Oak Island has treasure been found? Exclusive

Off the coast of Nova Scotia (in eastern Canada) there is a small island called Oak Island. For more than two hundred years people have been trying in vain to uncover its secret. There is a treasure hidden there that everyone knows about, but they can’t get it.

It all started in 1795 with the journey of three curious boys who crawled up and down the uninhabited island until they came across an abandoned mine. It was with her that the story of treasure hunting on Oak Island began.

On the branches of a large oak tree, the boys discovered a system of ship cables stretched to a hole covered with earth. And then the stories about the corsairs who had recently visited these places came to life in my memory. Captain Kidd or Blackbeard were then more than real characters. The guys managed to penetrate into the hole to a depth of three meters. There they discovered a partition made of oak logs and tiers of a strange shaft going deep into the earth. The boys didn't climb any further.

Last Treasure Island

Oak Island was notorious among local residents, and the children's stories did not encourage adults to continue the investigation. Years passed, and one of these inquisitive teenagers, Daniel Mac Ginnis, returned to Oak in the company of like-minded people, hoping to find hidden treasures underground. The diggers went through several more tiers and came across a flat stone with a mysterious inscription.

There was a chest under the stone, but the people were so exhausted that they decided to get it out the next day.

This turned out to be a fatal mistake. By morning, at a depth of about 90 feet (27 meters), the shaft of the mine was flooded with seawater. After futile attempts to pump out the water, exploration had to be stopped.

This is how real stories and legends created the reputation of the small island. The mine, hiding its secrets, was called the “money mine,” but exploration work was resumed only after forty-five years. During excavations in 1849-1850, it was discovered that the mine communicated with the sea through two artificial channels. Interest in the excavations was also fueled by the finds - the same stone, a piece of parchment with Latin letters and iron scissors, fragments of a gold chain.

The searchers managed to find investors and attract the latest equipment at that time - pumps, dredgers, drilling mechanisms. Everything turned out to be in vain. The shaft was designed in such a way that attempts to penetrate it caused flooding of the pit. Or it was early treasure hunters who ruined the drainage system. Be that as it may, since then no one has been able to get rid of the water in the mine.

Treasure hunters of the twentieth century

In the twentieth century - from 1909 to 1960 - seven expeditions visited the island! We can say that since then work has been carried out on the island almost continuously.

The local lands have been sold and resold several times already.

In 1969, half of the island was acquired by the Triton company, whose owners are famous treasure hunters Daniel Blenkenship and David Tobias.

In the 20th century, as a result of radiocarbon dating of the logs and masonry of the mine, it was established that the main construction work underground was carried out no later than 1660-1700. A 40-meter-deep shaft with a diameter of 3.65 meters led to a now flooded underground storage facility.

Blenkenship began his investigation by working in the archives. He also built the main versions of the origin of the structures on the island. Daniel was in no hurry to start drilling, and when he began, he chose a place for this purpose two hundred feet from the money shaft. He discovered a large hollow chamber behind the rock and even saw something resembling a huge box, a pickaxe and... a human hand floating past the screen of the camera lowered into the pit.

This means that, according to pirate custom, the Oak Island treasure is guarded by at least one dead man.

Blenkenship himself descended through a pipe with a diameter of 70 cm to a depth of 55 meters to see what was in the underwater chamber. But no, the island was not yet ready to reveal its secrets.

They say that Daniel Blenkenship still lives on the island, but his mind is slightly clouded by the inability to solve the mystery. By the way, the treasure hunter came to the conclusion that such a complex structure for treasure was not built by pirates.

In 2005, the Michigan group of American industrialists, working in the deep drilling sector, became co-owners of the island. Perhaps the specialists of this company will be able to uncover the secret of the island’s underground structures.

Oak has already ruined several generations of treasure hunters and taken six human lives from those who tried to get the treasure. The idea of turning it into a tourist attraction and at least making money this way did not find understanding among the owners of the island, who regularly renew their licenses to carry out prospecting work.

The main versions of what is hidden in the depths of the mysterious Oak Island

First version, the simplest and most common is pirate treasure. There are two contenders here - Captain Kidd or Edward Teach, nicknamed Blackbeard. It’s not for nothing that the small bay on the island is called Smuggler’s Bay. But could impulsive and wasteful pirates spend a lot of time and effort building complex underground storage facilities for their wealth?

Second version speaks of Inca treasures transported to the north of the continent during the brutal conquest of the Inca Empire by the warriors of Francisco Pizarro in the early 16th century. Historical chronicles claim that the treasures looted by the conquistadors constituted only a small fraction of the total wealth of the Inca Empire. Where did the main part go? Why shouldn't it be hidden on a small island on the east coast of Canada...

According to third version the treasures on the island were hidden by English monks from the Abbey of St. Andrew, dissolved by the English Parliament in 1560. The monks accumulated their wealth for more than a thousand years and hid it in underground galleries similar to those discovered on the island. These riches were never found in England. Perhaps the monks could transport them across the ocean.

By fourth versions, the matter could not have happened without the Freemasons. The strange and intricate designs of the mines and tunnels found could have been built by the Templars, for whom the island could serve as a base and secret location in difficult times for the order. This theory also includes the mystery of the Holy Grail, for which the Oak Island “money” mine would be an ideal hiding place.

By fifth version, During the first years of the bloody French Revolution of 1789, the valuables of the French royal house of Bourbon were hidden on the island. This legend is associated with the fact that Queen Marie Antoinette's steward found refuge in Canada.

