The Money Hole
What does the Holy Grail, a band of pirates, William Shakespeare, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Edgar Allan Poe, and buried treasure all have in common?
No this isn't the beginning of a bad joke. . . Ok well maybe but
The one thing they all have in common is a place called The Money pit Located off the shores of Nova Scotia along the Canadian Atlantic coast
A peculiar history indeed
Welcome to peculiar occurrences I am your host lilith nova.
(intro)
By most accounts, the story of Oak Island's Money Pit begins in the summer of 1795 when a teenager named Daniel McGinnis saw strange lights on an island offshore from his parent's house. According to author Lee Lamb, upon investigating the island for the source of the lights, McGinnis noticed a peculiar circular Impression approximately 13 feet in diameter on the island's forest floor. Looking around, McGinnis noticed that a number of oak trees surrounding the Impression had been removed. In addition, McGinnis saw that a block and tackle hung from a severed tree limbs directly over the shallow hole. Although some researchers refute the presence of the block and tackle, whatever he witnessed that day convinced him that the scene was worth investigating. McGinnis decided to leave the island to get the help of two friends, John Smith and Anthony Vaughan. The following day the three teenage boys began excavating the site.
The boys where excited to investigate otherwise nondescript island due to a enticing chapter in Nova Scotia's history. the "Golden Age of Piracy" which occurred between 1690 and 1730. At this time, Nova Scotia had only a few European settlements. pirates were known to frequent areas near Oak Island. The unpopulated wilderness of the region provided an abundance of natural resources to restock and repair vessels while its isolation proved an ideal place to harbor their vast misbegotten treasure. In fact, one notorious pirate, the infamous Captain William Kidd, admitted to burying an unspecified wealth of treasure in the area before his capture in 1699
Initial Excavation
The boys dug and at only Two feet beneath the topsoil, McGinnis and his friends uncovered a layer of flagstone extending across the surface of the opening Excitedly, the boys pulled the rock floor away from the pit , the boys only discovered more dirt. Undeterred, they continued their excavation. The dirt was not packed in like the surrounding dirt. It was loose as if a hole of sorts had been dug there before.
As the teenagers continued burrowing down, they followed the walls of the previous hole. In doing so, the boys found that the pit had narrowed to seven feet in diameter. They also noticed the work of their predecessors. Imprinted in the clay of the tunnel wall were the impressions of old pickaxe marks.
At a depth of ten feet, the boys discovered a layer composed of rotting wood . The wood spanned the width of the hole, forming a wooden platform. The ends of the timbers had been driven into the sides of the tunnel wall to firmly anchor the structure. The team eagerly continued their efforts, removing the wood to claim their treasure. Just as before, the enthusiastic excavators were again disappointed. After taking out the barrier, the boys found a two-foot pocket of air followed by soil that had settled below
McGinnis and his friends carried on. Tunneling down to approximately 20 feet, the boys encounter another level of wood timbers. Nevertheless, they continued on When the teenagers pulled away the second platform of wood timbers only to find another layer of soil staring back at them, the team decided to suspend their work at the site
Several weeks later, the young fortune-seekers returned to the pit with their pickaxes and shovels. However, After hours of laboring , removing ten more feet of dirt from the deepening hole, they were once again confronted by a table of thick timbers embedded in the clay of the tunnel wall McGinnis and his companions continued down five more feet before defeat set in and the boys stopped their treasure hunt.
9 Years later John Smith, purchased the lot containing the money pit, in 1803, Simeon Lynds joined the excursion. Lynds was a relative of the Vaughan family Lynds enlisted the help of Colonel Robert Archibald, Captain David Archibald and Sheriff Thomas Harris. Together, the group established the Onslow Company, a professional venture with the sole purpose of recovering the Oak Island treasure.
The renewed effort began in the summer of 1804. That year, the team returned to the pit for what they hoped would be the third and final attempt at uncovering the supposed riches. Lynds and his men started by removing the backfill from the initial excavation. Just as the first team indicated, the Onslow Company noticed marks in the clay walls nearly every ten feet where the wooden timbers had been removed. After the first 25 feet, the excavators found themselves in unexplored territory. From this point, every shovelful came with the promise of discovery. At a depth of 30 feet, one of the laborers hit a solid object. Removing the soil, the crew found that another wood level had been installed inside the tunnel This time, however, the men noticed the remnants of charcoal scattered around the platform.
Baffled, the crew broke through the wooden barrier and continued their search. Digging 10 more feet, the enthusiastic men of the Onslow Company found themselves standing on yet another shelf of horizontal wood. This time, rather than charcoal, the diggers observed a sap-like substance along the seams between the logs. The men resumed their efforts, encouraged by the added elements of charcoal and sealant.
