The Curse of Oak Island

by Randall Sullivan

  1898 Captain John Welling is first to discover stone triangle and drilled boulder; Treasure Company besieged by creditors and collapses, with many investors declaring bankruptcy

  1900 Frederick Blair buys out all other shareholders in the Treasure Company

  1904 Through an agent, Blair acquires forty-year lease on Money Pit under Nova Scotia Mines Act

  1909 Captain Henry Bowdoin announces in a series of interviews with New York newspaper that he is taking over the Oak Island treasure hunt after striking a deal with Frederick Blair, forms Old Gold Salvage and Wrecking Company, sells only five thousand of 250,000 shares offered, ten to Franklin Delano Roosevelt; first claim made (in New York Times) that what is buried on Oak Island are the French crown jewels; Bowdoin begins operations on Oak Island, doing little of what he promised, quits the island in November, promising to return before end of 1911

  1911 After failing to make a deal with Frederick Blair to continue work on Oak Island, Bowdoin takes revenge by writing article for Collier’s magazine in which he claims there has never been any treasure on Oak Island and that flooding of the Money Pit is a naturally occurring phenomenon

  1912 Blair answers Bowdoin’s article with one of his own written for the Amherst Daily News

  1912 Professor S. A. Williams proposes solving Money Pit problem with Poetsch method but is unable to raise adequate funds

  1913 Blair acquires eight-year lease on Money Pit lot from Sophia Sellers

  1919 Creighton and Marshall bookbinding business closes and inscribed stone disappears, never to be seen again

  1921 Blair makes deal with engineer Edward Brown to excavate the Money Pit, but Brown never gets deeper than 7 feet

  1922 Blair posts advertisement in Boston Journal of Commerce for a partner in the treasure hunt

  1931 Blair signs partnership agreement with William Chappell, the drill operator who brought up the parchment scrap; William’s son Melbourne helps him organize operations on the island; they sink shaft no. 21, broadest hole ever dug on Oak Island; among the artifacts they recover are an anchor fluke, an Acadian axe and seal-oil lamp; storms end work in October

  1932 Blair loses lease on Money Pit property and it is acquired by engineer John Talbot on behalf of investor group headed by New York heiress Mary B. Stewart; Talbot accomplishes little, but does take the boatswain’s whistle to Stewart in New York, and it is never seen again

  1933 Thomas Nixon, the first to suggest that the treasure of Tumbes is buried on Oak Island, signs deal with Blair to enclose Money Pit in steel pilings in order to excavate; instead he drills fourteen boreholes to bring up fragments oak and china

  1935 Gilbert Hedden signs deal with Blair to take over the Oak Island treasure hunt, buys Money Pit property from Sophia Sellers’s heirs

  1936 Hedden’s crew, under supervision of engineer Frederick Krupp, begins operations on Oak Island, opening and draining shaft no. 21, known as the Chappell shaft, find what they believe to be an original flood tunnel at a depth of 93 feet

  1936 Exploring the island on his own, Hedden discovers the timbers of a structure built before the early 1700s at Smith’s Cove

  1937 Captain Kidd and His Skeleton Island by Harold Wilkins published, containing what becomes known as the Mar Del map; Hedden writes to Wilkins, noting similarities to Oak Island

  1937 Hedden and crew return to Oak Island, begin work on shaft no. 22, to be twice the size of Money Pit; Blair tells Hedden about stone triangle and drilled boulder discovered by Captain Welling in 1897; Hedden orders his men to search, and one of them, Amos Nauss, finds the triangle; Hedden also finds not just one drilled boulder, but a second as well; Charles Roper is brought to the island to conduct a survey using the reference points written on the Mar Del map; Roper discovers that medial line of stone triangle is pointing due north and right into the center of the Money Pit

  1937 Hedden writes to President Roosevelt to inform him of the discoveries, then sets sail for England to meet Harold Wilkins; Wilkins confesses he created the Mar Del map but says he may have based it on the Captain Kidd treasure charts he saw at the British Museum

  1938 Hedden is sued by the Internal Revenue Service, effectively ending his direct involvement in the Oak Island treasure hunt