Sixth version and far from the last, it says that building such complex technical structures underground just to hide several chests of jewelry in them is a waste of work. And it's not about the treasures at all. Then why and by whom were these mines and wells made? Guests from other worlds? A lost civilization?

Who will discover the secret of the tiny island?

Niagara Park management has a new concern. On Halloween night, wind and waves unexpectedly moved a sunken barge from its place.

The small island of Oak is no different from its three hundred counterparts located in Mahon Bay, off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada. Oak groves, rocks and the Money Mine, the treasures of which have been hunted for several centuries, reports Day.Az with reference to trendymen.ru. There are many versions about how the Money Mine was opened. This one is considered the most reliable - and this is what happened to the people who tried to unravel the mystery of the gloomy Oak Island.

In 1795, several boys - Daniel McGuinness, Anthony Vaughan and John Smith - were playing pirates on the southern tip of the island. Here they found an oak tree from which hung a ship's block with a piece of rope. And under it, the guys found the entrance to a strange mine, completely covered with earth. Having dug a hole several meters, the guys discovered a ceiling made of oak logs. Beneath them was a dark mine shaft going deep down. On the rocky foundation, a simple code was discovered, which the boys’ parents figured out. The gold is dropped at a distance of 160+180 feet from here.

Naturally, the find caused a stir. Treasure hunters from the island began to delve deeper into the mine and one day their probe came across something solid thirty meters below. However, the freshly opened mine suddenly filled with sea water from nowhere.

It later turned out that the Money Mine was only part of a huge complex of tunnels connected to Smuggler's Cove on the northern part of the island. Several branches were sealed, after which a mysterious oak barrel was raised to the surface.

And with this, the first treasure hunters seem to disappear into thin air. A few years later, a new tycoon appears in London - Anthony Vaughan. He does not go out into the world and buys huge estates in Canada and England. His son, Samuel, one day appears at a local auction, where he buys his wife $200,000 worth of jewelry. After that, he doesn't appear anywhere else.

A hundred years later, a couple of guys find themselves on the same island, somehow finding out about the existence of the Money Mine. Jack Lindsay and Brandon Smart gather a whole company of like-minded people, with whom they dig up the entire island up and down. The work lasted for two decades; by 1865, three hundred people were already fussing and interfering with each other.

A certain William Sellers becomes the head of the Truro Syndicate. Under his rather incompetent leadership, a campaign of ultra-deep drilling began, as a result of which people stumbled upon chests filled with some kind of metal. Unfortunately, on the same day there was a collapse - the chests fell into the abyss, and Sellers himself, tearing something off the drill, rushed away from the island.

It is believed that this lucky person was able to pick up a large diamond. Further developments speak in favor of the theory: Sellers appeared again, trying (unsuccessfully) to buy back the development rights from the Truro Syndicate. On a dark night in June 1865, all the workers suddenly took off and left the island. The police found the body of that same William Sellers deep in the mine - there is no explanation for this fact.

But this is not the end. By the beginning of the 20th century, the entire island was dug up length and breadth, so that subsequent treasure lovers had to try hard to find the entrance itself. The group, simply called the “Company for the Search of Lost Treasures,” was very diverse - just mention that it included the future US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. However, these guys didn’t find anything either.

The next to try to uncover the secret of the island were the guys who organized the so-called “Triton Alliance”. It was led by a certain Daniel Blakenship, who managed to make his way to a new underwater cave. Having lowered the cameras there, Daniel discovered a severed hand, a human skull - and some chests. Then the mysticism begins: having gone down into the pit, the brave treasure hunter discovered something there that made him jump to the surface like a bullet and take the first ferry away from the island. Two years later, Blackenship died in a store robbery.

In 2013, brothers Rick and Marty Lagin continued the work begun several centuries ago. The History Channel dedicated an entire documentary series to their search. It tells the story of the successes and failures of these enterprising guys, and what will happen next is still unknown. So far, the Lagins have managed to discover a Spanish coin, indicating that there is indeed gold on the island.

The small island of Oak is no different from its three hundred counterparts located in Mahon Bay, off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada. Oak groves, rocks and the Money Mine, whose treasures have been hunted for several centuries. There are many versions about how the Money Mine was opened. This one is considered the most reliable - and this is what happened to the people who tried to unravel the mystery of the gloomy Oak Island.

The gold is dropped at a distance of 160+180 feet from here.

A hundred years later, a couple of broken guys end up on the same island, having somehow learned about the existence of the Money Mine. Jack Lindsay and Brandon Smart gather a whole company of like-minded people, with whom they dig up the entire island up and down. The work lasted for two decades; by 1865, three hundred people were already fussing and interfering with each other.

But this is not the end. By the beginning of the 20th century, the entire island was dug up length and breadth, so that subsequent treasure lovers had to try hard to find the entrance itself. The group, simply called the “Company for the Search of Lost Treasures,” was very diverse - just mention that it included the future President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. However, these guys didn’t find anything either.

The next to try to uncover the secret of the island were the guys who organized the so-called “Triton Alliance”. It was led by a certain Daniel Blackenship, who managed to make his way to a new underwater cave. Having lowered the cameras there, Daniel discovered a severed hand, a human skull - and some chests. Then the mysticism begins: having gone down into the pit himself, the brave treasure hunter discovered something there that forced him to jump to the surface like a bullet and take the first ferry away from the island. Two years later, Blackenship died in a store robbery.

