The Curse of Oak Island: Drilling Down (2016–…): Season 6, Episode 1 - Hold on to Your Seats - full transcript

We are just one hour away

from the season eight premiere
of the curse of oak island.

Now, this year is much different
from any in the past.

As the world has struggled
with the covid-19 pandemic,

Could
rick, marty, craig and the team

have made any significant
progress toward solving

the world's most incredible
treasure mystery?

The answer, my friends,
is a categorical yes.

And I'm here to get the inside
scoop on all the new dirt.

This is drilling down.

Afternoon, everybody!



- Matty blake!
- Hey, matty!

Welcome!

- Welcome to the war room!
- Come on in.

Well, I am glad to be back,
especially this year, guys.

So, I guess
there's a season eight.

- You're looking at it.
- Love it.

Last I saw you guys, we were all
in our respective living room,

wondering if this was
gonna happen.

And-and I can tell already,
things are a little different.

Talk about this setup.

Is this covid-related?

- The reason...
- Oh, yeah.

We took several initiatives.

We're trying to maintain
our six feet in here.



We're limiting it to this many
people in the war room.

I mean, you know, last year,
there were faces crammed

right next to each other
all the way around this table.

- Absolutely.
- So, what we've done here is

we have not one but two
outside air machines,

uh, running all the time.

And then, of course,
the rest of the fellowship's

up there on the, on the screen.

Craig is here in nova scotia,

but he got banned because
there's no room for him in here.

- He got the short straw.
- Uh, yeah, you could say that.

We will get through it.

Um, actually, marty,

I want to stay with you
for a second

because last time
that you and I did talk,

we were remote, and you had
mentioned your daughter.

She's a doctor.

She was working right in
the thick of it in michigan.

- She still is.
- How is she, and-and is everything okay?

It's been tough,
but she's handling it.

Thank you for asking.

She's in our thoughts
and she continues to be

- and all those heroes that do that.
- Thank you.

- It's... yeah.
- Uh, I don't know how they do it.

I'm very, I'm very proud of her,
as-as you might imagine.

Despite the challenges of covid,
how have you been doing?

Everyone's waiting
at home to hear.

Very quickly, it became apparent

the covid situation was
gonna be very impactful

not only to society in general

but to us in particular
here on the island.

So what happened
really was we became

focused on certain agendas.

Hopefully,
as the year progresses,

uh, we'll, uh,
find success in that.

It's-it's cliché that one door
shuts and another door opens,

but I think it happened here,
and, I mean, we're gonna

show you some stuff here today that,
I think,

might not have
happened but for covid.

That's exciting.

So, the search continues,
you know.

Smith's cove...
Some of the things

you found there last year.

Last year, rick, marty,
craig and their team once again provd

that large sailing
vessels visited oak island

long before the discovery
of the money pit in 1795.

This is far and away much larger

than anything associated
with the slipway.

After installing a
6,000-square-foot extension

to their massive steel cofferdm
surrounding smith's cove,

the team was amazed to
uncover a wooden ship's wharf.

It was clearly an old structur,
but they were shocked

when tree-ring dating,
known as "dendrochronology,"

provided them with the precise
year that it was constructed.

1741.

Whoa.

All right, so smith's cove.

Things you uncovered
moved the date back again.

Are we following up
on some of that data?

Has that led us
anywhere this season?

Matty, I think it's fair to say

that we're getting
closer to the money pit,

uh, over in smith's cove.

We have found some new
data and some historical data

that's throwing us a little
bit closer to the money pit,

and we're following up
on all of that this year.

Rick is suspicious now

that maybe not just one
big thing happened here

but maybe a couple, right?

- Maybe two stories, maybe three.
- Yeah.

Oak island
continues to befuddle.

The more we uncover it,
it seems like there's more to uncover.

You know, we're talking
treasure now, so perfect segue.

Do we have some top pockets
so far this season eight, gary?

So far,
this year has been incredible.

Uh, the finds have been numerous

and they've been
absolutely brilliant!

Bingo.

Gary was busy with his
trusty metal detector last year,

filling his top pocket with a
number of amazing discoveries..

Ooh-hoo-hoo-hoo!

It's a ring!

Including a decorative ring

found in the swamp,

as well as 17th-century
cribbing spikes

uncovered at smith's cove,

along with a lead artifact that,
like the medieval cross,

was proven to have come
from a region in europe

once connected to
the knights templar.

Feel how heavy that is, rick.

Wow. Wow! -

But perhaps his biggest finds,
made on the property

that once belonged
to daniel mcginnis,

were much too big
for that top pocket:

Two iron swages,
or tunneling tools,

that were estimated to be
as much as 600 years old.

So, gary, shortened season,

maybe a more focused,
directed season...

