Oak Island Money Pit

I think _______ made the money pit

  • Captain Kidd (privateer)

    Votes: 5 8.9%

  • Gangs Of Pirates (Thar be booty in that pit, arrr)

    Votes: 8 14.3%

  • The French (just to spite english or americans after their gold)

    Votes: 3 5.4%

  • The Vikings (the viking settle ment of vinland it thought to be on the nova scotia coast, which is w

    Votes: 2 3.6%

  • The Spanish (If you're worried about prirates and you've lost a lot of ships to a recent raid by the

    Votes: 3 5.4%

  • British Navy (on the run with lots of lovely treasure after/dureing the american war of independance

    Votes: 6 10.7%

  • Native Americans (dosen't fit with the artifacts found but native americans could theoreticly have m

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Aliens (Aparently they made the pyramids too :rolleyes: )

    Votes: 5 8.9%

  • Another Theory?

    Votes: 13 23.2%

  • The Templars (after escaping from La Rochelle)

    Votes: 11 19.6%
  • Total voters
    56
marksourbutts said:
It fills in lots of gaps, especially about the whitewashed history of Samuel Ball; so much so that I am surprised more hasn’t been made of it on the show. Though if what I believe to be the case is true, if they did dig more into that part of the story, there probably wouldn’t be a show to speak of.
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Tell us more? :popc:
 
Min Bannister said:
Tell us more? :popc:
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Ok...Here goes.

In Sullivan's book he alleges that Samuel Ball was a member of the original group that Daniel McGinnis enlisted to help him excavate the money pit along with Anthony Vaughn and John Smith. This is documented in a book entitled "History of the County of Lunenburg" that was first published in 1870. The second edition that was published in 1895 had Samuel Ball's name removed; There isn't an explanation why Samuel Ball's name was removed. There is more information on this website, though it does state that Ball's name was replaced with Vaughn's, but that doesn't make sense if Vaughn's name was in the original account.

Interestingly, one of the witnesses names on Samuel Ball's will is John Barkhouse. Does Charles know more than he's letting on, or are Marty and Rick in on a secret and that's why they are still digging?

Since first hearing about Samuel Ball, I have been 100% convinced that he found some of the treasure along with McGinnis, Smith and Vaughn, all three of which curiously became more affluent and influential than their humble beginnings dictate. I think that there is a season 3 episode where descendants of McGinnis come to the Island and show artefacts that McGinnis alleges were part of the treasure; One of which was a gold cross that was missing its jewels. There is some information on this website.

Sullivan also alleges that Zena Halpern fabricated lots of information just to back up her theory about the templars and that it doesn't hold up to scrutiny, explaining why that line of enquiry was quietly dropped on the show. What that doesn't mean is that the theory about the templars is completely blown out of the water, just that a lot of Zena's "evidence" is.

That lead cross truly is an enigma!
 
Well that is VERY interesting. I have always wondered about the teams lack of curiosity as to how Ball got so wealthy growing cabbages.
 
I must admit I’m of the opinion that there is no treasure there because Samuel Ball found it. Curse of Oak Island TV show does acknowledge that Ball was part of the original group as per the first edition.
 
gordonrutter said:
I must admit I’m of the opinion that there is no treasure there because Samuel Ball found it. Curse of Oak Island TV show does acknowledge that Ball was part of the original group as per the first edition.
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I must have missed that at some point as whenever they talk about the money pit being found, they never seem to mention his name, only McGinnis, Vaughn and Smith. I’ll have to go back and rewatch. Trouble is getting hold of the the early episodes before season 3.

thanks for the clarification.
 
marksourbutts said:
I must have missed that at some point as whenever they talk about the money pit being found, they never seem to mention his name, only McGinnis, Vaughn and Smith. I’ll have to go back and rewatch. Trouble is getting hold of the the early episodes before season 3.

thanks for the clarification.
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It’s the much, much later episodes that say this. I think they found the first edition of the book somewhere along the way.
 
Thanks.

I’ve got season 3 onwards on...erm... download. I’m missing Wednesday treasure hunting evening, so thinking of doing a rewatch.
 
