The Curse Of Oak Island - General Discussion

[Meredith Quill]

Discussion for those cursed to watch TCOOI (yes, that'd be me too).

[Quilt Fairy]

Anyone else watch this quirky little show on the History Channel? From their website:

In 1795, three teenage boys discovered a strange, man-made depression in the ground on Oak Island–a small, wooded island just off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada. As the boys began to dig, they found a number of intriguing artifacts. It was the end of the piracy era and rumors of buried treasure were rampant. The boys’ discovery launched a treasure hunt that has spanned more than 200 years, cost millions of dollars and involved dozens of speculators, engineers and even famous personalities such as John Wayne, Errol Flynn and Franklin D. Roosevelt. It has also cost six men their lives.  According to legend, a seventh must die before the mystery will be solved.

The search had gone dormant, but last year, Rick and Marty Lagina, two brothers from Michigan with a life-long interest in the mystery, renewed the efforts to discover the legendary treasure.

Marty is the skeptic and the money man; Rick is the true believer. It's difficult to say how much money they've invested in this search. The island is described as privately owned, but I don't know if they bought the whole thing or just a piece of it.  Over the course of the first season, we were told that Oak Island could potentially hold a fortune in pirate gold, the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail. Seriously, where is Indiana Jones when you need him? Oh, and there was a Swedish guy who showed up and said he'd found the correct location to dig from decoding Shakespear's plays. You can't make shit like this up.

[mnrose]

I'm watching, but it's driving me crazy that I can't find any spoilers!  Someone out there must know if they found anything. 

[merylinkid]

I'm watching.   I've read about Oak Island over the years so I wanted to see what HC did with it.    Today (I'm slow), I realized that they can't find anything, otherwise the show would be over.    But still watching.

 

Can do without the whole "2 more people have to die" thing.   I don't want to watch a show wondering if someone will die.   Although better than those Alaska Gold fools who are going to kill someone with their stupidity.

[henripootel]

You can't make shit like this up.

Well, you can, but it just takes a lot of folks to do it.  There's just been so much BS about this place for so long that anything sounds plausible.

 

Oak Island has been so torn up over the years that it's pretty much impossible to say what was there originally.  One thing you can say: nobody's found the tiniest fragment of anything, at least nothing definitely not planted.  These idiots will find bits and bobs from earlier digs, declare it evidence of something, then ask for season 2.  These guys are about as likely to actually find anything as the clowns on Finding Bigfoot.

[Quilt Fairy]

I recommend that anyone watching Curse stay tuned for Search for the Lost Giants which airs after it on HC. Two brothers, crazy quest, what's not to like?

 

These guys are about as likely to actually find anything as the clowns on Finding Bigfoot.

Probably true. But I want these guys to find something, whereas I'm actually rooting for the FB team to fail. (Of course, they haven't failed because they don't just believe, they know.)

Edited November 11, 2014 by Quilt Fairy

[merylinkid]

I love how they act like Dan Blakenship just lives on the island because he is obssessed with finding out the "truth."   He co-owns the Island with the Laginas and the other minion they have running around.   Blankenship and his partner had a falling out, partner sold his share in the company - Oak Island Tourism (nice name) -- to the Laginas.   

 

Why is everyone surprised the pit and swamp flood?   The whole island has a max height of 36 feet above sea level.   You dig too far down, you hit water.   My theory is the "money pit" is a well someone dug once upon a time.   It kept flooding with seawater, so they capped it off with a big stone they found.   But that theory is no fun.   And no show.   So they ignore it and go for TREASURE.   Must be TREASURE.

Edited November 12, 2014 by merylinkid

[henripootel]

So they ignore it and go for TREASURE.   Must be TREASURE.

I think the funniest thing about this show (and the Oak Island search in general) is that one of the biggest pieces of actual 'evidence' people cite is the enthusiasm over the centuries with which people have dug there.  I mean there must be something to find, right?  Why else would so much money (and lives) have been spent here if there was nothing at all?  

 

This so approximates the old 'guy started a rumor that there was gold in hell, then followed everyone down because they couldn't all be wrong' story that it's hardly a metaphor.  A long history of interest does not equal evidence of anything, but a long history of finding nothing ... should give one pause. 