- Has that helped you?
- Yeah, it has because,

this year,
I brought some new equipment out with me.

I brought some deep
ground scanning equipment,

some pulse induction equipment,

and my moneymaker,
of course, the ctx 3030.

But everything has been
firing on all cylinders, mate.

Gary's new equipment
has produced

so many different artifacts this year,
and...

So now we're going
for the deep targets,

the older stuff.

We'll show you some of this equipment,
mate.

Jack and I will take you out
and show you how it works.

That's exciting.

I can't wait to see it.

I'm smelling some swamp.

Let's talk about the swamp.

Any doubt that
something extraordinary

happened on oak
island centuries ago

was buried last year

by what rick, marty,
craig and the team found

in the triangle-shaped swamp.

It all started with the search
for a 200-foot-long feature,

conspicuously shaped
like a large sailing vessel,

some 50 feet deep,

that had been detected
at the end of season six

by seismic scanning.

Although they
have yet to figure out

exactly what lies buried there,

they did unearth a number
of burnt wooden and metal

artifacts from ancient ships.

Those really shouldn't
be in the swamp.

Then,
they uncovered a mysterious

circular formation of boulders

at the northern point,

also known as "the
eye of the swamp,"

with geoscientist
dr. Ian spooner.

So what we did
was we got a sample

and we get these
dates: 1674 to 1778.

Now, scientific proof

of man-made workings dating bak

more than a century before

the discovery of the
money pit was huge,

but it was, well,
swamped by what they found next.

This is the paved area,
right there where billy's digging.

Mm-hmm.

A vast stone paved feature

extending all the
way from the eye

to the southeastern
area of the brackish bog.

And when dr. Spooner's
carbon-dating results came bac,

the discovery became the oldest

and most profound proof

of human activity ever
recorded on oak island.

Here's the dates we're getting.

- Wow. - Yeah.

What are they?

Around 1200 ad.

Last year, huge game changer,
dial mover.

You know, the paved area.

You guys,
for all intents and purposes,

proved that there was man-made
works going on in this island

and they were prior to 1795,

before the-the discovery
of the money pit.

Has that been followed
up on this season?

Have you been able to follow
up on any of that stuff yet?

Actually,
yes. I find it extremely ironic

that you framed your
question that way because,

actually, the scientists said

it was highly
probable last year.

This year,
they're using words like "definitive."

that's what has
changed this year.

I'd say a good way to
describe what we found this year

is it makes the paved
area seem small.

Oh,
that's good. I can feel the fans

sitting on the edge
of their couches

right now as you say that.

You mention that word,

"definitive," and as you say,

it's not a word used a
heck of a lot on oak island

and when I hear
"science" and "definitive,"

I want to go to craig tester because,
craig,

I know that's speaking
your language.

How excited are you
this season eight?

Very much.

I mean,
we're finding some nice artifacts

and we've got some new
experts that we're bringing in

to help solve this, uh, mystery.

Hold me back.

To that end,
I'm thinking about last year,

also, and the growth that
happened archaeologically.

The team,

the archaeological aspect of it,
has expanded.

Uh, it went from laird,
by himself.

Now there are three people,
archaeologists,

involved in the process
because there are other locations

that we have need of the
archaeological process.

And the fact that we need a
team of archaeologists here,

that just shows how
well we're doing this year.

- All right.
- We have a new site,

uh, it's up on lot 15.

But what's really
interesting is that,

in some way,
and you'll learn this

as you meet one
of the archaeologists

out at the site,

that, strangely,
it connects the past to the present.

Lot 15, that's-that's kind
of out behind the money...

- That's all we're gonna say.
- That's new. It's all new.

That's all we're gonna say.

All right.

Get ready to step back in time,
matty.

All right, I want to talk about
the elephant in the room,

because it kind of all
began at the money pit.

It's well known that
constant digging

by determined searchers

and constant cave-ins

from the legendary
booby-trappd flood tunnels

over the past two centuries

has hidden the exact location
of the original money pit.

Last year, the team made
their boldest attempt yet to find it,

digging three 8-foot-wide
steel-cased shafts

across the area... 8-a,
rf-1, and oc-1...

Where, incredibly,
they discovered part of a shaft

dating back to 1706.

Although they were encouraged

to have possibly
pinpointed the money pit,

they also discovered
that the legendary treasure

may have moved a
significant distance

from its original location.

Since we're in the money pit,

uh, craig, I want to come to you

because another cliffhanger

was some of the sampling
you took out of oc-1

and some of the dating that
came out of the wood there.

The date was 1706,
it's really pushing it back in time.

Uh, we're gonna have more science on that,
um...

But we're also drilling in
the money pit this year,

so we need to get you back
there and see what's going on.

So, craig will drive in

and we will all... meaning doug,
uh, charles and terry...