WanderingFox said:
Be sure to tell us what you think of it! Tempted to grab a copy, myself, as I need a good Oak Island book, and I have to confess I wasn't very taken with the Fanthorpes' one; they got carried away, for me, with Rennes le Chateau (a story I have strong doubts about) and the Knights Templar and the kitchen sink.
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I have finished the audiobook in a few sittings and it was excellent.
But at the same time I think I couldn't have read that same book just as easily. Lots of long detailed stories. It's easier if you can listen to them.
And still no solution...
 
New season has started on Blaze : lets get the swamp, cove and pit dug.

Oak Island, the big dig..jpg
 
gordonrutter said:
The series that has just started on Blaze is series 7 that has already been shown on the History channel starting in November of last year. A good chance to catch it again!
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I don't have the History channel - guessing that if they'd found the mother-lode in Season 7 I would have heard about it by now.
 
Bad Bungle said:
I don't have the History channel - guessing that if they'd found the mother-lode in Season 7 I would have heard about it by now.
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Yes that is the problem with all these types of show, had they found it we would have heard about it. The season you are about to start is much more packed with stuff and has a lot less of the constant repeating of material shown previously.
 
I’ve said it before. A Money Pit is something you sink cash into without any hope of seeing it again. Where do these guys get their money from?
 
Analogue Boy said:
I’ve said it before. A Money Pit is something you sink cash into without any hope of seeing it again. Where do these guys get their money from?
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Its a consortium. Two members are rich from oil / drilling others are there because they own land on the island and there are some silent partners as well. Abd one is a retired postman but his brother is one of the oil ones (he also has a huge vineyard as well). They obviously think they can get a return from it. I personally think any treasure is long gone as mentioned earler in this thread.
 
A metal spike could be a chisel which may have belonged to a stonemason who was probably a Freemason which proves the Knights Templar (yawn) visited Oak Island centuries before the history books - and yet it is still good television ! I can't think of an equivalent UK TV series that's so watchable.
 
gordonrutter said:
Its a consortium. Two members are rich from oil / drilling others are there because they own land on the island and there are some silent partners as well. Abd one is a retired postman but his brother is one of the oil ones (he also has a huge vineyard as well). They obviously think they can get a return from it. I personally think any treasure is long gone as mentioned earler in this thread.
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Thanks for that potted explanation. Even if they found something, I can’t see them making any sort of profit from what they've already sunk into this project.
 
Bad Bungle said:
A metal spike could be a chisel which may have belonged to a stonemason who was probably a Freemason which proves the Knights Templar (yawn) visited Oak Island centuries before the history books - and yet it is still good television ! I can't think of an equivalent UK TV series that's so watchable.
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Don't forget the corpse of the actual William Shakespeare is buried there too.
 
I would think the TV co chucks a fair wad in to.
 
Analogue Boy said:
Thanks for that potted explanation. Even if they found something, I can’t see them making any sort of profit from what they've already sunk into this project.
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The money (if any) at the bottom of it may not cover their costs but if it turned out to be something more culturally valuable (Shakespeare's manuscripts or the Ark of the Covenant) then think of the lecture circuits, the paid appearances, the motivational talks about not giving up etc. There is money to be made regardless of what they find.

Also, they have stated a few times that this is a boyhood dream. They're doing it partly as a hobby - albeit an expensive one but when you've got oil money in the family...
 
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Ringo said:
The money (if any) at the bottom of it may not cover their costs but if it turned out to be something more culturally valuable (Shakespeare's manuscripts or the Ark of the Covenant) then think of the lecture circuits, the paid appearances, the motivational talks about not giving up etc. There is money to be made regardless of what they find.

Also, they have stated a few times that this is a boyhood dream. They're doing it partly as a hobby - albeit an expensive one but when you've got oil money in the family...
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They also have a TV show that will bring in plenty of revenue.
 
They also give tours of the island which must bring in some money too, especially given how popular the TV series has been. It is hard to fathom how much money they must be sinking into the money pit but I doubt Marty and Craig got rich in the first place by being poor businessmen.
 
Min Bannister said:
They also give tours of the island which must bring in some money too, especially given how popular the TV series has been. It is hard to fathom how much money they must be sinking into the money pit but I doubt Marty and Craig got rich in the first place by being poor businessmen.
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And the tours are huge in size at the moment and if you look at the amount of tat merchandise they sell on their website...
 
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