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Discovery - The Money pit
1795 Folklore tells us that three young friends, Daniel McInnis, John Smith and Anthony Vaughn Jr. row to Oak Island to explore, after hearing a 30-year old story about two local men that went to investigate mysterious lights on the island and were never seen again.
The three friends discover a block and tackle suspended from an oak branch, hanging over a depression in the ground. The friends dig but can't get past 30 feet. Stories of Captain William Kidd’s treasure are well-known at the time. Could this be his pirate treasure?
The story of The Money Pit on Oak Island, Lot 18, begins.
Depending on which version of the story you adhere to, The “Money Pit” or Shaft 1 was discovered the same year John Smith bought Lot 18 in 1795 and the island was neither deserted, nor were all the co-discovers considered boys. John Smith was 19, research indicates Donald Daniel McInnis was 38 and Anthony Vaughan Jr. was 13. Alternate accounts include island resident and farmer, Samuel Ball, as a co-discoverer, in place of John Smith.
Samuel Ball was a Black Loyalist who bought his first lot on Oak Island in 1787.
The three friends discover a block and tackle suspended from an oak branch, hanging over a depression in the ground. The friends dig but can't get past 30 feet. Stories of Captain William Kidd’s treasure are well-known at the time. Could this be his pirate treasure?
The story of The Money Pit on Oak Island, Lot 18, begins.
Depending on which version of the story you adhere to, The “Money Pit” or Shaft 1 was discovered the same year John Smith bought Lot 18 in 1795 and the island was neither deserted, nor were all the co-discovers considered boys. John Smith was 19, research indicates Donald Daniel McInnis was 38 and Anthony Vaughan Jr. was 13. Alternate accounts include island resident and farmer, Samuel Ball, as a co-discoverer, in place of John Smith.
Samuel Ball was a Black Loyalist who bought his first lot on Oak Island in 1787.
The ONslow Company
No original documents relating to the Onslow Company have been found to date but the following accounts were told by John Smith and Anthony Vaughn Jr. in 1848 to Robert Creelman of the Truro Company.
1804 The Money Pit is dug by workers past the 30-foot level where there were regularly spaced oak log platforms approximately every 10 feet, along with coconut fibre, two layers of a putty-like substance, layers of small stones and charcoal.
At 90-feet a flat stone was found face down with an unusual inscription. At the end of each day, the workers used a metal rod to test if there was another wooden platform 10 feet below. Late on a Saturday, the testing suggested a platform at 98 feet. Work ended for the week and when they resumed on Monday the shaft had filled with 60 feet of water. A steam powered pump was brought in but could not handle the volume of water and burst.
1805 Shaft 2 was dug 14 feet east of the Money Pit to a depth of 110 feet. Their plan was to tunnel between Shaft 2 and the Money Pit and remove the treasure from below the 90-foot level. They managed to get within a few feet of their objective before the tunnel began to flood, barely allowing the men to escape with their lives and leaving the Onslow Company with two shafts full of water and no treasure.
This marked the end of operations for the Onslow Company.
Oak Island Company Name: The Onslow Company
Also Known As: The Onslow Syndicate
Company Formation date and location: 1802 by Dr. Simeon Lynds, a young physician from Onslow, N.S.
Initial Company Shares per Price: Unknown – 25 to 30 financial backers from Onslow and Truro N.S.
Oak Island Leased by: John Smith
Years Active on Oak Island From 1802 to 1805
Deaths as a result on Oak Island: 0
Names of Company Members:
John Smith of Chester, N.S.
Anthony Vaughan of Chester, N.S.
Daniel McInnis of Chester, N.S.
Dr. Simeon Lynds of Onslow, N.S. (he also referred to as Dr. David Barren Lynds in some accounts)
Colonel Robert Archibald, director of operations
Captain David Archibald of Pictou, N.S.
Sheriff Thomas Harris of Pictou, N.S.
Mr. Mosher of Newport, N.S., mechanic
1804 The Money Pit is dug by workers past the 30-foot level where there were regularly spaced oak log platforms approximately every 10 feet, along with coconut fibre, two layers of a putty-like substance, layers of small stones and charcoal.
At 90-feet a flat stone was found face down with an unusual inscription. At the end of each day, the workers used a metal rod to test if there was another wooden platform 10 feet below. Late on a Saturday, the testing suggested a platform at 98 feet. Work ended for the week and when they resumed on Monday the shaft had filled with 60 feet of water. A steam powered pump was brought in but could not handle the volume of water and burst.
1805 Shaft 2 was dug 14 feet east of the Money Pit to a depth of 110 feet. Their plan was to tunnel between Shaft 2 and the Money Pit and remove the treasure from below the 90-foot level. They managed to get within a few feet of their objective before the tunnel began to flood, barely allowing the men to escape with their lives and leaving the Onslow Company with two shafts full of water and no treasure.
This marked the end of operations for the Onslow Company.
Oak Island Company Name: The Onslow Company
Also Known As: The Onslow Syndicate
Company Formation date and location: 1802 by Dr. Simeon Lynds, a young physician from Onslow, N.S.
Initial Company Shares per Price: Unknown – 25 to 30 financial backers from Onslow and Truro N.S.
Oak Island Leased by: John Smith
Years Active on Oak Island From 1802 to 1805
Deaths as a result on Oak Island: 0
Names of Company Members:
John Smith of Chester, N.S.
Anthony Vaughan of Chester, N.S.
Daniel McInnis of Chester, N.S.
Dr. Simeon Lynds of Onslow, N.S. (he also referred to as Dr. David Barren Lynds in some accounts)
Colonel Robert Archibald, director of operations
Captain David Archibald of Pictou, N.S.
Sheriff Thomas Harris of Pictou, N.S.
Mr. Mosher of Newport, N.S., mechanic
The Truro Company
Oak Island Company Name: The Truro Company
Also Known As: The Truro Syndicate
Company Formation date and location: 1849, Truro, Nova Scotia, Colchester County
Initial Company Shares per Price: Unknown
Oak Island Leased by: John Smith
Years Active on Oak Island From 1849 – 1851?
Deaths as a result on Oak Island: 0
Names of Company Members:
Dr. Simeon Lynds - Shareholder
Captain Anthony Vaughan (Of Western Shore) - Shareholder
John Smith
James Pitblado – - Foreman
John Gammel (of Upper Stewiacke) - Large Shareholder
Robert Creelman (of Upper Stewiacke) - Manager
Adams Archibald Tupper (of Upper Stewiacke) – Foreman
Jotham Blanchard McCully - (of Truro) – Manager and Drilling Engineer (neighbor of Dr. Lynds)
Summary of Activity:
Forty-five years would pass before another attempt was made on Oak Island in 1849. During this time the island was being used for farming by John Smith. One of the three original searchers, Daniel McInnis, had also died by this point. The 1st task of The Truro Company was re-excavating The Money Pit down to 86 feet. Water at this level the water began entering and again drove the workers out. Once again, bailing proved useless, and work was temporarily suspended. Later that summer, they returned with a hand operated pod-auger which was used in coal prospecting. A platform was setup for drilling in The Money Pit at a depth of 30 feet, just above the water level. They bored 5 holes into the Money Pit.
In the 1st hole they lost a core sampler. In the second hole, they struck the platform which the previous Onslow Company had found at 98 feet with the crowbar. The drilling auger went through this upper platform which was made of 5 inches of spruce wood, then a 12 inch gap, 4 inches of oak wood, 22 inches of loose metal, 8 inches of oak wood, (This was thought to the bottom of two “treasure chests” or barrel containers, one stacked on top of the next between two platforms). Then the drill went through more 22 inches of loose metal, 4 inches of oak wood, and 6 inches of spruce wood, then into 7 feet of clay without striking anything else. With the third hole, the same platform was struck again at 98 feet. Passing through, the auger fell 18 inches then came into contact with the side of cask or barrel. On withdrawing the auger, oak splinters like from the side of barrel stave, and coconut fiber were also brought up from. The reported distance between these two upper and lower platforms was within 6 feet of each other. Three links of metal resembling an ancient gold watch chain were also brought up by the auger. The final two holes were drilled near the inside walls of the pit. Three pieces of copper wire were also brought up from the 5th hole. After sinking more exploratory holes in the Money Pit, John Gammel noticed James Pitblado taking something off the end of the auger and slipping it into his pocket. When asked about it by Gammel, Pitblado told him that he would reveal it at the next meeting of directors. Pitblado never showed up at the next meeting. Pitblado later unsuccessfully tried to buy land on Oak Island after this point. Fun Fact: James Pitblado later supervised work searching for coal in the Chester area in 1875.
The next summer in 1850, The Truro Company sunk another shaft, SHAFT #3 about 10 feet northwest of The Money Pit. No water was encountered in this new shaft down to 109 feet through red clay. A tunnel was driven from the bottom in the direction toward towards The Money Pit, when water burst in and the men barely escaped with their lives. In twenty minutes, 45 feet of water flooded this new shaft.
Water bailing was used in these old and new shafts with 2 two Horse Gin’s (photo of horse bailers from 1895 publication) for about a week, day and night, but it barely made any noticeable difference in the water level. It was discovered then that the water filling the pit was salt water, and that this water level rose and fell 18 inches with the tides. This gave searchers the idea that the water source must somehow be connected to the sea. A search for an inlet began at Smith’s Cove, for its natural advantages for this, 495 feet away from The Money Pit on the Eastern end of the island. Smith’s Cove was also suspected for this as water had been observed as curiously running out of the sand at the center of this cove, at times. After shoveling, and removing a layer of sand and gravel covering the beach, it was discovered that a bed of brown coconut fiber 2 to 3 inches in thickness had been reached. This was the same kind that had been found in The Money Pit with the pod auger drilling the year before, covering an area 145 feet wide along the shore line, just above the low tide mark and extending to the high tide mark. Underlying this and to the same extend was about 4 or 5 inches of decayed eel grass, and under this was a compact mass of beach rocks free from sand or gravel.
A “cofferdam” was constructed to hold back the tide, and allow for further examination
After removing the rocks nearest the low water, it was found that the clay (which with the sand and gravel originally formed the beach) had been dug out and removed and replaced by beach rocks. Resting on the bottom of this excavation were five well-constructed drains formed by laying parallel lines of rocks about 8 inches apart and covering the same with flat stones. These drains at the starting point were a considerable distance apart, but converged towards a common center at the back of the excavation. Work went on until half of the rocks had been removed where the clay banks at the extreme sides showed a depth of 5 ft, at which depth a partially burned piece of oak wood was found. About this time an unusually high tide overflowed the top of the dam; and as it had not been constructed to resist pressure from the inside, when the tide receded, it was carried away. To rebuild the dam would have been too costly. It was decided to abandon the work on the shore, and to sink a shaft a short distance inland from Smith’s Cove and directly over the suspected convergence point which was suspected to be 25 feet down from the surface to the water. The plan was to drive spiles through, and thereby stop the further passage of the water. A spot was selected and a shaft was put down, (SHAFT #4) to a depth of 75 feet. Realizing the fact that they must have passed the tunnel, work was stopped on this pit. Another and more careful survey was made and work was begun on another shaft about 12 ft to the south of the one just abandoned. (SHAFT #5) When a depth of 35 feet had been reached, a large boulder laying in the bottom of the shaft was pried up. A rush of water immediately followed and in a few minutes the shaft was full to the tide level. An effort was made to carry out the original program of driving spiles, but as the appliances at command were of the most crude description the effort was a failure. A short time after, SHAFT #6 was sunk on the south side of the "Money Pit," and to a depth of 118 ft. This made the fourth one (including the "Money Pit") that had been put down at this place and in such close proximity to each other that a circle 50 ft. in diameter would include the hole. The conditions found in sinking this fourth shaft were precisely the same as in the other shafts. As already stated, this new shaft was 118 feet deep, a greater depth by 8 ft than had previously been reached. A tunnel was driven towards and reached a point directly under a part, at least, of the bottom of the "Money Pit." It was now the dinner hour, and the workmen had left the tunnel. Before they had finished dinner, a great crash was heard in the direction of the works. Rushing back to the pit, they found that the bottom of the "Money Pit" had fallen into the
tunnel that they had a short time before vacated and that the new shaft was fast filing with water. Subsequently, it was found that 12 ft of mud had been driven by the force of water from the old to the new shaft. The funds of the company were exhausted and this company was dissolved in 1851.
Key Events:
[1849]:
Relocation Of Money Pit and clearing out to 86 feet, Water-Flooding, Construction of a platform for drilling at the 30 foot level above water, finding of “metal and wood” upper and lower “chests”, James Pitblado’s unknown recovered hidden item from The Money Pit, and odd behavior, disappearance from the island, and later attempt to buy the eastern part of the island with Charles Archibald of Acadia Iron Works.
[1850]:
Sinking of SHAFT #3 to 109 feet and then towards The Money Pit. Water flooding into SHAFT #3 and attempted bailing with horse gin’s.
DISCOVERY OF 5 FLOOD TUNNELS IN SMITH’S COVE
Discovery of salt water in the pit, and finding the artificial beach and flooding and system at Smith’s Cove. Construction of a Cofferdam to hold back the tide at Smith’s Cove for exploration, until it was swept out with the tide. Discovery of Smith’s Cove clay dug out, and five stone lined drains. SHAFT #4 sunk to 75 feet to the suspected convergence point of these drains, but they missed. SHAFT #5 was sunk to a depth of 35 feet, after they removed a large boulder, a rush of water burst in and flooded this pit to tide level. SHAFT #6 was struck on the south side of the Money Pit to a depth at 118 feet, which was driven towards The Money Pit. Men had stopped when they heard a “crash” from The Money Pit, and this shaft had filled with 12 feet of mud and water. [1854]:
Link to letter at DesBrisay Museum from John Smith to cousin discussing upcoming work on the island, June 26, 1854.
THE TRURO COMPANY STATEMENT #2 (Alternate version)
(Version from the Canadian Oak Island Treasure Company Files, Edward Rowe Snow Version, does not include 35 ft and 75 foot tunnels on Smiths’ Cove)
"Until 1849 nothing further was done, but in that year a new company was formed and the operations were resumed. At this time two of the "old Diggers" (from the original three, and The Onslow Company), namely: Mr. Lynds, or Truro and Mr. Vaughan, of Western Shore, were still living, and gave the manager much valuable information regarding the old workings and expressed their firm belief in the existence of treasure in the "Money Pit". Mr. Vaughan, in looking over the ground, located the site of the "Money Pit" which in the meantime had caved in and about filled up. Digging was
Commenced and went on without interruption until the depth of eighty-six feet had been Reached, when the water again so interfered with operations that the workmen were obliged to leave the pit. An unsuccessful attempt was made to bail the water out with bailing casks. Shortly after, men with boring apparatus of primitive description, used in prospecting for Coal, were sent to the Island. Mr. J.B. McCulley of Truro, was manager. A platform was constructed in the "Money Pit" about thirty feet below the surface and just above the water. The boring started with a pod auger and we submit a verbatim statement made by Mr. McCulley:
The platform was struck at 98 feet, just as the diggers found it when sounding with the iron bar. After going through the platform, which was 5 inches thick, and proved to be spruce, the auger dropped 12 inches and then went through 4 inches of oak; then through 22 inches of metal in pieces; but the auger failed to bring up anything in the nature of treasure except three links resembling the links of a watch chain. The auger then went through 8 inches of oak, which was through to be the bottom of the first box and the top of the next; then 22 inches of metal, the same as before;
and 4 inches of oak and 6 inches of spruce; then into clay 7 feet without striking anything else.