We'll go out there and we will

tease you a bit more
about the money pit work.

Thank you, guys,
so much. Let's get to the money pit

- and kick off this season, shall we?
- There you go.

- All right.
- There you go, matty.

E's one place that
embodies drilling down

on oak island, it's right here,
at the fabled money pit.

The hallowed ground where
people have been drilling and digging,

searching for a
legendary treasure vault

for 225 years now.

Here to tell me how that
search is going currently

are my friends rick lagina,
charles barkhouse, doug crowell,

steve guptill...

craig tester and terry matheson.

How are you, fellas?

- Good, matty.
- Thanks, matty. Good to meet you.

I got the whole gang here,
thank you.

So, guys, we're in the war room,

you're telling me I
got to come up here.

There's a lot I want
to ask you about.

I see some things over
there I want to ask about...

One thing in particular...
But what's here on this table?

Rick, what am I looking at?

You're looking at this
very morning's work.

- Wow.
- And, this hole in particular

has proven to be very,
very interesting.

You're looking at
a core of a shaft

that we did not know about.

But even more interesting...

And I'll let charles,
because he's the metal detectorist

of-of this enterprise
in gary's absence.

Might like to see this, matty.

This was found at 95 feet.

- Square nail.
- Square nail. Yes.

This was, uh, handmade,

most likely at 95 feet,
is that right?

That's where it was found, yes.

From-from this wood
somewhere in here?

Yeah. You can see
the nails right there.

Oh, I can see that... yeah,
so it sat right there.

Yep.

Every time I
see these core samples,

I can't help,
but I think of the chappell vault.

It was in the summer of
1897 that frederick blair

and his drilling
operator william chappell

literally struck
gold on oak island.

At 153 feet,
their drill rod penetrated

a massive seven-foot-tall
wooden vault

that was also
encased in concrete.

When they
extracted the drill bit,

the traces of gold they
saw had them convinced

that they were on
the verge of recovering

oak island's storied riches.

They also found a tiny
piece of parchment paper

with the letters
"v.I." written in ink,

giving rise to the theory

that the treasure also includes
priceless historical documents.

In terms of the finding
of the chappell vault,

craig has something
in his pocket

that he would like to show you.

- Oh, my gosh. Yeah.
- Found this.

- Rosehead nail.
- Rosehead. Look at that.

And what we did,
we went through last year's spoils.

And this came up from oc-1,

the one that brought up
the piece of wood from 1706.

- The old wood. - Yep.

And the one thing
you'll notice on it,

this could be cement on there.

Oh. One of the layers

in the,
the so-called chappell vault... cement.

- Cement. - Wow.

So,
is that part of the chappell vault?

Chappell vault. This could
have been in the chappell vault?

Oh, my god.

That's fantastic.

Well, I'm a layperson compared
to all you guys at this table,

but I am getting good at
analyzing oak island wood,

and this looks really old to me.

Tell me about the
process to get us here.

Really,
over-over the winter and spring,

we came up with a-a drill plan.

We're gonna
radiate out from rf-1

'cause in that caisson,
we found the signs

of the deepest collapse.

And the story of the money
pit includes a deep collapse.

- That big famous collapse that they heard...
- Right.

- And everything could have flowed down.
- Right.

Steve,
it made sense to what you were doing?

Yeah, so we built a 3d model.

So we've taken the work
that we've done on the island,

all the survey work,
all the data collected over the years.

The-the three of us,
and really, the group of us

have built a 3d model.

And what we realized is,
from surface down,

it looks like it's just been
pounded with drill holes.

But when you get in that 130,
140, everything disappears

and it becomes
virgin ground again.

- Wow.
- And that's where we believe

the treasure may
have disappeared.

So we've got all these remnants,
especially the shaft.

As of today,
this is a completely unexplored area.

And it's frustrating... because
of that solution channel,

you could be on what was
the traditional money pit,

but it's just flown
down a little deeper

and a little bit out
of your reach. Terry?

There's a lot of
movement of material.

So there's a potential
that things have fallen

from a-above to below.

Wow. Well,
I know all the huge caissons

you guys have put in this area.

They've all been
stars in their own right

over the years, gal-1 to h8.

But I see only one left.

It looks like it's almost, like,
a little monument there

and it's c-1.

Why am I only seeing c-1 at the money pit,
fellas?

Charles,
I'm gonna throw that to you

'cause it's named after you,
buddy.

Well, uh, matty, a-as you know,
to quote david blankenship,

"we actually saw the shiny
gold thing down there."

- yeah? - Uh, and, you know,

every time, you know,
c-1 kind of comes off the table,

something happens and it
goes back on the table again.

In season three,

oak island historian
charles barkhouse

convinced rick, marty and craig

that he believed
the original money pit

was further north
from where they,

and other past searchers,
had been looking.

