Blackbeard’s spoils, Marie Antoinette’s jewels, even the Holy Grail…all are claimed to be buried on a ‘cursed’ isle off Nova Scotia. But the real gem, writes James Rampton, is a long-running Sky documentary charting the eccentric, decade-long quest by two brothers to find the fabled hoard
It is the world’s longest-running treasure hunt. The untold riches rumoured to be buried on the remote Oak Island have fascinated treasure hunters since 1795 when the so-called “Money Pit” shaft was discovered by 16-year-old fisherman Daniel McGinnis. This legendary booty – which promises to make its finder wealthier than a hedge-fund manager – has been shrouded in myth for centuries.
Claims of a shaft reputedly dug by early explorers and filled with lucrative wonders have enticed treasure hunters to the area for centuries. The island, off the coast of Nova Scotia in Canada, has been said to conceal everything from Captain Kidd’s and Blackbeard’s spoils, Marie Antoinette’s lost jewels and a Viking hoard, to Spanish naval treasure from the 16th century, the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant and Shakespeare’s original manuscripts.
Could it be any more Indiana Jones?
The lure of the 229-year-old treasure has long consumed Rick and Marty Lagina, an engaging pair of brothers from Kingsford, Michigan, since they first read about it in Reader’s Digest in 1965, as Rick tells the Daily Express. “When I read the Reader’s Digest article as an 11-year-old boy, it was a treasure hunt, and who can’t buy into a treasure hunt?” he laughs.
Their passion has led the brothers – Rick is a retired postal worker and Marty an engineer – to take partial ownership of Oak Island. They have spent the last 10 years excavating it with a team of experts known collectively as The Fellowship – a wry nod to The Lord of the Rings – but exactly what riches have they discovered?
Over the course of their decade-long extensive digging, they have unearthed artefacts dating back to between 300 BC and 1750 AD. Featured amongst these are such significant items as an Ancient Roman coin and sword, a cross from the 13th century, and a 12th century manuscript. They have also found a shipwreck thought to be from the Roman era.
In addition, the crew has discovered carvings, objects and structures on Oak Island resembling those found at locations across Europe that acted as strongholds for the Knights Templar between the 12th and 16th centuries. The team’s finds are so startling and go back such a long way that some people are even suggesting that they may eventually cause the history of North America to be completely rewritten.
Might their discoveries be able to prove, for instance, that the Vikings landed on the continent long before Christopher Columbus was just a twinkle in historians’ eyes? As Rick says: “The possibility of changing history is definitely there.” Following the treasure hunters, and recording their every find, are a Sky History camera crew. Their documentary, The Curse of Oak Island, now in its eleventh season, has become a global phenomenon. In fact, it is one of the most popular factual series in the world.
Viewers remain glued to their sets because with each season, a little more history is uncovered along with a variety of intriguing and mysterious artefacts. This excavation is the gift that keeps on giving. What drives people to become treasure hunters, then? Are they motivated by a desire to find out about history or by naked greed? Without doubt, there is something captivating and even romantic about the concept of searching for buried treasure. It chimes with the Boys’ or Girls’ Own adventurer that lurks within us all. Furthermore, argues Rick, 71, their treasure hunt is fuelled by a pure human instinct: curiosity. “It’s about human nature, the inquisitiveness of humanity, the search for answers and how compelling that can be,” he explains.
“Our goal is to solve this mystery, but each and every person who watches the show seems to take away something a little bit different. We’ve had viewers tell us it’s inspired them to change their lives.
“It’s those moments that inspire us to keep moving forward.”
It should be pointed out that the search is far from straightforward.
In fact, it is fraught with danger. Many shafts the team have explored have been booby-trapped. Also – as the title of the hit TV show indicates – the quest comes with a terrible curse attached.
A spell is said to have been cast more than a century ago. It prophesied that seven men will die before the treasure is discovered. The body count so far? Six… The curse undoubtedly makes for good television, but is it real, or merely an elaborate hoax designed to rope in more viewers?
