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Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Buried Treasure
From: joltes@husc.harvard.edu (Dick Joltes)
Date: Tue, 28 Jun 1994 18:56:05 GMT

hbact003@huey.csun.edu (brett jaffee) writes: >In a previous article, jmax@panix.com (John Maxwell Hobbs) says:
>>I remember hearing about a vertical shaft found in Newfoundland or
>>someplace like that. Supposedly it had wooden platforms every x feet and
>>was flooded with seawater. The seawater would flood back in whenever it
>>was pumped out. Some people thought that it might be Captain Kidd's
>>treasure. Anyone have any info?

>I think the place is called Oak Island. I recall that the show "In Search
>of" once did a stroy about it.

Oak Island is indeed the place that the original poster asked about. The "pit" was first "discovered" (if all the folklore around it can be believed) in around 1795, and various expeditions over the intervening years have failed to produce much of anything except more weirdness. According to the stories, the "dig" developed thusly:

1. kids find huge oak tree with [old ship's pulley | "rope burn marks"] on branch, decide something's buried there. Start digging (1795 or so). After some time they find oak platform, cut through, keep digging, keep finding more platforms. Eventually they can't dig anymore and get help.
2. over next 150 years about 10 different expeditions dig in the area. They find, supposedly:
   1. marker stating that "90 feet below, 100,000 pounds are buried"
   2. cannon balls
   3. even more oak platforms, stonework, etc
   4. absolutely no treasure
3. at some point (mid 1850s, I think) some diggers hit a floor that "sounded hollow" and thought they'd cracked the secret. But they came back the next day to find the hole filled with sea water, which resisted all attempts to pump it out. Supposedly there are cunningly-designed tunnels dug from the beach to the pit and filled with (get this...} coconut fibre that acts as a wick and prevents the channels from clogging with silt.
4. in the 1950s some diggers put an auger drill down the still-flooded hole and supposedly came back with a bit of parchment and "2 links from a gold chain." If true, and if there was a sealed chest down there, this ruined any chance of recovering it intact. Any paper goods are now probably goo.
5. the island is currently owned by a group called Triton Alliance, which is still trying to get funding for another go at the "treasure." The pit is now at a depth of something like 230'.
6. the site has been purported to be the resting place for some English royal jewelry, Capt. Kidd's gold, etc.

There are lots of legends about the whole affair. The supposed marker stone apparently appeared and disappeared several times (no one knows where it now is), and conveniently showed up as people were stumping for funds. How much of the actual story is true is another subject for debate. There's now a HUGE hole in the island, and all remnants of the original pit with the oak platforms have been wiped away. Archaeologically, it's a wreck, and no one with any credentials will touch the site.

Personally, I think that the site, if anything, was part of a munitions store for the British Navy, or for local pirates. Hence the cannon shot that was dug up. Sometime when I'm in England I want to over some of the old Admiralty records to see if such a place was ever used for storage.

As for the flood tunnels and cunning channels? The whole bloody island is a few miles long, and a half-mile wide. Can you say "max. 10' above sea level?" Can you say "what happens when you dig below the water table?" I knew you could...

Why do I have all this info? I saw the "In Search Of" show in the late 1970s, thought it sounded really cool, then forgot all about it. In 1989 someone on sci.archaeology asked about it; I did a pile of research and found most of the info listed above (and decided the legend was quite a bit of hooey). I have a pretty extensive bibliography if anyone's interested.

Dick "no matter how thin you slice it..." Joltes joltes@husc.harvard.edu