, Triton workers dug a 235-foot shaft, called Borehole 10-X, down to solid rock.
Blankenship and Tobias claimed that cameras lowered into the shaft showed possible chests, human remains, and tools in a cave. However, the images were unclear, and no one else has confirmed these claims. The shaft later collapsed, and digging stopped again. The shaft was re-dug to 181 feet, but work stopped due to lack of money. Divers sent to Borehole 10-X in 2016 found no artifacts.
The island was featured in a 1979 TV show called In Search of.... Legal battles over land ownership also slowed down exploration in the 1990s. In 2005, part of the island was for sale for $7 million. A group of U.S. drillers bought it instead of the Canadian government.
Oak Island Tours & The Michigan Group (2005–Present)
In 2006, brothers Rick and Marty Lagina from Michigan bought 50 percent of Oak Island Tours. The other half is owned by Daniel Blankenship. The Michigan group, working with Blankenship, announced they would continue the search for treasure.
In 2010, they received a special license to continue their activities. This license was later replaced by the Oak Island Treasure Act in 2011, which still allows treasure hunting under certain rules. The Lagina brothers' exploration has been shown on a reality television show on the History channel since 2014.
Water in the Money Pit
An old story from 1862 says that after the Onslow Company dug to 80-90 feet, the pit filled with seawater. People thought there was a complex system of tunnels bringing ocean water to the pit.
Later treasure hunters claimed that coconut fibers were found under a beach called Smith's Cove in 1851. This led to the idea that the beach was turned into a siphon to feed seawater into the pit through a man-made tunnel. A sample of this material was supposedly sent to the Smithsonian Institution, which confirmed it was coconut fiber.
However, geologist Robert Dunfield, who carefully examined the pit walls, said he found no proof of such a tunnel. In 1995, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution studied the site. They concluded that the flooding was natural. It was caused by how the island's fresh water and the ocean tides interact with the underground rock. They also said the images from the 1971 cameras were too blurry to tell anything for sure. The supposed "five finger drains" at Smith's Cove are now thought to be remains of an old salt-making operation, not connected to the pit's flooding.
Oak Island sits on a system of glacial hills. Beneath it are natural cavities filled with water. These cavities, made of a type of limestone that dissolves easily in water, might be why the pit keeps flooding.
The Mysterious Stone with Symbols
A stone found 90 feet below the surface was said to have "mysterious markings." The first newspaper report about it was in 1862. It mentioned a letter from J. B. McCully, who described the stone found in the early 1800s. He wrote that it was "a stone cut square, two feet long and about a foot thick, with several characters cut on it." Later, the stone was said to be built into a chimney of an old house near the pit.
In 1864, a treasure hunter named George Cooke claimed he saw the stone in the chimney around 1850. He said it had "crudely cut letters, figures or characters." He thought they looked like they were scraped, not sharply cut. By 1864, the stone was no longer visible in the chimney. Another letter from William Blair, written after 1893, said that a carpenter named Jefferson W. McDonald also saw the characters on the stone in the fireplace. He said no one could figure out what they meant.
In his 1872 novel, The Treasure of the Seas, James DeMille described living on Oak Island. His characters found the stone had been removed from the chimney. An inn landlord in the book said the symbols were "rather faint, and irregular." He also said people who didn't believe in Captain Kidd's treasure thought they were just "accidental scratches."
Reginald Vanderbilt Harris wrote in his 1958 book that the stone was taken to Halifax around 1865-1866. The next mention of the stone was in an 1893 company report. It claimed the stone was moved to Halifax, and a man named James Liechti had figured out it read: "Ten feet below are two million pounds buried."
However, in 1911, Captain H. L. Bowdoin (from the Old Gold Salvage Group) saw the stone at a bookbinding shop in Halifax. He described it as a hard, fine-grained rock with no symbols on it. He was told they had worn off, but he was doubtful because the stone was so hard.
Charles B. Driscoll's 1929 book, The Oak Island Treasure, said the stone was shown to everyone who visited the island. It was later moved to Halifax, then to another town, and eventually used by a bookbinder as a base for beating leather. Harry W. Marshall, whose father owned the bookbinding shop, wrote in 1935 that he remembered seeing the stone as a boy. He said it had no inscription, only some initials "J.M." cut by a boy.