  1938 Professor Edwin Hamilton signs a deal with Blair and Hedden to take over the treasure hunt on Oak Island, begins boring operations that summer, putting down fifty-eight holes in Money Pit area, bringing up “very old oak” and what he believes are connections to the flood tunnel system; establishes that seawater is pouring into Money Pit area at rate of 800 gallons per minute; also establishes that Chappell shaft and Money Pit are just a few feet apart

  1939 Professor Burrell Ruth writes to Hedden, making the first known claim that what is buried in the Money Pit are the manuscripts of William Shakespeare

  1940 Hamilton and crew find Halifax Company tunnel

  1943 Hamilton gives up efforts on Oak Island, having proved mostly how difficult the previous work on Oak Island makes any future progress

  1944–1946 Blair negotiates failed deals with Anthony Belfiglio and Edward Reichert

  1947 System of tunnels and vaults reportedly found on Haiti by engineer Albert Lochard

  1948 Hedden agrees to sell his property on Oak Island to Colonel H. A. Gardener, who proposes to explore the Money Pit with a radio scanner developed by US military; Blair blocks the sale

  1949 Hedden does sell his Oak Island lots to petroleum engineer John Whitney Lewis; Lewis, however, learns that Frederick Blair has reacquired treasure trove rights and agrees to sell the same lots to Melbourne Chappell

  1951 Frederick Blair dies after more than a half century of involvement in the Oak Island treasure hunt, leaving behind the documents that establish the history of operations on the island; Mel Chappell acquires Blair’s treasure trove license, making him the first to both own the Money Pit property and the right to search for treasure there

  1951 Edward Rowe Snow’s True Tales of Buried Treasure is published, includes first claim of translation of inscribed stone by an Irish schoolmaster and first account of men “silhouetted against bonfires” being seen on Oak Island before the Money Pit’s discovery

  1953 Thomas Penn Leary self-publishes his book The Oak Island Enigma, arguing that Francis Bacon or his followers were behind the works on the island

  1955 George Greene makes deal with Mel Chappell to apply oil drilling methods to probe of Money Pit area; locates a large underground cavity at 45 feet belowground, finds that 100,000 gallons of water won’t fill it

  1956 Greene writes to Chappell that he won’t be able to return to Oak Island that spring as promised; he never sets foot on the island again

  1957 Robert Restall and Mel Chappell exchange letters, nearly make an agreement, but Chappell changes mind

  1958 Chappell makes a deal with Harman brothers, professional drillers who begin probing Money Pit, bringing up oak and spruce fragments, coconut fiber, and ship’s caulking; Chappell refuses to renew their lease

  1958 R. V. Harris’s The Oak Island Mystery is published

  1959 Chappell signs first of several one-year agreements with Robert Restall, who along with son Bobbie sets up camp on Oak Island

  1960 Restall’s wife, Mildred, and younger son, Ricky, move onto the island; Robert Restall and Bobbie explore south shoreline where Bob finds “1704 stone”

  1961 Restall searches for “mystery box” in swamp, cannot locate it, also discovers the triangle of piled stones on slope of island’s east-end drumlin

  1962 David Tobias becomes a Restall investor

  1962 Fred Nolan completes first survey of Oak Island, approaches Chappell with offer to lease search rights in Money Pit area; Chappell refuses

  1963 Nolan acquires seven disputed lots on Oak Island, reapproaches Chappell, offering to trade his lots for right to excavate Money Pit; Chappell refuses; Nolan excavates two shafts on own property

  1965 Robert Dunfield becomes Restall investor

>   1965 Restall and crew open new shaft between Cave-in Pit and Money Pit; on August 17, Robert Restall, Bobbie Restall, Cyril Hiltz, and Karl Graeser die in that shaft

  1965 Robert Dunfield takes over operations under the Restall contract; Mildred and Ricky Restall are moved off the island to house on mainland; Dunfield builds causeway connecting Oak Island and mainland, uses it to haul across the seventy-ton digging crane he will use to perform massive excavations at the Money Pit area and at Smith’s Cove

