Have you ever found yourself fascinated with a story of adventure? A story of mystery? One that spans years and years and even has taken the lives of people who have previously tried to look for that treasure, to solve that mystery? These adventures, these real life treasure hunts are so exciting to me, and so I’ll devote my new set of passion posts to searching for these famous tales of buried treasures and mysterious clues. I’m not sure what I’ll find, but I do love a good real life mystery.
The other day, I stumbled upon the inspiration for this series of passion posts: The Oak Island Treasure. A small island in Nova Scotia, Oak Island is home to a mystery over two centuries old. In 1795, a teenage boy named Daniel McGinnis was exploring Oak Island when he spotted a circular depression in the ground by a tree. Having heard old rumors of pirates in the area, he returned the site with two friends and they began digging. Now, this is a mystery, and a really old one at that, so keep in mind that different sources report different findings. According to one source, upon reaching 10 feet deep, the boys hit a layer of oak logs laid in the earth. Other sources report that it was in fact a layer of slate. Nonetheless, people seem to agree that there was some sort of layer of items slowing down the boys’ dig.
After removing the logs, I’m sure the boys were excited, first thinking that their intuition of something being buried there had been true and, second, that the treasure or whatever it was was right below this obstacle. But they were wrong. As they kept digging, the boys hit another layer of some obstacle, whether logs or slate. Once past, nothing again. Ten more feet, down 30, and the boys hit some sort of clay layer. Realizing that they were in way over their heads, quite literally, the trio gave up.
Years later, they returned, this time with professional help, with the goal of finally excavating the treasure they envisioned their since they were young. There was still no success. To this day, the cumulative efforts of over two centuries of treasure hunters still have not recovered the “Oak Island Treasure”.
Years and years of excavating the “Money Pit” have resulted in some astonishing discoveries. Every ten feet, a new layer of some sort of obstacle is unearthed. The treasure hunters have reported finding oak logs, clay, slate, charcoal, and coconut fibers. One of the things I find most interesting is a set of “booby traps” that were set up by the pit’s creators. At around 100 feet down, and again later on, a tunnel was dug from the nearby beach to the pit, where, once struck, the pit would flood by up to sea level. Among other things, some of the most substantial claims of findings over the years have been slates with unknown etchings and even human remains.
The most ironic part, though, is that nobody even knows what they are searching for. So far, treasure hunters have reached around 200 feet down, and yet, the search continues. What could be down there? Who, prior to 1795, designed and had the tools and ingenuity to create such a pit? Maybe one day we’ll find out…
Oak Island Treasure Information:
http://www.activemind.com/Mysterious/topics/oakisland/story.html