Oak Island For Sale - A Mere $7 Million

I've always been facinated with the Oak Island mystery.
It looks like Oak Island is for Sale!

Here is the link to the story I found;
www.livescience.com...

It may look like a fixer-upper at first glance, but what is buried beneath scrubby little Oak Island might just make its estimated $7 million price tag worth the investment.

I know several engineers have tried to unravel its mysteries, but I would love to take a crack at it myself.

But $7 million is a little too steep for me.

Mod Edit: All Caps – Please Review This Link.

Mod Edit: External Source Tags – Please Review This Link.

[edit on 13/6/2007 by Mirthful Me]

I don't know, and island for $7 million seems like a hell of a good deal. Unfortunatly I don't know the mystery of Oak Island; do you think you could explain it, or put up a link?

Just been reading some stuff recently where Oak island is mentioned in a few articles.
Very interesting but noteworthy that it's also known as the Money Pit

Those old Templars do seem to pop up just about everywhere too which makes for some very interesting reading.

Here's a link to one of many stories on Oak Island mystery.

One of the many...

One summer day in 1795 Daniel McGinnis, then a teenager, was wandering about Oak Island, Nova Scotia (see Geography) when he came across a curious circular depression in the ground. Standing over this depression was a tree whose branches had been cut in a way which looked like it had been used as a pulley. Having heard tales of pirates in the area he decided to return home to get friends and return later to investigate the hole

(pause for brief interlude)

Back on track,

I think 7m would be a good investment for an island, particularly Oak Island.

Whether or not the 'treasure' is still there, or ever existed, is irrelevant.

Being used as a tourist destination based solely on the mystery could bring in a fair chunk of change if done correctly.

(checks couch for loose change )

I remember reading about this when I was just a kid.
I always figured that the Money Pit as it has been called is either a great engineering feat or a stupendous hoax.

6 people had died and millions have been spent trying to uncover the mystery of what is buried there. It is reported that there are flood tunnels that allow sea water to infiltrate the pit and a whole series of booby traps.

To me it is amazing that with all the modern technology available today no one has been able to solve this.

One of the fascinating disccovies was found 90 feet down. A stone with strange inscriptions was found. One universty professor translated the inscription as " "Forty Feet below two million pounds are buried";

here is a link; www.activemind.com...

Another mystery is the cement vault that was found at 160 feet.

Pirate treasure. Viking gold, what could be so valuable to merit all this effort?


[edit on 13-6-2007 by Sparky63]

[edit on 13-6-2007 by Sparky63]

Never heard of the island before, but I'm now glad that I have!

At $7 Million, I bet that a fair few people are going to be hoping to buy.

For anyone thats interested, here are the Google Earth Coordinates;

44°30'48.10"N 64°17'31.39"W

This is a topic near and dear to my heart. For a recent thread that discussed the Oak Island issue, got to:
www.abovetopsecret.com...'

This sounds to me like a bit of a bait and switch or deceptive advertising.

I think the sellers have already found the treasure, but are putting the value of the real estate for its archaeological value rather than what they are claiming is still in there.

In other words, the cupboard is bare but you are welcome to buy it and give it the ol' fix-er-up treatment for your collection of knick-knacks. Actually, research papers and rights to publishing them are potentially (over the lifetime of the documents and the associated courses and curriculum based on the subject, the printed texts profits, etc.) quite lucrative for a university.

Originally posted by JohnnyCanuck
This is a topic near and dear to my heart. For a recent thread that discussed the Oak Island issue, got to:
www.abovetopsecret.com...'

no comment

Here is a picture of Oak Island I snagged from Google Earth.

Google earth also had this info on the mysterious Island.

