Has anyone ever heard of the Oak Island Treasure Hunt? One of my friends recently told me about it so I decided to check it out in more detail online. The whole story behind it and the theories sorrounding it are really quite interesting.
Oak Island is off the coast of Nova Scotia in Canada and has been the center of a massive treasure hunt since the late 1700's. It was originally discovred by 3 young boys while they were walking on the island. The saw a tree with a cut branch that looked like it was used as a pulley. Beneath the tree there was a large depression in the ground about 13 feet in diameter. They began digging and after 10 ft they reached a layer of flag stone that was laid down over the hole. They continued to dig down another 20 ft and hit wood. They thought they discovered treasure chests but only found a layer of oak logs that were laid in the hole as well. They dug down 20 more feet only to hit another layer of logs.
Since then several companies have been established and gone bankrupt trying to get the treasure out.
The farthest the hole was been dug to was 90 feet and after that it would flood so rapidly even modern day pumps could not keep the water out. At the 90 foot level an inscribed stone was found (check out this webiste for info on the stone
http://www.activemind.com/Mysterious...ed_stones.html)
They estimate that the pit goes down to 200 feet but anything beyond 100 feet is determined using drilling samples and video.
It was determined that a large subterrean shaft the was dug from the pit all the way to the shoreline (several hundred feet) was responsible for the pit flooding. It was a booby trap created by the people who dug the pit.
Core samples of the pit have brought up several more layers of obstacles inlcuding rock not native to the area, various types of wood, iron plate, and a layer of clay. Core samples have also brought up various pieces of metal, a gold chain, and parchment paper with writing on it.
Video taken of the shaft has revealed chests (supposedly containing mass quantities of gold) and a human skeleton at the bottom of the pit.
Another interesting fact is that the beach there is an artificial beach that was created by the people who dug the hole.
There are many theories about what is buried in the pit and who buried it and why. Some of them inlude the treasure of Captain Kid, various bands of pirates, Stores of gold buried by French or British armies, The Holy Grail buried by the Knights Templar, plundered gold from the inca and aztec by the Spanish, and so on.
More information can be found at these sources:
http://www.activemind.com/Mysterious/Topics/OakIsland/
http://www.oakislandtreasure.co.uk/
http://www.oakislandtreasure.com/