Edited November 12, 2014 by henripootel

[Quilt Fairy]

I am particularly fond of the stone tablet that was supposedly found at 90ft and was rumored to have said (in code) 'Forty feet below 2 million lies buried'.  Which has - of course - disappeared. It reminds me of the golden plates the angel Moroni showed to Joseph Smith.

[henripootel]

I am particularly fond of the stone tablet that was supposedly found at 90ft and was rumored to have said (in code) 'Forty feet below 2 million lies buried'.  Which has - of course - disappeared.

You gotta ask yourself 'Why would anyone burying treasure leave such a stone?'  Just to reassure someone who's dug a 90 foot hole in wet soil that they're on the right track?  This just screams 'fake' to me.  Add it to the choir of 'fakes' I hear when i watch this show.

[merylinkid]

I love how it was translated by some professor using a "simple" method.   That screams fake or at least wishful thinking to me.   So some pirate/templar/former courtier of Marie Antoinette goes to all this trouble to hide the treasure, burying it with all these alleged boobytraps, but leaves a simple code on a stone to find it?   Suuuuuuuuure.

[henripootel]

I love how it was translated by some professor using a "simple" method.   That screams fake or at least wishful thinking to me.

Which of course, also just begs the question of 'why encode it at all?'  If anyone is actually reading the stone, the jig is well and truly up.  Why not just a rock that says 'Nearly There! Dig On!'?

 

Or if you want them to stop digging, 'Fooled Thee.  Nothing lies beneath, certainly not 2 million pounds'.  That'd be good enough for me.

Edited November 14, 2014 by henripootel

[Quilt Fairy]

Or if you want them to stop digging, 'Fooled Thee.  Nothing lies beneath, certainly not 2 million pounds'.  That'd be good enough for me.

This reminds me of the Geico commercial about the oldest trick in the book: "Look, there! Hah, madest thou look!"

[glowlights]

So glad there are skeptics here! It's hard to discuss Oak Island some places without being accused of trying to cover up the truth - lol. (What's the secret Illuminati handshake, you guys? Is there a dress code?) This show would be much improved if they invited Giorgio Tsoukalis to help dig. :)

 

Anyway Joe Nickell did a great article for Skeptical Inquirer. It's a bit of a read but well worth it if you're interested. His conclusion:

 

In any event, the evidence indicates a strong Masonic connection to the Oak Island enigma. Others have noted this link but unfortunately also believed in an actual treasure of some sort concealed in a man-made shaft or tunnel (Crooker 1993; Finnan 1997; Sora 1999; Rosenbaum 1973). Only by understanding both pieces of the puzzle and fitting them together correctly can the Oak Island mystery finally be solved.

In summary, therefore, I suggest first that the “Money Pit” and “pirate tunnels” are nothing of the sort but are instead natural formations. Secondly, I suggest that much of the Oak Island saga-certain reported actions and alleged discoveries-can best be understood in light of Freemasonry's Secret Vault allegory. Although it is difficult to know at this juncture whether the Masonic elements were opportunistically added to an existing treasure quest or whether the entire affair was a Masonic creation from the outset, I believe the mystery has been solved. The solution is perhaps an unusual one but no more so than the saga of Oak Island itself.

 

http://www.csicop.org/si/show/secrets_of_oak_island

[daughtersofanarchy]

I've been aware of the Oak Island mystery for so long I don't remember when I first read about it.  So happy to have this show because it's the first time I've had a chance to really "see" the island up close and personal.  That, in itself, is exciting for me.

 

glowlights:  Thanks for the link to that article.  Still, it's not clear to me how Joe Nickell thinks the Masonic connection to the island provides a solution to the mystery.  Is he implying that the Masons were merely acting out an elaborate ritual, using the island, and even going so far as to keep other highly placed Masons informed of the "progress" of the ritual, but everyone understood it was just a play and there was no real substance to it?  No goal?  No belief in anything really being hidden there?

 

After what we've seen on this show so far, I'd guess that if there ever were a treasure of some kind hidden away, it wasn't on Oak Island.  Oak Island would have been just a decoy.

