The Oak Island Money Pit was discovered the summer of 1795 by Daniel McGinnis. He was drawn into the island by strange lights visible from his house. Upon his investigation, he comes across a block and tackle hung directly over a circular indentation on the island’s floor. Daniel, along with two of his friends John Smith and Anthony Vaughan started to dig out the bizarre pit. Their curiosity is due to that time period being the pinnacle of the “Golden Age of Piracy (Maritime Museum of the Atlantic).” In hopes of finding treasure, Daniel and his friends were the first of a long list of people to take-up the Oak Island Money Pit. After two attempts, their fascination grew stronger as they discover layers of man-made obstacles, giving them assurance that there is buried treasure. Unfortunately, the boys dug down 35 feet before defeat set in and they abandoned their excavation.
Trial and Error
John Smith, the eldest of the three teenagers, ...view middle of the document...
” Leitchi stated that the stone tablet read “Forty Feet Down Two Million Pounds Are Buried (James Leitchi, 1860s).” In account of that information, the Onslow Company continued excavating only to discover that the Money Pit has been flooded. After numerous ways to resolve this obstacle, no strategy was effective and the Onslow Company was forced to accept defeat. The flooding of the Money Pit was a problem all of the following groups had to overcome, but to no avail.
Word about the Money Pit has spread since its discovery and people from all over North America were fascinated. From lawyers, businessmen, doctors, actors and even a president was curious about the mysterious site. Many theories have been contemplated, but not one in particular has been fully certified to be the truth. The most popular theories are those of pirates. Captain William Kidd was said to have admitted in burying treasure in the Oak Island area before he was captured in 1699, but suspicions are that he would not have had enough money to construct the Money Pit. The other pirate that is though to have established the Money Pit is Blackbeard. Blackbeard has been associated with Oak Island and that he has mentioned having an underground treasure, “where none but Satan and [him]self can find it (Blackbeard),” but there is no evidence of the treasure being in Oak Island. Another theory is that the Money Pit is simply a natural phenomenon. A part of the structure is unquestionably man-made because of the stone tablet and the platforms every 10 feet, but the rest is thought to be a sinkhole, which would explain all of the flooding.
Today the secret of the Oak Island Money Pit remain unknown. The island’s floor is marked by 200 years of digging by people in hopes of finding the contents that lay within. Weather the Money Pit contains treasure or if it is merely a work of nature, the Oak Island Money Pit continues to be one of the world’s greatest mysteries.