Oak Island
The Money Pit Oak Island is noted as the location of the so-called Money Pit, a site of numerous excavations to recover treasure believed by many to be buried there.The island is privately owned and advance permission is required for any visit. Early history Mid-19th century newspaper stories recount that, in 1795, young Donald Daniel McInnis discovered a circular depression on the south eastern end of the island with an adjacent tree which had a tackle block on one of its overhanging branches. McInnis, with the help of friends John Smith and Anthony Vaughan, excavated the depression and discovered a layer of flagstones a few feet below. On the pit walls there were visible markings from a pick. As they dug down they discovered layers of logs at about every ten feet (3 m). They abandoned the excavation at 30 feet (10 m). About eight years later, according to the original nineteenth century article, another company examined what was to become known as the Money Pit. The Onslow Company sailed 300 nautical miles from central Nova Scotia near Truro to Oak Island with the goal of recovering what they believed to be secret treasure. They continued the excavation down to approximately 90 feet (27.43 m), and found layers of logs or "marks" about every ten feet (3 m) and layers of charcoal, putty and coconut fibre at 40, 50 and 60 feet (12, 15 and 18 m). According to one of the earliest written accounts, a newspaper article called "The Oak Island Diggings" from the Liverpool Transcript (Oct 1862), at 80 or 90 feet (27 m) they recovered a large stone bearing an inscription of symbols. The pit subsequently flooded up to the 33-foot (10 m) level. Bailing did not reduce the water level and the excavation was abandoned. Investors formed The Truro Company in 1849, which re-excavated the shaft back down to the 86 foot (26 m) level, where it flooded again. They then drilled into the ground below the bottom of the shaft. According to the nineteenth century account, the drill or "pod auger" passed through a spruce platform at 98 feet (30 m), a 12-inch head space, 22 inches (560 mm) of what was described as "metal in pieces", 8 inches (200 mm) of oak, another 22 inches (560 mm) of metal, 4 inches (100 mm) of oak, another spruce layer, and finally into clay for 7 feet without striking anything else. One account states they recovered three small gold links of a chain from mud stuck to the drill. They attempted to prevent the pit from flooding by damming Smith's Cove, and later by excavating a shaft into what was believed to be a flood tunnel from the sea to block it and prevent the pit from filling with water. The original 18th Century story of the pit's discovery along with the mid-19th century newspaper accounts are based on unverified folklore and may be entirely false. The earliest published description of the Money Pit is a news article in the Liverpool Transcript newspaper in October 1862. This included an oral account of the early years of excavation attempts as told by at least one digger. No supporting material or evidence has surfaced ever since, and the story has been impossible to verify. Several researchers have noted that artifacts like the inscribed stone and gold chain links could have been placed in the pit during expensive excavation operations for the purpose of attracting more investors.

Here is a link to a site that presents the view that this is a natural formation and that any artifacts have been planted.

www.csicop.org...
here is an exerpt

In 1911 an engineer, Captain Henry L. Bowdoin, who had done extensive borings on the island, concluded that the treasure was imaginary. He questioned the authenticity of various alleged findings (such as the cipher stone and piece of gold chain), and attributed the rest to natural phenomena (Bowdoin 1911). Subsequent skeptics have proposed that the legendary Money Pit was nothing more than a sinkhole caused by the ground settling over a void in the underlying rock (Atlantic 1965). The strata beneath Oak Island are basically limestone and anhydrite (Crooker 1978, 85; Blankenship 1999), which are associated with the formation of solution caverns and salt domes (Cavern 1960; Salt Dome 1960). The surface above caverns, as well as over faults and fissures, may be characterized by sinkholes.

Indeed, a sinkhole actually appeared on Oak Island in 1878. A woman named Sophia Sellers was plowing when the earth suddenly sank beneath her oxen. Ever afterward known as the "Cave-in Pit," it was located just over a hundred yards east of the Money Pit and directly above the "flood tunnel" (O'Connor 1988, 51).

While I believe there is a treasure waiting to be found I acknowlege the possibility that this is a natural phenomena.

I hope I live long enough to find out one way or another.

Originally posted by JohnnyCanuck
This is a topic near and dear to my heart. For a recent thread that discussed the Oak Island issue, got to:
www.abovetopsecret.com...'

Thanks JohnnyCanuck. I read all three pages of the link you sent and have learned a lot. Not only about Oak Island but also bout how quickly a polite discussion and interhange of ideas can go south. ie petty bickering and name calling.

I don't mean to step on anyones toes by rehashing old info. I don't see how anyone can be dogmatic about the matter, one way or the other.

I did not see this mentioned in the other discussion so I will add this info.

