This is the fourth and final article in my series on the famous legend of buried treasure on Oak Island, in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, which has bewitched students of mysteries and would-be treasure hunters for at least 150 years. In Part I, I explained the nature of the legend and the first of the four main reasons why we know there isn’t treasure there (the flood tunnels have never been found). In Part II, I explained why there is no physical evidence of a treasure pit; in Part III, I showed you why the documentary historical evidence of the early treasure hunts is lacking. This final part contains what I personally believe to be the most persuasive argument as to why we can be reasonably certain that there’s no treasure buried on Oak Island.
Point Four: If the Treasure Ever Was There, It’s Illogical to Believe That it Still Is.
This is my favorite piece of the puzzle. There’s a very serious logical problem at the heart of the whole Oak Island legend, and it’s one nobody ever talks about. It alone virtually proves the treasure isn’t there.
Let us assume for the sake of argument that I’ve been wrong in the past three articles, and that the legend is substantially true—that there was a treasure pit, flood tunnels, box drains, etc. This would be a work of engineering of immense complexity, technical skill and expense to construct. (This reasoning is usually trotted out right before a statement like, “That means whatever was buried there must be really really valuable.”) But if somebody went to all this trouble to build a treasure trap preventing anyone else from getting it, the chances are virtually zero that they would have forgotten to come back for it.
Here is another view of Oak Island in the early 1930s. As you can see, yet another treasure recovery operation was in progress at the time.
Think about it. Why would someone, a pirate perhaps, want to bury treasure in the first place? You don’t bury treasure and leave it in the ground forever; you bury it until some temporary danger of discovery or confiscation passes, and then you come back and fetch it. Anyone who digs for treasure on Oak Island makes two assumptions: (1) that a treasure of immense value was buried there, and (2) that it’s still there, i.e., whoever buried it either forgot about it (not likely) or was somehow prevented from coming back at a later time to retrieve it. The evidence—or lack thereof—shows that assumption (1) is on pretty shaky ground to begin with. But assumption (2) is even worse than pure conjecture—it’s wishful thinking.
It’s illogical to have gone to the immense expense of creating such an elaborate trap to guard something that was worth abandoning. Thus, whoever built the treasure trap is virtually guaranteed to have sailed back to the island at some point and collected their treasure. If they didn’t care whether anyone knew there was once treasure buried there, they would have just left a raw open hole in the ground and forgotten about it. Obviously that wasn’t the case. That meant they wanted to conceal that treasure had been buried there, for whatever reason, and to do that they’d have filled in the hole but presumably left the flood tunnels open—or destroyed the mechanism that closed them—so anyone who came after them would never be able to prove with certainty what had once been there. I don’t believe there was ever a treasure pit of any kind on Oak Island, but if I’m wrong and there was, this has to be why no one has ever found it after 200 years of searching.
If you think about it, Oak Island is a pretty odd place to stash one of the world’s greatest treasures. No persuasive explanation for why the possessors of vast wealth that they needed to hide chose this spot has ever been offered.
The other piece of the logic puzzle, and something else that no one talks about, is the lack of evidence from the point of view of whoever supposedly buried the treasure. An operation of that magnitude would have taken a lot of people, substantial time and expense. There would be records of it: payrolls, engineers, supply requisitions, ship voyages, etc. Even true believers in the legend concede it couldn’t realistically be pirates or other rogue elements who would generally lack the technical and logistical sophistication to pull off the kind of operation they insist must have been there. But there’s no such evidence at all.
The theory presented in The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Mysteries is that the British buried pay chests for their army there about 1780 during the Revolutionary War, which is utter rubbish. The British paid colonial troops in paper money, not gold, and in any event British archives would be full of telltale clues that this sort of operation occurred (the British are great at keeping records and notoriously poor at suppressing them). Even decades later somebody would have come forward with a story to the effect of, “Yes, I was part of the original Oak Island operation, here’s what happened.” But there has been nothing to this effect at all. You can’t keep a secret on this order for so long. To believe otherwise gets into the realm of conspiracy theory, and don’t get me started on why those never make any sense.
At least one author has conjectured that the treasure works supposedly on Oak Island were built by the British, as a repository for pay for Revolutionary War armies. This theory makes no historical sense.