In boring a second hole the platform was struck as before at 98 feet; passing through this, the auger fell about 18 inches and came in contact with (as supposed) the side of a cask. The auger revolving close to the side of the cask gave a jerky and irregular motion, On withdrawing the auger several splinters of oak, such as might from the side of an oak stave, and a small quantity of brown fibrous substance, closely resembling the husk of a coconut were brought up. The distance between the upper and lower platforms was 6 feet. The Late John Gammel of Upper Stewiacke, N.S. was present at this boring. He was a large shareholder, and his veracity could not be questioned. He stated the saw Mr. Pitblado, the foreman, take something out of the auger, wash and examine it closely, then put it in his pocket. When asked by Mr. Gammel to show what it was, he declined an said he would show it at the next meeting of the directors, but Pitblado failed to appear at the meeting. Shortly after he was accidentally killed in a gold mine. Nothing further was done until the following summer (1850) when a new shaft was sunk to the depth of 109 feet at the West side of the "Money Pit" and about 10 feet from it. Mr. A.A. Tupper, then of Upper Stewiacke, N.S., who helped sink this shaft, gave the following account: -
A tunnel was driven from the bottom in the direction of the "Money Pit". Just before reaching the "Money Pit" the water burst in, the workmen fled for their lives, and in twenty minutes there was 45 feet of water in the new shaft. The sole object in view in sinking this shaft was to increase the bailing facilities, for which purpose preparations had been made, and bailing was resumed in both the new and old shafts, each being equipped with two 2 horse gins. Work was carried on night and day for about a week. But all in vain. The only difference being that with the doubled appliances, the water could be kept at a lower level."
WATER IN PIT CAME FROM OCEAN
About this time, the discovery was made that the water was salt, and that it rose and fell in the shafts with the flow and ebb of the tides. It was considered extremely improbably that the water came through a natural channel, and if not through a natural it necessarily must be through an artificial channel, having its inlet somewhere on the shore. In support of the theory that the water did not enter the "Money Pit" through a natural channel, it was argued that had it done so, the original differs (supposed to be pirates) must have struck it, and if they had, it is certain that a the workmen would have been driven from the pit by the greats flow of water, and the pit would necessarily have been abandoned. This, evidently was not the case as we have ample evidence from the fact that the wooden platforms were carefully placed in position near the bottom of the "Money Pit" (see account of borings already given) as well as the fact that the "Pit" had been systematically filled up, with marks placed at every then feet.
Acting on this theory of an artificial channel or tunnel, a search was at once begun. Smith's Cove on the extreme Eastern end of the Island about 400 feet from the "Money Pit" was first examined by reason of its many natural advantages as a starting point for making a tunnel, and from the fact that at about the center of this Cove it had always been noticed that at low tide, water was running out of the sand.
SHORE END OF TUNNEL DISCOVERED
The result of a few minutes shoveling on the beach proved beyond a doubt that the place looked for had been found. After removing the same and gravel covering the beach, the workmen came to a covering or layer of brown fibrous plant, the fiber very much resembling the husk of a cocoanut, and when compared with the plant that was bored out of the "Money Pit" no difference in the two could be detected. This later, about two inches in thickness, covered a surface extending 145 along the shore line and from a little above low water to high water mark. About four or five inches of eel grass covering the same area was found underlying the fibrous plant, and under this was a compact mass of beach rocks free from sand or gravel.
It was impracticable to remove these rocks and make a further search unless the tide was kept back. Accordingly a coffer dam was built along this part of the Cove, including the boundaries just described. After removing the rocks nearest low water, it was found that the clay (which with the sand and gravel originally formed the beach) had been dug out and removed and replaced by beach rocks. Resting on this excavation were five well constructed drains formed by laying parallel lines of rocks about eight inches apart and covering the same with flat stones. These drains commenced at different points a considerable distance apart, but converged towards a common center at the inner side of the excavation. With the exception of these drains, the other rocks had evidently been thrown in promiscuously. Work went on until half of the rocks had been removed which the clay banks at the sides showed a depth of five feet at which depth a partially burned piece of oak wood was found.
About this time an unusually high tide rover flowed the top of the dam, and as it had not been constructed to resist pressure from the inside, when the tide receded, it was carried away. To rebuild it would cost a lot of money, and as there still remained a large amount of rocks to be removed and as there could be no reasonable doubt that the place described was the outwork of, and starting point of a tunnel by which the water was conveyed to the bottom of the "Money Pit" it was decided to abandon the work on the shore. Another shaft was sunk on the South side of the "Money Pit" and to a depth of 118 feet; this made the fourth one (including the "Money Pit") that had been put down in such a close proximity to each other that a circle fifty feet in diameter would include the whole. As already stated, this new shaft was 118 feet deep, - a greater depth by eight feet than had previously been reached. A tunnel was driven towards and reached a point directly under a part at least of the bottom of the "Money Pit"
MONEY PIT COLLAPSES
While the man were out at dinner a great crash was heard. Rushing back to the works they found that a the bottom of the "Money Pit" had fallen into the tunnel that had been vacated a short time before and that the new shaft was fast filling with water. Subsequently it was found that twelve feet of mud had been driven by the force of the water from the "Money Pit" to the new shaft.
WORK ABANDONED UNTIL 1863
The funds of this company in the meantime having been exhausted, nothing was done that we are aware of until 1863.
Also Known As: The Truro Syndicate
Company Formation date and location: 1849, Truro, Nova Scotia, Colchester County
Initial Company Shares per Price: Unknown
Oak Island Leased by: John Smith
Years Active on Oak Island From 1849 – 1851?
Deaths as a result on Oak Island: 0
Names of Company Members:
Dr. Simeon Lynds - Shareholder
Captain Anthony Vaughan (Of Western Shore) - Shareholder
John Smith
James Pitblado – - Foreman
John Gammel (of Upper Stewiacke) - Large Shareholder
Robert Creelman (of Upper Stewiacke) - Manager
Adams Archibald Tupper (of Upper Stewiacke) – Foreman
Jotham Blanchard McCully - (of Truro) – Manager and Drilling Engineer (neighbor of Dr. Lynds)
Summary of Activity:
Forty-five years would pass before another attempt was made on Oak Island in 1849. During this time the island was being used for farming by John Smith. One of the three original searchers, Daniel McInnis, had also died by this point. The 1st task of The Truro Company was re-excavating The Money Pit down to 86 feet. Water at this level the water began entering and again drove the workers out. Once again, bailing proved useless, and work was temporarily suspended. Later that summer, they returned with a hand operated pod-auger which was used in coal prospecting. A platform was setup for drilling in The Money Pit at a depth of 30 feet, just above the water level. They bored 5 holes into the Money Pit.
In the 1st hole they lost a core sampler. In the second hole, they struck the platform which the previous Onslow Company had found at 98 feet with the crowbar. The drilling auger went through this upper platform which was made of 5 inches of spruce wood, then a 12 inch gap, 4 inches of oak wood, 22 inches of loose metal, 8 inches of oak wood, (This was thought to the bottom of two “treasure chests” or barrel containers, one stacked on top of the next between two platforms). Then the drill went through more 22 inches of loose metal, 4 inches of oak wood, and 6 inches of spruce wood, then into 7 feet of clay without striking anything else. With the third hole, the same platform was struck again at 98 feet. Passing through, the auger fell 18 inches then came into contact with the side of cask or barrel. On withdrawing the auger, oak splinters like from the side of barrel stave, and coconut fiber were also brought up from. The reported distance between these two upper and lower platforms was within 6 feet of each other. Three links of metal resembling an ancient gold watch chain were also brought up by the auger. The final two holes were drilled near the inside walls of the pit. Three pieces of copper wire were also brought up from the 5th hole. After sinking more exploratory holes in the Money Pit, John Gammel noticed James Pitblado taking something off the end of the auger and slipping it into his pocket. When asked about it by Gammel, Pitblado told him that he would reveal it at the next meeting of directors. Pitblado never showed up at the next meeting. Pitblado later unsuccessfully tried to buy land on Oak Island after this point. Fun Fact: James Pitblado later supervised work searching for coal in the Chester area in 1875.
The next summer in 1850, The Truro Company sunk another shaft, SHAFT #3 about 10 feet northwest of The Money Pit. No water was encountered in this new shaft down to 109 feet through red clay. A tunnel was driven from the bottom in the direction toward towards The Money Pit, when water burst in and the men barely escaped with their lives. In twenty minutes, 45 feet of water flooded this new shaft.
Water bailing was used in these old and new shafts with 2 two Horse Gin’s (photo of horse bailers from 1895 publication) for about a week, day and night, but it barely made any noticeable difference in the water level. It was discovered then that the water filling the pit was salt water, and that this water level rose and fell 18 inches with the tides. This gave searchers the idea that the water source must somehow be connected to the sea. A search for an inlet began at Smith’s Cove, for its natural advantages for this, 495 feet away from The Money Pit on the Eastern end of the island. Smith’s Cove was also suspected for this as water had been observed as curiously running out of the sand at the center of this cove, at times. After shoveling, and removing a layer of sand and gravel covering the beach, it was discovered that a bed of brown coconut fiber 2 to 3 inches in thickness had been reached. This was the same kind that had been found in The Money Pit with the pod auger drilling the year before, covering an area 145 feet wide along the shore line, just above the low tide mark and extending to the high tide mark. Underlying this and to the same extend was about 4 or 5 inches of decayed eel grass, and under this was a compact mass of beach rocks free from sand or gravel.
A “cofferdam” was constructed to hold back the tide, and allow for further examination
After removing the rocks nearest the low water, it was found that the clay (which with the sand and gravel originally formed the beach) had been dug out and removed and replaced by beach rocks. Resting on the bottom of this excavation were five well-constructed drains formed by laying parallel lines of rocks about 8 inches apart and covering the same with flat stones. These drains at the starting point were a considerable distance apart, but converged towards a common center at the back of the excavation. Work went on until half of the rocks had been removed where the clay banks at the extreme sides showed a depth of 5 ft, at which depth a partially burned piece of oak wood was found. About this time an unusually high tide overflowed the top of the dam; and as it had not been constructed to resist pressure from the inside, when the tide receded, it was carried away. To rebuild the dam would have been too costly. It was decided to abandon the work on the shore, and to sink a shaft a short distance inland from Smith’s Cove and directly over the suspected convergence point which was suspected to be 25 feet down from the surface to the water. The plan was to drive spiles through, and thereby stop the further passage of the water. A spot was selected and a shaft was put down, (SHAFT #4) to a depth of 75 feet. Realizing the fact that they must have passed the tunnel, work was stopped on this pit. Another and more careful survey was made and work was begun on another shaft about 12 ft to the south of the one just abandoned. (SHAFT #5) When a depth of 35 feet had been reached, a large boulder laying in the bottom of the shaft was pried up. A rush of water immediately followed and in a few minutes the shaft was full to the tide level. An effort was made to carry out the original program of driving spiles, but as the appliances at command were of the most crude description the effort was a failure. A short time after, SHAFT #6 was sunk on the south side of the "Money Pit," and to a depth of 118 ft. This made the fourth one (including the "Money Pit") that had been put down at this place and in such close proximity to each other that a circle 50 ft. in diameter would include the hole. The conditions found in sinking this fourth shaft were precisely the same as in the other shafts. As already stated, this new shaft was 118 feet deep, a greater depth by 8 ft than had previously been reached. A tunnel was driven towards and reached a point directly under a part, at least, of the bottom of the "Money Pit." It was now the dinner hour, and the workmen had left the tunnel. Before they had finished dinner, a great crash was heard in the direction of the works. Rushing back to the pit, they found that the bottom of the "Money Pit" had fallen into the
tunnel that they had a short time before vacated and that the new shaft was fast filing with water. Subsequently, it was found that 12 ft of mud had been driven by the force of water from the old to the new shaft. The funds of the company were exhausted and this company was dissolved in 1851.
Key Events:
[1849]:
Relocation Of Money Pit and clearing out to 86 feet, Water-Flooding, Construction of a platform for drilling at the 30 foot level above water, finding of “metal and wood” upper and lower “chests”, James Pitblado’s unknown recovered hidden item from The Money Pit, and odd behavior, disappearance from the island, and later attempt to buy the eastern part of the island with Charles Archibald of Acadia Iron Works.
[1850]:
Sinking of SHAFT #3 to 109 feet and then towards The Money Pit. Water flooding into SHAFT #3 and attempted bailing with horse gin’s.
DISCOVERY OF 5 FLOOD TUNNELS IN SMITH’S COVE
Discovery of salt water in the pit, and finding the artificial beach and flooding and system at Smith’s Cove. Construction of a Cofferdam to hold back the tide at Smith’s Cove for exploration, until it was swept out with the tide. Discovery of Smith’s Cove clay dug out, and five stone lined drains. SHAFT #4 sunk to 75 feet to the suspected convergence point of these drains, but they missed. SHAFT #5 was sunk to a depth of 35 feet, after they removed a large boulder, a rush of water burst in and flooded this pit to tide level. SHAFT #6 was struck on the south side of the Money Pit to a depth at 118 feet, which was driven towards The Money Pit. Men had stopped when they heard a “crash” from The Money Pit, and this shaft had filled with 12 feet of mud and water. [1854]:
Link to letter at DesBrisay Museum from John Smith to cousin discussing upcoming work on the island, June 26, 1854.
THE TRURO COMPANY STATEMENT #2 (Alternate version)
(Version from the Canadian Oak Island Treasure Company Files, Edward Rowe Snow Version, does not include 35 ft and 75 foot tunnels on Smiths’ Cove)
"Until 1849 nothing further was done, but in that year a new company was formed and the operations were resumed. At this time two of the "old Diggers" (from the original three, and The Onslow Company), namely: Mr. Lynds, or Truro and Mr. Vaughan, of Western Shore, were still living, and gave the manager much valuable information regarding the old workings and expressed their firm belief in the existence of treasure in the "Money Pit". Mr. Vaughan, in looking over the ground, located the site of the "Money Pit" which in the meantime had caved in and about filled up. Digging was
Commenced and went on without interruption until the depth of eighty-six feet had been Reached, when the water again so interfered with operations that the workmen were obliged to leave the pit. An unsuccessful attempt was made to bail the water out with bailing casks. Shortly after, men with boring apparatus of primitive description, used in prospecting for Coal, were sent to the Island. Mr. J.B. McCulley of Truro, was manager. A platform was constructed in the "Money Pit" about thirty feet below the surface and just above the water. The boring started with a pod auger and we submit a verbatim statement made by Mr. McCulley:
The platform was struck at 98 feet, just as the diggers found it when sounding with the iron bar. After going through the platform, which was 5 inches thick, and proved to be spruce, the auger dropped 12 inches and then went through 4 inches of oak; then through 22 inches of metal in pieces; but the auger failed to bring up anything in the nature of treasure except three links resembling the links of a watch chain. The auger then went through 8 inches of oak, which was through to be the bottom of the first box and the top of the next; then 22 inches of metal, the same as before;
and 4 inches of oak and 6 inches of spruce; then into clay 7 feet without striking anything else.
In boring a second hole the platform was struck as before at 98 feet; passing through this, the auger fell about 18 inches and came in contact with (as supposed) the side of a cask. The auger revolving close to the side of the cask gave a jerky and irregular motion, On withdrawing the auger several splinters of oak, such as might from the side of an oak stave, and a small quantity of brown fibrous substance, closely resembling the husk of a coconut were brought up. The distance between the upper and lower platforms was 6 feet. The Late John Gammel of Upper Stewiacke, N.S. was present at this boring. He was a large shareholder, and his veracity could not be questioned. He stated the saw Mr. Pitblado, the foreman, take something out of the auger, wash and examine it closely, then put it in his pocket. When asked by Mr. Gammel to show what it was, he declined an said he would show it at the next meeting of the directors, but Pitblado failed to appear at the meeting. Shortly after he was accidentally killed in a gold mine. Nothing further was done until the following summer (1850) when a new shaft was sunk to the depth of 109 feet at the West side of the "Money Pit" and about 10 feet from it. Mr. A.A. Tupper, then of Upper Stewiacke, N.S., who helped sink this shaft, gave the following account: -
A tunnel was driven from the bottom in the direction of the "Money Pit". Just before reaching the "Money Pit" the water burst in, the workmen fled for their lives, and in twenty minutes there was 45 feet of water in the new shaft. The sole object in view in sinking this shaft was to increase the bailing facilities, for which purpose preparations had been made, and bailing was resumed in both the new and old shafts, each being equipped with two 2 horse gins. Work was carried on night and day for about a week. But all in vain. The only difference being that with the doubled appliances, the water could be kept at a lower level."