Geologist E. Rudolph Faribault found "numerous" sinkholes on the mainland opposite Oak Island, and in a geological report of 1911 concluded there was "strong evidence" to indicate that the purported artificial structures on the island were "really but natural sink holes and cavities." Further evidence of caverns in the area came in 1975 when a sewage-disposal system was being established on the mainland. Approximately 3,000 feet north of the island, workmen excavating with heavy machinery broke through a rock layer and discovered a 52-foot-deep cavern below (Crooker 1993, 144). Fred Nolan insists that, earlier, in 1969, while drilling on Oak Island, Triton broke into a cavern near the fabled treasure shaft at a depth of 165 feet. "Blankenship and Tobias figured that the cavern was man-made," said Nolan, "but it isn't, as far as I'm concerned" (Crooker 1993, 165). And Mark Finnan (1997, 111), writing of "the unique geological nature of Oak Island," states as a fact that "naturally formed underground caverns are present in the island's bedrock." These would account for the flood "booby-traps" that were supposedly placed to guard the "treasure" (Preston 1988, 63).

Today, of course, after two centuries of excavation, the island's east end is "honey combed with shafts, tunnels and drill holes running in every imaginable direction" (Crooker 1978, 190), complicating the subterranean picture and making it difficult to determine the nature of the original pit. In suggesting that it was a sinkhole, caused by the slumping of debris in a fault, one writer noted that "this filling would be softer than the surrounding ground, and give the impression that it had been dug up before" (Atlantic 1965). Fallen trees could have sunk into the pit with its collapse, or "blowdowns" could periodically have washed into the depression (Preston 1988, 63), later giving the appearance of "platforms" of rotten logs.

Just such a pit was in fact discovered in 1949 on the shore of Mahone Bay, about five miles to the south of Oak Island, when workmen were digging a well. The particular site was chosen because the earth was rather soft there. Reports O'Connor (1988, 172-173): "At about two feet down a layer of fieldstone was struck. Then logs of spruce and oak were unearthed at irregular intervals, and some of the wood was charred. The immediate suspicion was that another Money Pit had been found."

The treasure seekers and mystery mongers are quick, however, to dismiss any thoughts that the "shaft" and "tunnels" could be nothing more than a sinkhole and natural channels. Why, the early accounts would then have to be "either gross exaggerations or outright lies," says one writer (O'Connor 1988, 173). For example, what about the reported "pick marks found in the walls of the pit" (O'Connor 1988, 173)? We have already seen-with the oak-limb-and-pulley detail-just how undependable are such story elements. Then what about the artifacts (such as the fragment of parchment) or the coconut fiber (often carried on ships as dunnage, used to protect cargo) found at various depths? Again, the sinkhole theory would explain how such items "worked their way into deep caverns under the island" (Preston 1988, 63).

www.csicop.org...

One thing is true, people love a good mystery and are willing to accept ,less than reliable, data to support it. If it is a sham then some good men died for nothing.



[edit on 13-6-2007 by Sparky63]

[edit on 13-6-2007 by Sparky63]

[edit on 13-6-2007 by Sparky63]

Oak Island, in Nova Scotia, is famous for its Money Pit, a mystery that has endured two centuries, claimed six lives and swallowed up millions in life savings.

The Pit was discovered in 1795 by a local boy named Daniel McGinnis who, spotting an unusual clearing in the earth under one of the island's oak trees, was prompted to start digging. The discovery of layered planks, mysterious stone slabs, and mats made of coconut fibers descending deep into the ground turned his casual afternoon dig into an all-out excavation.

Investors and thrill-seekers would eventually jump in and continue the work, kicking off one of the world's longest running treasure hunts.

[edit on 13-6-2007 by elevatedone]

Well personally that would make it more attractive, the gold and all. But, I'd rather buy it just to be able to say, hey look, that island, that's mine. And at $7 mil, that doesn't seem like to bad of a deal to say that's your island; plus, there is the chance of finding gold and treasure.

Originally posted by ChrisJr03
Well personally that would make it more attractive, the gold and all. But, I'd rather buy it just to be able to say, hey look, that island, that's mine. And at $7 mil, that doesn't seem like to bad of a deal to say that's your island; plus, there is the chance of finding gold and treasure.

Absolutely! Why its just like saying, "Hey, I'm hungry! Maybe I'll buy me this here box of candy-coated popcorn with peanuts, and although its gonna promote tooth decay and give me a belly ache, there's also the possibility of a secret toy surprise in the box!!!!!"

I agree the $7 million would be a steal for an Island all to your self.
I wonder if it has its own source of fresh water though. I dont recall any mention of this.

I would love to be allowed to explore the island on my own. It would be a great adventure.