So what did happen? At its heart, Oak Island is a scam. Secret buried treasure was a common bit of folklore in the early 19th century, and there are documented ones in Nova Scotia before 1850. I think someone, possibly in the 1850s, heard a tall tale or some local folklore about a mysterious island in Mahone Bay. Perhaps a local came up with it and decided, for some easy cash, to hoodwink some investors into financing a “treasure hunt.” The legends of prior treasure hunts were necessary to reinforce the “it’s just out of reach” narrative, and the nonsense about the link of the gold chain or the “metal in pieces” story, both of which date from the supposed 1849 dig, were invented to lay it on a bit heavier. Someone may have planted fake clues on the island, or, discovering the remnants of the salt works, roped that into the story as “proof.” Only this scam kept paying off long after its initial conception.
Over the years new generations of scammers, probably unknown to the original ones, hijacked the legend and reappropriated it for a new treasure hunt to fleece new victims. Then by the 20th century the legend had a life of its own, sustaining itself without the involvement of scammers, by seducing innocent people who really do believe there’s treasure there to spend their lives and lots of money looking for it. The scam is not just a fun and harmless fantasy to entertain about buried treasure. Real people have died in the quest for this nonexistent booty. That answers the question, “What’s the harm in believing there’s treasure buried at Oak Island?” Ask that question to the families of the men who have died searching for it.
As this photo shows, Mahone Bay can be quite a beautiful place in its own right. Nevertheless, the treasure legend of Oak Island is being used by some operators as a tourist draw. That is the only real gold to be found in this story.
Incidentally, many people in the 19th century believed Oak Island was a scam from the word go. One of the earliest newspaper articles about the phenomena, dated 1861, is a debunking, labeling the whole thing “the Oak Island folly.” Scams rarely go unchallenged. If people were denouncing Oak Island as a scam more than 150 years ago—when, if it was genuine, the trail of documentary evidence would have been much fresher than it is now—this is a telltale sign that the whole thing is a chimera.
There is no treasure on Oak Island. There never has been. All of the money spent to find it over the past 200 years has been utterly wasted.
You are aware that for the last three years or so a series on the “History Channel” has been following the “Oak Island” search, and has thrown out suggestions that it was connected to the Knights Templar and their missing treasure, or to a Welsh explorer in the middle ages, or to the missing Jewels of Queen Marie Antoinette (including the infamous Diamond Necklace….. The narration is marred by a constant repetition of what we just watched, and an avoidance of anything resembling sensible commentary. For example, at one point somebody found what looked like a “Roman Sword” in the waters near the island. But they later briefly said ((before quickly leaving the point) that it was a piece of a theatrical costume that must have fallen off a ship (of course, they never explained why it fell off the ship). It is one of the dumbest shows on that ill-named channel they have ever put on.
Yes, I’ve heard of this show. Never seen it–I avoid “History” Channel assiduously since they got into that ridiculous “ancient aliens” crap. I’ve heard the Oak Island show was abysmal even for them, and it doesn’t surprise me how poor quality and circular its reasoning is.
I must disagree at least on one point of your article. Oak Island is a magical and mysterious place. In most treasure hunting stories poor people hunt for treasure and become wealthy. While on Oak Island it is the exact opposite wealthy people hunt for treasure and become poor. Thus is the magic of Oak Island. Ok time to get real. I am always amazed at the human capacity to totally suspend logic and reality. There is and never was anything out of the ordinary on that island. Everything they have found could be found by anyone with a toy metal detector on any shoreline in the world. Just because people where there hundreds of years ago doesn’t mean anything. Humans have been hurrying their garbage since we became bipedal and that is all anyone has ever found on Oak Island, garbage.
Been watching oak island past few years, so lame to me. Made for TV big time. I try to be positive, so hard for me to believe. The whole show seems so man made too me. Hopefully am wrong
Total agreement here.
Show is a boring, repetitive pile of poop.
Thank you for this! I began watching the show on HC a couple of years ago and I was under the impression that the “booby traps” “inscribed stones” and “flood tunnels” were documented facts. It wasn’t until recently when I saw them go in search of the stone that I realized there is no proof it even existed! Not even a bloody picture! Then I read your blog and a couple other stories and it became very obvious this whole thing is a scam. It’s crazy that so many people would spend so much money on something that literally has zero provable data. Thanks again, you did a great job.
A naysayer?
About Oak Island?
Could it be that Sean Munger has hit upon the truth?
That there is nothing of value at Oak Island?