  1965 Dan Blankenship joins treasure hunt as Dunfield investor, begins research at Nova Scotia Archives

  1965 Reader’s Digest publishes article on Oak Island

  1966 Nolan purchases quarter acre of land next to causeway entrance at Crandall’s Point

  1966 Robert Dunfield abandons operations on Oak Island

  1967 Dan Blankenship assumes control of operations on Oak Island, in association with David Tobias; Blankenship and Tobias make deal to include Fred Nolan; on island’s south shore, Blankenship finds handwrought nail and washer

  1967 Tobias persuades Chappell to permit Becker drilling program that will establish basic facts of Oak Island’s underground structure; Canada Cement LaFarge identifies cement pulled from belowground as type common in sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; wood brought up is carbon-dated to be at least two and a half centuries old; beneath Hedden shaft, Becker drill finds holes filled with layers of small stones and blue clay putty; on basis of Becker program, Blankenship and Tobias announce they have proved the existence of man-made tunnels at depths of more than 200 feet beneath the surface of Oak Island

  1967 Fred Nolan opens his Oak Island museum at Crandall’s Point

  1969 Tobias, Blankenship, and investor group form Triton Alliance; Fred Nolan accuses Blankenship and Tobias of breach of contract, blocks entrance to causeway, forcing Triton to build a bypass; Triton retaliates by blocking causeway access to Oak Island, forcing Nolan to travel by boat; Nolan retaliates by blocking roadway through his property to Money Pit

  1969 Borehole 10X is first drilled; cofferdam at Smith’s Cove permits Triton to expose a huge U-shaped wooden structure offshore; carbon-dating establishes structure was built prior to 1720; Blankenship also discovers the “G stone” near the Cave-in Pit

  1970 Steel Company of Canada issues report stating that metal pulled from 10X is pre-1700 wrought iron

  1970 Professor Ross Wilhelm produces his translation of inscribed stone and claims that Oak Island was used as a depot for storm-damaged Spanish ships in sixteenth century

  1970 Tobias sends Blankenship to Haiti to find the pirate bank Albert Lochard claimed to have found in 1947; Blankenship can’t locate it

  1971 Borehole 10X is widened and lined with 27-inch diameter casing; Steel Company of Canada reports that new metal fragments removed from 10X are case-hardened steel, most likely pre-1750

  1971 Fred Nolan acquires his own treasure trove license; Triton responds by making a new agreement with Nolan for a share of any treasure found on his property in exchange for Nolan’s right to drive across causeway and a promise not to challenge his ownership of disputed lots

  1972–1976 Blankenship makes a series of dives to bottom of 10X

  1973 Jane Blankenship moves to Mahone Bay

  1975 Blankenships acquire lot 23 on Oak Island, begin building home there

  1975 Engineering operation supervised by George Young finds cavern 52 feet deep at Western Shore, directly across from Oak Island

  1976 Dan Blankenship nearly crushed by collapsing casing in 10X

  1976 Blankenship and Tobias form Oak Island Tours

  1977 Mel Chappell sells all of his land on Oak Island to David Tobias

  1978 Blankenship begins using railroad tank cars to case 10X, assisted by Dan Henskee

  1979 Blankenship first discovers “ice holes” off the south shore of Oak Island; dispute opens between Blankenship and Tobias about trying to seal south shore holes and about continued exploration of 10X

  1981 Fred Nolan first finds the five cone-shaped boulders that constitute what will become known as Nolan’s Cross

  1983 Triton files a lawsuit against Fred Nolan, alleging he is not legal owner of the disputed seven lots on Oak Island

  1985 Triton/Nolan lawsuit goes to trial; Nolan prevails with ruling he is legal owner of seven lots on Oak Island

  1986 Blankenship/Tobias relationship ruptures when Blankenship refuses to support Triton “big dig” plan for exploring Money Pit area, insisting they should concentrate on 10X

  1987–1988 Blankenship and Dan Henskee replace tank cars in 10X with reinforced concrete

  1990 Blankenship resigns from Triton board; Canadian government rejects Triton loan guarantee request

  1991 Fred Nolan brings surveyor William Crooker to Oak Island to confirm his measurements of the large cross laid out on the island

  1992 Discovery of Nolan’s Cross is announced in Crooker’s book Oak Island Gold; Nolan and Crooker suggest that the treasure taken in the 1762 sacking of Havana is buried on Oak Island