In 2013, a pair of brothers, Rick and Marty Lagin, continued the work begun several centuries ago. The History Channel dedicated an entire documentary series to their search. It tells about the successes and failures of these enterprising guys, and what will happen next is not yet known. So far, the Lagins have managed to discover a Spanish coin, indicating that there is indeed gold on the island.

Off the coast of Nova Scotia is a tiny island that holds a great secret. In the 18th century, people noticed that the island glowed with a strange light at night, but those who went to find out what kind of light it was did not return. A little later, two boys discovered a strange hole on the island - the entrance to a mine covered with earth. This discovery marked the beginning of a treasure-hunting frenzy that included such famous people as Franklin Roosevelt and John Wayne.

Daniel McGinnis didn't read pirate novels for two reasons. Firstly, the year was 1795, and the time of Stevenson, Conrad and Captain Marietta had not yet come, and secondly, why books, if there is something more interesting: for example, stories of old-timers about living corsairs - Captain Kidd, Blackbeard , Edward Davis and many, many others.

Daniel McGinnis lived in Nova Scotia (a peninsula on the east coast of Canada), and he and two of his friends played pirates on the small island of Oak, which means Oak, very close to the coast in Mahon Bay.

Once, pretending to be corsairs who had landed, the children went deeper into the oak grove from which the island got its name, and found themselves in a large clearing, where a huge old oak tree spread its branches in the center. The trunk of the tree had once been badly damaged by blows from an axe, one of the lower branches was completely cut off, and something was hanging from a thick branch. Taking a closer look, Daniel realized that this was the rigging of an old sailing ship. The creaky block at the end of the hoist clearly served as a plumb line. He seemed to be pointing to a small hollow under an oak tree.

The boys' hearts began to beat wildly: were there really pirates here and had they really buried treasure here?

The children immediately got hold of shovels and started digging. At a shallow depth they came across a layer of hewn flat stones. "Eat! - they decided. “There must be a treasure under the stones!” They scattered the slabs, and they discovered a well going deep into the earth, a real mine, about seven feet wide. In the mud that filled the shaft, Daniel saw several picks and shovels. Everything is clear: the pirates were in a hurry and did not even have time to take their tools with them. Obviously, the treasure is somewhere nearby. With redoubled effort, the boys began to clear the hole of dirt. At a depth of 12 feet, the shovels thudded against the tree. Box? A barrel of doubloons? Alas, it was just a ceiling made of thick oak logs, behind which the mine continued...

“You can’t cope on your own,” concluded the “valiant pirate” McGinnis. “We’ll have to ask the natives for help.” The closest “natives” lived in the small Nova Scotian village of Lunenburg. However, a strange thing: no matter how passionately the children talked about the gold bars and coins that supposedly lay right under their feet, none of the adults decided to help them. Oak Island was notorious among the locals; especially a small backwater called Smuggler's Cove. Someone saw blue flames there, someone observed ghostly midnight lights, and one old-timer even assured that the ghost of one of the pirates killed in ancient times was wandering along the shore of the island and grimly grinning at those he met.

The children returned to the island, but did not dig further into the mine: it was deep. Instead, they decided to search the coast. The search only fueled interest: in one place a copper coin with the date “1713” was found, in another - a block of stone with an iron ring screwed to it - apparently, boats were moored here; A green boatswain's whistle was also found in the sand. They had to say goodbye to the thought of the treasure for a while: McGinnis and his friends realized that there was literally a mystery buried on the island and it was difficult for even an adult to solve it.

Failed millionaires

Daniel McGinnis found himself back on the island only nine years later. This time he was not alone either. Finding like-minded treasure hunters turned out to be a piece of cake.

The businesslike young men quickly began to dig out the well. The soft soil was easy to shovel, but... the desired treasure did not show up: the unknown builder had equipped this mine too cleverly. 30 feet deep - layer of charcoal. 40 feet - a layer of viscous clay. 50 and 60 feet - layers of coconut fibers, the so-called coconut sponge. 70 feet - again clay, clearly not of local origin. All layers are covered at regular intervals with platforms made of oak logs. Ufff! 80 feet - finally! Find! Treasure hunters brought to the surface a large flat stone measuring 2 feet by 1 with an inscription carved on it. Not a treasure, unfortunately, but it’s clear to everyone! - an indication of where to look for it! True, the inscription turned out to be encrypted.

Here we will allow ourselves a small retreat and get ahead a little. Very quickly a certain decipherer was found, who, having scanned the inscription with his eyes, declared that the text was clear to him: “Two million pounds sterling rest 10 feet below.” Such a reading, naturally, could not help but cause a sensation. But, firstly, 10 feet below McGinnis found nothing, secondly, the codebreaker refused to explain how he completed the task so quickly, and thirdly... in 1904 - many years after Daniel's death - a mysterious the stone no less mysteriously disappeared from the vault where it had been placed.
(In 1971, Ross Wilhelm, a professor at the University of Michigan, proposed a new decoding of the inscription. According to him, the cipher on the stone coincided in almost the slightest detail with one of the ciphers described in a treatise on cryptography in 1563. Its author, Giovanni Battista Porta, also cited decoding method Using this method, Professor Wilhelm established that the inscription is of Spanish origin and is translated approximately as follows: “Starting from mark 80, pour maize or millet into the drain. The letter F, the professor believes, is the initial letter of the name Philip. it is known that there was such a Spanish king, Philip II, and he reigned from 1556 to 1598, but what relation could he have to Nova Scotia, a French colony? A little later this will become clear, but for now we note that William’s decoding may also be far-fetched? , in this case, the inscription - if it is not a false trail - is still waiting for its interpreter.)