Well,
his intuition really paid off.

Charles helped
the team find a void

measuring more than 20 feet
hih and some ten feet wide.

Here we go.

Then,
when a pipe-inspection camera

was sent down to
explore the silty cavity,

c-1, as it has come to be known,

was cemented into
oak island history.

Right there.

Yeah, it looks metallic.

Look how yellow that is.

The hell is that?

The footage was
nothing short of incredible:

A gold, metallic-looking object

170 feet deep in
the money pit area.

Okay, get after it.

Since then, borehole c-1

has been expanded
to a four-foot diameter

to allow for human exploration,

but the find itself has
remained a tantalizing mystery.

Is the shiny gold
thing back in play?

The proper term is "things,"

but, uh, you're just gonna
have to wait and see, matty.

- Shiny gold things?
- Things.

Shiny gold things? You see that,
acorns?

I'm only just
leaving the war room

and I already
have my first scoop.

Shiny gold things.

That's awesome, guys.

Are we trending towards a big dig,
in your estimation?

So,
based on the data collected...

And you can see
it in front of us...

I mean, this is a new discovery.

I think we need to go bigger,
like, 200,

and deeper, like 230.

Wow!

Are you kidding me?

Well, I'm not paying for it.

Craig,

what do you think of
when you hear that?

Well, I mean, to me,

big dig has always
meant big money.

- Yeah.
- And so, the more we can define it,

the more we can shrink it down,

the more it becomes
a potential reality.

Coming up here from the war room,
I wasn't quite sure

what to expect in
this shortened season.

You all seemed excited,

but I think it's gone
to the next level here.

I mean, I look at this like,

"what the hell were they doing down there,
guys?"

it's thrilling. So thank you.

Thank you for taking the time.

Ever since 1795,

the money pit has
been the main focus

of nearly all treasure hunters

who tried to solve
the oak island mystery.

But for the past seven years,
rick, marty, craig and the team

have made shocking
discoveries right here

in the triangle-shaped
swamp that may be just as key

to revealing the
ultimate answers.

Here to tell me about that
and show me some things

are rick and marty lagina,
geoscientist dr. Ian spooner,

archaeologist miriam
amirault and billy gerhardt.

Guys,
thanks for meeting me here.

- Good morning, matty.
- Hello, matty.

You guys were
not kidding in the war room.

I mean,
here we are again in the swamp.

Completely drained.

I don't know if I've ever
seen it quite this drained.

H-has it been?

We got really lucky
with the weather,

and that's the reason
that it is as you see it.

It's really been
exceedingly helpful

in terms of the
discovery process.

It's been one of the driest
summers in nova scotia,

- hasn't it?
- Oh, in-in probably two decades, yeah.

All right,

so, I'm hearing rumors,
and I can almost

see something massive
right over my shoulder.

Uh, what's...

You mean,
where-where that excavator's in the way?

Yeah,
that huge excavator's blocking my view.

Good job, billy. -

billy, a-a few years ago,
I had the honor of actually digging

an excavator here in the swamp.

It didn't look anything like that,
it was a lot smaller.

Talk about the
capability of that monster.

Well, it's a big rig.

It's a,
it's a 30-ton capacity machine.

We can dig an 80-foot-deep hole.

The unique thing that it is,
though, is the tracks

are actually pontoons.

So, we could run it on
water if the swamp flooded.

And it actually only puts,
I think, 0.1 pounds

of ground load when it tracks.

It tracks more lightly than what
a person does on the ground.

That's incredible,
something that massive

leaves basically no footprint.

Leaves no footprint.

I want to go back a little bit,
in time, in the swamp.

A while ago,
we see this ship-shaped anomaly.

And that sets you
on a search for a ship.

That search for the
ship has kind of led you

to where you are now
halfway through season eight.

Rick has been a believer that
there's something hidden here.

I don't think he
was ever focused

on it being a ship necessarily.

That was, that was intriguing...
When we ran that seismic

and there's this
ship-shaped thing.

Yeah. You know,
fred's discoveries

- of a possible ship mast, ship scuppers, um...
- Mm-hmm. Yeah.

You know, that was,
that was compelling.

In 1969,

oak island landowner and
treasure hunter fred nolan

became the first documented
searcher to drain the swamp.

Based on his career as a
renowned land surveyor,

he believed it might
contain the keys to solving

the oak island mystery.

He proved himself right,

after making a number
of astonishing discoveries,

including the scuppers
and part of the mast

from a large sailing vessel.

This led fred to the
groundbreaking theory

that oak island was at one
time two separate islands,

and that the swamp
was artificially created

to hide a ship and whatever
was contained inside it.

Because of fred's
work and fred's interest,

because that this
had never been part

of the search agenda,
why not look?