  1995 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution conducts detailed groundwater study of Oak Island

  1996 Bedford Institute scientists conduct bathymetry study of Oak Island, discover two apparently man-made “scours” in ocean floor off south shore

  1997 Bedford Institute scientists return to Oak Island, confirm existence of man-made “scours”

  2003 Blankenship and Tobias accuse one another of planting newspaper story that Oak Island Tours will sell its Oak Island property for $7 million

  2003 Petter Amundsen performs first excavations on Oak Island

  2004 Rolling Stone article on Oak Island is published

  2005 Oak Island Tours puts Oak Island property (78 percent of island) up for sale

  2007 Rick and Marty Lagina see ad offering David Tobias’s Oak Island holdings for sale; Laginas first purchase lot 25, then make a deal with Tobias to purchase the rest of his Oak Island property, becoming equal partners with Dan Blankenship in Oak Island Tours

  2013 Production of The Curse of Oak Island commences

  R.V. Harris, attorney and advisor to Oak Island treasure hunters for decades during the mid-twentieth century, wrote the book that first made the story well known outside Nova Scotia.

  Oak Island’s east drumlin, where the Money Pit was found and the treasure hunt has been focused for more than 220 years.

  Captain William Kidd, whose pirate treasure generations of people digging in the money pit believed they would find.

  Henry Morgan, legendary seventeenth century pirate whose Treasure of Panama, worth well over $100 million at current value, has never been found. Some believe it could be buried on Oak Island.

  William Phipps, seventeenth century privateer turned politician who captured the treasure-laden Spanish ship Concepcion. Some believe he may have stashed part of the haul taken from the Concepcion on Oak Island.

  Samuel de Champlain, who in 1608 established “New France” in what is now Canada. Some speculate that the Oak Island treasure vaults were dug during the struggle between France and England for control of Nova Scotia.

  Samuel Ball, freed from slavery to serve on the royalist side during the Revolutionary War. He settled on Oak Island and grew wealthy there. Some believe the source of that wealth was his share of a treasure found on the island.

  In 1909 Captain Henry Bowdoin mounted the most publicized treasure hunt thus far on Oak Island. He brought in a young Franklin D. Roosevelt as both an investor and crewmember. When he was denied access to the island, Bowdoin retaliated with a malicious article for Collier’s magazine that debunked the Money Pit “myth.”

  Frederick Blair, who devoted more than a half-century to the treasure hunt. Along the way compiling maps, charts and documents that make up the bulk of the Oak Island files in the Nova Scotia Archives.

  William Chappell, who was manning the drill when the fabled parchment scrap was lifted out of the Money Pit in 1897. His son Melbourne would later control the t
reasure hunt on Oak Island for decades.

  Melbourne “M.R.” Chappell with his family. Chappell controlled the treasure hunt on Oak Island for most of the 1950s and 1960s.

  The young Franklin Delano Roosevelt was an enthusiastic member of the Bowdoin expedition and followed the Oak Island treasure hunt for the remainder of his life, even while serving more than twelve years as U.S. president.

  What symbols were carved on the “Inscribed Stone” has been debated for nearly a century and is not truly known. The translation “Forty Feet Below Two Million Pounds Are Buried” was first produced by “a very bright Irish teacher” in 1909, and has been repeated with variations numerous times since.

  Gilbert Hedden directed the treasure hunt on Oak Island for only a couple of years in the 1930s, but made an astonishing array of discoveries and connections during that time. He remained involved with Oak Island for decades afterward.

  The theory that William Shakespeare’s works were actually written by Francis Bacon emerged during the nineteenth century and has maintained currency ever since. The idea that the original Shakespeare manuscripts are cached on Oak Island was first proposed by Prof. Burrell Ruth in the 1940s.

  Francis Bacon’s Novum Organum Scientiarum is widely credited with establishing the modern scientific method.

  Bacon served as Lord Chancellor of England. His achievements in science, law, philosophy, and literature made him “one of the three greatest men who ever lived” in the opinion of Thomas Jefferson. Generations of devotees have made him into a religious figure as well. Many of those believe the works he intended for “future generations” were buried on Oak Island.