One way or another, McGinnis and his comrades did not decipher the encryption and continued to dig further. 90 feet deep: The shaft begins to fill with water. The diggers are not discouraged. Another three feet - and it becomes impossible to dig: for two buckets of soil you have to lift a bucket of water. Oh, how tempting it is to delve a little deeper! What if the treasure is right here, nearby, in some yard? But night falls, and the water rises threateningly. Someone suggested poking the bottom with a vag. Fair enough: after five feet the iron rod hits something hard. They poked around: it didn’t look like a log floor - the size was small. What is that same treasured chest? Or maybe a barrel? After all, pirates, as you know, hid treasures in barrels and chests. The discovery delighted treasure hunters. Still would! You can rest for the night, and in the morning you can pick up the treasure and start dividing it up. However, no division followed. The next day, McGinnis and his friends almost came to blows out of frustration: the shaft was filled 60 feet with water. All attempts to pump out the water failed.

Technology is not everything

The further fate of McGinnis is unknown, but the fate of the mine can be traced in great detail. Only now it’s not just a mine (“pit” in English). Treasure hunters believed so much that there was a treasure at the bottom of it that they dubbed it “money pit,” that is, “money mine.”

A new expedition appeared on the island forty-five years later. The first step was to lower the drill into the shaft. Having pierced the water and mud, he walked the entire 98 feet and ran into the same obstacle. The drill did not want to go further: either it was weak, or it was not a wooden barrel, but an iron one - it is unknown. One thing the searchers found out: they need to find another way. And they “groped”! They drilled so many vertical holes and inclined channels, hoping that through one of them the water would be sucked out by itself, that the treasure - if it really was a treasure - could not stand it: it plummeted down, sank in the torn up soil, and sank forever in the mud abyss. The farewell gurgle once again hinted to the unlucky drillers how close they were to the goal and how unwise they acted.

Here it is time to remember Professor Wilhelm. Maybe he is right with his interpretation of the inscription: what if maize or millet - being poured into the mine - would play the role of a water suction agent? The following curious detail prompts the same question. In Smuggler's Cove, an 1849 expedition discovered a half-submerged dam made of... "coconut bast", similar to the one that formed the layers in the mine. Who knows, maybe these are the remains of the former drainage system that prevented the flow of ocean water into the depths of the island?

The closer to our time, the more often treasure hunters flooded the island. Each expedition discovered something new on Oak, but they all acted so zealously and assertively that they rather delayed the solution to the mystery than brought it closer.

Expeditions of the 60s of the last century discovered several communication passages and water channels under the island. One of the largest tunnels connected the "money mine" to Smuggler's Cove and opened directly onto the coconut dam! However, inept attempts to get to the treasure disrupted the delicate system of underground communications, and since then the water from the underground galleries has not been pumped out. Even modern technology is powerless.

The 1896 “campaign” brought another sensation. Treasure hunters, as usual, began to drill in the “money mine,” and at a depth of 126 feet the drill hit a metal barrier. We replaced the drill with a small drill made of a particularly strong alloy. Having overcome the metal, the drill went surprisingly quickly - apparently, it met an empty space, and at mark 159 a layer of cement began. More precisely, it was not cement, but something like concrete, the reinforcement of which was oak boards, the thickness of this layer did not exceed 20 centimeters, and under it... under it there was some kind of soft metal! But which one? Gold? Nobody knows: not a single grain of metal stuck to the drill. The drill picked up various things: pieces of iron, crumbs of cement, fibers of wood - but no gold appeared.

Once the drill brought a very mysterious thing to the surface. A small piece of thin parchment was stuck to it, and on this parchment two letters written in ink clearly appeared: “w” and “i”. What was it: a piece of encryption indicating where to look for the treasure? A fragment of a treasure inventory? Unknown. The continuation of the text was not found, but the sensation remained a sensation. Confident drillers announced that a new chest had been found at a depth of 160 feet. They didn’t even think about the previously sunken “barrel”, but they rushed to spread the news about several treasures buried on the island, and rumors, naturally, were not slow to inflate the news. Soon rumors began to spread that the island was simply filled with treasures, albeit submerged, but if they were not brought to the surface, poor Oak would most likely burst from the riches bursting out of him.

At the same time, another mysterious sign was found on the island: a large triangle made of boulders was discovered on the southern shore. The figure most closely resembled an arrow, the tip of which precisely pointed to the giant oak tree, the only noticeable landmark in the grove that determined the location of the mine.

Now there are many versions known about the origin of the supposed treasure. The most interesting attempts are to establish a connection between Oak Island and the legendary treasure of Captain Kidd.

For four years, Captain Kidd and his pirate squadron terrified the sailors of the Indian Ocean. In 1699, the captain's ship - alone, without a squadron - unexpectedly appeared off the coast of America with a cargo of jewelry on board - worth 41 thousand pounds sterling. Kidd was instantly arrested and sent to his homeland, England, where he was very quickly sentenced to death by hanging. Two days before the gallows, on May 21, 1701, Kidd “came to his senses”: he wrote a letter to the House of Commons asking for his life... in exchange for the wealth he had hidden somewhere in a cache. Kidd’s “repentance” did not help, the pirate was executed, but literally the next day the most interesting hunt for his treasure in the history of treasure hunting began.

Some of Kidd's wealth was found relatively quickly. It was hidden on Gardiner Island, off the Atlantic coast of North Carolina and... turned out to be insignificant. According to the most probable assumptions, the main wealth could be stored in two places: in the area of the island of Madagascar and off the coast of North America.