[Charlesman]

Most frustrating show ever.

 

They find a coin. Voiceover guy comes storming in. "Is it another Spanish gold piece?" Flash-cut to closeups of the previously found coin. "Or is it even older?" Flash-cut to closeups of the conspiracy theorist's ancient Carthaginian coins. "Could it be proof of an even older treasure on Oak Island than was previously thought???" Flash-cuts to the Ark of the Covenant.

 

Cut to present day. "It's British, 18th century."

 

"Oh, well, I guess that's interesting. Let's keep looking."

 

They continue to use the metal detector, and soon enough have another hit. "Guys, I think it's a coin."

 

Voiceover guy comes storming in. "Is it another Spanish gold piece?" Flash-cut to closeups of the previously found coin. "Or is it even older?" Flash-cut to closeups of the conspiracy theorist's ancient Carthaginian coins. "Could it be proof of an even older treasure on Oak Island than was previously thought???" Flash-cuts to the Ark of the Covenant.

 

Cut to present day.

 

"Oh, it's just another British coin."

 

Sigh.

 

I get that the pump&hype editing style is the History channel MO. But at this point, entire episodes are just filler. There's maybe 20 minutes of content in the whole first season. When you boil it down, nothing actually happens on this show. There's a lot of talking about what could happen if they did something, but then they go and do nothing.

 

Really just annoying. I've gotten to fast-forwarding through entire episodes in 5/10 minutes. About as much time as I spend watching "Pawn Stars" once I started fast-forwarding through the scripted bits and just watching the actual appraisals.

[merylinkid]

We've gone from pirate treasure, to Ark of the Convenant.   oooooookaaaaay.    Of course, I kept saying, not the Ark of the Covenant is not there, it is in some government warehouse packed away with everything else.   Indy found it in 1936 in the desert of Tunisia, not at the bottom of a swamp in Canada.

 

Of course they can't find the damn money pit.    Wouldn't they do a survey of the island with equipment to find any depressions/voids first?   Or are there pits all over the damn island (possible the same thing is on the mainland) making the money pit not stand out?   

[millennium]

I watched the first 2-3 episodes of Season 1 and stopped by to gauge whether I should invest the time to continue.

 

Guess not.

 

What annoys me about the money pit is the spurious linkage to other "age-old mysteries."   If the money pit had its own dedicated treasure legend, that's one thing.   But no.   It has to be the speculative repository of the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant, Marie Antoinette's treasure, Captain Kidd's treasure or anything else they can pick from C.B. Colby's corpse.

 

Referring to the Masonic origin of the legend, it sounds the most probable.

 

One of my favorite legends (I forget where I read it, Strangely Enough or one of Frank Edwards' books perhaps) was that of the moving coffins in the Barbados vault.    You know the story: the family stowed grandpa in the family vault and went away, returned a year later to install Grandma or Uncle Pete or somebody in the vault and discovered all the coffins inside had been moved and rearranged at angles, etc. -- yet the vault's lock had not been disturbed! (cue eerie music).

 

In recent years, I read a skeptical analysis of that story which proved to my mind anyway that the bizarre tale (which had originally been printed in a 19th-century newspaper) was an elaborate Masonic hoax containinginside jokes and obvious clues that would go right over the heads of the public yet be immediately recognizable to Masons.   For better or worse, 19th-century newspaper editors were prone to hijinks and often tried to outdo each other by publishing outlandish stories of the paranormal, cryptozoology, etc (Google "the disappearance of David Lang" -- to see what I mean). 

 

I wonder how many of the cherished "mysteries"  we grew up with are the products of bored editors and freelancing Masons.

[Kel Varnsen]

I think the funniest thing about this show (and the Oak Island search in general) is that one of the biggest pieces of actual 'evidence' people cite is the enthusiasm over the centuries with which people have dug there.  I mean there must be something to find, right?  Why else would so much money (and lives) have been spent here if there was nothing at all?  