WATER IN PIT CAME FROM OCEAN
About this time, the discovery was made that the water was salt, and that it rose and fell in the shafts with the flow and ebb of the tides. It was considered extremely improbably that the water came through a natural channel, and if not through a natural it necessarily must be through an artificial channel, having its inlet somewhere on the shore. In support of the theory that the water did not enter the "Money Pit" through a natural channel, it was argued that had it done so, the original differs (supposed to be pirates) must have struck it, and if they had, it is certain that a the workmen would have been driven from the pit by the greats flow of water, and the pit would necessarily have been abandoned. This, evidently was not the case as we have ample evidence from the fact that the wooden platforms were carefully placed in position near the bottom of the "Money Pit" (see account of borings already given) as well as the fact that the "Pit" had been systematically filled up, with marks placed at every then feet.
Acting on this theory of an artificial channel or tunnel, a search was at once begun. Smith's Cove on the extreme Eastern end of the Island about 400 feet from the "Money Pit" was first examined by reason of its many natural advantages as a starting point for making a tunnel, and from the fact that at about the center of this Cove it had always been noticed that at low tide, water was running out of the sand.
SHORE END OF TUNNEL DISCOVERED
The result of a few minutes shoveling on the beach proved beyond a doubt that the place looked for had been found. After removing the same and gravel covering the beach, the workmen came to a covering or layer of brown fibrous plant, the fiber very much resembling the husk of a cocoanut, and when compared with the plant that was bored out of the "Money Pit" no difference in the two could be detected. This later, about two inches in thickness, covered a surface extending 145 along the shore line and from a little above low water to high water mark. About four or five inches of eel grass covering the same area was found underlying the fibrous plant, and under this was a compact mass of beach rocks free from sand or gravel.
It was impracticable to remove these rocks and make a further search unless the tide was kept back. Accordingly a coffer dam was built along this part of the Cove, including the boundaries just described. After removing the rocks nearest low water, it was found that the clay (which with the sand and gravel originally formed the beach) had been dug out and removed and replaced by beach rocks. Resting on this excavation were five well constructed drains formed by laying parallel lines of rocks about eight inches apart and covering the same with flat stones. These drains commenced at different points a considerable distance apart, but converged towards a common center at the inner side of the excavation. With the exception of these drains, the other rocks had evidently been thrown in promiscuously. Work went on until half of the rocks had been removed which the clay banks at the sides showed a depth of five feet at which depth a partially burned piece of oak wood was found.
About this time an unusually high tide rover flowed the top of the dam, and as it had not been constructed to resist pressure from the inside, when the tide receded, it was carried away. To rebuild it would cost a lot of money, and as there still remained a large amount of rocks to be removed and as there could be no reasonable doubt that the place described was the outwork of, and starting point of a tunnel by which the water was conveyed to the bottom of the "Money Pit" it was decided to abandon the work on the shore. Another shaft was sunk on the South side of the "Money Pit" and to a depth of 118 feet; this made the fourth one (including the "Money Pit") that had been put down in such a close proximity to each other that a circle fifty feet in diameter would include the whole. As already stated, this new shaft was 118 feet deep, - a greater depth by eight feet than had previously been reached. A tunnel was driven towards and reached a point directly under a part at least of the bottom of the "Money Pit"
MONEY PIT COLLAPSES
While the man were out at dinner a great crash was heard. Rushing back to the works they found that a the bottom of the "Money Pit" had fallen into the tunnel that had been vacated a short time before and that the new shaft was fast filling with water. Subsequently it was found that twelve feet of mud had been driven by the force of the water from the "Money Pit" to the new shaft.
WORK ABANDONED UNTIL 1863
The funds of this company in the meantime having been exhausted, nothing was done that we are aware of until 1863.
oak island association
Oak Island Company Name: The Oak Island Association
Sometime in 1864 the flood tunnel was struck at a about this point where it entered the east side of The Money Pit. Samuel Fraser in his letter to A.S. Lowden in 1895 recalled that “ As we entered he old place of the treasure [via a lateral tunnel at 110 feet] we cut off the mouth of the [flood] tunnel. As we opened it, the water hurled around rocks about twice the size of a man’s head with many smaller, and drove the men back for protection… The [Flood] tunnel was found near the top our tunnel.” They had found the man-made watercourse, but they were powerless to shut it off. The Association was now even deeper in the red and its backers thoroughly discouraged. The constant erosion of the seawater was undermining the walls of The Money Pit, and some of the workers were refusing to enter it. The shaft was inspected by mining engineers who declared it unsafe and advised that it be condemned. The Oak Island Association was finished.
Also Know By: The Oak Island Syndicate
Company Formation date and location: April 3, 1861
Initial Company Shares per Price: $2,000 - 100 Shares at $20.00 Each
Oak Island Leased by: Anthony Graves
The Money Pit is re-cleared out again to a depth of 88 Feet. A New shaft (SHAFT #7) was dug to a depth of 25 feet East of The Money Pit attempting to intercept the water tunnel. It was dug to 120 feet with no sign of the flood tunnel, and was abandoned. They began another shaft (SHAFT #8) about 18 feet West of The Money Pit and 118 feet deep. A tunnel 4 feet high by 3 feet wide was driven from the bottom to The Money Pit in hope of striking the treasure vault. This tunnel entered The Money Pit a little below the lower platform [the one bored through at about 105 feet in 1849] where soft clay was found. The tunnel was unwisely driven through the Money Pit until it nearly reached the east pipe, when the water started coming above on the east side. Three days of continuous bailing with a horse operated pumping gin failed to reduce the water in SHAFT #8, and water was again seeping up through the Money Pit. A larger water bailing operation was setup by George Mitchell. They drove a tunnel from SHAFT #7 on the East of the Money Pit until this shaft also began filling with water. Then, with a total of 63 men, and 33 horses working in shifts, pumping gins were erected over SHAFTS #7 and #8, and The Money Pit. The bailing system in each of the three holes consisted of four 70 gallon casks that were continually lowered, filled, raised and dumped. This succeeded in almost draining the pits. A tunnel leading from the West of SHAFT #8 to the Money Pit which was 17 feet long, 4 feet high and 3 feet wide was blocked with clay, two men were sent in to clear it halfway through the tunnel, when they heard a tremendous crash in The Money Pit, and barely escaped being caught by a rush of mud which followed them in to the West pit and filled up with 7 feet [of mud] in less than three minutes. The resulting crash was the upper platform of the Money Pit at 98 feet dropping to a lower level, and the bottom platform dropping from 88 to about 102 feet, or a total of 14 feet. This would suggest that the lower platform on which the chests rested was now down around 119 feet, along with an estimated 10,000 feet of lumber which also fell (board measure)with some of the cribbing of the Money Pit. The resulting crash expelled a black old Oak timber of considerable girth and 3 and ½ feet in length which was ejected with the mud and showed evidence of being cut, hewed, chamfered, sawn or bored, and a part of a bottom of a Yellow Keg was also recovered from The Money Pit, along with piece of Juniper with bark on and cut at each end, and a Spruce slab with mining auger hole in it. The Oak Island Association Raises an additional $2,000 to continue their work. In The fall of 1861, a cast Iron Pump and Steam Engine were purchased from Halifax, and setup to be driven by steam power at The Money Pit. The Boiler exploded and caused the 1st death on Oak Island of a man who was scalded a man to death, with others Injured. The name of this man is unknown due to poor record keeping. The accident occurs sometime in the fall after September 30th 1861, for which the work was stopped for the winter.
In the spring of 1862 work resumes on the island, and another shaft is sunk (SHAFT #9), 107 feet in depth alongside and connected to The Money Pit. This was to serve as a pumping shaft for the steam-powered pump. The Money Pit was then cleared out and recribbed down to 103 feet, at which point the water seeping up from below exceeded the capacity of the pump. McNutt said that while the mud was being cleared out of the Money Pit, the workers came across some of the tools left by the 1849 Truro group at 90 feet, as well as tools belonging to the 1803 Onslow company at 100 feet. An attempt was made to cut off the water source near Smith’s Cove by sinking SHAFT #10, about 25 feet Northeast of SHAFT #5, which had been excavated to 35 feet in 1850. This shaft was dug to 50 feet and tunnels were driven from various levels until the diggers were eventually flooded out. The Oak Island Association was now broke, but still determined.
After raising a little money. The work in the early spring of 1863 was limited to uncovering a section of the drains nearest the shore at low tide. Israel Longworth wrote in 1866: “About thirty or forty feet of the drain was uncovered and removed, but as it did not tend to lower the water in West, or pumping pit in SHAFT #9, about thirty rods distant from Smith’s Cove the superintendent directed that the opened drain should be filled up with packed clay, and he thought this would stop the concourse of the water to The Money Pit. Before the claying process commenced, The water in The Money Pit and West pits was nearly as clear and quite as salt as that in the Bay, but while it was in progress, it became very muddy. After the drain was sufficiently packed, three or four weeks were allowed for the clay to settle and pack before the pumps were started at The West Pit, when it was ascertained that the operation had been instrumental in diminishing the water by one half. However this proved to be only temporary relief as the tides soon washed the clay away. On the theory that the SHAFT #9 pumping shaft wasn’t deep enough (at 107 feet) to efficiently drain the Money Pit. The workers selected a spot 100 feet Southeast of The Money Pit where they dug SHAFT #11 (120 feet deep). The intakes for the pumps were placed on the bottom and a tunnel was driven from a higher level toward Smith’s Cove in the hope of intersection the water network and diverting it into the new shaft. They missed it and gave up, and instead began driving another tunnel toward The Money Pit itself. But work was soon suspended for about three months while the Association endeavored or raise more money. On August 24, 1863 operations had resumed and a tunnel from SHAFT #11 struck The Money Pit at a depth of 108 feet, just above the water level that was being held down by pumps in various other connected shafts. The workers cribbed the area of The Money Pit between 103 and 108 feet. They then dug a circular tunnel around the outside of the pit at about 95 feet, intersecting a couple of the earlier searchers shafts in the process. It appears that one or two other lateral tunnels were dug, but their direction and depth were unrecorded. This labor continued sporadically into the following year, but it was generally found impossible to do any work below 110 feet in the immediate area of The Money Pit without being flooded out. And the treasure they believed was below that.
Years Active on Oak Island From 1861 to 1864
Deaths as a result on Oak Island: 1 (A Unknown local man from a Steam Boiler Explosion at the M.P.)
Names of Company Members (location extra):
Samuel Rettie - President
Jotham Blanchard Mccully - Corporate Secretary
Adams Archibald Tupper -
James McNutt -
Jefferson W. McDonald -
Henry George Hill – Engineer
Samuel C. Fraser – Executive Committee
George Mitchell - Superintendant
Summary of Activity:
10 Years would pass after The Truro Company, before this attempt was made on Oak Island. They set about recribbing The Money Pit, which had caved-in. The water was bailed out easily and the pit reopened to a depth of 88 feet, where the muddy clay below seemed to be effectively blocking any heavy flooding from Smith’s Cove. A new shaft (SHAFT #7) was dug to a depth of 25 feet East of The Money Pit with the intention of intercepting the water tunnel, but it was abandoned at 120 feet after it had missed the tunnel. The workers began another shaft (SHAFT #8) about 18 feet west of The Money Pit and 118 feet deep. (This is a shaft often erroneously credited to the 1850 Truro group). A tunnel 4 feet high by 3 feet wide was driven from the bottom to The Money Pit in hope of striking the treasure vault. This tunnel entered The Money Pit a little below the lower platform [the one bored through at about 105 feet in 1849] where soft clay was found. The tunnel was unwisely driven through the Money Pit until it nearly reached the east pipe, when the water started coming above on the east side. Three days of continuous bailing with a horse operated pumping gin failed to reduce the water in SHAFT #8, and water was again seeping up through the Money Pit. A larger water bailing operation was setup by George Mitchell. They drove a tunnel from SHAFT #7 on the East of the Money Pit until this shaft also began filling with water. Then, with a total of 63 men, and 33 horses working in shifts, pumping gins were erected over SHAFTS #7 and #8, and The Money Pit. The bailing system in each of the three holes consisted of four 70 gallon casks that were continually lowered, filled, raised and dumped. This succeeded in almost draining the pits.
A tunnel leading from the West of SHAFT #8 to the Money Pit which was 17 feet long, 4 feet high and 3 feet wide was blocked with clay, two men were sent in to clear it halfway through the tunnel, when they heard a tremendous crash in The Money Pit, and barely escaped being caught by a rush of mud which followed them in to the West pit and filled up with 7 feet [of mud] in less than three minutes. The resulting crash was the upper platform of the Money Pit at 98 feet dropping to a lower level, and the bottom platform dropping from 88 to about 102 feet, or a total of 14 feet. This would suggest that the lower platform on which the chests rested was now down around 119 feet, along with an estimated 10,000 feet of lumber which also fell (board measure)with some of the cribbing of the Money Pit. The resulting crash expelled a black old Oak timber of considerable girth and 3 and ½ feet in length which was ejected with the mud and showed evidence of being cut, hewed, chamfered, sawn or bored, and a part of a bottom of a Yellow Keg was also recovered from The Money Pit, along with piece of Juniper with bark on and cut at each end, and a Spruce slab with mining auger hole in it. The Oak Island Association Raises an additional $2,000 to continue their work.
The fall of 1861, a cast Iron Pump and Steam Engine were purchased from Halifax, and setup to be driven by steam power at The Money Pit. The Boiler exploded and caused the 1st death on Oak Island of a man who was scalded a man to death, with others Injured. The name of this man is unknown due to the fact that official government death records started in 1864, and the failure of J.B. McCully to record it the company records. The boiler explosion was mentioned in Author Andrew Learmont Spedon’s book “Rambles Among The Blue Noses” about the his visit to the island in 1861, the death was not. The note of death came from an essay by E.H. Owens of Lunenburg had written about the history of the county in 1868. The accident occurs sometime in the fall after September 30th 1861, for which the work was stopped for the winter. In the spring of 1862 work resumes on the island, and another shaft is sunk (SHAFT #9), 107 feet in depth alongside and connected to The Money Pit. This was to serve as a pumping shaft for the steam-powered pump. The Money Pit was then cleared out and re-cribbed down to 103 feet, at which point the water seeping up from below exceeded the capacity of the pump.
McNutt said that while the mud was being cleared out of the Money Pit, the workers came across some of the tools left by the 1849 Truro group at 90 feet, as well as tools belonging to the 1803 Onslow company at 100 feet.
An attempt was made to cut off the water source near Smith’s Cove by sinking SHAFT #10, about 25 feet Northeast of SHAFT #5, which had been excavated to 35 feet in 1850. This shaft was dug to 50 feet and tunnels were driven from various levels until the diggers were eventually flooded out. The Oak Island Association was now broke, but still determined. After raising a little money. They planned another assault on the drains of Smith’s Cove. Because of limited funds a proper cofferdam couldn’t be built, so work in the early spring of 1863 was limited to uncovering a section of the drains nearest the shore at low tide. Israel Longworth wrote in 1866:
“About thirty or forty feet of the drain was uncovered and removed, but as it did not tend to lower the water in West, or pumping pit in SHAFT #9, about thirty rods distant from Smith’s Cove the superintendent directed that the opened drain should be filled up with packed clay, and he thought this would stop the concourse of the water to The Money Pit. Before the claying process commenced,
The water in The Money Pit and West pits was nearly as clear and quite as salt as that in the Bay, but while it was in progress, it became very muddy. After the drain was sufficiently packed, three or four weeks were allowed for the clay to settle and pack before the pumps were started at The West Pit, when it was ascertained that the operation had been instrumental in diminishing the water by one half. However this proved to be only temporary relief as the tides soon washed the clay away.