Harold Wilkins, an American who devoted his life to finding ancient treasures, published a book in the late 1930s entitled “Captain Kidd and His Skeleton Island.” The facsimile map, supposedly drawn by the captain's hand, shown in this book, bears a striking resemblance to the map of Oak Island. The same bay on the northern shore (Smuggler's Cove?), the same mine, and even that same mysterious triangle. What is this, a coincidence? A direct indication of the connection between Kidd's last journey to the shores of America and the disappearance of his treasures? So far, there is no answer to these questions, as well as to many others.

In the 20th century, expeditions poured into the island out of a bag. 1909 was a fiasco. 1922 was a fiasco. 1931, 1934, 1938, 1955, 1960 - the result is the same. All kinds of equipment were used on the island: powerful drills and super-strong pumps, sensitive mine detectors and entire divisions of bulldozers - and all in vain.

If you trace the history of the island, it is easy to see that it is playing an “unfair game.” Any secret, and especially a secret connected with any treasure, will sooner or later be revealed. It is enough to have an exact indication of the location of the treasure, some funds, certain equipment - and you are welcome: you can run to the nearest bank and open an account there (or, making sure that there is no treasure, declare yourself bankrupt). So it was with Gardiner Island, so it was with the treasure of the Egyptian pharaohs, but what can I say: Schliemann had much less reliable information, but still dug up Troy. With Oak Island it's the opposite. The “money mine,” literally bottomless in the financial sense, willingly absorbs any amount of money, but efficiency. its, so to speak, is equal to zero.

Since 1965, the veil of mystery shrouding the island began to gradually dissipate, but this did not happen without a dramatic story. It was in 1965 that the “money mine” showed its insidious nature - four people died in it.

The Restall family - Robert Restall, his wife Mildred and their two sons - appeared on the island in the late 50s. For six years they drilled the island, trying to find the key to the mystery of the water canals. They were inspired by the fact that in the very first year of their stay on the island, Robert found another flat stone with a mysterious inscription carved on it.

He, like all his predecessors, did not extract gold, and in general the stone turned out to be the first and last find. In addition, a competitor has appeared on Oak. It was a certain Robert Dunfield, a geologist from California. He hired an entire army of bulldozer drivers and began to methodically tear down the island, hoping to achieve success by skimming or scraping. It is unknown how the competitive struggle would have ended if Restall had not died: he fell into the mine. Three people went down to save him. All three died along with Robert. Among them was the eldest son of a treasure hunter...

Patience and work...

Also in 1965, a new figure appeared on the island - 42-year-old businessman from Miami Daniel Blankenship. The newcomer did not share the barbaric methods of “handling” the island, but still, in order to somehow get involved in the matter, he became Dunfield’s companion. However, he was not there for long: Dunfield was unable to avoid the stereotypical fate of all the “conquerors” of the island - he went bankrupt, and Blankenship became almost the absolute manager of excavations on Pravda Island, a manager without funds: with the fall of Dunfield, Blankenship’s share also turned into smoke. David Tobias, a financier from Montreal, helped him out. Tobias became interested in the island, allocated a large sum of his capital and organized a company called Triton Alliance Limited, and Daniel Blankenship became one of its directors.

Blankenship was in no hurry to drill, blast, or scrape the ground. First of all, he sat down to the archives. Blankenship looked at old yellowed maps, leafed through expedition diaries, and read books on pirate and non-pirate treasures. As a result, he managed to systematize all versions of the possible treasure. Apart from the version about Captain Kidd's treasure, three of them are the most interesting.

Version one: Inca treasure

In the very north of Peru there is the province of Tumbes. Five hundred years ago this was the most fortified area of the Inca Empire. When Francisco Pizarro betrayed the Inca lands to fire and sword in the twenties of the 16th century, he managed to loot wealth there worth 5 million pounds sterling. However, this was only a small fraction of the treasures. Most of them disappeared without a trace. Where did she go? Was she secretly transported across the Isthmus of Panama and hidden on one of the small Atlantic islands? And could this piece of land be Oak Island?

Version two: the treasure of the English monks

In 1560, the English Parliament dissolved the abbey of St. Andrew. The monks of this abbey were famous for accumulating gold, diamonds and works of art in the basements of the monastery for a thousand years. After the parliament's decision, the treasure suddenly disappeared. Perhaps the unknown treasure keepers were able to cross the ocean and reach Oak Island? A curious circumstance: Oak's underground galleries and the underground passages dug under ancient English abbeys are surprisingly similar. If we ignore minor inconsistencies, we can assume that they were made by the same craftsmen.

Version three

The Gospel tells that, before ascending to Calvary, Jesus Christ held the Last Supper - a farewell dinner with his disciples. The would-be apostles shed tears and sipped wine from a massive golden chalice known as the Holy Grail. The case took place in the house of Joseph of Arimathea. It is not known whether the Last Supper actually took place or not, but a similar cup was kept for a long time in England, in Glastonbury Abbey, where Joseph of Arimathea allegedly personally delivered it. When the government decided to confiscate the wealth of Glastonbury, it was discovered that the Holy Grail seemed to have evaporated. The abbey was literally turned upside down and a large amount of gold and silver items were found, but not the cup.

Historian R. W. Harris, who first described Oak Island, believed that the cup was hidden by the Freemasons. The latter allegedly hid the Holy Grail... all on the same Oak Island.

It would seem that Blankenship has completed all the preparatory work, so what to expect? Rush to the island and drill, drill... But Daniel is in no hurry. He heard rumors about the existence of a dungeon somewhere in Haiti, which in ancient times served as a secret storage facility for pirates of the Caribbean. They say that the system of tunnels and water canals there is very similar to the communications network of Oak Island.

