Oak Island

Oak Island is a 140-acre (57-hectare) island located in Mahone Bay off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada. It is one of a number of small islands in the area and named for the profusion of oak trees across its surface. The privately owned island is connected to the mainland by a causeway that was first built in the 1960s.

Numerous islands in the area were known to be stopping places for pirates and privateers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which gave rise to speculation that buried treasure may be in the area. Oak Island has become well-known for possibly being the site of buried treasure and also for the 225-year-long search to recover it. It has been the subject of several books and television documentaries as well as the long-running American reality television show Curse of Oak Island.

Background

Oak Island is located in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia, and is across the bay from the community of Western Shore and the city of Chester. It is actually a collection of four drumlins, or small elongated hills formed out of rock and clay as glaciers retreated around twelve thousand years ago. Because of this, the geology on the island differs in places, depending on how the rocks were deposited.

Geologists say that the island was connected to the mainland until about one thousand years ago. Water from melting glaciers caused the sea levels in the area to rise, creating a separation. The island itself is comprised of limestone and gypsum along with layers of gravel and other rocks moved and shaped by the movement of the glaciers.

Overview

Native Americans inhabited the area on the mainland near Oak Island when Europeans arrived. The earliest European inhabitants of the area on the mainland shore were French fishermen who most likely arrived in the 1750s. Efforts by the Nova Scotian government to promote settlement on Oak Island included offering Shoreham grants, which were land grants, to residents of nearby areas. In 1761, four families from Massachusetts accepted grants. This divided the island, then known as Smith’s Island, into four parts, one part each for the Lynch, Monro, Seacombe, and Young families.

While these four families were the first recorded settlers, local lore and legend claimed that many pirates and privateers were actually the first to spend time on Oak Island. These include Captain William Kidd, Edward Teach—better known as Blackbeard—and Sir Francis Bacon. Historical records place all these men and others in and around the area. The idea of pirates and others using Oak Island makes sense because these islands were secluded locations where pirates could find water and other resources and offload treasure without scrutiny.

The possibility of a pirate presence in the area combined with the report of some young men believed to have found a treasure shaft on the island in 1795 has led to one of the longest treasure hunts in human history. That year, sixteen-year-old Daniel McGinnis was hunting on the island when he came across a circular depression in the ground. Evidence indicated that trees had been cut from the area in the past, and reportedly a very old ship’s tackle was hanging from a tree branch above the depression. The tackle most likely had been used to winch up loads and place them in the hold.

McGinnis asked friends John Smith and Anthony Vaughn to help him dig at the site. As they dug, they discovered timber platforms every ten feet down. When they sought help, they piqued the interest of a wealthy local resident named Simeon Lynds. Convinced there was pirate treasure to be had, the team dug through many alternating layers of dirt and oak timbers. The men uncovered sections with coconut fiber, which does not naturally occur anywhere near the island but was used as a packing material during the age of sailing ships. They also uncovered a stone with strange markings that were eventually translated, indicating that a million pounds (an English monetary denomination) was buried below. The group managed to reach 108 feet before water flooded the hole—soon dubbed the “Money Pit”—and prevented them from digging further.

Many other treasure hunters followed. A drilling effort in the first half of the 1800s resulted in retrieving a small bit of gold chain from deep below ground. In the 1850s, a searcher digging a secondary tunnel near the Money Pit to try to avoid the water discovered that the water was salty, which led to the theory that the Money Pit was booby trapped with flood tunnels aimed at protecting the treasure. Efforts to pursue this theory led to the discovery of five box drains in a cove near the pit.

In the first century since it was discovered, multiple attempts were made to uncover the treasure, with all being thwarted by obstacles. These included water flooding tunnels, the sea washing away coffer dams aimed at stopping the flood tunnels, and underground formations too hard for tools to penetrate.

The challenge seemed to only increase interest. In 1965, Readers’ Digest published an article about Oak Island, which attracted the attention of Dan Blankenship, who devoted the rest of his life to the search before his death in 2019. A young boy from Michigan, Rick Lagina, read the same article and shared it with his brother, Marty Lagina. As adults, they launched one of the largest search efforts in the island’s history.

In 2014, the History Channel began running a reality series chronicling the efforts of the Laginas and their partners to determine whether treasure was buried on the island. Oak Island is also the site of several archaeological digs related to previous residents and searchers. If treasure is found on the island, 10 percent of it will belong to the government.

Bibliography

Arsenault, Tim. “Nova Scotia Mining Association Launches Social Media Campaign About Oak Island Facts.” Chronicle Herald, 25 July 2019, www.thechronicleherald.ca/lifestyles/local-lifestyles/nova-scotia-mining-association-launches-social-media-campaign-about-oak-island-facts-336367/. Accessed 2 Feb. 2025.

Butts, Edward. “Oak Island.” Canadian Encyclopedia, 4 Mar. 2015, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/oak-island. Accessed 2 Feb. 2025.

Goldfarb, Kara. “The Enduring Mystery of the Oak Island Treasure.” All That’s Interesting, 5 Apr. 2018, allthatsinteresting.com/oak-island-treasure. Accessed 2 Feb. 2025.

Kiprop, Victor. “What Is Oak Island?” World Atlas, 24 Aug. 2017, www.worldatlas.com/articles/who-owns-oak-island.html. Accessed 2 Feb. 2025.

MacDonald, David. “Treasure Hunt: The Mystery of Oak Island.” Readers’ Digest, Jan. 1965, www.readersdigest.ca/culture/treasure-hunt/. Accessed 2 Feb. 2025.

Milligan, Mark. "The History of the Oak Island Money Pit." Heritage Daily, 22 Apr. 2024, www.heritagedaily.com/2024/04/the-history-of-the-oak-island-money-pit/151722. Accessed 2 Feb. 2025.

“Oak Island.” Nova Scotia Canada, 2020, www.novascotia.com/places-to-go/regions/south-shore/oak-island. Accessed 2 Feb. 2025.

Tremonti, Anna Marie. “Centuries of Intrigue, Turmoil and Death: Why Treasure Hunters Can’t Stay Away from Oak Island.” CBC Radio, 1 July 2019, www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-june-6-2019-1.5163833/centuries-of-intrigue-turmoil-and-death-why-treasure-hunters-can-t-stay-away-from-oak-island-1.5163838. Accessed 2 Feb. 2025.