On the theory that the SHAFT #9 pumping shaft wasn’t deep enough (at 107 feet) to efficiently drain the Money Pit. The workers selected a spot 100 feet Southeast of The Money Pit where they dug SHAFT #11 (120 feet deep). The intakes for the pumps were placed on the bottom and a tunnel was driven from a higher level toward Smith’s Cove in the hope of intersection the water network and diverting it into the new shaft. They missed it and gave up, and instead began driving another tunnel toward The Money Pit itself. But work was soon suspended for about three months while the Association endeavored to raise more money. On August 24, 1863, the Nova Scotian reported that operations had resume and that “men and machinery are now at work pumping the water from the pits previously sunk and it is said they are sanguine that before the laps of one month they will strike the treasure.” The tunnel from SHAFT #11 struck The Money Pit at a depth of 108 feet, just above the water level that was being held down by pumps in various other connected shafts. The workers cribbed the area of The Money Pit between 103 and 108 feet. They then dug a circular tunnel around the outside of the pit at about 95 feet, intersecting a couple of the earlier searchers shafts in the process. It appears that one or two other lateral tunnels were dug, but their direction and depth were unrecorded. This labor continued sporadically into the following year, but it was generally found impossible to do any work below 110 feet in the immediate area of The Money Pit without being flooded out. And the treasure they believed was below that. Sometime in 1864 the flood tunnel was struck at a about this point where it entered the east side of The Money Pit. Samuel Fraser in his letter to A.S. Lowden in 1895 recalled that “ As we entered he old place of the treasure [via a lateral tunnel at 110 feet] we cut off the mouth of the [flood] tunnel. As we opened it, the water hurled around rocks about twice the size of a man’s head with many smaller, and drove the men back for protection… The [Flood] tunnel was found near the top our tunnel.” They had found the man-made watercourse, but they were powerless to shut it off. The Association was now even deeper in the red and its backers thoroughly discouraged. The constant erosion of the seawater was undermining the walls of The Money Pit, and some of the workers were refusing to enter it. The shaft was inspected by mining engineers who declared it unsafe and advised that it be condemned. That was it, The Oak Island Association was finished.
OAK ISLAND ASSOCIATION STATEMENT #1
[NOTE: This is from the 1893 Oak Island Treasure Company Investment Prospectus, So appears to be (so far) the best account of what happened, and may have been taken from the written account that Adams A Tupper later wrote. Portions of this Were used for H.L. Bowdoin’s Coller’s issues, the Canadian OITC and Snow version of the history, And in many books.]
"Nothing was practically done that we are aware of until 1863. In that year another effort was made to overcome the water and secure the long searched for treasure. On this occasion a power engine and pump were brought on the ground. The engine was placed in position with the pump in the 118 ft. shaft (No 6) , and the work of clearing out the water and the 12 ft. of mud at the bottom of the shaft commenced. The object in view was to clear out the pit and the tunnel between it and the "Money Pit" where the treasure was supposed to have fallen when the cave-in above stated took place. The undertaking proved to be very difficult, as the flow of water was heavy; and on account of this and other obstacles little progress was made, but as the water on is way from the "money pit" to the pump had to pass through many feet of loose earth, it was possible to keep the water in the shaft below the 100 ft. level. But the most remarkable thing in connection with this company (and to which your particular attention is invited) is the fact that while the pumping was being continued the water in the pit down by the shore, (No 5) in which the tunnel had been stuck, was kept at a much lower level than before or after, thus proving the existence of a subterranean water course. About this time the men engaged in the underground work, one of whom was Mr. A.A. Tupper before mentioned, got the idea that the shaft was in danger of caving in and some of them refused to go into it. An expert examination was made of the shaft, and it was found to be in very unsafe condition and was forthwith condemned. The pump was withdrawn and the shaft abandoned and work was suspended. The management were at their wits end and did not know which way to turn or wat course to take to surmount the overwhelming difficulty."
OAK ISLAND ASSOCIATION STATEMENT #2 (Alternate version)
(Version from the Canadian Oak Island Treasure Company Files, Edward Rowe Snow Version)
WORK ABANDONED UNTIL 1863
"The funds of this company in the meantime having been exhausted, nothing was done that we are aware of until 1863. In that year another effort was made to overcomethe water and to secure the long-searched-for treasure. This time a powerful engine and pump were brought on the ground. The engine was placed in position with the pump in the 118-foot shaft (No 6) , and the work of clearing out the water and the twelve feet of mud at the bottom of the shaft commenced. The intention was to clear out the shaft and the tunnel between it and the "Money Pit" where the treasure was supposed to have fallen and the cave-in above mentioned took place.
The undertaking proved to be very difficult, as the flow of water was heavy and on account of this and other obstacles, little progress was made, but as the water on its way from the "Money Pit" to the pump had to pass through many feet of loose earth, it was possible to keep the water in the shaft below the 100-foot level.
The men engaged in the underground work (one of whom was A.A. Tupper, before mentioned) got the idea that the shaft was in danger of caving in and some of them refused to go into it. An expert examination was made of the shaft, and it was reported to be in a very unsafe condition and was forthwith condemned. The pump was withdrawn, the shaft abandoned and the work was suspended.
Sometime in 1864 the flood tunnel was struck at a about this point where it entered the east side of The Money Pit. Samuel Fraser in his letter to A.S. Lowden in 1895 recalled that “ As we entered he old place of the treasure [via a lateral tunnel at 110 feet] we cut off the mouth of the [flood] tunnel. As we opened it, the water hurled around rocks about twice the size of a man’s head with many smaller, and drove the men back for protection… The [Flood] tunnel was found near the top our tunnel.” They had found the man-made watercourse, but they were powerless to shut it off. The Association was now even deeper in the red and its backers thoroughly discouraged. The constant erosion of the seawater was undermining the walls of The Money Pit, and some of the workers were refusing to enter it. The shaft was inspected by mining engineers who declared it unsafe and advised that it be condemned. The Oak Island Association was finished.
Also Know By: The Oak Island Syndicate
Company Formation date and location: April 3, 1861
Initial Company Shares per Price: $2,000 - 100 Shares at $20.00 Each
Oak Island Leased by: Anthony Graves
The Money Pit is re-cleared out again to a depth of 88 Feet. A New shaft (SHAFT #7) was dug to a depth of 25 feet East of The Money Pit attempting to intercept the water tunnel. It was dug to 120 feet with no sign of the flood tunnel, and was abandoned. They began another shaft (SHAFT #8) about 18 feet West of The Money Pit and 118 feet deep. A tunnel 4 feet high by 3 feet wide was driven from the bottom to The Money Pit in hope of striking the treasure vault. This tunnel entered The Money Pit a little below the lower platform [the one bored through at about 105 feet in 1849] where soft clay was found. The tunnel was unwisely driven through the Money Pit until it nearly reached the east pipe, when the water started coming above on the east side. Three days of continuous bailing with a horse operated pumping gin failed to reduce the water in SHAFT #8, and water was again seeping up through the Money Pit. A larger water bailing operation was setup by George Mitchell. They drove a tunnel from SHAFT #7 on the East of the Money Pit until this shaft also began filling with water. Then, with a total of 63 men, and 33 horses working in shifts, pumping gins were erected over SHAFTS #7 and #8, and The Money Pit. The bailing system in each of the three holes consisted of four 70 gallon casks that were continually lowered, filled, raised and dumped. This succeeded in almost draining the pits. A tunnel leading from the West of SHAFT #8 to the Money Pit which was 17 feet long, 4 feet high and 3 feet wide was blocked with clay, two men were sent in to clear it halfway through the tunnel, when they heard a tremendous crash in The Money Pit, and barely escaped being caught by a rush of mud which followed them in to the West pit and filled up with 7 feet [of mud] in less than three minutes. The resulting crash was the upper platform of the Money Pit at 98 feet dropping to a lower level, and the bottom platform dropping from 88 to about 102 feet, or a total of 14 feet. This would suggest that the lower platform on which the chests rested was now down around 119 feet, along with an estimated 10,000 feet of lumber which also fell (board measure)with some of the cribbing of the Money Pit. The resulting crash expelled a black old Oak timber of considerable girth and 3 and ½ feet in length which was ejected with the mud and showed evidence of being cut, hewed, chamfered, sawn or bored, and a part of a bottom of a Yellow Keg was also recovered from The Money Pit, along with piece of Juniper with bark on and cut at each end, and a Spruce slab with mining auger hole in it. The Oak Island Association Raises an additional $2,000 to continue their work. In The fall of 1861, a cast Iron Pump and Steam Engine were purchased from Halifax, and setup to be driven by steam power at The Money Pit. The Boiler exploded and caused the 1st death on Oak Island of a man who was scalded a man to death, with others Injured. The name of this man is unknown due to poor record keeping. The accident occurs sometime in the fall after September 30th 1861, for which the work was stopped for the winter.
In the spring of 1862 work resumes on the island, and another shaft is sunk (SHAFT #9), 107 feet in depth alongside and connected to The Money Pit. This was to serve as a pumping shaft for the steam-powered pump. The Money Pit was then cleared out and recribbed down to 103 feet, at which point the water seeping up from below exceeded the capacity of the pump. McNutt said that while the mud was being cleared out of the Money Pit, the workers came across some of the tools left by the 1849 Truro group at 90 feet, as well as tools belonging to the 1803 Onslow company at 100 feet. An attempt was made to cut off the water source near Smith’s Cove by sinking SHAFT #10, about 25 feet Northeast of SHAFT #5, which had been excavated to 35 feet in 1850. This shaft was dug to 50 feet and tunnels were driven from various levels until the diggers were eventually flooded out. The Oak Island Association was now broke, but still determined.
After raising a little money. The work in the early spring of 1863 was limited to uncovering a section of the drains nearest the shore at low tide. Israel Longworth wrote in 1866: “About thirty or forty feet of the drain was uncovered and removed, but as it did not tend to lower the water in West, or pumping pit in SHAFT #9, about thirty rods distant from Smith’s Cove the superintendent directed that the opened drain should be filled up with packed clay, and he thought this would stop the concourse of the water to The Money Pit. Before the claying process commenced, The water in The Money Pit and West pits was nearly as clear and quite as salt as that in the Bay, but while it was in progress, it became very muddy. After the drain was sufficiently packed, three or four weeks were allowed for the clay to settle and pack before the pumps were started at The West Pit, when it was ascertained that the operation had been instrumental in diminishing the water by one half. However this proved to be only temporary relief as the tides soon washed the clay away. On the theory that the SHAFT #9 pumping shaft wasn’t deep enough (at 107 feet) to efficiently drain the Money Pit. The workers selected a spot 100 feet Southeast of The Money Pit where they dug SHAFT #11 (120 feet deep). The intakes for the pumps were placed on the bottom and a tunnel was driven from a higher level toward Smith’s Cove in the hope of intersection the water network and diverting it into the new shaft. They missed it and gave up, and instead began driving another tunnel toward The Money Pit itself. But work was soon suspended for about three months while the Association endeavored or raise more money. On August 24, 1863 operations had resumed and a tunnel from SHAFT #11 struck The Money Pit at a depth of 108 feet, just above the water level that was being held down by pumps in various other connected shafts. The workers cribbed the area of The Money Pit between 103 and 108 feet. They then dug a circular tunnel around the outside of the pit at about 95 feet, intersecting a couple of the earlier searchers shafts in the process. It appears that one or two other lateral tunnels were dug, but their direction and depth were unrecorded. This labor continued sporadically into the following year, but it was generally found impossible to do any work below 110 feet in the immediate area of The Money Pit without being flooded out. And the treasure they believed was below that.
Years Active on Oak Island From 1861 to 1864
Deaths as a result on Oak Island: 1 (A Unknown local man from a Steam Boiler Explosion at the M.P.)
Names of Company Members (location extra):
Samuel Rettie - President
Jotham Blanchard Mccully - Corporate Secretary
Adams Archibald Tupper -
James McNutt -
Jefferson W. McDonald -
Henry George Hill – Engineer
Samuel C. Fraser – Executive Committee
George Mitchell - Superintendant
Summary of Activity:
10 Years would pass after The Truro Company, before this attempt was made on Oak Island. They set about recribbing The Money Pit, which had caved-in. The water was bailed out easily and the pit reopened to a depth of 88 feet, where the muddy clay below seemed to be effectively blocking any heavy flooding from Smith’s Cove. A new shaft (SHAFT #7) was dug to a depth of 25 feet East of The Money Pit with the intention of intercepting the water tunnel, but it was abandoned at 120 feet after it had missed the tunnel. The workers began another shaft (SHAFT #8) about 18 feet west of The Money Pit and 118 feet deep. (This is a shaft often erroneously credited to the 1850 Truro group). A tunnel 4 feet high by 3 feet wide was driven from the bottom to The Money Pit in hope of striking the treasure vault. This tunnel entered The Money Pit a little below the lower platform [the one bored through at about 105 feet in 1849] where soft clay was found. The tunnel was unwisely driven through the Money Pit until it nearly reached the east pipe, when the water started coming above on the east side. Three days of continuous bailing with a horse operated pumping gin failed to reduce the water in SHAFT #8, and water was again seeping up through the Money Pit. A larger water bailing operation was setup by George Mitchell. They drove a tunnel from SHAFT #7 on the East of the Money Pit until this shaft also began filling with water. Then, with a total of 63 men, and 33 horses working in shifts, pumping gins were erected over SHAFTS #7 and #8, and The Money Pit. The bailing system in each of the three holes consisted of four 70 gallon casks that were continually lowered, filled, raised and dumped. This succeeded in almost draining the pits.
A tunnel leading from the West of SHAFT #8 to the Money Pit which was 17 feet long, 4 feet high and 3 feet wide was blocked with clay, two men were sent in to clear it halfway through the tunnel, when they heard a tremendous crash in The Money Pit, and barely escaped being caught by a rush of mud which followed them in to the West pit and filled up with 7 feet [of mud] in less than three minutes. The resulting crash was the upper platform of the Money Pit at 98 feet dropping to a lower level, and the bottom platform dropping from 88 to about 102 feet, or a total of 14 feet. This would suggest that the lower platform on which the chests rested was now down around 119 feet, along with an estimated 10,000 feet of lumber which also fell (board measure)with some of the cribbing of the Money Pit. The resulting crash expelled a black old Oak timber of considerable girth and 3 and ½ feet in length which was ejected with the mud and showed evidence of being cut, hewed, chamfered, sawn or bored, and a part of a bottom of a Yellow Keg was also recovered from The Money Pit, along with piece of Juniper with bark on and cut at each end, and a Spruce slab with mining auger hole in it. The Oak Island Association Raises an additional $2,000 to continue their work.
The fall of 1861, a cast Iron Pump and Steam Engine were purchased from Halifax, and setup to be driven by steam power at The Money Pit. The Boiler exploded and caused the 1st death on Oak Island of a man who was scalded a man to death, with others Injured. The name of this man is unknown due to the fact that official government death records started in 1864, and the failure of J.B. McCully to record it the company records. The boiler explosion was mentioned in Author Andrew Learmont Spedon’s book “Rambles Among The Blue Noses” about the his visit to the island in 1861, the death was not. The note of death came from an essay by E.H. Owens of Lunenburg had written about the history of the county in 1868. The accident occurs sometime in the fall after September 30th 1861, for which the work was stopped for the winter. In the spring of 1862 work resumes on the island, and another shaft is sunk (SHAFT #9), 107 feet in depth alongside and connected to The Money Pit. This was to serve as a pumping shaft for the steam-powered pump. The Money Pit was then cleared out and re-cribbed down to 103 feet, at which point the water seeping up from below exceeded the capacity of the pump.
McNutt said that while the mud was being cleared out of the Money Pit, the workers came across some of the tools left by the 1849 Truro group at 90 feet, as well as tools belonging to the 1803 Onslow company at 100 feet.
An attempt was made to cut off the water source near Smith’s Cove by sinking SHAFT #10, about 25 feet Northeast of SHAFT #5, which had been excavated to 35 feet in 1850. This shaft was dug to 50 feet and tunnels were driven from various levels until the diggers were eventually flooded out. The Oak Island Association was now broke, but still determined. After raising a little money. They planned another assault on the drains of Smith’s Cove. Because of limited funds a proper cofferdam couldn’t be built, so work in the early spring of 1863 was limited to uncovering a section of the drains nearest the shore at low tide. Israel Longworth wrote in 1866:
“About thirty or forty feet of the drain was uncovered and removed, but as it did not tend to lower the water in West, or pumping pit in SHAFT #9, about thirty rods distant from Smith’s Cove the superintendent directed that the opened drain should be filled up with packed clay, and he thought this would stop the concourse of the water to The Money Pit. Before the claying process commenced,
The water in The Money Pit and West pits was nearly as clear and quite as salt as that in the Bay, but while it was in progress, it became very muddy. After the drain was sufficiently packed, three or four weeks were allowed for the clay to settle and pack before the pumps were started at The West Pit, when it was ascertained that the operation had been instrumental in diminishing the water by one half. However this proved to be only temporary relief as the tides soon washed the clay away.