One researcher claimed the symbols translated to "Forty feet below, two million pounds lie buried." These symbols first appeared in a 1949 book by Edward Rowe Snow. Snow said he got them from a reverend, who in turn got them from a "school teacher long since dead."
Famous People Interested in Oak Island
Many famous people have been interested in the Oak Island mystery. Franklin D. Roosevelt, who became a U.S. President, started following the mystery in 1909. His grandfather was an investor in the Oak Island search. Roosevelt kept up with the island's developments until he died in 1945. He even planned to visit the island in 1939, but bad weather stopped him.
Australian-American actor Errol Flynn invested in an Oak Island treasure dig. Actor John Wayne also invested in drilling equipment used on the island. William Vincent Astor, who inherited a large fortune, was also an investor in the search. Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd Jr., a famous explorer, also invested and advised Franklin D. Roosevelt about the island.
Theories About the Money Pit
There are many ideas about how the money pit was formed and what it might hold.
Natural Sinkholes
Some people, like Joe Nickell, believe there is no treasure. They think the pit is a natural hole, like a sinkhole, connected to underground caves. The idea that the pit is natural goes back to at least 1911. There are many sinkholes and caves near the island on the mainland.
The pit might look man-made because natural debris collects in sinkholes. This debris would be softer than the surrounding ground, making it seem like someone had dug there before. The "platforms" of rotten logs could be trees that fell into the hole over time. Another pit, similar to the early descriptions of the money pit, was found in 1949 when workers were digging a well. It also had layers of stones and logs.
Treasure Theories
The oldest theory is that the pit holds pirate treasure buried by William Kidd. Some believe Kidd and another pirate, Henry Avery, hid their treasure together on Oak Island. Another pirate theory involves Edward Teach, also known as Blackbeard, who said he buried his treasure where "none but Satan and myself can find it."
William S. Crooker suggested that the pit might have been dug by Knights Templar, Masons, or Incas to hide their treasure from Spanish conquerors. However, Crooker thought it was more likely that British engineers and sailors dug the pit to store loot from the British invasion of Cuba in 1762, which was worth about £1,000,000.
Other ideas include the pit being dug by Spanish sailors to hide treasure from a wrecked ship, or by British soldiers stationed there during the American Revolution. John Godwin suggested that French Army engineers dug the pit to hide the treasury of the Fortress of Louisbourg after the British captured it during the Seven Years' War.
Hidden Artifacts
Marie Antoinette's Jewels
Some believe that Marie Antoinette's jewels, which went missing during the French Revolution, might be hidden on the island. The story says that in 1789, during the revolution, Marie Antoinette told her maid to escape with her jewels. The maid supposedly fled to London with the jewels, and possibly other treasures, then from London to Nova Scotia.
Bacon-Shakespeare Writings
In his 1953 book, Penn Leary suggested the pit was used to hide writings that would prove Francis Bacon wrote William Shakespeare's plays. Leary's later book in 1990 claimed to find secret codes in Shakespeare's works that pointed to Bacon as the author. Other researchers have also explored this idea, finding codes in Shakespeare, rock formations on the island, and old art.
Masonic and Other Items
Mark Finnan, in his book Oak Island Secrets, noted that many Masonic symbols were found on Oak Island. He thought the pit and its contents seemed to be like a Masonic initiation ceremony, which involves a hidden vault with a sacred treasure. Joe Nickell also found similarities between the Oak Island stories and a Masonic ritual.
Steven Sora thought the pit could have been dug by exiled Knights Templar. He suggested it might be the final resting place of the Holy Grail or the Ark of the Covenant. Another theory is that the Rosicrucians, led by Francis Bacon, created a secret project to hide ancient writings and artifacts on Oak Island. Researchers like Petter Amundsen and Daniel Ronnstam claim to have found codes in Shakespeare, island rocks, and other old documents that support this. Daniel Ronnstam believes the stone found at 90 feet contains a secret code made by Bacon.
Other Ideas
Author Joy Steele suggests that the money pit is actually an old tar kiln. This would fit with the time when Oak Island was used to make tar for the British navy. When marine biologist Barry Fell tried to translate the symbols on the stone in the 1970s, he said they looked like the Coptic alphabet. He claimed they read: "To escape contagion of plague and winter hardships, he is to pray for an end or mitigation the Arif: The people will perish in misery if they forget the Lord, alas." Fell's theory suggests that Coptic people sailed from North Africa to Oak Island and built the pit. However, most experts do not consider Fell's theories to be very reliable.
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