Blankenship boards a plane and flies to Port-au-Prince. He doesn’t find an underground bank, but he meets a man who once dug up one of the pirate treasures, estimated at 50 thousand dollars, and smuggled it out of Haiti. A conversation with a treasure hunter sent Blankenship's thoughts in a new direction. No, he decided, the pirates of the North Atlantic most likely did not build underground structures: they simply had no need for it. Someone dug all these tunnels to Kidd and Blackbeard. Maybe the Spaniards? Maybe we should date the formation of the “money mine” to 1530, when the Spanish fleet began to make relatively regular voyages between the newly discovered America and Europe? Maybe the commanders of the armadas only said that some of the ships were lost during hurricanes, but in fact they hid a significant part of the looted wealth, saving them until better times?

Blankenship did not yet know about Professor Wilhelm’s research at that time, but if he had known, or rather, if the professor had made his discovery a little earlier, they would certainly have found a common language.

Returning from Haiti, Blankenship finally settled on the island, but again did not immediately put the equipment into use. At first he walked the entire island length and breadth. He walked slowly, examining every square meter of soil, and this gave some results. He found many things that had gone unnoticed by previous expeditions. For example, while examining the shore of Smuggler's Cove, he discovered the sand-covered ruins of an ancient pier - a detail indicating the obvious inattention of all Blankenship's predecessors.

As we know, former treasure hunters too actively sought to penetrate into the bowels of the island, and, apparently, this did not allow them to take a closer look at the surface. Who knows how many secret and obvious signs, evidence, signs of antiquity that lay literally underfoot were destroyed when bulldozers ironed the island!

What's hiding on Oak Island? Pirate treasure or Viking treasure? An ancient fortress or a lost biblical relic? Nobody knows, and those who tried to find out failed. The one who hid the treasure on the island did his best: it is impossible to get to the bottom of the mine, because any hole is immediately filled with sea water from hidden channels, obviously dug on purpose.

The hole, called "Shore 10 X", is located two hundred feet northeast of the "money mine." It was first drilled in October 1969. Then its diameter did not exceed 15 centimeters. It’s hard to say why Blankenship became interested in her; knowledge of the island’s biography most likely helped.

Be that as it may, he widened the hole to 70 centimeters and reinforced the walls with a wide metal pipe. The pipe was lowered to a depth of 180 feet and rested on rocks. This did not stop the researcher. He began to drill into the rocky base of the island. Intuition told him that the search needed to be conducted in this very place. The drill went another 60 feet and came out into... a hollow chamber filled with water, which was located in a thick layer of rock.

This happened in early August 1971. The first thing Blankenship did was lower a portable television camera equipped with a light source into the Shore 10 X. He himself sat in a tent near the television screen, and his three assistants tinkered with the winch. The camera reached the treasured cavity and began to slowly turn there, sending an image upward. At that moment, a scream came from the tent. The assistants rushed there, assuming the worst that could happen—a cable break—and saw their boss in a state of, to put it mildly, exaltation. An image flickered on the screen: a huge chamber, obviously of artificial origin, and in the center of it was a hefty box, maybe even a treasure chest. However, it wasn’t the box that made Blankenship let out a scream: right in front of the camera’s eye, a human hand was floating in the water! Yes, yes, a human hand, cut off at the wrist.

You could swear to it!

When Daniel's assistants burst into the tent, he, despite his condition, did not say a word: he waited for what they would say. What if they don't see anything? What if he starts hallucinating? Before the first person running in had time to glance at the screen, he immediately shouted: “What the hell is this, Dan? No human hand!”

Dan cheated.

Well, yes? - he doubted internally, rejoicing. - Maybe a glove?

To hell with two gloves! - the second worker, Jerry, intervened. - Look, all the bones of this devil can be counted!

When Daniel came to his senses, it was already too late. The hand disappeared from the focus of the television camera, and no one at first thought about photographing the image. Blankenship then took many screenshots. One of them shows a “chest” and a blurry image of a hand, while the other shows the outline of a human skull! However, the clarity with which the hand was seen for the first time was never achieved subsequently.

Blankenship was well aware that photographs were not proof. Although he was sure of the existence of the chest, the hand, and the skull, he could not convince others of this. Any photo reporter would laugh at him, let alone anyone, and they know what photo tricks are.

Dan decided to go down to Shorehole 10 X himself and bring at least some evidence to the surface. But since lowering a person into a 70-centimeter well to a depth of almost 75 meters is a risky business, it had to be postponed until next autumn.

And sesame... doesn’t open

So, the year is 1972, September. The last of the currently known expeditions is operating on Oak Island. Her boss, Daniel Blankenship, is going to penetrate deep into the rocky base of the island to finally answer the mystery that has been troubling treasure seekers for almost 200 years.

The first test descent took place on September 16. Blankenship reached a depth of 170 feet and tested the equipment. Everything is fine. Two days later - another descent. Now Dan decided to reach the “treasury” itself and look around there a little. The dive went like clockwork. In two minutes, Blankenship reached the bottom end of a 180-foot metal pipe, then slid into a shaft in the rock, and now he was at the bottom of the “treasure chamber.” The first impression is disappointment: nothing is visible. The water is cloudy, and the light of the lantern penetrates it no further than a meter. After a minute and a half, Dan pulled the cable: you can lift it.

