On a summer day in 1795, Daniel McGinnis discovered a circular, thirteen-foot wide depression in a forest on Oak Island. This discovery lead to a mysterious hunt for treasure. The treasure, to this day, still remains undiscovered. Is there even treasure in this pit at all? However, many people believe that this man-made hole does have a pirate treasure hoard. People often call it the Oak Island Money Pit, believing that deep down, this pit contains the treasure of Captain William Kidd.
Many people have tried to solve the ingenious trick that guards this treasure. Yet after 200 years of different people trying and new technology and tools, no one has been able to uncover the secret. Even after digging farther than 150 feet, nobody knows what lies at the bottom, who built and dug this shaft, and the reason for this pit. This mystery has even taken the lives of six.But there must be something down there right? Who would spend that much time digging an extremely deep hole? Is this a stupid prank or is there real treasure?
Oak Island is an island located in the Mahone Bay.It is right off the coast of Nova Scotia which is located in the Eastern Canadian province of Canada, a country of North America. Oak Island covers about 140 acres of land. The island is mostly covered with relatively dense forests. No area on Oak Island is highly elevated; the highest elevation is thirty-five feet above sea level. Oak Island is private land so you must obtain permission before visiting the island.
Young teenage boy Daniel McGinnis was exploring the forests of Oak Island in the summer of 1795. He came across a depression in the ground that he could tell was man made because of a tree that looked to be part of a pulley system. He remembered hearing stories of a Captain William Kidd. The pirate was said to have hidden his treasure on an island east of Boston, Massachusetts. Daniel decided that he wanted to see for himself whether anything was down the hole so he went home to retrieve his friends.
Daniel came back later with his two good friends John Smith and Anthony Vaughan. With shovels, picks, and their own hands, they began to dig. At about two feet down, they found flagstones that marked the pit. Then at ten feet down, they found thin layers of wood that reappeared at twenty and thirty feet. They were determined to continue, but the boys found that it would be impossible to continue without any help. Eight years later, they came back with a company that was formed specifically for this dig, the Onslow Company, to continue what they had previously begun.
With the help of the Onslow Company, ground was quickly recovered and gained. It was discovered that every ten feet, until
ninety, had a layer of oak wood. However, more materials were beginning to be added: At 40 feet, a layer of charcoal; at fifty feet,
a layer of putty; at sixty, a layer of coconut fibers. Then at ninety feet, a mysterious stone. A Halifax proffesor
decoded the mysterious writing. It was a simple pattern where the symbols represented letters of our alphabet.The stone
says:
When the stone was pulled up out of the hole, water began to leak in. By the next day, water level had risen to thirty three pounds. No matter what technique was tried, the water could not be removed from the pit. Even pumping the water out would not work, so a new pit was dug. The new pit was parallel to the original and went deeper than what was dug, going down to 100 feet below the ground surface. A tunnel was then dug to connect the two pits. But water flooded in to the new pit from the tunnel.
Unknowingly, the Onslow Company activated a trap that was set to most likely delay the digging. Water could not be pumped out fast enough. The ocean refilled pit as fast as water could be pumped out of the holes. As no one could figure out how to remove the water, the search for the treasure was given up for forty five years.