- Hmm. - And I don't know why,

I just always thought
the swamp was a keeper

of some secret or secrets.

We certainly have
uncovered some secrets.

I think so.

Well, marty, the dial moved

for you, right,
when you did start

finding what looked
to be man-made works.

Very old, I mean,
we're talking medieval possibly, right?

That-that dial has to
move for you in the swamp.

Dr. Spooner moved
the dial for me,

because it's dr. Spooner
who is convinced that

something happened on sort of

an industrial scale up in the eye,
pre-1700.

Miriam and I

classify things as, you know,

possible, probable,
and definitive.

The eye and the
paved area were...

I-I think I put them
in the probable range

for-for man-made features.

What we found
this year is definitive

and, you know,
I'm-I'm even smiling right now.

We've-we've been
looking at it for...

About a month and a half,
two months now,

and it's spectacular.

It's definitely man-made.

This has completely
just surprised,

I think, everyone here,
and it's-it's

- pretty incredible.
- Rick, you got a sly smile, and I love it.

I think we all can
rally around the point

that it is definitely a
man-made something

and been hidden
by the swamp for...

- Lord knows how long. - Hmm.

That's exciting, rick.

Miriam,
I want to come back to you,

- because you are a new face.
- Yes.

And every time I meet
someone who is new to the island,

um,
I want to get your perspective on

what you thought coming here

and what you think now
halfway through a season.

I'm from nova scotia,
so I knew about this island.

I knew about the-the mystery
here and all that's happened.

And so I was really,
really excited to join the team.

And at this point,
I'm... Every day I'm surprised.

Every day it's-it's
almost something new.

We think one thing,
and the next day it's,

it's just, completely different.

That's-that's an amazing
part of this entire journey.

Let me just cut right to the chase,
because

what I'm hearing I think
in so many words is...

Is this the most
significant thing

that you guys have
found in the swamp so far?

- Oh, yeah. - Yes, yes.

- Wow.
- Because of one word... "definitive."

That's huge.

It's the most
amazing thing so far.

Ah.

It's not, it's not done.

Artifacts are being
found on top of it

that have really,
really helped us better identify

the timing of the
use of this feature.

And from my perspective,

we found this massive
man-made feature,

but it leads to other
features that we found

- that keep on going and going.
- Mm-hmm.

I mean,
the total length as I last saw it was

well over 200,
300 hundred feet, so...

What? Here?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so...

- In addition to whatever that is?
- Yes. Yes.

Just take me out there, please?

You know, matty,

we've kind of teased you and,
you know,

we don't want to
let you walk away

without showing you something.

So we do have one artifact

that we would love to show you.

- Whoa.
- So, matty, we'll let you hold it,

and see if your reaction
is the same as all of ours.

Thank you. Thank you, billy.

Oh, wow.

Uh, that's old,
hand-forged, you say?

- We believe so.
- Oh, I think so.

And-and this was
definitely found

in whatever this new structure is,
correct?

I notice... It's flanged at the end,
so...

Was it driven into something

and then that's like that,
to hold it in place?

Or driven through maybe,

and then flared
to keep it in place.

Wow. So...

Potentially... I
have to go here...

This could have
been instrumental in,

let's say,
the depositing of something on this island.

- Yes! - Yes.

It confirms the stories

from the past that indeed
fred probably did find

a series of ring bolts and
that led him to certain areas

in the swamp. It's a clue,
but it

connects the
past to the present.

And it certainly
allowed fred to pursue

his favorite theory,
I.E., that something

very important was
here in the swamp.

Well, guys,
thank you so much. This is incredible.

I know that's
gonna be incredible.

And let's go find whatever
this was used for, okay?

Okay, sounds good.

- I say yes.
- Let's do it. - Yep.

Marty, craig and team have made,
when we come back, hat rick,

it's almost like we've
just scratched the surface

of the oak island mystery.

I'm here now with two
key surface scratchers

to show us a lot more
where that came from.

Gary drayton,
the metal detecting ninja,

and his protégé,
jack begley. How are you doing, fellas?

- Good, mate. - All right.

Well,
we're not scratching the surface

anymore, mate.

I-I just got to say,
I've never seen any equipment

like this, gary. What is this?

You are looking at
an okm exp 6000.

It's an electromagnetic
signature reader.

Ooh, new season,
new technology... I love it!

What does this do for you?

This can detect anything

down to 40, 50 feet.

If you were
burying a treasure chest,

you bury it four
to six feet deep.

- Right.
- Your average metal detector only goes to, like, two, three

in optimum conditions and
oak island's not optimum.

This piece of equipment
can go deeper than any

metal detector and pick out,
possibly,

a large cash, a treasure chest.

