Image from http://www.oakislandmoneypit.com
A new series will soon be debuting on the History Channel. Called “The Curse of Oak Island,” this five-part series will document the adventures of two brothers as they join the ranks of the many treasure hunters who have tried to uncover the mystery of the Oak Island Money Trap.
The money trap was first discovered in 1795 by some teenage boys who lived on the island located off the coast of Nova Scotia. They saw a strange circle of dirt in the ground, and they began to investigate. Oak Island was known to have once been frequented by pirates, so the boys thought that perhaps they had stumbled upon buried treasure. They tunneled into the ground, the boys encountered several wooden platforms built into the tunnel walls, but found no treasure. They finally gave up, but that didn’t mean that others weren’t going to try their hand.
Over the years, multiple companies of treasure hunters as well as well-financed individuals put money, resources and time into uncovering the money pit’s secrets. Not all of them were unsuccessful. The first discovery was of a stone tablet with runic writing which was eventually deciphered and supposedly reads “Forty feet down, two million pounds are buried.” A small scrap of parchment was one of the other notable items found, as well as flood tunnels designed to flood the money trap the further down the diggers got.
Eventually, more modern and efficient technology was employed to help the treasure hunters drill through the clay that made up the pit, and plans were devised to try and avoid the water traps. But for every innovation, it wasn’t long before tragedy struck. A total of six people were killed on the job site, most of them from poisonous fumes lingering in the dig shafts.
The strange history behind the Oak Island Money Pit has given rise to theories of prophecy and curses, hence the name of the History Channel program. The most popular prophecy is that the treasure will not be revealed until seven people are killed and all of the Oak trees are gone from the island. The idea of the curse surfaced long after the discovery of the money pit and was probably born of the tragic deaths of the treasure hunters, but the mystery of the pit itself remains unsolved.