I saw a commercial for this show and it kind of made me laugh. My parents went to Nova Scotia years ago and my dad brought me back a book about Oak Island. It was written by someone who was a believer. One thing I always found interesting was that reports that there is something there were always made by people who have a vested interest in convincing other people that there is treasure. I mean if you spend a crap load of money trying to find something and you get nothing, are you going to tell people that there was no evidence? Or are you going to tell people that you found some evidence but there is no treasure, so that you can sell your story and your equipment and any rights to digging that you might own. As far as I know there has never been any unbiased type scientific or archaeological type of dig done.

[henripootel]

As far as I know there has never been any unbiased type scientific or archaeological type of dig done.

It'd be neigh on impossible now - the ground has been too torn up.  I think some Woods Hole geology types had a quick look-round about twenty years ago and saw nothing that wasn't natural, no water-diversion features (to flood the 'pit'), no signs of subterranean chambers, etc.  Just one very disturbed landscape.

 

The thing I never understood is the original bit of 'evidence' that (legend has it) started all this in the first place: a bit of block and tackle in a tree over a sunken spot on the ground.  Assuming that is true (accounts vary, naturally) and know what we now know about 'how hard somebody tried hide the treasure' (deep pit, booby traps, etc), why on earth would they leave so obvious a clue right where some kids might find it? Which, if the stories are to be believed, some kids did.

 

I love a good treasure story as much as the next guy but even growing up, this stuck in my craw.  Give me a 'prospector crawled out the mountains, drew a map, and died' or 'none of them made it back to retrieve the treasure' story any day but don't tell me folks who went to this kinda trouble didn't bother to tidy up when they left.

Edited November 19, 2014 by henripootel

[glowlights]

I've been aware of the Oak Island mystery for so long I don't remember when I first read about it.  So happy to have this show because it's the first time I've had a chance to really "see" the island up close and personal.  That, in itself, is exciting for me.

 

glowlights:  Thanks for the link to that article.  Still, it's not clear to me how Joe Nickell thinks the Masonic connection to the island provides a solution to the mystery.  Is he implying that the Masons were merely acting out an elaborate ritual, using the island, and even going so far as to keep other highly placed Masons informed of the "progress" of the ritual, but everyone understood it was just a play and there was no real substance to it?  No goal?  No belief in anything really being hidden there?

 

I think he's saying it's one of two things: either it was part of a ritual that reenacts the symbolism of finding treasure in Solomon's Temple, where the Masons don't literally believe they are dealing with treasure, in the same way someone taking communion doesn't literally believe they are drinking blood and eating human flesh (they know it's wine and wafers, but they believe in the symbolism). Or someone, possibly with a connection to Masonry, took the germ of a local treasure story and added on a bunch of Masonic hooey to make it more intriguing and mysterious. They could have been an opportunist hoping to make money off the legend, or they could have been a mere pranskter. And then over the years the story keeps getting added on to until now here we are with people digging up the island looking for the Ark of the Covenant. (Haven't they heard it's being guarded at a small church in Ethiopia?)

 

The simple cipher stone indicates this was either a ritual or a hoaxer - someone who had truly buried important treasure wouldn't leave such an easy clue. Same with a bunch of other "artifacts" and "clues" that have allegedly been found. So either way, Nickell believes this is all wrapped up in Masonic symbols, but not at all a real treasure. That was my take on his article.

[daughtersofanarchy]

glowlights:  Thanks for clarifying.

 

Boy, the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail are quite the partygoers, aren't they?  They sure do get around.  Don't be surprised if you sit next to one of them on a trans-oceanic flight one day.

 

millennium:  I remember reading that Barbados story as a kid, I think the title was:  "The Creeping Coffins of Barbados"

[friendperidot]

 

f course, I kept saying, not the Ark of the Covenant is not there, it is in some government warehouse packed away with everything else.   Indy found it in 1936 in the desert of Tunisia, not at the bottom of a swamp in Canada.

 

 

Everyone knows that! Just like everyone knows Geiko can save you money in 15 minutes.

[merylinkid]

Work with archeologists?  These guys are irked that they might have to use accepted archelogical methods instead of just dig, dig, dig.    Although I agree with them about having to give most of it up to the Canadian authorities.   Excuse me, who is paying for all this digging?    Who put in the effort to find the treasure, if any?   Not the Canadian authorities that is for darn sure.