So this could actually prove

the whole theory that there was

massive tunneling works
going on here on oak island?

Well, it could, it could,
but a lot of the tunnels were done at

at least the hundred-foot level.

-So it might not pick those out,
-yeah.

But if any tunnels start to
come up near the surface,

yeah,
we should be able to find them.

Yeah, and the beauty of this,
it's real time.

You see the results real time as
we're walking across the ground,

we're doing scans...
All the information

- is compiled on the screen.
- You're seeing it.

Well, could I actually see
you do it? Is that all right?

- Yeah, of course.
- Yeah, I'd like to see you, you know,

- how it works in person.
- Okay, and we are in the monitored zone,

which means that if we do
detect something in this area,

we have to get laird,
the archaeologist

over to monitor it.

He has to be there, present,
when we dig things up.

Well, fire it up and let's
hope I have to go get laird

- real fast. - Yeah, I'll start

- on the bottom corner of the grid.
- Okay.

Where were you talking, gary?

Just level with these trees,
here.

Right here?

Yeah, nice square. Yep.

Great.

Okay,
mate. This will be the first scan.

You know the score, mate.

I'll do the scan,

I'll come back here

and we'll do the next scan.

Every one's gonna
be a yard apart.

Oh, wow! It's way faster

than I thought.

It's not as deliberate as a metal detector,
right?

I'm gonna step back
because I have a shovel.

Yeah, and my boots,
right? Steel-toe boots.

Yep.

Honestly,
it's gonna pick those up, matty.

- Yeah, yeah.
- At the end of every line it's going to start picking it up.

And you're getting live feed

- right there on that screen?
- Yeah. Oh, I'm looking, yeah.

All will be revealed, mate.

He's got that smile. He's
got that sly little wry smile

I know so well.

About another yard up.

- Yeah, about here. - So cool.

That is the scan complete.

Wow.

Let's repo to where
we started the scan.

Let's do it. All right.

- All right.
- Yep. We are ready.

Let's see what
is in this square.

Look at this.

This is where...

Wow, there it is.

There's the grid. Incredible.

- Literally it is showing you the scan.
- Yeah.

Greens and blues

mean it's just
normal background.

They seem normal but
look what we got there, mate.

- You see that reddy-orange?
- Oh! Yeah, it almost looks,

yeah, reddish.

What this tells me, mate, is

we have got a very interesting
anomaly in the ground there.

That is iron.

And the size of that
target is fairly small.

It could be a tool or a weapon.

Wow.

The artifacts that we've
recovered in this area,

uh,
tell us that this could be huge for us.

Wait a second,
so you... This has paid off already.

You've found things
here this season?

- Oh, yeah. - Wow.

We are smashing
historical records

with some of the artifacts
we've recovered this year, mate.

Mind-boggling.

So this is incredible.
You have found...

Older things?

- Yeah. - Mm-hmm, since...

- Much older.
- You got to give me something.

- Tell me more. - Don't show him

- the whole thing, just, like, a little piece of it.
- Okay.

You know where
it's coming out of.

- Top pocket? - Top pocket find.

I'm nervous right now.

- This is our oldest artifact ever found on oak island.
- Yeah.

- What? - By far.

We're not talking
about oak island,

as well,
this could be one of the oldest

artifacts ever recovered
in the americas.

- What? - Jack: Honestly, yeah.
- Yeah.

Oh,
wow. I've never seen anything...

Well...

It almost looks like,
at first glance,

an old coin.

The two words that come
to mind when you see

a find like this is
"exotic" and "ancient."

ancient, so pre-17th century?

- Way... - Way, way back.

Pre-16th century?

- Keep going.
- Much older than that. - Come on.

- Are you serious?
- Oh, yeah.

- So experts have looked at this?
- Yeah.

And they agree... this
thing is old-old-old-old?

- They're perplexed by it.
- Incredible, gary.

- Incredible, jack.
- It really is, isn't it?

That is why we cross
the causeway every day.

- Amen.
- And we only just started using this new equipment.

Who knows what else
we're going to find?

I got the chills right
now. I think you better

- put that thing back.
- Yeah, I'm gonna do.

If it's as old as you say it is.

Yeah,
I've got to put it safely away.

Yeah, unbelievable.

Guys,
this is incredible. That's incredible.

Wait until you hear the
dates that that was made.

And where it comes
from. That is the thing

that's gonna blow your mind,
mate.

More questions on oak island.

- Thank you, guys.
- You're welcome, mate.

That the oak island mystery coming up, we're
drilling down on a new historic now, thet

is first and foremost about

looking for that
legendary treasure.

But rick, marty,
craig and the team are also trying

to reveal the truth
about who buried it,

why they buried it,
and how they buried it.

Here to tell me about
all that and more

are my friends jack begley,
doug crowell and archaeologists,

laird niven and david macinnes.

