The Curse of Oak Island

Tonight, on The Curse Of Oak Island...

The goal is to delineate

an area where a possible flood tunnel might be.

Got something here, guys.

This is the entrance.

-Let's dig it up, you know? -

Look at that.

That is really, really unusual.

See the braiding around it?

To me, it has sort of a maritime look to it.

-Right there. -Oh, wow.

These are pieces, probably of beams.

It's probably a tunnel that we're in.

There is an island in the North Atlantic

where people have been looking for an incredible treasure

for more than 200 years.

So far, they have found a stone slab

with strange symbols carved into it,

mysterious fragments of human bone,

and a lead cross whose origin may stretch back

to the days of the Knights Templar.

To date, six men have died trying to solve the mystery.

And, according to legend,

one more will have to die

before the treasure can be found.

For brothers Rick and Marty Lagina

and their Oak Island team,

their efforts to locate and shut off

a legendary booby-trapped flood tunnel,

one that has prevented digging in the fabled Money Pit

for more than two centuries, may finally be paying off.

We went a little bit north and east,

about ten feet back from the last hole that we were in.

We all talked about it, so this seems to be

-the best path forward. -Yeah.

It's basically the same line right here;

it's just further back, what we did yesterday.

-It's one of the pieces, isn't it? -Yes, it is.

-As Rick says, one of the pieces of the puzzle. -Absolutely.

And I think we'll have a good chance of finding the...

the channel in this location.

Yeah. I hope we hit something in this hole.

Could be in this next string that he's pulling up here.

This could be the day.

Whoa, baby.

One day ago, while drilling

an exploratory borehole near an area known

as the Cave-In Pit...

That's a piece of dynamite right there.

...the team discovered evidence of dynamite,

at a depth of some 95 feet.

This validated earlier research about a blasting operation

conducted by members of the Oak Island Treasure Company

in 1897.

They were hoping that by exploding dynamite

in a series of holes that ran in a straight line

west of Smith's Cove, they could seal off

the ocean water that fueled the flood tunnels.

Although the plan didn't work, one of the explosives

did cause seawater to boil up and out of the Money Pit,

leading to speculation that they may have been very close

to hitting their target.

- It's coming, like, right now.

Got something here, guys.

Nice.

Good grab.

Are you ready for this one, boys?

Excellent.

-What do you got there? -What do you got?

-Want to break this apart and see what it is. -Okay.

Oh, yeah. We got some good chunks in here.

Look at that.

These are pieces, probably of beams.

Top, and perhaps a bottom chunk over about two and a half feet.

That was trying to hold something up

and hold something out. This is very exciting.

It's probably a tunnel that, uh, that we're in.

A tunnel?

Could it be that the team has finally located their target?

And, you know, look at this.

This looks like, uh, kind of a shear angle.

Like somebody cut that off.

Might have been shaved down or chopped or cut.

Kind of a hand-hewn edge to it.

The fact that the wooden beams appear to be hand-cut

could be very significant

in helping the team date the construction,

as cutting wood with power saws didn't become widespread

until the early 20th century.

Okay. Wow. We have seen nothing like this.

And what's the depth?

We are at 51 feet.

We should get Rick down here to go see this.

So, let me give him a call real quick.

Absolutely.

He'd want to see this.

Hey, Rick, it's Paul.

We actually found something interesting down here.

You might want to come down and take a look at this.

Okay. We'll see you when you get here.

-Great stuff. -All right. Thanks.

When Paul called about they had made a find

as part of the sonic drill program down in Smith's Cove,

that's important.

It might be the flood tunnel.

Is there high hope? Absolutely.

-Hi, Rick. How you doing? -Hey, Rick.

I'm not sure. You tell me how I feel.

Well, we are down to 58 and a half feet,

and at 51 feet, we've pierced

two sections, two-- what I would say is probably two timbers.

You can see where the-the drill

chewed right through a fairly substantial beam.

And, similarly, directly below,

it pierced its friend down a little deeper,

about three or four feet down.

So it seems like it's solid wood all the way down.

There's no historical account of anything

-being hidden here at that depth. -Right.

And you can see the primary bedding structures

in this stuff above; it hasn't been disturbed.

So, it's-- people did not come from above,

and below here as well, again, primary bedding structure.

Certainly an aberration.

The fact that there's virgin ground above

and virgin ground below, we know this is a tunnel.

Now, of course, that begs the question:

Is it original work or is it searcher work?

Finding evidence

of a wooden tunnel inland from Smith's Cove--

and more than 50 feet deep--

is a potentially huge breakthrough for the team.

It means it may very well be

the flood tunnel they've been looking for,

and, if verified, should lead them directly

to the Money Pit treasure vault.

It's the first big clue

-in Smith's Cove of the year. -I dare say, yes.

It's great.

Well, it's a step forward.

Following the team's exciting discovery

at Smith's Cove...

-Hey, guys. -Marty. -Hey, Marty.

...Rick and Marty Lagina

call a meeting in the war room.

So, we've got some artifacts we think you're gonna be

-interested in. -Fantastic.

Pieces of things.

All right, well, I'll-I'll wait for the explanation.

Okay. So, we started the drill program for Smith's Cove.

We drilled down until, about 51 feet,

we started seeing this wood.

Wow.

It's kind of curious that we've discovered wood.

This is the furthest down we've seen it on Smith's Cove.

-Yeah. The wood

is very similar to the wood that was on the slipway.

-It's very similar to it. -Same techniques, same wood.

-Right? Isn't that... -Yeah.

Among the numerous man-made features

that the team uncovered at Smith's Cove last year,

like the mysterious U-shaped structure

and a portion of one of the stone box drains,

one of the most incredible was an ancient shipping wharf,

or slipway,

which was scientifically proven to have been constructed

more than two decades before the discovery of the Money Pit

in 1795.

The wood found in the borehole near Smith's Cove

looks like the wood that was utilized to make the slipway.

If they were the same age, then... then it's not searcher,

and that would be highly significant.

One thing I did notice,

I think this is in a line with all these structures we found.

-Can you spot these on a map? -Sure.

Here we go. Over here.

So, OITC-6 is the drill hole.

The importance of this is it runs through Wall 2,

Billy's wall, and the U-shaped structure.

When you keep following that line, where does it go through?

This way, Steve.

-This way as in the Money Pit? -Yes.

-Shift that picture that way. -Here we go.

So, if I push it right through-- Interesting.

So, it ends up in the Money Pit.

Wow.

A line?

One that leads directly from the U-shaped structure

and the stone box drain through a possible tunnel,

and all the way up to the Money Pit area?

Finding the flood tunnel, if it really exists,

would be huge to me.

It would absolutely reenergize me.

If it absolutely, positively,

with 100% certainty is the flood tunnel,

it might be the one thing.

-Then you'd have to say, "Wow, it's all true." -It could be the one thing. Yep.

If we want to, we did take a sample,

so we can get a C-14 testing. If we want to.

Well, I don't know why we wouldn't, just in case.