Oak Island

Posted by Brendan Kilmartin

Over the last 200 years, one group of explorers after another has failed to get to the bottom of the Money Pit. It's design and construction are ingenious, but who built it and why?

It is one of the world's most unusual mysteries, a mystery that has foiled the attempts of numerous explorers over the last 200 years to get to its hidden secrets. The Oak Island Money Pit is an incredible piece of construction that has held its secrets ever since its construction.

The Discovery.

One summer's day in 1795, a young man named Daniel McGinnis took a break from the fishing, farming and forestry by which the Nova Scotians survived. Dan rowed out to an uninhabited Oak Island which was just a few hundred yards offshore from the village of Chester. There he walked to the shade of the old oak trees by which the island had been named.

As he walked towards the eastern end, he noticed a rather sturdy looking tree from which hung an old ship's block and tackle. Under the branch from where these hung he noticed a shallow depression in the ground, as if the earth had recently been disturbed. Full of ideas about what he had possibly discovered, Dan returned to the mainland and told two friends about what he had discovered. Dan and his two friends, Paul Smith and Anthony Vaughan, returned to the island with picks and shovels and began to dig under the oak tree.

As the young adventurers dug, it became clear that this wasn't merely a hollow in the limestone. The immediate ground below them was soft but the outer edges of the hole were hard clay and still showed the pick marks of the original diggers.

As they reached a depth of about 60 cm they discovered a layer of slabs, slabs that would only have come from an island some 3 or 4 km away. After removing the slab layer they dug on. At a depth of 3 meters they discovered another layer, made from oak logs, although these had begun to rot the outside of the layer was dug deep in to the clay walls of the hole.

Once again they continued their dig and at 6 meters came up against the same oak layer. This job was proving too much for the three youngsters so they abandoned their dig, marked the spot and returned for the time being to their jobs.

The First Digging Expedition.

As word got around about the discovery on Oak Island, a wealthy businessman Simeon Lynds organized a group of wealthy friends, and set about organising a digging expedition.

As the men dug down beyond the point where the boys had reached they discovered the same oak layers at regular 3 meter intervals, they also discovered charcoal, ship's putty and coconut fiber. As the men approached to 30 meter point they discovered a stone with a strange inscription.

This strange piece of stone - possibly porphyry - was found at a depth of 28 meters. The unusual encrypted message reads, 'Forty feet below two million pounds are buried'. The original stone went missing and many believe that the message was added later to possibly help with future expeditions.

As the men continued to dig, the floor of the pit became damp, although there had not be any sign of water so far. As they continued they were taking out two barrels of water to every barrel of earth.

The Pit Floods.

Eventually the men discovered a solid object which was blocking their way. The object went from wall to wall, and after trying hard to remove it with crowbars they decided to finish for the day and resume their dig in the morning.

When they approached the pit the following day they discovered that it had been flooded to a depth of almost 20 meters. Their attempts to bail out the water proved useless, and after trying a pump - which subsequently broke - they abandoned their efforts.

The Truro Company.

Over the next few years very little was done to solve the mystery of the pit. In 1849 the Truro Company was formed .Two of the surviving members of the original dig lent their help to the Truro men, making sure they were digging in the right place.

A man named Jotham B. Mcully, in charge of operations, had traced the source of the flood to an artificial beach at Smith's Cove, with a drainage system which lead to the lower levels of the pit. He built a coffer dam across the Cove and was surprised to discover the remains of an older dam, exposed at low tide. Unfortunately this expedition went the same way as the others, a surprisingly high tide destroying the dam they had erected. This and other factors led them to abandon their dig as the money ran out.

Since then there have been many failed attempts to overcome the pit's defenses, and as so many before them, they have failed, including one attempt where the chamber itself was said to have fallen to the depths of the pit making it more inaccessible than ever.

"The structures beneath Oak Island must rank as the eight wonder of the world."

Lionel Fanthorpe, Oak Island Researcher.

Leading Theories

What lies at the bottom of the pit nobody knows, and if we could be sure who built it then the mystery may become easier to solve. There are many theories that have been put forward over the last 200 years, several of them deserving careful consideration.