Or… is it possible that there is a treasure?
A treasure that is so fantastic and valuable that the Knights Templar, Rosicrucians, British aristocracy, Aztecs and pirates all got together and hid it?
No – you are right – there is no treasure – just some coconut fibers, shards of pottery, old wood and a few coins. What a waste of time and several million dollars.
Great series of articles! (and a great web site.)
Hahaha don’t forget Shakespeare and Francis Bacon, they also have some items buried in one of them sinkholes that cost 1mil each to look in
Hey look! Here’s a cross we found just under the surface! Could this be from ancient Phoenicia?
Agreed. Very good article. No proof and lots of wasted money and time looking. Do these people not have family and if so they must be real happy seeing them waste money and spend time digging up nothing. The tv show is a joke. There is no treasure on this island people!
your right, there is no treasure on oak island.my family has a legend about a pirate ship stopping at one of there islands one evening and leaving the next morning riding high in the water,and its not oak island, as far as i know no one has got it.good luck finding it
2 teens digging with a spade and a few hobbyist going down 70 metres? April fools day is not far away:)
The Curse of Oak Island – pure poppycock! Bait for the gullible. The real treasure has to be in the revenue generated by the History Channel and it’s advertisers. Would be interesting to see a balance sheet on this “endeavor”, i.e. how much $ spent vs. how many $$ generated for all involved. A business enterprise, yup. A valid treasure hunt, nope. (Is it possible?)
@Sean Munger
Yes, There is treasure on Oak Island and here is the proof of that…
http://www.history.com/shows/the-curse-of-oak-island/about
No. That show is utter nonsense and contains no “proof” at all. I briefly addressed this unfortunate series in the first of my four articles on this topic. It’s another reason why the History Channel’s standards have fallen so low, to the point where they’re not doing history anymore, but conspiracy theories and sensationalism.
Excellent articles on the Oak Island myth. Watching the show lately I have come to suspect the metal detector expert of “salting” the holes. They are all so earnest in their beliefs, but it is sad to see millions of dollars as well as four lives lost on this futile search. Thank you for posting your articles.
That show is pure “entertainment*, and nothing more. They make so many incredible leaps of logic. A cross! Could this be from the Knights Templar? A circle inside another circle? Must mean something! Surely can’t just be one of the most basic of all human constructs.
What I’d like to know is when are the brothers going to give up this farce? Every year they pour more and more cash into this thing and pieces of pottery and old crosses do not a treasure make. I believe the younger brother is going to have to make that decision soon. His brother would continue until the family business is bankrupt. Each episode gets more and more desperate.
The show is the biggest farce on television next to “Hunting Hitler”. It takes a false narrative and runs with it for the sake of entertainment value. Rewriting or retelling history while twisting truth is at its simplest form diabolical. The show is an absolute mess. The bottom line is this area has been extensively excavated to a depth of nearly twenty stories. Nothing has been found. There is nothing there.
Have seen each and every episode. Not a believer in the story, but intrigued in some of the possibilities. I do believe that it’s feasible for Knights Templar to have visited and some of the other well knowns, and some have left their marks.
But like you laid out very well, I too believe the majority of the mystery over the years to be gross fabrications ‘designed’ to entertain and raise money; just look what Marty Lagina is up to next! As long as HC can find sponsors…
The former slave — I seem to believe he found wealth or he could not have bought so many plots. Thoughts?
A lot of people say this show is a waste of time and there is nothing of substance in the ground on Oak Island, but very few critics ever mention the fact that at some time in the past an engineering work of huge proportions (and expense) took place there. Was it a salt mine? Some kind of dry docking facility? A military base? If treasure was buried there and never recovered it was probably because the people who buried it were not able to return simply due to their deaths elsewhere and with them went the secret. There may be something left in the deep ground for the brothers to uncover if their money and enthusiasm does not run out first. Truth is of course, it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack on a dark night.
Utter nonsense. There is not a single shred of evidence of “an engineering work of huge proportions (and expense).” No such evidence has ever been found. Zero. Nothing. Nada. Bupkus. The cognitive dissonance from believers in this bizarre 19th century scam is impossible to reconcile with the historical record of Oak Island, which shows a lot of money (and lives) wasted by gullible people, and nothing at all in the way of verifiable evidence that there ever was anything there. It’s nonsense, complete nonsense from start to finish.