Beyond Oak Island

There are treasure stories on every island in lake michigan.

They were the freeways of the time.

The gangs ran prohibition from canada.

You've got a huge smuggling operation going on.

There's a story of big treasure

somewhere near poverty island.

They were carrying gold.

Nobody's gonna go looking for it

'cause officially, it never existed.

The treasure had to be thrown overboard.

-How much? -$400 million.

That's poverty.

The sonar's scanning the bottom.

-This is the spot? -Right here.

-This is a really good target. -There we go.

All the while we were growing up,

my brother and I were fascinated

with finding treasure.

Pirate treasure,

cursed treasure.

Civil war gold.

-since then, our work on oak island

has shown us there's a world of mysteries...

-Whoa. -...Waiting to be explored.

So, we like to reach out to other treasure hunters.

X marks the spot, right there. Brilliant.

- We want to hear their stories... -That's right.

-...And share our insights. -"ill-gotten gains."

- And who knows... - I got it.

...Maybe we can help them with their search.

Not only in america.

Wow. That is gold.

- But all over the world. -Yeah!

Beyond oak island.

You know, every time I'm in here,

I'm just blown away by the history.

Absolutely.

There it is.

Man, that reader's digest article

brought so many people here, it's... It's unbelievable.

Then I remember, I-I just was enthralled with it.

And told marty, of course,

because you're-you're in eighth grade.

A treasure story? I mean, come on.

Who's not gonna gravitate towards that?

I-I remember him

explaining it to me, saying, "look at this,

look at this, look at this There are logs every ten feet."

I go, "wow, there's got to be something there."

It's about unknowns and-and looking for answers

and the quest, if you will, for knowledge.

Did you guys already have the-the passion

for treasure hunting stories and stuff at that point,

or do you think that launched it?

Well, you know we had the indian rock thing.

-Ah. -We called it the indian rock. -Yeah.

I-I think we-we knew of the indian rock before this.

Before this. Yeah, well, I'm sure of it, rick.

I was very, very young when you and greg daniels

were trying to move that thing.

We were treasure hunting when we were

knee-high to a grasshopper.

There was a great big giant stone up on the hill

where we used to play ball, and we called it the indian rock.

It had a piece of quartz that went all the way around it,

but it looked to us like it was...

Special.

The whole community of boys

were sure there was indian treasure underneath it,

if we could only move that rock.

-Ah. -We had no tools.

We would have to sneak dad's s-single shovel

-out of the garage. -Yeah, that's right.

-See, now, that... -And hope we didn't break it.

- Right. -Right. That indicates to me maybe you guys

had read some treasure stories, because to have that instinct,

-"underneath this might lie treasure..." -we had...

-We had certainly read treasure island. - Of course.

-Right. - But when I read a story,

I could see it in my mind, with the colors

and the like treasure island,

I'd walked the paths, I'd see the stones.

I'd w look at the markers.

-You could literally lock it in your mind. -Yes.

And that's kind of what that article did.

I think that's what separates the people

who, it's sufficient just to read about it

and say, "yes, that's very interesting,"

and then the others who kind of immerse themselves in the story

-and want to become a part of it. -Right.

Do you remember y-you're growing up,

you're loving these tales

and you're getting more interested in it,

do you remember hearing anything,

I don't know, even locally, that might have captured

your imagination in terms of treasure or anything like that?

Well, michigan has a lot of treasure stories.

Particularly involving islands, and-and honestly,

quite a few on the mainland, too.

Absolutely.

The state of michigan,

also known as "the great lakes state,"

is home to more than 400 lost treasure mysteries,

both on land and deep under the vast waters surrounding it.

One of the most infamous revolves around

a 17th-century french trading ship

that was the largest of its time, the griffon.

On September 18, 1679,

the griffon vanished without a trace

in the northern region of lake michigan,

along with six crewmen and a fortune in goods.

To this day, it is considered the holy grail

of michigan shipwrecks because of how elusive

it has remained to determined searchers

and treasure hunters for more than three centuries.

Another notorious legend

about missing midwest treasure began in 1874,

when $74,000 in gold coins

worth $20 million in today's dollars

was reportedly buried along the shores of scenic benton lake,

some 50 miles north of the city of muskegon.

A stagecoach was delivering the payload

to a lumbermen's camp up there,

and they got robbed along the way.

-Hands up! Give me that thing! -Hands up! Do it!

The robbers had taken so much in gold coins

off the stagecoach, and they buried them

in a potbelly stove in benton lake...

...And it's never been discovered to this day.

But one of michigan's most valuable

and legendary treasure mysteries

is set deep in the wilderness on the keweenaw peninsula.

It is known simply as the wall of silver.

In 1927, jake stockard,

a geologist conducting a field study,

discovered what he claimed to be the entrance

to an abandoned mine.

Upon entering, stockard reported

that as he made his way past booby traps

and human skeletons, he found himself standing

before an enormous wall of pure silver.

Stockard finds this mine

that has this rich wall of silver in it.

The area that this wall of silver

is supposed to be located in is in an area

that absolutely could contain a giant deposit of silver.

For four decades,

jake stockard kept the wall of silver a secret.

That is, until he met richard kellogg,

the owner of a struggling bar in the town of kearsarge.

The two became fast friends, and jake broke his silence

to help save kellogg's ailing business.

They were selling the silver samples at the bar,

and the bar ended up becoming a roadside attraction.

So it helped generate

an adequate enough amount of traffic

for the bar to become financially viable again.

Unfortunately, in 1973,

jake stockard passed away, taking with him

the location of the mine,

and the legendary wall of silver.

Over the years, richard tried to find the location,

and he couldn't.

And to this day, they still haven't found

the, uh, wall of silver.

Yeah, so there are treasure stories, uh, all over michigan,

and certainly stories associated with virtually every island

in lake michigan and lake huron.

You know, the seas were the freeways

of the time, so any treasure story

associated with the high seas, what's the first stop,

if you will? Islands.

It's so funny because, you know,

again, the cliché belief when you're talking about treasure

is caribbean or maybe american west

we've talked about before

but you don't usually think of michigan.

Think again.

-wow. -Not only is stuff buried on the islands

but buried in those lakes.

I mean, those are big lakes, matty. You've seen them.

And they took a lot of ships down.

In fact, it's amazing you went this way, matty,

because I just got off the phone a little while ago

with a guy named bob kreipke.

Uh, really interesting fellow, because he was literally

the historian for ford motor company.

That was his career.

I didn't know big companies had such people, but...

It's a treasured michigan company, ford itself.

Yeah, big-time michigan company, yeah.

And, um, he contacted me and alan kostrzewa...

-Yeah. -...Who is our partner in this,

with a story of a big treasure in lake michigan

somewhere near an island called poverty island.

-Yeah, a great name, right? -That's a great name. Poverty island.

-Money pit, poverty island. -Oh, yeah.

The story is there was a ship that came through lake michigan

that the french were trying to supply

the american confederacy, so here we go