On the theory that the SHAFT #9 pumping shaft wasn’t deep enough (at 107 feet) to efficiently drain the Money Pit. The workers selected a spot 100 feet Southeast of The Money Pit where they dug SHAFT #11 (120 feet deep). The intakes for the pumps were placed on the bottom and a tunnel was driven from a higher level toward Smith’s Cove in the hope of intersection the water network and diverting it into the new shaft. They missed it and gave up, and instead began driving another tunnel toward The Money Pit itself. But work was soon suspended for about three months while the Association endeavored to raise more money. On August 24, 1863, the Nova Scotian reported that operations had resume and that “men and machinery are now at work pumping the water from the pits previously sunk and it is said they are sanguine that before the laps of one month they will strike the treasure.” The tunnel from SHAFT #11 struck The Money Pit at a depth of 108 feet, just above the water level that was being held down by pumps in various other connected shafts. The workers cribbed the area of The Money Pit between 103 and 108 feet. They then dug a circular tunnel around the outside of the pit at about 95 feet, intersecting a couple of the earlier searchers shafts in the process. It appears that one or two other lateral tunnels were dug, but their direction and depth were unrecorded. This labor continued sporadically into the following year, but it was generally found impossible to do any work below 110 feet in the immediate area of The Money Pit without being flooded out. And the treasure they believed was below that. Sometime in 1864 the flood tunnel was struck at a about this point where it entered the east side of The Money Pit. Samuel Fraser in his letter to A.S. Lowden in 1895 recalled that “ As we entered he old place of the treasure [via a lateral tunnel at 110 feet] we cut off the mouth of the [flood] tunnel. As we opened it, the water hurled around rocks about twice the size of a man’s head with many smaller, and drove the men back for protection… The [Flood] tunnel was found near the top our tunnel.” They had found the man-made watercourse, but they were powerless to shut it off. The Association was now even deeper in the red and its backers thoroughly discouraged. The constant erosion of the seawater was undermining the walls of The Money Pit, and some of the workers were refusing to enter it. The shaft was inspected by mining engineers who declared it unsafe and advised that it be condemned. That was it, The Oak Island Association was finished.
OAK ISLAND ASSOCIATION STATEMENT #1
[NOTE: This is from the 1893 Oak Island Treasure Company Investment Prospectus, So appears to be (so far) the best account of what happened, and may have been taken from the written account that Adams A Tupper later wrote. Portions of this Were used for H.L. Bowdoin’s Coller’s issues, the Canadian OITC and Snow version of the history, And in many books.]
"Nothing was practically done that we are aware of until 1863. In that year another effort was made to overcome the water and secure the long searched for treasure. On this occasion a power engine and pump were brought on the ground. The engine was placed in position with the pump in the 118 ft. shaft (No 6) , and the work of clearing out the water and the 12 ft. of mud at the bottom of the shaft commenced. The object in view was to clear out the pit and the tunnel between it and the "Money Pit" where the treasure was supposed to have fallen when the cave-in above stated took place. The undertaking proved to be very difficult, as the flow of water was heavy; and on account of this and other obstacles little progress was made, but as the water on is way from the "money pit" to the pump had to pass through many feet of loose earth, it was possible to keep the water in the shaft below the 100 ft. level. But the most remarkable thing in connection with this company (and to which your particular attention is invited) is the fact that while the pumping was being continued the water in the pit down by the shore, (No 5) in which the tunnel had been stuck, was kept at a much lower level than before or after, thus proving the existence of a subterranean water course. About this time the men engaged in the underground work, one of whom was Mr. A.A. Tupper before mentioned, got the idea that the shaft was in danger of caving in and some of them refused to go into it. An expert examination was made of the shaft, and it was found to be in very unsafe condition and was forthwith condemned. The pump was withdrawn and the shaft abandoned and work was suspended. The management were at their wits end and did not know which way to turn or wat course to take to surmount the overwhelming difficulty."
OAK ISLAND ASSOCIATION STATEMENT #2 (Alternate version)
(Version from the Canadian Oak Island Treasure Company Files, Edward Rowe Snow Version)
WORK ABANDONED UNTIL 1863
"The funds of this company in the meantime having been exhausted, nothing was done that we are aware of until 1863. In that year another effort was made to overcomethe water and to secure the long-searched-for treasure. This time a powerful engine and pump were brought on the ground. The engine was placed in position with the pump in the 118-foot shaft (No 6) , and the work of clearing out the water and the twelve feet of mud at the bottom of the shaft commenced. The intention was to clear out the shaft and the tunnel between it and the "Money Pit" where the treasure was supposed to have fallen and the cave-in above mentioned took place.
The undertaking proved to be very difficult, as the flow of water was heavy and on account of this and other obstacles, little progress was made, but as the water on its way from the "Money Pit" to the pump had to pass through many feet of loose earth, it was possible to keep the water in the shaft below the 100-foot level.
The men engaged in the underground work (one of whom was A.A. Tupper, before mentioned) got the idea that the shaft was in danger of caving in and some of them refused to go into it. An expert examination was made of the shaft, and it was reported to be in a very unsafe condition and was forthwith condemned. The pump was withdrawn, the shaft abandoned and the work was suspended.
oak island contract company
Oak Island Company Name: The Oak Island Contract Company
Also Know By:
Company Formation date and location: March 29, 1865, Halifax
Initial Company Shares per Price: 1,500 pounds at 1 pound per share ($6,000 approximately)
Oak Island Leased by: Anthony Graves
Years Active on Oak Island From: No work was conducted on the island
Deaths as a result on Oak Island: 0
Names of Company Members (location extra):
Henry George Hill – President
Augustus Oliver Creighton - Treasurer
Summary of Activity:
A new group calling itself the Oak Island Contract Company attempted to pick up where the Oak Island Association had left off. This company never got off the ground (only six shares were subscribed for the initial meeting, and no work was done on the island that year) It was about this time the 90 Foot Inscribed stone originally found in the Money Pit in 1803 was removed from Oak Island home of the late John Smith and brought to Halifax at the bookbinders as a lure for prospective shareholders.
Key Events:
[1865]:
No activity on Oak Island for the company. The 90 foot stone slab with encrypted message is removed from John Smith's fireplace on Oak Island, and placed in the window of bookbinders Marshal & Creighton in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The stone is exhibited there to help sell shares in a treasure seeking company.
Also Know By:
Company Formation date and location: March 29, 1865, Halifax
Initial Company Shares per Price: 1,500 pounds at 1 pound per share ($6,000 approximately)
Oak Island Leased by: Anthony Graves
Years Active on Oak Island From: No work was conducted on the island
Deaths as a result on Oak Island: 0
Names of Company Members (location extra):
Henry George Hill – President
Augustus Oliver Creighton - Treasurer
Summary of Activity:
A new group calling itself the Oak Island Contract Company attempted to pick up where the Oak Island Association had left off. This company never got off the ground (only six shares were subscribed for the initial meeting, and no work was done on the island that year) It was about this time the 90 Foot Inscribed stone originally found in the Money Pit in 1803 was removed from Oak Island home of the late John Smith and brought to Halifax at the bookbinders as a lure for prospective shareholders.
Key Events:
[1865]:
No activity on Oak Island for the company. The 90 foot stone slab with encrypted message is removed from John Smith's fireplace on Oak Island, and placed in the window of bookbinders Marshal & Creighton in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The stone is exhibited there to help sell shares in a treasure seeking company.
oak island eldorado company
Oak Island Company Name: The Oak Island Eldorado Company
Also Know By: The Halifax Company
Company Formation date and location: May 3, 1866
Initial Company Shares per Price: $4,000 - 200 shares, $20 per share
Oak Island Leased by: Anthony Graves
Years Active on Oak Island From 1866 to 1867
Deaths as a result on Oak Island: 0
Names of Company Members (location extra):
Henry George Hill - President
Augustus Oliver Creighton - Treasurer
James McNutt
W.J. Vieth - Secretary
Summary of Activity:
Incorporating with the same officers of The Oak Island Contract company, this group proposed to investors to “build a substantial wood and clay damn seaward in Smith’s Cove to extend out and beyond the rock (drainage) rock so as to encompass the whole within the dam, to pump out all of the water within the area and to break up the inlet from the sea; the cost of which [the directors] expect will not exceed 400 pounds. There cannot be any doubt but this mode of operation must succeed and will lead to the development of the hidden treasure so long sought for.” According to James McNutt who worked on the island that year, the cofferdam was 375 feet long, 12 feet high and was situated 120 feet below the high-water mark in the cove. But like the one built in 1850, this dam was soon destroyed by Atlantic storms and abnormally high tides. The group then resorted to exploratory drilling to try and locate the treasure, which was thought to have dropped down in the collapse of The Money Pit in 1861. Three holes were drilled over a six-week period from November 26, 1866, to January 7, 1867. Significantly the drill holes were cased inside a 3 inch diameter meter sleeve. This was the first time casing had been used in an Oak Island drilling program and it ensured that whatever material was brought up on the bit was something found at its original level rather than something that may have fallen into the hole from a higher position. McNutt logged a day-to-day report on the drilling program with the pumps holding the water at bay, the first hole was started from a platform at 108 feet. It entered near the northeast corner of the put and was angled to the northeast. Measured from the pit’s surface, Spruce wood was stuck at 110 feet, then several feet of course gravel, soft clay, and blue mud. Water mixed with ships of wood, coconut fiber, and charcoal were brought up from 128 feet. At 132 feet there was no water but still pieces of wood and fiber. Water was struck again at about 140 feet, followed by soft clay and fine sand; then more water at about 150 feet. The next 2 or 3 feet yielded a dry reddish soil that had never been disturbed. The second hole was drilled from a platform 78 feet and was angled to the Southeast; the third probe began at about 30 feet and slanted northeast. They were drilled to 103 feet and 160 feet respectively from the surface without striking anything of interest. If this group did any additional work is uncertain. They may have dug a shaft 175 feet southeast of The Money Pit and run a series of tunnels toward the pit But there is no original record of this work, although in early 1940’s tunnels were found that appeared to date from the 1860’s). By late 1867 the group had definitely abandoned the search and the company was dissolved. By then, the east end of Oak Island was full of pits and tunnels. In the seventy-two years since The Money Pit’s discovery a total of 11 shafts (including The Money Pit) and hundreds of feet of tunneling had been excavated and two cofferdams built at this point since 1795. The search at that point had cost one life and estimated total expenditure of $50,000 (which would be well over $2 million at today’s labor and material costs): and still no treasure had been brought up. Both the mystery and the treasure appear to be deeper than ever, and twenty-six years would pass before another serious effort was made again on Oak Island, and the Money Pit was refilled to the top of the last drilling platform, and some of the other shafts were also filled back in.
Key Events:
[1866 to 1867]:
Also Know By: The Halifax Company
Company Formation date and location: May 3, 1866
Initial Company Shares per Price: $4,000 - 200 shares, $20 per share
Oak Island Leased by: Anthony Graves
Years Active on Oak Island From 1866 to 1867
Deaths as a result on Oak Island: 0
Names of Company Members (location extra):
Henry George Hill - President
Augustus Oliver Creighton - Treasurer
James McNutt
W.J. Vieth - Secretary
Summary of Activity:
Incorporating with the same officers of The Oak Island Contract company, this group proposed to investors to “build a substantial wood and clay damn seaward in Smith’s Cove to extend out and beyond the rock (drainage) rock so as to encompass the whole within the dam, to pump out all of the water within the area and to break up the inlet from the sea; the cost of which [the directors] expect will not exceed 400 pounds. There cannot be any doubt but this mode of operation must succeed and will lead to the development of the hidden treasure so long sought for.” According to James McNutt who worked on the island that year, the cofferdam was 375 feet long, 12 feet high and was situated 120 feet below the high-water mark in the cove. But like the one built in 1850, this dam was soon destroyed by Atlantic storms and abnormally high tides. The group then resorted to exploratory drilling to try and locate the treasure, which was thought to have dropped down in the collapse of The Money Pit in 1861. Three holes were drilled over a six-week period from November 26, 1866, to January 7, 1867. Significantly the drill holes were cased inside a 3 inch diameter meter sleeve. This was the first time casing had been used in an Oak Island drilling program and it ensured that whatever material was brought up on the bit was something found at its original level rather than something that may have fallen into the hole from a higher position. McNutt logged a day-to-day report on the drilling program with the pumps holding the water at bay, the first hole was started from a platform at 108 feet. It entered near the northeast corner of the put and was angled to the northeast. Measured from the pit’s surface, Spruce wood was stuck at 110 feet, then several feet of course gravel, soft clay, and blue mud. Water mixed with ships of wood, coconut fiber, and charcoal were brought up from 128 feet. At 132 feet there was no water but still pieces of wood and fiber. Water was struck again at about 140 feet, followed by soft clay and fine sand; then more water at about 150 feet. The next 2 or 3 feet yielded a dry reddish soil that had never been disturbed. The second hole was drilled from a platform 78 feet and was angled to the Southeast; the third probe began at about 30 feet and slanted northeast. They were drilled to 103 feet and 160 feet respectively from the surface without striking anything of interest. If this group did any additional work is uncertain. They may have dug a shaft 175 feet southeast of The Money Pit and run a series of tunnels toward the pit But there is no original record of this work, although in early 1940’s tunnels were found that appeared to date from the 1860’s). By late 1867 the group had definitely abandoned the search and the company was dissolved. By then, the east end of Oak Island was full of pits and tunnels. In the seventy-two years since The Money Pit’s discovery a total of 11 shafts (including The Money Pit) and hundreds of feet of tunneling had been excavated and two cofferdams built at this point since 1795. The search at that point had cost one life and estimated total expenditure of $50,000 (which would be well over $2 million at today’s labor and material costs): and still no treasure had been brought up. Both the mystery and the treasure appear to be deeper than ever, and twenty-six years would pass before another serious effort was made again on Oak Island, and the Money Pit was refilled to the top of the last drilling platform, and some of the other shafts were also filled back in.
Key Events:
[1866 to 1867]:
- Another Coffer dam was constructed on Smith's Coves but was destroyed by Storms and the Tide.
- A drilling program for three holes with a 3 inch diameter casing sleeve was used in The Money Pit, along with pumps to keep the water out. The 1st drill hole was positioned on a platform at 108 feet down in the Northeast corner struck Spruce Wood, then Course Gravel, Soft Clay, and Blue Mud, along with water and chips of wood, coconut fiber and charcoal, and then undisturbed dry reddish soil up to total depth of 130 feet. The 2nd hole was drilled from a platform 78 feet and angled to the Southeast without striking anything of interest down to 103 feet, along with the 3rd drill hole slanted Northeast, which was drilled to 160 feet, again without striking anything of interest.
cave in pit
In 1878 Mrs. Sophia Sellers, daughter of Anthony Graves was ploughing the field and her oxen suddenly fell into a well-like hole, approximately 3 m (10’) deep and 2.4 m (8’) in diameter. The hole was 106.7 m (350’) east of the Money Pit and approx. 51.8 m (170’) from Smith’s Cove. A heavy wooden tripod was erected over the shaft and the ox was hauled out and the hole was filled with boulders. This hole (SHAFT #12) would become what is known as “The Cave In Pit”, which is suspected to have eroded, and be directly over the route of the water tunnels leading from Smith’s Cove’s finger drains on the beach, to a convergence on the surface called a “Vertical Shaft”, and then sharply downward to the bottom of Money Pit.
oak island treasure company
Oak Island Company Name: The Oak Island Treasure Company
Also Know By:
Company Formation date and location:
1893 Maine, 1895 Boston and Framingham, Massachusetts
Initial Company Shares per Price: $300,000 - $5 Per Share, 60,000 Shares
Oak Island Leased by: Sophia Sellers
Years Active on Oak Island From 1893 to 1900
Deaths as a result on Oak Island: 1 - Maynard Kaiser from Gold River - rope slipped off pulley in M.P.
Names of Company Members (location extra):
A.M. Bridgeman – President – Brockton, Mass.