The Knights Templar

The most intriguing theory to come out of this mystery is that of the Knights Templar. When King Philip le Bel of France tried to destroy their noble order in 1307, a handful of Templars fought their way clear of his treachery and were protected by the Sinclairs of Orkney.It is thought that these Templars may have had access to whatever treasures there may have been at Rennes le Chateau, in France. Even more important to them was to keep this treasure safe from the avaricious Philip.

It is said that the Templars had the strength, stamina and discipline to carry out such a mammoth task on Oak Island. Their military architectural skills were of the best in the world, and with their enemies perhaps wanting the treasures, they certainly had the motives.

The Freemasons

Masonry first arrived in North America in the eighteenth century, being defined by its "peculiar system of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols". It now appears that the Masonic Secret Vault allegory holds some significance in the mystery when considering the placement of peculiar signs and signifiers.

The "strange markings" reportedly carved on the oak adjacent to the Pit can be seen to invoke Masons' Marks, inscribed signs by which Masons are identified. The three alleged discoverers of the Pit can be seen to represent the

Three Worthy Sojourners, where Daniel McGinnis represents the Principal Sojourner, known for discovering the Secret Vault in the Royal Arch degree. In such a ritual, the aspirant is lowered on a rope through a succession of trap doors. It does not take much to recognise the similarities in this act with the workmen who were on occasion hauled up and down the Money Pit shaft.

Interestingly, the tools used by the diggers, such as spades, pickaxes, and a crowbar represent the three Working Tools of the Royal Arch Mason. Indeed, when in 1803 workers probed the bottom of the Pit with a crowbar and struck what they thought was a treasure chest, their actions recall the Royal Arch degree in which the Secret Vault is located by a sounding blow from a crowbar.

To assign Masonic signification further still, the discovery of an old metal setsquare at Smith's Cove may simply be an innocent finding but when considered alongside the Secret Vault allegory, it must be recalled that three small squares were among the items found. Indeed, the square is one of the major symbols of Freemasonry which, united with a pair of compasses, comprises the universal Masonic emblem.

In 1967 evidence of a Masonic stone, a granit boulder, was overturned by a bulldozer and on its underside was the identifiable emblem of the letter 'G' in a rectangle. 'G' denotes the Grand Geometer of the Universe God, the focus of masonic teachings and is the most public of all symbols used.

The presence of this symbol on Oak Island, coupled with its location in the east which is considered the source of light in Masonic teaching serves as further evidence that freemasonry is almost certainly involved in the mystery.

In any event, the evidence indicates a strong Masonic connection to the Oak Island enigma, whether as the original concealers of the assumed treasure, or even originators of the legend as a farce, or means to attract funds.

Captain Kidd

Stories had been in existence since the 1600's that Captain William Kidd had buried a hoard of treasure to be found on an island "east of Boston". Legend told of a dying sailor in the New England Colonies who confessed to being a part of Kidd's notorious crew, but he never named an exact location for the hidden booty.

The three individuals who initially suspected treasure on Oak Island must have considered that they could have been on the verge of discovering Kidd's lost bounty.

Skeptics claim that Kidd spent little time near Nova Scotia, suggesting that he could not have devoted enough time to construct the money pit. An original chart of Kidd's was dated 1699, a time when he would have only been 20 years old.

It seems unlikely that Kidd would have accumulated a large bounty at such a young age. However, it is known that Kidd did bury an amount of treasure on Gardener's Island near the eastern end of Long Island Sound, but the Governor of New York quickly seized this.

Rich New Jersey businessman, Gilbert Hedden made a link between the money pit and pirates when exploring the island in 1936. He discovered a large triangle of beach stones laid out in shape of a rough sextant, which pointed in the direction of the pit.

Fascinated by his find, Hedden researched pirates' activities in the Nova Scotia area. Using charts printed in a book by Harold Wilkins entitled 'Captain Kidd and his Skeleton Island' Hedden learned of Kidd's exploits. He even consulted the English born author who was unable to help, having only seen Kidd's original charts just once and since had drawn them from memory.