In this week’s episode, “HIDE AND SEEK”, we are first taken to Smith’s Cove, where the Oak Island Team continued their search for the mythical flood tunnel that was theorized to be the cause of the water intrusion in the Money Pit area for over two hundred years. The team is not finding any evidence of a flood tunnel but are continuing to dig deeper. In the immediate area, metal detectorist Gary Drayton scans and records a hit. The find was large and after some digging it was unearthed. It appeared to be a large iron conglomerate that was encrusted with material. Gary speculated it could be from a shipwreck involving treasure, and it will be sent to Emma in the lab for further testing.
The action shifted to the Garden Shaft Area where the Oak Island Team continued their core drilling operation. The team is drilling in the new Borehole HN 15.5. This is the location where Dr. Jan Francke detected a possible void at 127 FT. A core sample was taken from 119-129FT. After inspecting the sample, it was determined that it was “in situ” material and what you would expect to see. It appeared that there was no void in this area and that Dr. Francke’s assessment was in error. This left the Oak Island Team disappointed with these findings.
We are then taken to the War Room where the Oak Island team met with Dr. Spooner, Dr. Lukeman, and Dr. Michel to discuss the new water testing results in the Garden Shaft area. Dr. Spooner explained that they have been trying to trace the source of the precious metals that led them to believe the Garden Shaft area as a hot spot. He explained that the Garden Shaft area is now detected as having no precious metal readings and there’s no evidence of trace amounts to the immediate north of the area where the flow of water is coming from. This leads to Marty Lagina taking the Dr’s to the proverbial “Woodshed”. He asked, “How do precious metals play hide and seek? He also accused them of blaming the situation on the drilling of the area. Dr. Spooner quickly pivoted and said there are some anomalies coming from the Chappell/Hedden Shafts which provided the Oak Island Team with their next target.
We were then taken to the Lot 5 excavation area, where the Oak Island team continued to work on the Large Stone Foundation. Archeologist Fiona Steele asked Ethan Green and Peter Fornetti to move a small boulder in this area so she could check the soil underneath it. As she investigated the soil, she remarked that there were “Artifacts Galore” in this spot. She uncovered pieces of charcoal, brick, and mammal bone and pondered what was happening in this area. As the Compendium suggested last season, it appears that the brickmaking process was happening in this area and the evidence continues to back up this claim. This of course conflicts with a treasure narrative, so it is never mentioned on the show.
The action then took us to the Lab, where the Oak Island team met with Archeometallurgist Emma Culligan and Archaeologist Laird Niven to discuss the large metal conglomerate unearthed at Smith’s Cove. Laird explained that because it was too large to be scanned, they had to work on the piece the old-fashioned way, with hammer and chisel. It was heavily encrusted with material. It was identified as a cast iron stove door. Emma said that she was able to use the XRF on some parts of the iron door and it appeared to be from the mid 1800’s. This would point to the stove being used by either one of the searcher companies in the 1800’s or by one of the island’s residents during that time period.
The scene shifted back to Smith’s cove where the Oak Island Team continued their work to find the Restall’s work site. Among the spoils, they found some more boards which could indicate that they’re parts of the Restall’s shaft. Gary was also working the area and found what appeared to be modern nails, a bolt and a broken spike. Gary wasn’t sure on the exact age of the artifacts so they will go to Emma in the Lab for further testing.
The episode concluded at the Garden Shaft drilling location, where the Oak Island Team began their next drilling operation. Borehole D.5-7.4 is the new location of interest. Dr. Spooner identified this area as having high readings for precious metals. The team was drilling at the 98-100ft level and hit wood at the 102ft mark. They continued down to 108ft and struck more wood. This seemed to suggest to the team that there is a tunnel in this area, because the material in between was in situ. They hypothesized there may be an 8 to 9 FT tunnel and to them this is unexplainable.
COMMENTARY:
The area around Borehole D.5-7.4, in the original Money Pit area, is the same area that Robert Dunfield excavated. It seems likely that what the team is hitting is either destroyed pieces of shaft material or another searcher tunnel. The high level of precious metals that Dr. Spooner mentioned are floating around in the solution channels that run underneath the ground in this part of the island. Most likely the concentration of natural gold and silver moved from the Garden Shaft area and may have settled in this area. It is also likely that there is small natural gold formations dotted all along this area, not large enough to be commercially mined. It seems odd that the show’s professional geologists cannot come to this conclusion considering the mounting evidence supporting this premise. It appears that Dr. Spooner and friends might be telling the Oak Island team what they want to hear instead of what is actually there.
The cast iron stove door found in Smith’s Cove is not the first cast iron stove part found on the island. There have been several and the most intriguing was found under Cone B of Nolan’s Cross by Fred Nolan. This suggests that there were workers on Oak Island that were there as a part of an industrial operation which included mining, brick making, hide tanning and other processes using the natural resources of the Island and not the Knights Templar. This writer is hoping that at some point, the Oak Island team will decide to follow and work the real evidence and look for the true story of Oak Island instead of the contrived story that they believe will produce higher ratings. The show will now take a two-week hiatus for the Holiday season.
Please follow our weekly episode analyses during the season, along with our Throwback Thursday articles from the original “Compendium/Blockhouse Blog”, and special investigations and features involving Oak Island. Feel free to reach out to us for questions, comments, information and any theories to our email, theoakislandcompendium@gmail.com
Happy Holidays from the Compendium!