Frederick Leander Blair - Treasurer
William Chappell –Drilling
Captain John William Welling – On Site Manager
A.S. Lowden – General Manager
T. Perley Putnam - Drilling
Dr. Andrew E. Porter – Physician
George Houghton - Director
C.C.L. Moore - Director
H.C. Tupper –
W.H. McDonald -
Early Reference: "Lunenburg by the Sea"
Summary of Activity:
In 1893 Frederick Leander Blair, a twenty-six-year old insurance salesman living in Boston developed an obsession with Oak Island that was to last until his death in 1950. He formed The Oak Island Treasure Company, and was originally from Amherst, Nova Scotia and as a boy had heard detailed accounts of Oak Island from his uncle, Isaac Blair and from Jefferson W. McDonald both of whom had taken part in the search during the 1860’s. Blair moved from Brookline, Massachusetts back to Amherst, Nova Scotia in 1895. In 1893, The 1st task of this company was to start their search at “The Cave In Pit” area. Blair suspected that the creator of The Money Pit may have installed a valve or gate somewhere in the flood tunnel to be shut-off the water. They started to excavate The Cave In Pit. At a depth of 55 feet, seawater began entering it. By the next day the water was at tide level (about 15th feet from the surface at this spot) and it could not be lowered by bailing. It was abandoned, but they group was still interested in this location and convinced it had been part of the original work. It showed evidence of having been hand-dug at and earlier point, and there was no record of previous searchers being in this area, or creating a shaft. Years later, other searchers would direct their attention to this pit with the assumption that if it wasn’t an airshaft, it would have been an access point for one of the treasure locations. They also assumed that the pit wasn’t exactly in line with the Smith’s Cove water course, but was set off slightly to the side. For that reason, the caving in had not affected the flow of the water. Today the Cave In Pit is a circular crater 100 feet deep and as many feet across. The water in still rises and falls with the tide.
In the fall of 1894 another shaft (SHAFT #13) was dug 30 feet east of The Money Pit and 8 feet north
Of the suspected line of the water course. Water started entering this shaft at 43 feet, probably via an
Underground connection to the flooded tunnel by previous searches. This shaft was abandoned. In the summer of 1895, Lowden’s men began re-excavating The Money Pit, but they only got down 55 feet inside the old cribbing when once more water drove them out. The work as abandoned until the later part of 1896, when they started again. They were able to drain it with their new pumping equipment and cleared it down to 70 feet before the water became excessive. So the old SHAFT #4 (dug to a depth of 75 feet near Smith’s Cove in 1850) was cleared to 78 feet, at which point water entered it from one of the tunnels built by the Oak Island Eldorado/The Halifax Company group in the 1860’s. But by putting their pump in this pit, they found they could drain the Money Pit, which they deepened to 97 feet.
About this time, the 2nd death occurred on Oak Island on March 26, 1897. Maynard Kaiser of nearby Gold River was being hoisted to the top of one of the pits when the rope slipped off the hoisting pulley and he fell to his death. One of his coworkers, Selvin Rafuse of Martin’s Point, told the story “We used to hoist the earth up with horses then and it was when Kaiser was killed in the pits.” Following the accident, Rafuse and the other workers refused to go down into the pits, forcing operations to be halted for about a week. Many of them were convinced that Kaiser’s death was a warning and that some ghostly guardian of the buried treasure would kill anyone who tried to retrieve it. The workers were eventually persuaded back and the deepening of The Money Pit continued. Blair’s notes show that on April 22, 1897 when they reached a depth of 110 feet, they came across one of the old Eldorado/Halifax Company tunnels entering at 108 feet and noticed that all of the water flowing into the pit came through this tunnel. They explored it a short distance and came to an intersecting tunnel at the end of which was a large cribbed shaft extending up into the darkness as far as they could see. Blair says: “Water was boiling up through the bottom of this pit, and it proved to be the real Money Pit. The pit [we] had worked in all winter proved to be the old Tupper pit” (SHAFT #3) dug in the 1850 to 109 feet and situated 10 feet northwest of the actual Money Pit. Several months and a lot of money had been wasted in re-excavating the wrong pit. Moving 10 feet to the Southeast, they broke through the topsoil and soon confirmed they were now in the original Money Pit. On June 9, 1897, digging had progressed to 111 feet in The Money Pit when the workers came upon an uncribbed tunnel 2 ½ feet wide on the east side of The Money Pit. They dug down quickly, noticing that the opening was filled with smooth beach stones covered with a layer of gravel. And as they dug, water gushed through at an ever-increasing rate. They had located the flood tunnel from the sea and Smith’s Cove. Several accounts state that the tunnel was 2 ½ feet wide by 4 feet high. Welling later noted the full height couldn’t be seen because of the increasing water volume rushing into the pit. Blair Says: “It entered the pit under great pressure and finally overcame the pumps, filled the pits [Money Pit and SHAFT #3) to tide level and brought our operations to a stand still.” It was obvious to Blair and Welling that it would be impossible to plug the flood tunnel in the Money Pit itself; the force and volume of water rushing down from Smith’s Cove was too great. Work was then temporarily halted while the companies Nova Scotia board of management et in Halifax to formulate a new plan.
The company directors decided that the best place to stop the flow was at Smith’s Cove. Their plan was to setup off charges of dynamite underground near the shore. This, they hoped would demolish the bothersome tunnel for good. Five holes were bored in a line about 50 feet up from the high-water mark at the Cove. They were spaced 15 feet apart. The first at a point 30 feet south of the presumed course of the flood tunnel, and the last about 30 feet north of that point. All but the third hole were bored to about 90 feet without encountering water. They were crammed with dynamite and filled with water, which served as a plug. When the dynamite was set off the water sprayed more than 100 feet into the air. The third hole apparently bored into the flood tunnel. At 80 feet the auger struck rocks, and seawater immediately rose to tide level. This hole was filled with a huge 160 pound charge. According to Blair, when it was detonated the water in both The Money Pit AND The Cave In Pit “boiled and foamed for a considerable time, and after the disturbance subsided, the oil in the dynamite showed on the water in both of these pits.” While it seems the third hole had hit the flood tunnel the drillers were perplexed by the fact that the seawater this close to the shore wasn’t encountered until a depth at 80 feet. They concluded that the tunnel didn’t simply run in a direct line from the box drains in Smith’s Cove to The Money Pit, but that it first entered a sump hole that was around 75 feet deep and just inland from the shore, and that the bottom of that hole the tunnel ran at a very slight gradient to enter The Money Pit at a depth of approximately 110 feet. This reasoning, however ignored two important earlier discoveries. The watercourse had apparently been struck at 35 feet by SHAFT #5 in 1850, and again at 55 feet down in the Cave-In-Pit in 1894. One theory that has been suggested to explain the inconsistency is that there are perhaps two flood tunnels at different levels running between Smith’s Cove and The Money Pit. But a more reasonable explanation was offered by W.L. Johnson. His opinion is that the third drill hole didn’t exactly penetrate but came very close to it. Then, while the
drill was at 80 feet, the water from the tunnel suddenly burst across and into the hole at a higher level, creating the impression that it had been struck at a depth of 80 feet. But there was a bigger puzzle to contend with. The workers assumed that the huge charge of dynamite in that third hole had effectively choked off the water supply. Yet when the pumps were subsequently run in the Money Pit, they were barely able to keep ahead of the incoming water. The blasting had had no appreciable effect on the flow from the sea. Part of the answer to this riddle would be found the following year.
While the work at the shore was being completed another crew of drillers started boring into the bottom of the southern edge of the Money Pit, which had previously been excavated to 113 feet. With the pumps holding the water level down to about the 100foot level, a drilling platform was set up at 90 feet. Experienced drillers had been hired for the job, and overseeing operations were William Chappell, T. Perley Putnam, and Captain John Welling. A full account of the drilling program is contained in notes prepared by Blair in 1900 and in an affidavit sworn to by Chappell in October 1929. Several holes were bored, most of them with a 2-inch drill through a 3-inch steel casing, usually in loose and apparently disturbed ground all the way down to 171 feet. Blue clay, which Chappell said had the "characteristics of puddled clay," was encountered between 130 and 151 feet and between 160 and 171 feet. Puddled clay is a hand-worked watertight preparation of clay, sand, and water. It is similar to putty, and it may have been this material that the 1803 searchers found (and identified as putty) on some of the original wooden platforms in the Money Pit.
The first hole was bored through wood at 126 feet. Immediately below that the drill bit struck iron, which it couldn't get through. The workers extracted the drill pipe and found it crushed on one side, indicating that it had only hit the edge of whatever that iron obstruction was. So a 1-inch drill was put down the same hole, and it was able to slip past the obstruction at 126 feet. It then went through blue puddled clay and at about 154 feet struck what the drillers first thought was sandstone, but which was later determined to be cement.
This cement was 7 inches thick, and underneath it was 5 inches of solid oak. The drill bit was replaced with an auger in order to bring up samples of this wood. Just below the wood was a 2-inch empty gap and then, according to Chappell, the auger "rested upon a substance the character of which no person would attempt to state."
The auger was twisted into his material and then carefully withdrawn. The borings were taken off the auger by Putnam who later brought them to Amherst for examination. The samples looked to him like a mixture of mud, cement, and chips of wood; but included was a tiny piece of Oak Island's puzzle. When the auger was withdrawn, it was replaced with the drilling chisel, and this was dropped back into the hole, which was now down to about 155 feet from the surface. Here the drill seemed to be on soft metal. Chappell said it was found that this metal "could be moved slightly thereby forming a crevice or space into which the drill, when in alignment, would stick or wedge." This happened several times, and the chisel had to be continually pried loose. Driving the drill down 4 inches required two hours, after which the boring became easier. But even then the drill would go down only by continuously twisting the rods and applying heavy pressure. And the workers noticed that the material being bored would fill up the hole each time the drill was raised. Blair says they "worked five and one quarter hours getting down the two feet eight inches" of this material "and the chisel came up as sharp as [when] it went down." The drillers were certain this material was metal in small pieces; similar to that which had been struck in 1849 between 100 and 104 feet in the Money Pit. At 158 feet the drill hit the same sort of soft metal that had been found just under the wood. The chisel stuck fast in this material and couldn't be turned or driven down, so the drill was withdrawn.
The conclusion drawn by Chappell, Blair, and the others was that below the oak wood the drill had passed through four inches of metal in bars, or ingots, which were pushed aside by the chisel. Then it went through 2 feet 8 inches of small pieces of metal, or coins, that sifted back into the hole each time the drill was raised. Below this were more bars of soft metal which, from the way it felt and from the way the drill bit retained its sharp edge, was not iron. They decided to secure this hole by putting casing below 126 feet (3-inch casing was already down to the iron obstruction) and then to bring up a sample of the metal pieces. A 1-inch casing pipe was lowered through the 3-inch pipe and forced past the obstruction. The iron, however, deflected the pipe away from the course followed by the drill and it struck the wall of the pit instead of going down into the cement. The pipe was pulled out and the drill rods were again sent down the 3-inh casing. But they followed the hole made by. the smaller pipe into the wall of the shaft. Several more attempts failed, and the passage into the cement and metal was lost. The 3-inch casing was withdrawn and reset for a second hole into the bottom of the Money Pit. This time the drill struck wood at 122 feet. It then went through 7 feet of cement between 154 and 161 feet, and one side of the drill also encountered wood from about 154 to 158 feet. Below the cement the drill was driven through more puddled clay until it hit what appeared to be an iron plate at 171 feet. Chappell said: "A magnet was run through this material and it loaded up with fine iron cuttings, thereby producing conclusive proof that it was iron we had been drilling on at 171 feet. No further attempt was made to go through this iron."
Among the many clues that have been discovered on Oak Island, one of the most interesting was included in the samples of bored material retrieved from that drill hole between 153 and 155 feet. Putnam had personally cleaned the end of the auger and the samples, as he was later to swear, were never out of his possession until they were examined at the courthouse in Amherst several days later. On September 6, 1897, Dr. Andrew E. Porter, a physician then practicing in Amherst, conducted the examination in the presence of about a dozen witnesses. Most of what he saw consisted of pieces of wood and the cement like material. But then he noticed something peculiar about what he first thought was a tiny piece of wood. It was a compact ball with a fibrous edge. He carefully untwisted it and flattened it out. After studying it under a strong magnifying glass he declared that "this is not wood and there is either paint or ink on it." He concluded it was a piece of parchment. It was sent soon after to Pictou Academy in Pictou, Nova Scotia, and to experts in Boston. The unanimous verdict was that it was a piece of sheepskin parchment on which were letters written with a quill pen in India ink. The letters appeared to be either "vi," "ui," or "wi" and seemed to form part of some word. The parchment, no larger than a five-cent piece, was kept in Blair's posseThe circumstances surrounding the discovery of the piece of parchment were sworn to by several persons who were present at its initial examination. Blair, in an affidavit, states that he was well acquainted with Putnam ("a man in whose honesty and integrity I would place the greatest reliance"), and that there was no doubt the parchment came from about 154 feet down in the Money Pit.
Dr. Porter also later testified under oath that the sample had been handed directly to him by Putnam in the courthouse. It is also noteworthy that all those involved in the 1897 drilling program purchased additional shares following the parchment's discovery and identification. And Dr. Porter, who had had no interest in Oak Island prior to that time, became a shareholder as a result of this tangible piece of evidence having been brought to the surface. While the examiners in Amherst were certain of the identity of · the samples of oak wood, there was a difference of opinion over whether the chips of cement were natural or man-made. Samples were therefore sent to A. Boake Roberts & Co. Ltd., a large chemical analysis firm in London, England. They replied: "We have carefully analyzed the two samples of stone received from you recently and have to report that we find them to be of the following compositions:
No.1 No.2
Lime(CaO) 37.40% 37.18%
Carbonate (CO2) 33.20% 34.00%
Silica (SiO2) 13.20% 13.92%
Iron & Alumina (FE & AL) 2O3 10.19% 10.13%
Moisture (at 120°C) 0.34% 0.29%
Magnesium etc. 5.67% 4.48%
100.00% 100.00%
"These stones are very soft and both of them have the composition of cement."
A. Boake Roberts & Co. was then asked to give an opinion on the probable origin of the cement. They reported that "from the analysts it is impossible to state definitely, but from the appearance and nature of the samples, we are of the opinion that it is a cement which has been worked by man." In autumn of 1897, the directors of the Oak Island Treasure Company were more convinced than ever that a large and valuable deposit lay far down in the Money Pit. The results of their drilling program led them to believe that a cement-encased vault, perhaps 7 feet high, had been constructed. Moreover, they speculated that this chamber contained bars of a relatively soft metal such as gold or silver, wooden chests of coins and jewels, and even historical documents of some kind. Above and below the vault, they had encountered puddled clay, a material that apparently was artificial, since it hadn't been found at any depth other than in the Money Pit. Based on these findings, the company became almost a closed corporation with existing shareholders readily advancing the necessary funds to continue operations. In early October work was begun on a new shaft SHAFT #14 about 45 feet south of the Money Pit. The intention was to sink it to a depth of 180 feet and then tunnel to the Money Pit at a point well below the iron obstruction encountered at 171 feet in that summer's drilling. This shaft would also serve as a pumping station to help drain the Money Pit and the latter could then be excavated ·down into the treasure chamber. By December the diggers had reached a depth of 95 feet when salt water began seeping in at the 70-foot level. Overnight the shaft flooded to within roughly tide level. Work on this hole ended when a tunnel that had been dug by the 1860's searchers was found only 3 feet away. It was responsible for the heavy volume of water entering the shaft. The workers then moved 30 feet southwest of the abandoned pit and began a new shaft SHAFT #15 in January of 1898. Work continued until the first of April when, at a depth of 160 feet, a large volume of salt water suddenly burst in from the southwest side of the shaft and drove the men out. Pumping attempts failed, and it was finally abandoned. In May the workers again decided to try to plug the water entrance at Smith's Cove. In order to locate the position of the drains, they put a pump on the south shore and pumped water from the bay into SHAFT #15 Their intention was to fill it above sea level and force the muddy water out through the flood tunnel and the inlet at the cove. They filled the shaft to the top and, as anticipated, the water started falling back to tide level. But the experiment yielded an unexpected and horrifying result: the muddy water was bubbling out not at Smith's Cove but at about the low water mark on the south side of the island about 300 feet from the Money Pit. The same thing happened the following day when red dye was poured into the pit. The searchers now had two known flood tunnels to contend with. Moreover, the southern tunnel must have had several inlets, as the muddy water appeared at three widespread locations offshore. Presumably this had been the tunnel that had caused the sudden flooding of SHAFT #15 at a depth of 160 feet. The discovery also helped to explain why the dynamiting of Smith's Cove a year earlier hadn't checked the flooding of the Money Pit. It wasn't known at what level this second tunnel entered the Money Pit, but it was presumably lower than the 160-foot depth at which it was encountered in SHAFT #15
The workers subsequently dumped large amounts of rock plaster and clay over and around the presumed inlets at the South Shore Cove. But Blair says this "failed to materially stop the flow of water." A proposal to build a proper cofferdam was rejected as prohibitively expensive, since the cove on that part of the island is about 1,600 feet across, considerably larger than the crescent shaped Smith's Cove. Besides, two cofferdams built at Smith's Cove in 1850 and 1866 had been destroyed quickly by Atlantic storms. Between June 1898 and late summer 1899 four more shafts had been dug (SHAFTS # 16 to #19). These had all been started with the hope of driving them deep enough to tunnel through to the Money Pit’s treasure vault about 160 feet down. SHAFT #16 was abandoned because of the rocky nature of the soil. The other three encountered excessive flooding. Moreover, as Blair and Chappell later observed, the water problem wasn't caused only by the two known flood tunnels. It was aggravated by some of their shafts striking lateral tunnels that had been made by searchers in the 1860's. These had created an uncharted labyrinth of underground streams through the eastern end of the island. Some later searchers were to speculate that Blair and his associates had been a little hasty in assuming that all of those cribbed tunnels they encountered were the work of previous treasure hunters. Oak Island's original underground architect had possibly constructed something even more cunning than a single treasure pit with two flood tunnels feeding directly into it.