Guys,
thanks for meeting me here.

- Good to see you.
- Hey, matty. - How's it going?

Welcome to lot 15.

I'm told we're at a very
important and exciting spot

and I really want to know
what I'm looking at here,

but before I get to that,
we have a new face this season.

I just said the last name macinnes,
uh, so, david,

I got to come to you.
I understand you have

a big-time tie to this
island. Talk about that.

Well, uh,
my four times great-grandfather

is the guy who
started the story.

- Unbelievable, the famous daniel mcginnis.
- Yes.

David,
what did you grow up hearing

as a member of
the mcginnis family?

Did you hear about this
since the time you were little?

No, no, it was more,
it was more something, a-a-a discovery.

My father and I
researching our family history

and reaching back
in-in various things

and we found that, uh,
we were related to this mcginnis guy,

uh, from oak island.

So it grew from there.

Wow,
so the whole mcginnis tie-in

didn't... Didn't
come to you till later.

No, no one in our family
really talked about it.

How do you feel, david,
standing on this ground,

searching for things,
knowing that your

great-great-great-great-
grandfather was here

on this land and-and
started this whole thing?

When I came on the island,
of course, uh,

it was a surreal experience,
of course,

'cause it's a family thing,
right?

And coming here
and working here,

um, is an emotional and
psychological experience

that few people have
the honor of experiencing.

All right,
let's get to this site. Jack...

uh, first of all, I'm being told
this is a very important site.

Did you guys find
treasure here? What is this?

Well, all I'll say, there...

It's definite that there
was man-made activity

and that man-made activity

appears to be
before the three boys

made the discovery
of the money pit.

Wow. That's exciting.

We did find an old map in
dan blankenship's basement

that shows that he
knew about this feature

denoted as a tunnel entrance.

Well, that's exciting,

because it's dan blankenship

posthumously helping
aid the oak island search.

Which is incredible.

But as of right now,
what I'm hearing is,

we still don't quite
know what it is,

but we know how old it is,
laird, is that right?

I think we have a general idea.

May I ask how old this is?

Well, you can ask.

I mean,
all I can tell you is that it's old.

And in your
archaeological experience,

talking to laird and david,

have you ever seen anything
like this in nova scotia?

- No. No. - Wow.

As far as I'm
aware in archeology.

And, laird, I've seen you do
your thing in previous seasons

on this island,
and it is painstaking... brush by brush.

I'm struck by the magnitude

of how big and
deep this thing is.

I mean,
how did you tackle this one?

Well, we just used our trowels.

That's incredible.

And we sifted each
bucket of dirt as well,

to get the smaller artifacts,
so...

I mean, h-how,
how do you do that?

Like, is there any area
here that you still have to go?

Well,
why-why doesn't david show you.

Well, this,
we can work a little bit in this area here.

- I would love to see.
- Well, first,

- you want to get over here.
- Okay.

First of all,
I got to clean it up a bit, right?

Get rid of some of the roots.

Then you just take your trowel.

And I like to outline it first,

cut it free like that.

If I'm going in, I go like that.

And then you pull it back

and you take your soil.

So you're looking
for potential artifacts

- as you're doing this.
- Yeah. Yeah.

- That's why it's so...
- I'm looking. But I'm also...

Because I don't ever s...
Don't actually see everything,

- I'm gonna put it in my bucket.
- To sift later.

Then I'm gonna take it up to
the spoil pile and I'm gonna sift it

and I'm gonna find any
little artifacts that I missed.

Most of the artifacts are gonna
be in this dark brown layer.

- Wow.
- So you notice something.

- See that, right there? That's a piece of charcoal.
- Yeah.

- Right here? Oh, I see it.
- Yeah.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yup.
- Yeah, that's an artifact.

Wow! Look at that.

Look,
it's shining in the sun. You can see it.

One of the very
interesting things about this site

is that you're gonna
find charcoal everywhere.

- Hmm.
- And you're also gonna find a lot of this.

This is fire-cracked rock.

Uh,
tell me about a fire-cracked rock.

- What does that mean?
- Usually means repeated burning.

You put rocks around a fire
and-and just have fires there,

you heat it up enough,
y-you're gonna hear a crack,

crack, crack.

But in order for them to
crack and come apart like this,

- it's got to be repeated burning.
- Wow.

This is... there's been a
lot of burning going on here.

- What the heck was this thing?
- And...

The next thing we do is, course,

we clean up all the rocks.

'cause you know
what we're gonna do?

We're gonna take a nice pretty picture.

Why are we doing that?
Because archaeology

is a destructive process.

- Once you dig it, you can't put it back together again.
- Mm.

So what we do is
record everything,

so we have a complete
record afterward.

Well, that was incredible.
Thank you so much, david.