Almost nothing is visible, he says on the surface. “You can see three feet, then there’s darkness.” However, it is clear that this is a large cavity, and there is something in it. It’s hard to say what we have: we need more light. At the bottom there is some garbage, debris, everything is covered with silt. Because of the silt, the water is cloudy. Next time I'll take a closer look. The most important thing is that you got there!

September 21 - third attempt. This time, Blankenship lowered a powerful light source into the camera: two car headlights on a small platform. Then he went down himself. The result was disastrous: the headlights did not cope with the task, they failed to penetrate the muddy muddy water. The last hope is for a camera with a flash. Coming down on September 23, Blankenship realized that this was not an option either. Taking off his light diving suit, he dejectedly complained to his comrades.

There is no point in taking photographs. I couldn't even figure out where the front of this damn camera was and where the back was. In general, clicking the shutter there is a waste of time. And there's no need for headlights. It feels like they don't exist at all. It's a shame. You go down to great depths, you know that there is something there, and then at the slightest movement clouds of silt rise up, and you can’t see a damn thing. Everything is fine until you get into the cavity, where things go down the drain.

So, the island stubbornly keeps its secret. Much is already known, but no one is able to answer the main question - is there a treasure there and what is it? Either a serious new researcher or Daniel Blankenship can shed light on the Oak Island mystery. And Blankenship... remains silent.

I won’t make any statements for now,” he says. “I’m not going to tell anyone anything until I find out everything completely.” I don't want crowds of damn idiots on every corner screaming as if they were the ones who told me the secret. I don’t want there to be any squabbling over wealth here. The only thing I can say about the treasure is that pirates have nothing to do with it. I think I know what is below, and this thing is grander than anything you can imagine... Theories about the treasure of the Incas, English monks and others are interesting, but implausible. It's all about the truth, not the truth itself. What lies beneath the island leaves any theory behind. All theories or legends fade in the rays of what I guess... And pirates have nothing to do with it. Exactly! If I thought Captain Kidd had a hand in this, I wouldn't be on the island. Captain Kidd is a boy compared to those who actually dug the tunnels here. These people are no match for pirates, they were much more significant than all the pirates of all times combined...

Numerous attempts to get to the treasure of Oak Island ended the same way. Workers were digging mines - they were flooded with water. They built dams - the tide destroyed the work. They dug underground tunnels - they collapsed. The drills pierced the ground and did not bring anything significant to the surface.

The main achievement of the Halifax Company, which burst in 1867, was the opening of the entrance to the water tunnel in the Money Mine. It was located at a depth of 34 meters. The tunnel went up to Smuggler's Bay at an angle of 22.5 degrees. During high tide, water gushed out of it with force.

The Halifax Company was the first to ask the precise question: WHY did unknown builders put so much effort into Oak Island? The answer suggested itself: the treasure stored underground is so great that the forces of the ocean had to be put on guard over it.

Already at the end of the last century, serious researchers began to realize that the treasure on Oak was unlikely to be of pirate origin. Here is what researcher Rupert Furneaux wrote about this a few years ago, the man who proposed the most reasoned version (we are gradually approaching it):

“By 1740, the zenith of piracy in the Atlantic and Caribbean was already behind us. Few of the pirates accumulated great wealth, and very few wanted to hide it. These were amazing mots! The connection between pirates and buried treasure is fictional, from books. Secret burials contradicted the very practice of piracy. Teams were recruited on the condition: “No loot, no pay.” The captain, elected by free vote, grabbed a double share for himself, and if he hit the big jackpot, it is unlikely that he would be able to persuade the crew to dig tunnels for many months to create a permanent pirate bank. After all, only a few survivors could subsequently use the trophies. The size of the burial site on Oak Island and the calculation of its longevity are alien to pirate psychology.”

So, it is clear: the work on the island was headed by intelligent people who knew hydraulic engineering and mining, capable of subordinating and organizing the work of many performers to their will. Already in our time, experts have calculated: to complete the entire volume of work - to dig shafts, dig tunnels, build a drainage “sponge” - using 18th-century tools, the efforts of at least a hundred people would have been required, working daily in three shifts for - at most - six months.

The truth - in this case, a possible solution to the mystery of Oak Island - as often happens, probably loses out to speculation. It is perhaps less romantic, but it has nothing in common with mysticism or cheap science fiction and at the same time is more humane.

So we finally come to the main problem of the island. In the end, for a real researcher, for an inquisitive historian who turns his attention to Oak, it is not so important what and how much is buried on the island. The most interesting thing is to find out who worked on Oak and when?

And after this it will become clear and in the name of what?

sources

http://www.vokrugsveta.ru/vs/article/5056/ - Vitaly Babenko

http://ribalych.ru/2015/04/22/zagadki-ostrova-ouk/

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Oak

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_ islands _Oak

Let me remind you of a few more mysterious stories: here’s one for you, and here’s an interesting version about. There is also . Here's more for you The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy was made -

The bewitching mysticism of treasures beckons, does not let go and does not give peace... The desire to find untold riches has become the cause of terrible tragedies, murders and disappointments. But the most “impenetrable” place is the Money Mine, located on Oak Island. For two centuries she has been playing with treasure hunters, never giving up the desired treasure...

Pirate games

At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, boys played pirates, just as they do now. They didn’t need books for inspiration; they knew history very well thanks to the stories of old-timers. They managed to catch both Captain Kidd and the infamous Blackbeard.

Daniel McGinnis grew up on the coast, and chose a small island located near Nova Scotia to play with friends. It was called Oak, in honor of the huge tree that grew there. It was this oak tree that started a chain of events that continues to this day.