 

Honestly the idea of using proper archelogical methods by the average joe are fairly new.   I mean like in the last 30 years or so.   So it would never have crossed the early treasure hunters minds to be careful about preserving the site and documenting things.   After all, they were going to find the treasure, who cares what came after?    That is why a lot of legitimate archeological evidence is lost all over the world.    

[Kel Varnsen]

Just because the crackpots are coming out of the woodwork does not mean that there wasn't some sort of treasure on the island at some point.  

Maybe, although like I said it seemed that everyone in the past who has reported that they found "something"  has some sort of biased interest in telling people that there is something there. 

[glowlights]

I think the palm fibers point to how this all got started - ships that were sailing the Atlantic and Caribbean at least passed by this island, if not stopped at it (such as smugglers). So material from those journeys, like palm fibers, either washed up or were directly brought onto the island. And what do people associate with that route? Pirates. And what do pirates do, according to Robert Louis Stevenson? Talk to parrots and bury treasure. Reality got romanticized. And then the actual composition (is that the right word?) of the island lent itself to the story with the way a dug shaft will flood (the island has sink holes), and lo and behold there are materials consistent with the shipping route... therefore OMG TREASURE!

 

If anyone is interested in an analysis that includes insights by archaeologists, geologists and folklorists, this site is an interesting read:

http://www.criticalenquiry.org/oakisland/

[henripootel]

Archaeologists are incredibly good at translating old maps to current terrain.

Well, not so much, but we try.  We tend to be a bit more conservative with our assessments and realistic about highly-disturbed ground, but we still get fooled.  One of my students once dug right into a charcoal lens which means 'fire pit', and given where we were digging (very disturbed but interesting location) could have been pretty significant.  Even I got excited till we sifted out ... a cigarette butt.  Sigh. It's just too easy to get it wrong.

 

The problem with most any document (like an old map) associated with this site is that it's likely to be unreliable given the genuinely long history of nonsense and self-serving 'finds' here.  Shit, even if you found a two-hundred-year-old pickax (a find in and of itself) or whatever, it may well have come from somebody digging treasure.  Probably did, in fact.  Even an old coin or bit of gold would be unreliable, given the history of folks trying to convince others that there's something down there.

Edited November 20, 2014 by henripootel

[ABay]

I'm watching the show because I visited Oak Island in the 1970s and am curious to see if they find anything. The ridiculous BS about Solomon, the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant, etc. is just annoying and I'd love it if they'd lay off the sensationalist shenanigans. Ditto the alleged curse, which I'd never heard about until this show started.

[henripootel]

So do we have a man made structure 140ft down?  Or is it all coincidence?

They're definitely gonna find some things down there but what they'll actually find is either geology or disturbance.  Of course what we'll see is "Oh my god, that looks like a shovel ... (commercial) ... from the 1950s".  

[cynicat]

I think Jimmy Hoffa is buried here.

[Quilt Fairy]

Well, that would definitely make news.

[millennium]

millennium:  I remember reading that Barbados story as a kid, I think the title was:  "The Creeping Coffins of Barbados"

 

That sounds about right, lol.   Another famous story from the C.B. Colby genre that has since been debunked is that of the famous "haunted schoolhouse" near Newburyport, Massachusetts.    I can't recall where I read it but the author pretty effectively substantiated that the "haunting" was the work of local pranksters. 

[merylinkid]

Last night they get to go through the Masons archives.   Because apparently despite the Templar connections, no one else ever thought to do that.   No Mason ever went out and found the treasure on the island either if there was anything in the archives -- or maybe they did.   hahahahahahahaha.

 

Hello, the highest point of the Island is 38 feet above sea level.   If you dig down too far, you are going to get flooding, no booby traops needed.   Honestly, they are surprised to get SEAWATER flooding a tunnel on an ISLAND?????????????

[henripootel]

No Mason ever went out and found the treasure on the island either if there was anything in the archives -- or maybe they did.