The Oak Island Treasure Company was having trouble keeping its head above water in more ways than one. The euphoria that had followed the encouraging drilling results of 1897 was beginning to wear off as some of the group's principal investors found themselves close to personal bankruptcy. T. Pearly Putnam, for instance, was out $20,000 on the venture, and much of this was money he had borrowed. In early 1900 the company once more updated and reissued its prospectus in an attempt to inject much-needed capital into the treasury. This new pamphlet detailed the findings of the 1897 drilling program, but it withheld any mention of the discouraging discovery of the second flood tunnel. Funds were raised to continue the work. Still another shaft SHAFT #20 was dug, flooded, and abandoned, and in May and early June several drill holes were sunk from a platform at the surface into the bottom of the now water-filled Money Pit. But because of the twisted condition of the cribbing only the southeast corner of the pit could be reached from the top. These probes went down to between 116 and 162 feet without striking anything significant. By now the company was financially doomed. Creditors were moving in with liens on equipment, and workers were demanding back wages. That summer saw the end of seven years' work by the Oak Island Treasure Company.
Blair and his group had been beaten, but they hadn't lost faith in the existence of the treasure. In fact, the deposit seemed more valuable than ever, because they now assumed that at least two separate caches lay in the Money Pit. The first, struck at about 100 feet by the auger in 1849, had apparently fallen to some deeper level when the pit collapsed in 1861. It was thought that the wood and iron encountered between 122 and 126 feet in the 1897 drilling program may have been part of this deposit. Those drilling results had also convinced Blair and the others that an even larger cache rested below 154 feet in the pit and that the original work went down to at least 171 feet. In addition, the discovery of a second flood tunnel-though it increased their frustration-was also seen as further proof that no ordinary treasure had been hidden in the pit. Blair would later learn more of Oak Island's strange secrets. One of these had been stumbled on by Captain Welling near the island's south shore in 1897, and he had pointed it out to Blair and Chappell. It was a large equilateral triangle made of beach stones. None of them attempted to figure out what it meant, and forty years passed before its significance was realized. Toward the end of 1900, Blair acquired all the shares of the Oak Island Treasure Company from the other major investors. He retained a lease on the Money Pit area as well as treasure trove rights under his own name, and proceeded to see out other partners to continue the search on Oak Island.
Key Events:
[1893]:
[1894]:
[1895]:
[1896]:
[1897]:
[June 1898 to Summer 1899]:
[1900]:
Also Know By:
Company Formation date and location:
1893 Maine, 1895 Boston and Framingham, Massachusetts
Initial Company Shares per Price: $300,000 - $5 Per Share, 60,000 Shares
Oak Island Leased by: Sophia Sellers
Years Active on Oak Island From 1893 to 1900
Deaths as a result on Oak Island: 1 - Maynard Kaiser from Gold River - rope slipped off pulley in M.P.
Names of Company Members (location extra):
A.M. Bridgeman – President – Brockton, Mass.
Frederick Leander Blair - Treasurer
William Chappell –Drilling
Captain John William Welling – On Site Manager
A.S. Lowden – General Manager
T. Perley Putnam - Drilling
Dr. Andrew E. Porter – Physician
George Houghton - Director
C.C.L. Moore - Director
H.C. Tupper –
W.H. McDonald -
Early Reference: "Lunenburg by the Sea"
Summary of Activity:
In 1893 Frederick Leander Blair, a twenty-six-year old insurance salesman living in Boston developed an obsession with Oak Island that was to last until his death in 1950. He formed The Oak Island Treasure Company, and was originally from Amherst, Nova Scotia and as a boy had heard detailed accounts of Oak Island from his uncle, Isaac Blair and from Jefferson W. McDonald both of whom had taken part in the search during the 1860’s. Blair moved from Brookline, Massachusetts back to Amherst, Nova Scotia in 1895. In 1893, The 1st task of this company was to start their search at “The Cave In Pit” area. Blair suspected that the creator of The Money Pit may have installed a valve or gate somewhere in the flood tunnel to be shut-off the water. They started to excavate The Cave In Pit. At a depth of 55 feet, seawater began entering it. By the next day the water was at tide level (about 15th feet from the surface at this spot) and it could not be lowered by bailing. It was abandoned, but they group was still interested in this location and convinced it had been part of the original work. It showed evidence of having been hand-dug at and earlier point, and there was no record of previous searchers being in this area, or creating a shaft. Years later, other searchers would direct their attention to this pit with the assumption that if it wasn’t an airshaft, it would have been an access point for one of the treasure locations. They also assumed that the pit wasn’t exactly in line with the Smith’s Cove water course, but was set off slightly to the side. For that reason, the caving in had not affected the flow of the water. Today the Cave In Pit is a circular crater 100 feet deep and as many feet across. The water in still rises and falls with the tide.
In the fall of 1894 another shaft (SHAFT #13) was dug 30 feet east of The Money Pit and 8 feet north
Of the suspected line of the water course. Water started entering this shaft at 43 feet, probably via an
Underground connection to the flooded tunnel by previous searches. This shaft was abandoned. In the summer of 1895, Lowden’s men began re-excavating The Money Pit, but they only got down 55 feet inside the old cribbing when once more water drove them out. The work as abandoned until the later part of 1896, when they started again. They were able to drain it with their new pumping equipment and cleared it down to 70 feet before the water became excessive. So the old SHAFT #4 (dug to a depth of 75 feet near Smith’s Cove in 1850) was cleared to 78 feet, at which point water entered it from one of the tunnels built by the Oak Island Eldorado/The Halifax Company group in the 1860’s. But by putting their pump in this pit, they found they could drain the Money Pit, which they deepened to 97 feet.
About this time, the 2nd death occurred on Oak Island on March 26, 1897. Maynard Kaiser of nearby Gold River was being hoisted to the top of one of the pits when the rope slipped off the hoisting pulley and he fell to his death. One of his coworkers, Selvin Rafuse of Martin’s Point, told the story “We used to hoist the earth up with horses then and it was when Kaiser was killed in the pits.” Following the accident, Rafuse and the other workers refused to go down into the pits, forcing operations to be halted for about a week. Many of them were convinced that Kaiser’s death was a warning and that some ghostly guardian of the buried treasure would kill anyone who tried to retrieve it. The workers were eventually persuaded back and the deepening of The Money Pit continued. Blair’s notes show that on April 22, 1897 when they reached a depth of 110 feet, they came across one of the old Eldorado/Halifax Company tunnels entering at 108 feet and noticed that all of the water flowing into the pit came through this tunnel. They explored it a short distance and came to an intersecting tunnel at the end of which was a large cribbed shaft extending up into the darkness as far as they could see. Blair says: “Water was boiling up through the bottom of this pit, and it proved to be the real Money Pit. The pit [we] had worked in all winter proved to be the old Tupper pit” (SHAFT #3) dug in the 1850 to 109 feet and situated 10 feet northwest of the actual Money Pit. Several months and a lot of money had been wasted in re-excavating the wrong pit. Moving 10 feet to the Southeast, they broke through the topsoil and soon confirmed they were now in the original Money Pit. On June 9, 1897, digging had progressed to 111 feet in The Money Pit when the workers came upon an uncribbed tunnel 2 ½ feet wide on the east side of The Money Pit. They dug down quickly, noticing that the opening was filled with smooth beach stones covered with a layer of gravel. And as they dug, water gushed through at an ever-increasing rate. They had located the flood tunnel from the sea and Smith’s Cove. Several accounts state that the tunnel was 2 ½ feet wide by 4 feet high. Welling later noted the full height couldn’t be seen because of the increasing water volume rushing into the pit. Blair Says: “It entered the pit under great pressure and finally overcame the pumps, filled the pits [Money Pit and SHAFT #3) to tide level and brought our operations to a stand still.” It was obvious to Blair and Welling that it would be impossible to plug the flood tunnel in the Money Pit itself; the force and volume of water rushing down from Smith’s Cove was too great. Work was then temporarily halted while the companies Nova Scotia board of management et in Halifax to formulate a new plan.
The company directors decided that the best place to stop the flow was at Smith’s Cove. Their plan was to setup off charges of dynamite underground near the shore. This, they hoped would demolish the bothersome tunnel for good. Five holes were bored in a line about 50 feet up from the high-water mark at the Cove. They were spaced 15 feet apart. The first at a point 30 feet south of the presumed course of the flood tunnel, and the last about 30 feet north of that point. All but the third hole were bored to about 90 feet without encountering water. They were crammed with dynamite and filled with water, which served as a plug. When the dynamite was set off the water sprayed more than 100 feet into the air. The third hole apparently bored into the flood tunnel. At 80 feet the auger struck rocks, and seawater immediately rose to tide level. This hole was filled with a huge 160 pound charge. According to Blair, when it was detonated the water in both The Money Pit AND The Cave In Pit “boiled and foamed for a considerable time, and after the disturbance subsided, the oil in the dynamite showed on the water in both of these pits.” While it seems the third hole had hit the flood tunnel the drillers were perplexed by the fact that the seawater this close to the shore wasn’t encountered until a depth at 80 feet. They concluded that the tunnel didn’t simply run in a direct line from the box drains in Smith’s Cove to The Money Pit, but that it first entered a sump hole that was around 75 feet deep and just inland from the shore, and that the bottom of that hole the tunnel ran at a very slight gradient to enter The Money Pit at a depth of approximately 110 feet. This reasoning, however ignored two important earlier discoveries. The watercourse had apparently been struck at 35 feet by SHAFT #5 in 1850, and again at 55 feet down in the Cave-In-Pit in 1894. One theory that has been suggested to explain the inconsistency is that there are perhaps two flood tunnels at different levels running between Smith’s Cove and The Money Pit. But a more reasonable explanation was offered by W.L. Johnson. His opinion is that the third drill hole didn’t exactly penetrate but came very close to it. Then, while the
drill was at 80 feet, the water from the tunnel suddenly burst across and into the hole at a higher level, creating the impression that it had been struck at a depth of 80 feet. But there was a bigger puzzle to contend with. The workers assumed that the huge charge of dynamite in that third hole had effectively choked off the water supply. Yet when the pumps were subsequently run in the Money Pit, they were barely able to keep ahead of the incoming water. The blasting had had no appreciable effect on the flow from the sea. Part of the answer to this riddle would be found the following year.
While the work at the shore was being completed another crew of drillers started boring into the bottom of the southern edge of the Money Pit, which had previously been excavated to 113 feet. With the pumps holding the water level down to about the 100foot level, a drilling platform was set up at 90 feet. Experienced drillers had been hired for the job, and overseeing operations were William Chappell, T. Perley Putnam, and Captain John Welling. A full account of the drilling program is contained in notes prepared by Blair in 1900 and in an affidavit sworn to by Chappell in October 1929. Several holes were bored, most of them with a 2-inch drill through a 3-inch steel casing, usually in loose and apparently disturbed ground all the way down to 171 feet. Blue clay, which Chappell said had the "characteristics of puddled clay," was encountered between 130 and 151 feet and between 160 and 171 feet. Puddled clay is a hand-worked watertight preparation of clay, sand, and water. It is similar to putty, and it may have been this material that the 1803 searchers found (and identified as putty) on some of the original wooden platforms in the Money Pit.
The first hole was bored through wood at 126 feet. Immediately below that the drill bit struck iron, which it couldn't get through. The workers extracted the drill pipe and found it crushed on one side, indicating that it had only hit the edge of whatever that iron obstruction was. So a 1-inch drill was put down the same hole, and it was able to slip past the obstruction at 126 feet. It then went through blue puddled clay and at about 154 feet struck what the drillers first thought was sandstone, but which was later determined to be cement.
This cement was 7 inches thick, and underneath it was 5 inches of solid oak. The drill bit was replaced with an auger in order to bring up samples of this wood. Just below the wood was a 2-inch empty gap and then, according to Chappell, the auger "rested upon a substance the character of which no person would attempt to state."
The auger was twisted into his material and then carefully withdrawn. The borings were taken off the auger by Putnam who later brought them to Amherst for examination. The samples looked to him like a mixture of mud, cement, and chips of wood; but included was a tiny piece of Oak Island's puzzle. When the auger was withdrawn, it was replaced with the drilling chisel, and this was dropped back into the hole, which was now down to about 155 feet from the surface. Here the drill seemed to be on soft metal. Chappell said it was found that this metal "could be moved slightly thereby forming a crevice or space into which the drill, when in alignment, would stick or wedge." This happened several times, and the chisel had to be continually pried loose. Driving the drill down 4 inches required two hours, after which the boring became easier. But even then the drill would go down only by continuously twisting the rods and applying heavy pressure. And the workers noticed that the material being bored would fill up the hole each time the drill was raised. Blair says they "worked five and one quarter hours getting down the two feet eight inches" of this material "and the chisel came up as sharp as [when] it went down." The drillers were certain this material was metal in small pieces; similar to that which had been struck in 1849 between 100 and 104 feet in the Money Pit. At 158 feet the drill hit the same sort of soft metal that had been found just under the wood. The chisel stuck fast in this material and couldn't be turned or driven down, so the drill was withdrawn.
The conclusion drawn by Chappell, Blair, and the others was that below the oak wood the drill had passed through four inches of metal in bars, or ingots, which were pushed aside by the chisel. Then it went through 2 feet 8 inches of small pieces of metal, or coins, that sifted back into the hole each time the drill was raised. Below this were more bars of soft metal which, from the way it felt and from the way the drill bit retained its sharp edge, was not iron. They decided to secure this hole by putting casing below 126 feet (3-inch casing was already down to the iron obstruction) and then to bring up a sample of the metal pieces. A 1-inch casing pipe was lowered through the 3-inch pipe and forced past the obstruction. The iron, however, deflected the pipe away from the course followed by the drill and it struck the wall of the pit instead of going down into the cement. The pipe was pulled out and the drill rods were again sent down the 3-inh casing. But they followed the hole made by. the smaller pipe into the wall of the shaft. Several more attempts failed, and the passage into the cement and metal was lost. The 3-inch casing was withdrawn and reset for a second hole into the bottom of the Money Pit. This time the drill struck wood at 122 feet. It then went through 7 feet of cement between 154 and 161 feet, and one side of the drill also encountered wood from about 154 to 158 feet. Below the cement the drill was driven through more puddled clay until it hit what appeared to be an iron plate at 171 feet. Chappell said: "A magnet was run through this material and it loaded up with fine iron cuttings, thereby producing conclusive proof that it was iron we had been drilling on at 171 feet. No further attempt was made to go through this iron."