Burrowing another 10 feet, the team encountered something they would have never thought possible. Atop another platform of timbers were scattered the fibers of coconut shells To the men, this development seemed to underscore the importance of their efforts. Although the coconut fibers themselves held no commercial value, there were two reasons the Onslow Company crew considered the debris reassuring. First, as could be assumed, coconuts are not native to Canada. The most likely source of this tropical fiber would have been somewhere in the Caribbean. Secondly, the reason the material probably came from the Caribbean, was that, in a time of long voyages on the high seas, coconut fibers were used to secure and protect valuable cargo. The matted brown fiber could mean a hoard of precious goods was stashed deeper within the pit.
The men broke through the wooden platform to find more dirt From the 60-foot depth where the coconut fiber was found, it would take the men another 30 feet of digging and the removal of two additional wooden barriers before they would make a significant discovery.
There, at a depth of 90 feet beneath the surface of the tiny Canadian island, the team uncovered their first precious stone. a large square-cut stone tablet. On the face of the heavy stone was an inscription of strange symbols. Each character of the mysterious text consisted of a unique combination of lines, arrows and dots. Despite its significant weight, the crew hoisted the rock from the pit for further examination.
For decades, the encoded message on the face of the rock was thought to be indecipherable. During this time it was rumored that Smith used it as a fireback in his fireplace, while others claim it was used as a doorstep to a Halifax bookbinder's shop or possibly even displayed in the window as an enticement to potential expedition financiers.
It was not until the 1860s that an academic was able to examine the symbols and provide a credible translation. Although this fact, like many involving Oak Island, remains disputed, many believe that Dalhousie University Professor of Languages James Leitchi successfully decoded the tablet's inscription. Borrowing a page from Edgar Allen Poe's "The Gold Bug," Litchi employed a technique termed simple substitution cipher whereby unique symbols correlate to specific letters in a given alphabet. For example three vertical lines similar to this "|||" might substitute for the letter "E." Once a rational scheme is set for the symbols present in the code, a context for each letter can be constructed and meaning is extracted from the text. Applying this approach to cryptography, Litchi resolved that the stone from the Money Pit read
"Forty Feet Below, Two Million Pounds Are Buried."
Since the tablet was discovered 90 feet below ground, excavators subscribing to Leitchi's translation set their sights on a depth of 130 feet. To those who hold dearly to legends of pirates and their tie to buried gold, Captain Kidd seemed a likely candidate to construct the elaborate pit and create the mysterious stone.
With the stone out of their path, the men of the Onslow Company resumed the excavation. Expecting to dig 10 more feet before hitting another wooden structure, the team was surprised when, at a depth of 98 feet, they found their next wooden obstacle. At that point, the men were exhausted . , one of the workers used a crowbar to probe between the timbers to ensure treasure was not immediately beneath their feet. The metal rod pierced a sealed seam between two of the timbers to feel for any potentially valuable objects . With no evidence of fortune, the team retired for the day.
When the members of the Onslow Company returned to the site, they found themselves confronted by another unexpected challenge. while the team took time to rest, much of the pit had filled with water. Now, the prospect of retrieving any sort of riches lay nearly 63 feet beneath a watery chamber. The crew desperately began filling buckets to drain the pit. without success. every time water was removed from the well, it was somehow instantly replaced. Colonel Robert Archibald noted this peculiar situation and temporarily seized operations at the site The Onslow Company realized that the sophistication of the pit would require more than mere brute force to burrow past levels of dirt and timber. Somehow, the tunnel had been engineered to toy with men as they sought her fortune.
The Onslow company tried to get the water out using a water pump an was oh most successful but at 90 feet the pump malfunctioned and stopped working the tunnel quickly re flooded. So then they tried building another shaft 14 feet away they had planed to go below what they thought was a water trap set in place by pirates they where to go below it and dig over to the treasure. Yet at only 12 feet this shaft also filled with water.
At this point the Company no longer had the funds to excavate the area and had to give up on the treasure.
But they would not be the last this land has been sold from company to company from treasure seeker to treasure seeker. There has even been a history channel show surrounding exploring it. Some People claiming red paint was used that found 3 shafts leading out to the ocean that was feeling up the hole other stone slabs with hieroglyphics on it has been found along with old pick axes and other artifacts. Famous people such as Franklin D Roosevelt went on expeditions looking for the treasure of the money hole. As well as rumors popping up around it from it's treasure left by Captain William Kidd to it being jewlry of royals and even some thinking it is the hiding spot of the holy grail.
So what do you think about this Peculiar Occurrences? Do you think the money hole could really hold buried treasure? Have you ever heard of the money hole before? Let me know down below !!!!
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