Three brave pirates discovered a sign on one of the branches. He pointed to the ground, and the guys immediately began digging. True, on their own they only managed to find a vertical well, going deep underground. The children were able to go down a little, but the shovels rested on some kind of wooden surface.

The adults refused to help - the island had a very bad reputation. Then Daniel and his friends searched the entire coast, but their finds were limited to one coin and a mooring stone to which boats were once attached.

Return to Oak Island

The main instigator of pirate games did not give up his dream of digging up treasure. He returned to the island 10 years later, taking assistants with him. Digging a well, they successively came across layers of clay, charcoal, and coconut sponge. The man-made nature of the pit was confirmed by oak partitions found at regular intervals.

Ultimately, treasure hunters discovered a stone with an encrypted inscription. Much later, 2 versions of what was written on the plate appeared. According to the first, this was information about the value of the treasure - 2 million pounds sterling. In the 70s of the 20th century, a second assumption was made - the code was a hint for those suffering from wealth, and recommended pouring maize or millet grains into the water.

But these interpretations appeared many years after McGinnis's work. And the treasure hunters themselves continued to dig. It became more and more difficult to work, water began to appear in the hole, but it seemed that the cherished goal was already close - the friends found some kind of wooden object. However, night came and further searches were postponed until the morning.

At dawn, the treasure hunters were in for a terrible disappointment - the mine was filled with liquid to a depth of 60 feet. It was not possible to pump it out...

Oak Island Expeditions

What happened to the man who discovered the well first is unknown. But a pilgrimage to the mine began. In the mid-19th century, a full-fledged expedition was sent to the island. They brought with them a drill that went down 98 feet and hit a familiar obstacle.

The participants decided that inclined and vertical holes should be drilled to suck out the water. There were so many of them that the treasure sank and disappeared into the abyss of mud and silt. Perhaps the idea with cereal was not so naive? This idea is confirmed by the dilapidated dam. Presumably, it protected the island from being flooded by ocean water.

In 1896, new drillers arrived on Oak Island. They managed to reach the metal barrier. They found a way to break through it using a particularly strong drill. Below was what looked like concrete, an oak partition and soft metal. They hoped it was gold, but there was no confirmation. Wood fibers, pieces of iron and even a piece of parchment stuck to the instrument, but not a crumb of the precious contents. However, treasure hunters confidently reported that a chest lay at a depth of 160 feet, and crowds flocked to the island, attracted by rumors of many sunken barrels of treasure.

In the 60s of the last century, underground passages and channels for draining water were discovered that connected the mine and the dam. But drillers a hundred years earlier had damaged the carefully calibrated message system. Since then it has been flooded with water, and even the latest modern technology is powerless.

The year 1965 was marked by the death of four people. At the same time, Daniel Blankenship showed up on Oak. This man approached the search thoughtfully and thoroughly. He did not rush to destroy the already broken well, but slowly walked around the entire island. He also found the remains of an ancient pier, which previous searchers had not noticed. There may once have been many clues on the island, but the rough handling of the land and the mass of technology most likely destroyed them all.

What's hiding in the mine?

It was Daniel Blankenship, after analyzing all archival materials related to pirates, who rejected the version of the secret treasure of the captain of the filibuster ship. This was later confirmed by other researchers. The corsairs were not characterized by the desire for complex construction, but they wasted their lives and were famous for their extravagance. All the loot remained in the bottomless pockets of innkeepers and whores.

The wise treasure hunter put forward 3 versions, according to which the money pit hides:

Incan treasures looted by Francisco Pissaro. He managed to embezzle millions of pounds worth of gold, but all this money disappeared without a trace. Perhaps they are still safely hidden in the depths of Oak Island;

UK monks' money. After the introduction of Protestantism in England, monasteries were mercilessly ruined and destroyed. After the dissolution of the Abbey of St. Andrew, the untold wealth stored in the cellars also disappeared. This version is also supported by the fact that the system of underground communications on the island and the secret passages of the monasteries were built according to the same principle;

Holy Grail. The existence of the artifact is controversial; according to one version, it was hidden by the Masons on a small island near Nova Scotia.

Daniel Blankenship managed to lower photographic equipment into a hole drilled nearby, and then for the first time the veil of secrecy was slightly lifted. He could see a huge box, and a human hand was floating nearby and the outline of a skull could be seen. After this, the researcher made 3 attempts to descend the money pit, but all of them ended in fiasco. Black silt hid everything around at the slightest movement.

The secret remains a secret. Daniel Blankenship makes vague statements that he has speculation about Oak Island's treasure, but he won't voice it until he finally figures it out. However, it hints that the truth will be much more fantastic than all versions.

Since 2013, Rick and Martin Lagin have been excavating on the island, but so far their only achievement is the discovery of a Spanish gold coin.

Who and why?

In fact, in an effort to become millionaires, seized by the fever of enrichment, few of the diggers thought about what kind of people and, most importantly, why they worked titanically in order to reliably hide the mysterious treasure.

For the first time this question was asked by the Halifax Company. According to calculations and conclusions drawn from the results of excavations, the construction was managed by those who knew mining and hydraulic engineering. In addition, they had strong-willed and leadership qualities, because the work would require 1000 people who would have to work in 3 shifts for at least six months...

These facts suggest that the value of the hidden treasure is so great that it was necessary to attract the forces of the ocean to hide it, and the hard work was justified. Modern researchers believe that until it becomes known who, why and when turned a small island into a fortress to hide a single chest, it will not be possible to find it...