The team of experts who work on the Oak Island dig are certainly persuasive in their assertions that the spell is absolutely genuine. They are adamant that the curse throws a shadow over their excavations.
Rick says: “I think each of us would have to concur that there have been what we’ll call paranormal events on the island. These experiences have been brought forth by people who you think would never believe them. They are not people given to flights of fancy. But they have come forward with these incredibly descriptive recollections.
“I hope I’m not breaking any confidences here, but one of the cameramen we currently have on the island had an experience as a young man with a group of his friends that sends chills down your spine.”
Rick goes on to outline what the cameraman claims to have witnessed on the island. “He saw what others have seen – a human-like figure cloaked in a hood. The group felt they were recognised by this entity. At first, they thought it was just a human being out walking, but they realised it was actually hovering in the air…
“It gazed at them and they thought that it was saying to them, ‘Follow me, I have something to show you.’ Unfortunately, they were rooted to the ground, and this entity floated off and was gone.”
Rick pauses to reflect. “It makes you think because the truth is, this world is full of mystery. It’s not just on Oak Island, it’s filled with mystery everywhere. Is there mystery on a different plane? My thought would be yes. I cannot prove it, but I think there is much we don’t know about this world.” There are many other enthralling strands to the story.
For example, a large number of famous figures have been associated with Oak Island. Errol Flynn and John Wayne were gripped by the tale of buried treasure on the island. And future US President Franklin D Roosevelt, who was obsessed with the legend, took part in excavations at the location.
Several notorious pirates are also embedded in the history of Oak Island.
The treasure-hunt mythology started with Captain Kidd, a former Scottish sea captain who stashed some of his loot on Gardiner’s Island, east of New York. Before he was hanged – twice, after the rope broke on the first attempt – in 1701, Kidd declared he had buried the rest of his booty elsewhere.
The idea that he had concealed it on Oak Island gained currency in 1865 when Professor James Liechti decoded symbols on a stone discovered 90 feet underground by McGinnis. According to Professor Liechti, the inscription on the stone read: “Forty feet below, two million pounds are buried”.
In a further piratical link, some say that Blackbeard, who used to speak of burying his treasure, “Where none but Satan and myself can find it”, had hidden it on Oak Island. There is another potentially astonishing connection – with the religious military order known as the Knights Templar. Over several centuries, they accumulated a mighty trove that, so legend has it, included the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant.
The discovery of Templar iconography on Oak Island, including a formation of rocks akin to a crucifix, triggered many to speculate that it was the ultimate destination of the Templar treasure.
All these yarns add to the mythical status of Oak Island. Rick says: “We continue to be fascinated, almost mesmerised by the possibilities of what this story represents.”
What keeps bringing The Fellowship back to Oak Island year after year, then? They are powered by the joy of happening upon previously unknown yet absolutely riveting chapters from history. Doug Crowell, another member of The Fellowship, says: “We have a chance to recover lost history and to me, that’s a treasure in itself.”
Rick wraps up by musing on how this quest has been a challenging, yet intensely rewarding fulfilment of his childhood dream. “When I was a boy and I turned to the last page of the Reader’s Digest article, I thought, ‘Surely someone will solve this’. Everything you needed to know was written in those five pages. So, it was just a matter of writing the last page.
“But Oak Island is like a Gordian knot. You unravel one knot and two more surface.” However, he continues: “In that complexity lies the fun and the real truth. We are quite resilient in how we approach this because we are committed to the greater good, and the greater good here is unravelling the story and giving it to the world.”
Rick adds: “As little boys, my brother and I would dig for treasure. On some level, I thought we’d just go and dig it up on Oak Island, but it’s not that easy. There are technology and environmental and permit issues – things that as a little boy you just don’t understand at all.” Now Rick grasps the full reality of this exhilarating treasure hunt and concludes: “It takes more than a shovel.”