New Theory with proof. Seems like the crazy theories have been lacking this season.
When I first heard about Oak Island in 2006 I didn't know anything about the island. I knew someone from Michigan (my home state) had purchased the island and was going to look for a buried treasure in the Money Pit. As a young teenager this caught my interest. Seems like there's a story here with treasure, they know where it is at, and how big of a deal could the flood tunnels be. With modern equipment this couldn't have been that difficult of a task. From what I had learned back in 2006 was no one had been searching for the treasure since the 1970s. I figured 35 years later, this would be an easy mission. Dig it up, and pull out the treasure. From what searching I had done on the internet and reading old forum posts and local history seemed like an achievable goal to get the treasure.
There wasn't much to find on the internet back in those days about the MP. This image here was engrained into my memory. This is the MP area before the Laginas started their work. It's how Triton Alliance left it. Here's the pit, just start digging to get the treasure out. Obviously it wasn't that easy. Years go buy and I hear just a bit about Oak Island and it gets lost in my memory. Then I hear about the TV show and it reignites my interest. I've watched the show since it came out following their adventure. I quickly learn, they don't know much of anything about the island. Where the original pit is, lost shafts, objects that have no business being on that island are turning up. It's strange and annoying at the same time. They are searching all around the MP area to find the original shaft, looking for back doors, off set chambers, and of course searching other areas of the island that I assume is just a waste of time.
Searching other parts of the island turns out not to be a waste of time. The swamp, smiths cove, lot 5, and of course metal detecting all over leads to some great finds. It proves there was activity on the island prior to 1795 which in the early days of the show was a big deal. But hold up Oak Island was surveyed and lots sold off long before 1795. People were living their, farming, shipping, and built a life here long before any treasure had been found. So finding things dated slightly before 1795 quickly meant nothing to me (at least items that were 50 years old from 1795).
Now we get to the story we all know, how this entire event unfolds over the last 225 years all starts by some guys finding some flat stones in a circular depression and they start digging. With a broken branch from an Oak tree with a pulley on it above this area according to the old story.
And here is the description of the money pit as they dug it.
Obviously there is a lot going on. We have some really curious materials, objects and build patterns in this shaft. The wording is also important to me to try to figure out what this may have been used for. After all, we know Oak Island has a Pine Tar Kiln. That dates from the 1500s or 1600s. There are roads in the swamp that extend into areas near the money pit. There are survey markers in the swamp that date from the same period. Bones, coins, and other objects that date from the 1500s and 1600s by the bucket full. There's evidence of commercial and industrial activity on this island. It makes sense that the money pit could be a well.
The word "platform" has been used a lot on the show and they just show Oak logs laid flat every 10 feet. That serves no purpose in a well or treasure shaft. In mining a platform means something else. It's literally a wood box to support a shaft. There were mines in Nova Scotia so the use of the word 'platform' means to me a box or structure to support a shaft. Not a flat line of logs in a shaft.
Coconut fiber, charcoal, are well known to filter water. The flat stones on the surface, the pulley on a dead Oak branch, the high water table of the island all point to a well. Notice I mentioned dead Oak branch. Girdling is a process of removing a section of bark all around a tree to kill it. I think repeated use of lowering and lifting (anything water or objects) out of this pit caused that branch to die. Now if you were really putting a treasure into the ground, wouldn't you cut the branch off near the trunk of the tree so that it grows around it covering up the work you did? Why would you leave a indicator above the pit you just worked on? That doesn't make sense to me.
Sailing ships needed water and people living on the island needed water. The MP well could have provided a vast amount of water. Then transported to the swamp via a road with oxen and the loaded up on the stone ramp. Not treasure being moved from ship to the money pit, but water being moved into the ships.
If Lot 5 turns out to be a church that would make think Oak Island is more likely to be a stopping point for ships. In those days a church was more than just a place of worship, it was for healing, helping, and getting a meal. Sick sailors would have sought it at a spot of refuge.
Old wells are known to collect things over the years. Coins, trash, garbage, pottery, and so many other things. I think this is what happened in 1795. These guys started digging, and they found things as you would expect from digging up an old well. Maybe they even found something valuable. The Oak Island MP is a story of bad archeology, lost history, a lack of understanding of the area and then it takes 9 years for digging to return to the MP after 1795. Digging isn't consistent after that either. There's long periods of time where no one is searching. Things don't get going again until the mid 1800s. That's the point were the legend has grown out of control and I think people were taken advantage of so some one could make a dollar or two.
I think Rick was the perfect person to fall into the scheme that has been going on for at least 170 years. He believed the story so much and is diving too deep. He wouldn't want to hear the MP is a well and he wouldn't believe it anyway. Oak Island is a fools mission.
At this point time I still watch the show. I enjoy what they are finding on the island. Searching in the MP isn't going to reveal anything of value. More exploring out site of the MP area might reveal clues as to what was happening, but Oak Island for the most part has been lost to history. People like Rick are actually damaging the real history of this place and it's kind of sad to see happen. Even though they are revealing more than one else has but he's not seeing the bigger picture.