- You're welcome. You're welcome.
- It was great to get a... A peek into that.

- I'm glad we found something, too.
- I wish we had more time.

For me, it's-it's relaxation.

Well, what's interesting
about finding charcoal here,

you mentioned
burning at this site.

It's very old, so this could be
burning done by depositors?

W...

Mm. We can't tell you that yet.

- You're gonna have to watch and wait and see.
- Okay.

All right.

Well, this is incredible.

And I can now say I made a
find on oak island with a macinnes.

So, thank you, guys.

And I can't wait to see
what else you find here.

We are now just moments away

from the special two-hour
season eight premiere

of the curse of oak island.

And to lead us right into it,
I'm back

with brothers rick
and marty lagina.

Guys,
thanks for doing this with me once again.

- Welcome, matty. Thank you.
- Thank you, matty.

I came to the island
this season thinking,

"how are they gonna do this?

And they're probably not
gonna be able to get a lot done."

talk about this season
and the difficulties

and how you've
been able to do this.

Well, initially, we thought

we weren't gonna be
able to do anything.

We didn't know we
could get into canada.

You know, when this was
all starting to happen in March

and the border got closed and...

We just thought,

- "the window's closing."
- Yeah.

And,
uh... And it closed fairly rapidly.

Oh, I thought we were
gonna cancel season eight.

That was my feeling.

Do owe a debt of gratitude

- to all the team members and all the people behind the scenes.
- Oh, god, yes.

W-we, we, as we sit here,
didn't just do it.

- No. It was...
- It's-it's everybody. It's all of us.

Everything was
complicated because of covid.

- Everything was more complicated.
- Mm-hmm.

Despite a pandemic,
what you guys have been able to do

this season is incredible.

I-I think I'd scale
that back though.

It's not what we've
been able to do.

It's what we've... Discovered.

In a very shortened year,
I was fearful

that the discovery process
would be quite limited.

And yet, I would say,

in a general way,
we've made more discoveries,

more important
discoveries this year

than in a... "full
year's" agenda.

Is that right?

That's what I think.

The miracle of oak island,

rather than the curse of oak island,
is,

all of a sudden,
right towards the end,

the things that we were
working on kind of...

bore fruit.

Here we sit,
and there seems to be...

I can... I can kind of
see it in both your faces...

There seems to be a lot

of incredible things
this season eight.

- Uh, yeah.
- That's all.

I got to do it. I mean,
I do it every year.

I-I just want to
press you a little bit.

Uh, what can you tell me?

Well, you're-you're excited
about some new information.

Extremely excited about
some new information, yes.

Three months ago,

I was just about ready
to "x" off the money pit.

- We had drilled so many wells and those canisters.
- Yeah.

I think I said to you,
matty, said,

"look at this map.
How could it be hiding?"

- indeed, you did. - Okay.

I'm here to tell you

that I now think
it could be hiding.

Wow. - and we have

some pretty eye-opening evidence

that there's still
something there.

That's incredible to hear.

What has been really shocking

is that some of the things
that we anticipated finding

- we did not find. - Correct.

- As per usual.
- And yet those led

to some very
significant discoveries

that we'd... Were
completely unanticipated,

which we are both quite
interested in pursuing.

And what got uncovered
in the swamp this year

I never could have pictured.

I just couldn't
have pictured it,

I couldn't have made it up.

- There's-there's your clue.
- You know, I mean,

it's a big joke, isn't it,
that the swamp in particular,

I-I was ready to
"x" out years ago.

Well,
I'm not ready to "x" it out anymore.

In fact,
I have rewritten my own history and decided

I've been a proponent of
the swamp since day one.

- We'll go with that then. We'll go...
- Yeah, let's just run

- with that, shall we?
- All right.

It's a complete lie,
but it's okay.

We'll run with it.

But the-the truth is,

I am astounded by what happened
in that swamp this year.

- That's exciting.
- Honestly, matty.

Every season, we tend to move
the timeline back even further.

Did that happen again
in season eight, do you think?

Way to bifurcate.

How so?

- I'm not gonna tell you.
- I've got to try.

That's something you're
gonna have to wait and see.

Okay. We're about
to head into season eight,

a season that...
Might not have happened.

- Mm-hmm.
- Yeah.

If you could sum it up in one
word for our acorns out there

ready to go on this journey,

how do you describe
season eight?

One word?

You can do a phrase.

Well, thank you!

Hold on to your seats.

Things you wouldn't
have thought existed.

There.

That's awesome.

All right, acorns.
There you have it,

from the brothers themselves.

The wait is over.

It's finally time to dig.

What will rick, marty, craig
and the team reveal next?

Let's all find out.

The season eight premiere of the
curse of oak island begins now.

www.oakisland.tk