On The Curse of Oak Island, the team started hauling through the spoils from the Money Pit and found a surprising artifact that could be linked to former US president Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Last night’s episode, understandably, had its primary focus on the big dig at the Money Pit. The first 10-foot wide steel caisson, christened The Fellowship 1, was rammed into the ground at the same location as the old D1 borehole.
The guys reckon that this site holds the best chance for uncovering treasure. It was here that last year Ian Spooner’s analysis found a large portion of silver and gold in the water buried underneath. It’s also where they found wood that was carbon-dated back to 1488. And most impressively, it’s where they found fragments of gold on two pieces of metal.
The process is very straightforward; ROC Equipment uses the oscillator to drill the hole, and Irving LTD then sends down the massive hammer grab, which can pull up 11,000 lbs of dirt. This dirt is then spread out by Billy Gerhardt so that Gary Drayton can efficiently run his metal detector over it.
After Gary has picked out any precious artifacts, all the dirt/spoils are sent to the wash plant to be cleaned and further studied by the guys to ensure they’ve not missed anything. But as Marty Lagina pointed out, “we’re not going to miss anything.”
Oak Island team expect to find treasure at the 90 feet mark
The goal was to hit the “zone of interest,” which lies approximately between 70 and 90 feet; this is where the guys think the treasure is most likely to be found and where they have recovered the most interesting artifacts to date. And once they hit that mark, the hammer grab started pulling up wood, a lot of wood, including fairly large beams.
Marty said he was “hoping there would be a lot of wood,” as wood implies there are tunnels and structures buried underneath, which could have been used to house the treasure.
A presidential boot on Oak Island?
At one point, Gary found an old rubber boot, which Doug Crowell dated to around 1908/9. While a rubber boot is not exactly exciting stuff, it does beg the question, what was it doing 90 feet underground?
Doug then pointed out that a major dig at the Money Pit had occurred in 1909, a dig that was attended by no less than future US president Franklin D. Roosevelt. The possibility that this boot had belonged to FDR greatly amused the guys and would certainly be a fun piece of history if it could be confirmed.
However, many fans will be hoping the team finds something a bit more shiny and valuable next week.
The Curse of Oak Island airs at 9/8c on History.
They don’t have the MAP!
What Map?