Planning the Next Swamp Dig (Season 13) | The Curse of Oak Island

You are a firm belief that there are answers to the Oak Island mystery that reside within the bog.
>> How can you deny it? No matter how you look at it, somebody did an immense amount of work in that bog.
>> Rick meets with fellow Oak Island landowner Tom Nolan and other members of the team [music] in the research center to plan their next dig in the swamp.
I think the north end of the bog in terms of the size and the amount of finds in a very confined space was quite exciting and incredibly interesting >> and incredibly confusing.
The amount of stakes that we found all of uniform size, uniform strikes in terms [music] of making the sharpened end eight strokes. And when you look at it as they’re plotted, it’s meaningful.
>> Oh, very meaningful. Somebody was trying to leave a path.
>> Mhm. Yeah.
>> Before uncovering the stone features in the western and southwestern areas of the swamp this year. Working with Tom on his property in the northern region. The team previously discovered very similar stone structures and several eight-sided survey stakes leading to an empty vault-like structure.
>> Yeah. the the so-called vault is is was captivating in and of itself. I mean, we found paths, [music] roads, but that vault was quite singular and unique. [music] >> Yeah.
>> Now, Rick and Tom want to know if all of the stone structures they’ve uncovered across the swamp are connected and if other vaults that [music] still contain something valuable are waiting to be found.
>> The vault to me, it was a hiding place.
It’s in the perfect place to hide it in amongst vegetation and stuff where people probably aren’t going to go looking.
>> Absolutely.
>> If you are safeguarding something, if you have something really important, you’re not going to put all your eggs in one basket, >> right?
>> And you’re going to have one, two, [music] three more. My hope is that there’s a backup vault.
>> Yep. We’re ready to put the bucket in the ground and see what’s under it.
>> Well, there’s no time like the present, right?
>> Yeah. [music] >> So, I say we get out there. Let’s go.
>> Following the meeting in the research center.
>> I think we should start here, take this apart, and then once we get across that, just keep going to the other part of the bog.
>> Yep.
>> The team begins searching [music] for new clues in the northern region of the swamp.
>> Gary, it’s going to be up to you to find whatever artifacts are here.
>> For real, we’re going to find it.
>> Okie do.
You know, the swamp has [music] been enigmatic because virtually every time we dig in there, we find something. And not just something, we find things that you wouldn’t suspect would be in a swamp. We find things that could very well be related to the uh mystery of what happened here.
>> We’re close to the line where you found all the snakes.
There’s that. Right. There’s your stank right there.
>> Probably right there.
>> Probably right there.
>> What is it? Eightsided.
Two. Three. Four.
Five. Six.
Seven. There’s one there. And >> there’s the third.
>> Yeah. [music] There’s your eight sides.
>> Wow.
>> They drove that down deep for [music] some reason.
>> That’s got to be really, really old.
Last year, these eight-sided stakes [music] led us to a vault. The stakes are a puzzle unto themselves. There’s every belief that as the stakes continue to be found at some point, we will have an explanation as to [music] why.
>> But that’s where it was right there.
>> And we’re going to have to get Steve out to pin it right now before we move it.
Unless you can dig around it.
>> Dig on this side and that side.
>> Maybe they can help explain the structures that have already been found.
Hey guys. [music] >> Hey Steve.
>> What do we got?
>> You’re standing on it. I’m >> literally standing on it.
>> You’re literally standing on it.
>> That’s That’s where it was. The hole is right there.
>> Okay. The hole is what we want.
>> Yep.
>> And like everything else, we’re a foot and a half above sea level. And actually, most stakes that we have found in the swamp have been a foot and a half above sea level. [music] They’ve been very consistent, which to me means a lot of them have probably gone in the same time period. And that would be pretty [music] interesting.
>> Yeah.
So anyway, we’ll keep going. [music] >> Thanks, Steve.
>> See you guys.
>> Appreciate it.
>> These stakes almost certainly represents that a group of individuals did the work, implying a reason, implying planning. Maybe it is connected [music] to the vault that we’ve discovered.
>> I got a signal.
>> I’m hoping that there are clues that will lead us to [music] new discoveries. I got a good signal in that last pile. Wherever the last pile came from >> would have been on the bottom. He was He was scraping bottom for that last bucket. So, it’s it it was down there.
>> It’s excellent. That’s [music] where we’d find the older artifacts. Yeah. Let >> me see if I can pinpoint it first.
>> You know what that is? That’s like a snake, a latch off a gate or a door. It would be inside an opening and you’d put your thumb on it and you’d open the gate. In England, we call it a gates neck, but it’s more than likely an forged. This looks really, really old. A possible [music] gate latch found in the northern section of the swamp.
>> It’s a great thought. Your thumb fits in there perfectly. The latch springs up.
>> Yeah. Because these fixtures have been in use as far back as the 13th century, just how old might this artifact be? And could it be related to a structure that might be buried in this area?
>> Well, it’s a great sign. An old piece of iron came from at the bottom of the dig.
>> Yeah, that was down deep.
>> Yeah, I’ll put it in the bag.
>> Yeah, keep find.
>> Yeah.
>> Okay. Letter ripo.
What do you found, Tom?
>> Piece of pottery, but it’s uh it’s green. Green and blue. You don’t usually see that color. Wow.
>> That decoration is unique, too.
>> This area with the green and the blue glazed pottery. It could match another area where the archaeologists have found it. I know it’s been found before. Yeah, I think some green and blue came off the lot 26 wall as well when the archaeologists were investigating taking the wall apart.
>> We have to find artifacts.
>> Okay, get on that.
In 2022, the team investigated a rock wall on lot 26 because it was much larger and wider than a number of others on the island that are known to have been built by farmers in the [music] 19th century.
Incredibly, in addition to pottery, charcoal was found [music] in the wall that when carbon dated suggested it could be over 500 years old. And when Portuguese researcher [music] Fran Shishko Nugra inspected it, he made a fascinating observation.
>> This wall appears to be created in the old Portuguese style of building rock fences.
>> No way.
>> Could this piece of pottery be the same kind that was found in the wall on lot 26? If so, is it possible that the wall is somehow related to the man-made workings uncovered in the swamp? We have a suggestion by experts [music] that some of the activities conducted here in the island can be associated with the Portuguese. The stone road, the swamp has Portuguese influence. The stone wall has influences.
The blade of Portuguese templar coin that was possibly found in the money pit. It’s [music] a worthy consideration that they all may have a connection to the mystery.
and we’ll get these finds back to the lab. I mean, we’ve had a great start to the dig in this area.
>> Yep. [music] >> It shows there’s things to be found here, right?
>> Yeah, I agree.
>> We just have to keep plugging away.
>> Yeah.
>> All right, Al. We’ll take her down quite a bit more here.
>> Perfect. No problem.