Regardless of being a small island overlaying solely 140 acres, Oak Island has, over time, constructed a reputation for itself. Legend has it that this mysterious island has hundreds of thousands value of buried treasure. Nonetheless, nobody has been capable of finding this treasure after centuries of excavation as a result of some imagine that the island is cursed. When you’ve got at all times heard tales about this island however by no means actually understood what occurred right here or why it’s so particular, here’s a detailed historical past of the notorious Oak Island.
Oak Island’s Thriller Origin
The thriller round Oak Island started in 1795 when Daniel McGinnis stumbled throughout a dip within the floor. Out of curiosity, Daniel and his two buddies dug into the dip to see what was inside. At round ten toes, they discovered a layer of oak logs, sparking their curiosity even additional.
As they dug into the outlet, they discovered extra oak logs each ten toes. Ultimately, they got here throughout markings they might not comprehend. It was later translated by a professor of languages at Dalhousie College, James Leitchi, into “There may be two million kilos buried forty toes beneath”.
To hurry up the digging course of, Daniel recruited the Onslow Firm to help. After digging for 60 toes, Daniel and the corporate took a break solely to seek out the pit flooded with water. That’s the place it received the identify “Cash Pit”. This marked the start of the seek for treasure at Oak Island, resulting in some fascinating discoveries.
Early Oak Island Treasure Hunters
In 1849, Smith, who was a part of the primary search alongside Daniel, got here with one other crew, dug deeper into the cash pit, and found steel and an empty area. A sign that one thing was certainly buried inside. In the direction of the late Eighteen Nineties, one other crew led by Frederick Blair found coconut fiber and iron within the pit.
In the course of the 1900s, a former Oak Island Treasure Firm member found a number of artifacts, comparable to an oil lamp, a flute anchor, and an axe from the pit. In 1965, one other treasure hunter, Robert Dunfield, bumped into porcelain dishware. Just a few years later, one other crew that dropped a digicam into the pit claims to have seen a number of treasure chests.
Are There Treasures in Oak Island?
Other than all these excavation makes an attempt, nobody has ever retrieved a single piece of treasure from this island. This results in a number of questions: Is there any treasure on this island? Is it cursed? Oak Island has a fairly attention-grabbing historical past. It was initially known as Smith’s Island after Edward Smith, an early settler. It was renamed to Gloucester Isle in 1778 earlier than being renamed to Oak Island due to the crimson oaks that develop on this space.
There are a lot of theories that revolve across the treasure present in Oak Island. A few of them appear credible, and others are outright false. As an illustration, after the Lagina brothers purchased Oak Island, their foremost concept was that the treasure was buried, boobie-trapped, and cursed by Captain Kidd, the semi-legendary Scottish pirate and privateer. He ensured that nobody would ever discover the treasure buried on this island.
Legend additionally has it that this treasure belongs to Sir Francis Drake, and the steel that was found on the island was his coffin. Different theories declare that the treasure in Oak Island could have come so far as from Europe after the conviction of Marie Antoinette within the French Revolution.
This concept talks about how Marie Antoinette gave a servant her jewels, which have been buried on Oak Island. Extra theories contact on famend historic figures like Captain Blackbeard and the well-known thinker Shakespeare. Right here, you possibly can study greater than 20 theories discussing how this treasure discovered its approach to Nova Scotia and, extra particularly, Oak Island. There may be additionally a complete TV collection known as The Curse of Oak Island.
Who Owns Oak Island?
For greater than three centuries, many individuals have tried to discover Oak Island in the hunt for its treasures. Its present homeowners are Rick and Marty Lagina, who bought a 50% stake within the firm that owned Oak Island. Earlier homeowners of the island embody Daniel McGinnis and his two associates. It was additionally owned by Samuel Ball.
So as to add extra thriller to this island, President Franklin D Roosevelt purchased inventory from the above firm earlier than ascending to workplace. It’s alleged that he made a number of journeys to Oak Island to take a look at the progress of the treasure hunt.
Conclusion
Geologists don’t imagine within the buried treasure story. Most of them think about the Cash Pit in Oak Island to be a pure incidence, as is the case with sinkholes. Additionally, how this Cash Pit floods is attributed to a pure interplay between tidal pressures and the island’s freshwater lens. As such, there is no such thing as a boobie entice that was put in by a pirate. Contemplating that the topology of Oak Island retains altering, there’s a good likelihood that no treasure will ever be found within the Cash Pit.