Among the many clues that have been discovered on Oak Island, one of the most interesting was included in the samples of bored material retrieved from that drill hole between 153 and 155 feet. Putnam had personally cleaned the end of the auger and the samples, as he was later to swear, were never out of his possession until they were examined at the courthouse in Amherst several days later. On September 6, 1897, Dr. Andrew E. Porter, a physician then practicing in Amherst, conducted the examination in the presence of about a dozen witnesses. Most of what he saw consisted of pieces of wood and the cement like material. But then he noticed something peculiar about what he first thought was a tiny piece of wood. It was a compact ball with a fibrous edge. He carefully untwisted it and flattened it out. After studying it under a strong magnifying glass he declared that "this is not wood and there is either paint or ink on it." He concluded it was a piece of parchment. It was sent soon after to Pictou Academy in Pictou, Nova Scotia, and to experts in Boston. The unanimous verdict was that it was a piece of sheepskin parchment on which were letters written with a quill pen in India ink. The letters appeared to be either "vi," "ui," or "wi" and seemed to form part of some word. The parchment, no larger than a five-cent piece, was kept in Blair's posseThe circumstances surrounding the discovery of the piece of parchment were sworn to by several persons who were present at its initial examination. Blair, in an affidavit, states that he was well acquainted with Putnam ("a man in whose honesty and integrity I would place the greatest reliance"), and that there was no doubt the parchment came from about 154 feet down in the Money Pit.
Dr. Porter also later testified under oath that the sample had been handed directly to him by Putnam in the courthouse. It is also noteworthy that all those involved in the 1897 drilling program purchased additional shares following the parchment's discovery and identification. And Dr. Porter, who had had no interest in Oak Island prior to that time, became a shareholder as a result of this tangible piece of evidence having been brought to the surface. While the examiners in Amherst were certain of the identity of · the samples of oak wood, there was a difference of opinion over whether the chips of cement were natural or man-made. Samples were therefore sent to A. Boake Roberts & Co. Ltd., a large chemical analysis firm in London, England. They replied: "We have carefully analyzed the two samples of stone received from you recently and have to report that we find them to be of the following compositions:
No.1 No.2
Lime(CaO) 37.40% 37.18%
Carbonate (CO2) 33.20% 34.00%
Silica (SiO2) 13.20% 13.92%
Iron & Alumina (FE & AL) 2O3 10.19% 10.13%
Moisture (at 120°C) 0.34% 0.29%
Magnesium etc. 5.67% 4.48%
100.00% 100.00%
"These stones are very soft and both of them have the composition of cement."
A. Boake Roberts & Co. was then asked to give an opinion on the probable origin of the cement. They reported that "from the analysts it is impossible to state definitely, but from the appearance and nature of the samples, we are of the opinion that it is a cement which has been worked by man." In autumn of 1897, the directors of the Oak Island Treasure Company were more convinced than ever that a large and valuable deposit lay far down in the Money Pit. The results of their drilling program led them to believe that a cement-encased vault, perhaps 7 feet high, had been constructed. Moreover, they speculated that this chamber contained bars of a relatively soft metal such as gold or silver, wooden chests of coins and jewels, and even historical documents of some kind. Above and below the vault, they had encountered puddled clay, a material that apparently was artificial, since it hadn't been found at any depth other than in the Money Pit. Based on these findings, the company became almost a closed corporation with existing shareholders readily advancing the necessary funds to continue operations. In early October work was begun on a new shaft SHAFT #14 about 45 feet south of the Money Pit. The intention was to sink it to a depth of 180 feet and then tunnel to the Money Pit at a point well below the iron obstruction encountered at 171 feet in that summer's drilling. This shaft would also serve as a pumping station to help drain the Money Pit and the latter could then be excavated ·down into the treasure chamber. By December the diggers had reached a depth of 95 feet when salt water began seeping in at the 70-foot level. Overnight the shaft flooded to within roughly tide level. Work on this hole ended when a tunnel that had been dug by the 1860's searchers was found only 3 feet away. It was responsible for the heavy volume of water entering the shaft. The workers then moved 30 feet southwest of the abandoned pit and began a new shaft SHAFT #15 in January of 1898. Work continued until the first of April when, at a depth of 160 feet, a large volume of salt water suddenly burst in from the southwest side of the shaft and drove the men out. Pumping attempts failed, and it was finally abandoned. In May the workers again decided to try to plug the water entrance at Smith's Cove. In order to locate the position of the drains, they put a pump on the south shore and pumped water from the bay into SHAFT #15 Their intention was to fill it above sea level and force the muddy water out through the flood tunnel and the inlet at the cove. They filled the shaft to the top and, as anticipated, the water started falling back to tide level. But the experiment yielded an unexpected and horrifying result: the muddy water was bubbling out not at Smith's Cove but at about the low water mark on the south side of the island about 300 feet from the Money Pit. The same thing happened the following day when red dye was poured into the pit. The searchers now had two known flood tunnels to contend with. Moreover, the southern tunnel must have had several inlets, as the muddy water appeared at three widespread locations offshore. Presumably this had been the tunnel that had caused the sudden flooding of SHAFT #15 at a depth of 160 feet. The discovery also helped to explain why the dynamiting of Smith's Cove a year earlier hadn't checked the flooding of the Money Pit. It wasn't known at what level this second tunnel entered the Money Pit, but it was presumably lower than the 160-foot depth at which it was encountered in SHAFT #15
The workers subsequently dumped large amounts of rock plaster and clay over and around the presumed inlets at the South Shore Cove. But Blair says this "failed to materially stop the flow of water." A proposal to build a proper cofferdam was rejected as prohibitively expensive, since the cove on that part of the island is about 1,600 feet across, considerably larger than the crescent shaped Smith's Cove. Besides, two cofferdams built at Smith's Cove in 1850 and 1866 had been destroyed quickly by Atlantic storms. Between June 1898 and late summer 1899 four more shafts had been dug (SHAFTS # 16 to #19). These had all been started with the hope of driving them deep enough to tunnel through to the Money Pit’s treasure vault about 160 feet down. SHAFT #16 was abandoned because of the rocky nature of the soil. The other three encountered excessive flooding. Moreover, as Blair and Chappell later observed, the water problem wasn't caused only by the two known flood tunnels. It was aggravated by some of their shafts striking lateral tunnels that had been made by searchers in the 1860's. These had created an uncharted labyrinth of underground streams through the eastern end of the island. Some later searchers were to speculate that Blair and his associates had been a little hasty in assuming that all of those cribbed tunnels they encountered were the work of previous treasure hunters. Oak Island's original underground architect had possibly constructed something even more cunning than a single treasure pit with two flood tunnels feeding directly into it.
The Oak Island Treasure Company was having trouble keeping its head above water in more ways than one. The euphoria that had followed the encouraging drilling results of 1897 was beginning to wear off as some of the group's principal investors found themselves close to personal bankruptcy. T. Pearly Putnam, for instance, was out $20,000 on the venture, and much of this was money he had borrowed. In early 1900 the company once more updated and reissued its prospectus in an attempt to inject much-needed capital into the treasury. This new pamphlet detailed the findings of the 1897 drilling program, but it withheld any mention of the discouraging discovery of the second flood tunnel. Funds were raised to continue the work. Still another shaft SHAFT #20 was dug, flooded, and abandoned, and in May and early June several drill holes were sunk from a platform at the surface into the bottom of the now water-filled Money Pit. But because of the twisted condition of the cribbing only the southeast corner of the pit could be reached from the top. These probes went down to between 116 and 162 feet without striking anything significant. By now the company was financially doomed. Creditors were moving in with liens on equipment, and workers were demanding back wages. That summer saw the end of seven years' work by the Oak Island Treasure Company.
Blair and his group had been beaten, but they hadn't lost faith in the existence of the treasure. In fact, the deposit seemed more valuable than ever, because they now assumed that at least two separate caches lay in the Money Pit. The first, struck at about 100 feet by the auger in 1849, had apparently fallen to some deeper level when the pit collapsed in 1861. It was thought that the wood and iron encountered between 122 and 126 feet in the 1897 drilling program may have been part of this deposit. Those drilling results had also convinced Blair and the others that an even larger cache rested below 154 feet in the pit and that the original work went down to at least 171 feet. In addition, the discovery of a second flood tunnel-though it increased their frustration-was also seen as further proof that no ordinary treasure had been hidden in the pit. Blair would later learn more of Oak Island's strange secrets. One of these had been stumbled on by Captain Welling near the island's south shore in 1897, and he had pointed it out to Blair and Chappell. It was a large equilateral triangle made of beach stones. None of them attempted to figure out what it meant, and forty years passed before its significance was realized. Toward the end of 1900, Blair acquired all the shares of the Oak Island Treasure Company from the other major investors. He retained a lease on the Money Pit area as well as treasure trove rights under his own name, and proceeded to see out other partners to continue the search on Oak Island.
Key Events:
[1893]:
- When Sophia Sellers was plowing the eastern end of Oak Island with oxen in 1878, when her animals fell into a hole, which caved in directly over a point that was suspected to be the route of the water tunnels leading from Smith’s Cove’s finger drains on the beach to a convergence on the surface called a “Vertical Shaft”, and then sharply downward to the bottom of Money Pit, 350 feet away. This spot may have collapsed due to erosion of the soil. No previous searchers work had been recorded in this area. Referred to as “The Cave In Pit” or SHAFT #12 Oak Island Treasure Company would focus the 1st attempt in this location. The hole had signs of being previously hand-dug before. They excavated down to a depth of 55 feet, until seawater began entering. By the next day, the water was at tide level (about 15 feet from the surface), and could not be lowered by bailing, so it was abandoned.
[1894]:
- SHAFT #13 was dug 30 feet east of The Money Pit and 8 feet North of the suspected line of the water course. Water started entering this shaft at 43 feet, probably via an Underground connection to the flooded tunnel by previous searches. This shaft was abandoned.
[1895]:
- In re-excavating The Money Pit, they could only got down 55 feet inside the old cribbing, when water drove them out, and the work was abandoned for the moment.
[1896]:
- Work started again in The Money Pit, and they were able to drain It out with their new pumping equipment and cleared it down to 70 feet before the water became excessive. SHAFT #4 (dug to a depth of 75 feet near Smith’s Cove in 1850) was cleared to a depth of 78 feet, at which point water entered it from one of the tunnels built by the Oak Island Eldorado/The Halifax Company group in the 1860’s. By putting their pump into this pit, they found they could drain the Money Pit, which they deepened to 97 feet.
[1897]:
- The 2nd Death On Oak Island occurred while work continued in re-excavating The Money Pit, The 2nd death occurred on Oak Island when on March 26, 1897, Maynard Kaiser of nearby Gold River was being hoisted to the top of one of the pits with containers of dirt, when the rope slipped off the hoisting pulley and he fell to his death. Following the accident, the other workers refused to go down into the pits, forcing operations to be halted for about a week, until they were convinced to continue. They reached a depth of 110 feet in The Money Pit, they came across one of the old Eldorado/Halifax Company tunnels entering at 108 feet and noticed that all of the water flowing into the pit came through this tunnel. They explored it a short distance and came to an intersecting tunnel at the end of which was a large cribbed shaft extending up into the darkness as far as they could see. They had been excavating the wrong shaft (SHAFT #3). Moving 10 feet to the Southeast, they broke through the topsoil and soon confirmed they were now in the original Money Pit. On June 9, 1897, digging had progressed to 111 feet in The Money Pit when the workers came upon an uncribbed tunnel 2 ½ feet wide on the east side of The Money Pit. They dug down quickly, noticing that the opening was filled with smooth beach stones covered with a layer of gravel. And as they dug, water gushed through at an ever-increasing rate. They had located the flood tunnel from the sea and Smith’s Cove. Several accounts state that the tunnel was 2 ½ feet wide by 4 feet high. Welling later noted the full height couldn’t be seen because of the increasing water volume rushing into the pit. Blair Says: “It entered the pit under great pressure and finally overcame the pumps, filled the pits [Money Pit and SHAFT #3) to tide level and brought our operations to a stand still.” Work was then temporarily halted while the companies Nova Scotia board of management in Halifax to formulate a new plan. The company directors decided that the best place to stop the flow was at Smith’s Cove. Their plan was to setup off charges of dynamite underground near the shore. This, they hoped would demolish the bothersome tunnel for good. Five holes were bored in a line about 50 feet up from the high-water mark at the Cove. They were spaced 15 feet apart. (see 1897 Hole Diagram of these 5 holes and The Money Pit) All but the third hole were bored to about 90 feet without encountering water. They were all crammed with dynamite and filled with water, which served as a plug. When the dynamite was set off the water sprayed more than 100 feet into the air. The third hole apparently bored into the flood tunnel. At 80 feet the auger struck rocks, and seawater immediately rose to tide level. This hole was filled with a huge 160 pound charge. According to Blair, when it was detonated the water in both The Money Pit AND The Cave In Pit “boiled and foamed for a considerable time, and after the disturbance subsided, the oil in the dynamite showed on the water in both of these pits.” While the work at the shore was being completed, another crew of drillers started boring into the bottom of the Southern edge of the Money Pit, which had previously been excavated to 113 feet. With the pumps holding the water level down to about the 100foot level, a drilling platform was set up at 90 feet. Experienced drillers had been hired for the job, and overseeing operations were William Chappell, T. Perley Putnam, and Captain John Welling. Several holes were bored, most of them with a 2-inch drill through a 3-inch steel casing, usually in loose and apparently disturbed ground all the way down to 171 feet.
- CLAY FOUND AGAIN, CEMENT VAULT, AND METAL
- PARCHMENT FOUND
- The circumstances surrounding the discovery of the piece of parchment were sworn to by several persons who were present at its initial examination. Blair, in an affidavit, states that he was well acquainted with Putnam ("a man in whose honesty and integrity I would place the greatest reliance"), and that there was no doubt the parchment came from about 154 feet down in the Money Pit.
- Dr. Porter also later testified under oath that the sample had been handed directly to him by Putnam in the courthouse. It is also noteworthy that all those involved in the 1897 drilling program purchased additional shares following the parchment's discovery and identification. And Dr. Porter, who had had no interest in Oak Island prior to that time, became a shareholder as a result of this tangible piece of evidence having been brought to the surface. While the examiners in Amherst were certain of the identity of the samples of oak wood, there was a difference of opinion over whether the chips of cement were natural or man-made. Samples were therefore sent to A. Boake Roberts & Co. Ltd who determined it was cement, and had the same chemical composition. In October, work started on a new shaft (SHAFT #14) about 45 feet south of The Money Pit. By December the diggers had reached a depth of 95 feet when salt water began seeping in at the 70 foot level. Overnight the shaft flooded to within the tide level. Work on this hole ended when a tunnel that had been dug by the 1860’s searchers was found only 3 feet away.
- In January they moved 30 feet Southwest of SHAFT #14, and started a new shaft SHAFT#15. In April they were down to a depth of 160 feet when a large volume of salt water suddenly burst in from the Southwest side of the shaft and drove the men out. Pumping attempts failed and it was abandoned.
- The 2nd Flood Tunnel on The South Shore feeding into The Money Pit was discovered:
[June 1898 to Summer 1899]:
- Four more shafts had been dug at this point to try to get into The Money Pits Treasure Vault at about 160 feet down: SHAFT #16, SHAFT #17, SHAFT #18, and SHAFT #19. SHAFT #16 were abandoned because of the rocky nature of the soil. SHAFTS #18, 17, and 19 encountered excessive flooding also caused by lateral tunnels by earlier searchers in the 1860’s.
[1900]:
- The company prospectus was updated and reissued to raise additional funds, which were getting low as principal investors were close to personal bankruptcy. Another shaft, SHAFT #20 was dug, flooded and abandoned. In May and June several drill holes were sunk from a platform at the surface of the bottom of the now water-filled Money Pit. Because of the twisted condition of the cribbing only the Southeast corner of the pit could be reached from the top. Drilling down between 116 and 162 feet without encountering anything of interest. By now the company was financially doomed, and creditors were moving in with liens on equipment, and workers demanding back wages. This was the end of 7 years of work by The Oak Island Treasure Company. 9 Years would pass before another attempt would be made on Oak Island.
the old gold salvage and wrecking co.
Darcy O'connor
Author, Darcy O'Connor, has done an amazing amount of Oak Island research. His collection is held at the Chester Municipal Heritage Society. This is one of his research papers. supplied by Author and Researcher Les MacPhie, with permission from Mr. O'Connor.