Come on, merylinkid, you know that finding nothing is way more incriminating that finding something.  You find something, it just is what it is.  You find nothing now - it could mean anything!  And as far as conspiracies go, whoa, you find nothing and you know you've found something.

 

Sorry, I've got 4 seasons of Finding Bigfoot (AKA Finding Nothing) under my belt.  You get so used to hearing how Sasquatches fool you into thinking they don't exist that you find it easy to believe the Masons can do anything.  At least the Masons actually exist.  I think.

[merylinkid]

HOw silly of me.   Of course, the fact that no one has found anything totally means there is a huge treasure then and people just need to keep looking (after 1 more person dies, of course).

[henripootel]

Of course, the fact that no one has found anything totally means there is a huge treasure ...

 

Right?  And it's even huger because nobody has found any of it, yet!  It's actually a good thing that nobody has ever found a trace of anything - more for whomever keeps digging!

[AnnA]

I was afraid to read all these posts because I'm actually enjoying the show but my curiosity got the best of me.

 

FYI.........I live on an island and it's height above sea level doesn't have to mean  you'll hit sea water if you dig.  The island isn't floating on the sea.  It's the top of a land mass seated on the sea floor.

Edited December 10, 2014 by AnnA

[henripootel]

FYI.........I live on an island and it's height above sea level doesn't have to mean  you'll hit sea water if you dig.  The island isn't floating on the sea.  It's the top of a land mass seated on the sea floor.

True, but the whole 'money pit' idea means that whomever dug it in the first place (and I'll just pretend for a moment that anyone ever did bury something here) dug through sediment and soil.  I think the geology in that neck of the woods is heavily glaciated Shield, meaning it's mostly bedrock granite overlain by moraine and till.  You dig into that stuff and you'll either find a lens of fresh water (if the island is big enough) or you'll eventually get seep from the nearby ocean (if the island is small enough).  Either way, you're likely to find water.  

 

Aren't these guys digging like a few hundred meters from the beach?  Close enough for the hypothetical treasure-hiders to have constructed some sort of water-diverson 'booby traps' to flood the pit?  Which, by the way, would probably be an engineering feat that would make digging the actual Pit seem easy.  

[daughtersofanarchy]

Okay, so on this last go-round the dye didn't come out.  (Maybe it came out in the middle of the night - hee hee)

 

So, if there really were deliberate flood tunnels, and there really were a treasure, what are the various scenarios that would explain why the dye didn't come out?

[gaPeach]

Maybe the dye was too diluted to show up.  And maybe picking a color other than green would have been a good idea.  How about pink or yellow or black?

 

I like this show because it gives some interesting history on the Masons but I don't think there is anything of historical value on the island.  Maybe there is a treasure, but man, whoever buried it certainly did not want it found. 

[daughtersofanarchy]

Yes, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's fiction book "Riptide" has a very interesting take on the treasure and why it wasn't meant to be found.

 

I agree with you about the color of the dye.  They kept stressing that it was non-toxic and I wondered if the chemical makeup of it limited the choice of colors it could be.  I have no clue about that.

 

Also agree that it may not have been concentrated enough.

[merylinkid]

Actually it will say "Madest thou look."   

 

.

.

.

.

So endeth the trick.

[merylinkid]

That's about all we found out.   They are really dragging out the finding of nothing aren't they?   Every week it's get right up to an exciting moment, and ends.   THe next week we pick up to only find out the exciting moment really wasn't and then nothing happens for another hour.

[Quilt Fairy]

That's about all we found out.   They are really dragging out the finding of nothing aren't they?   Every week it's get right up to an exciting moment, and ends.   THe next week we pick up to only find out the exciting moment really wasn't and then nothing happens for another hour.

Yeah, I'm burning out on this show with the DaVinci Code sidetrips and lack of progress.

[henripootel]

Yeah, I'm burning out on this show with the DaVinci Code sidetrips and lack of progress.

I'm much impressed at how much money they're spending on this, what with trips to Scotland and whatnot.  I was amused that, once they decided in a conference call that the guys in NS should go to Scotland, they got up to go right now, like this simmering mystery would broach not a moment's delay.

 

I'm quite surprised that they haven't dug up shit from previous groups and tried to make hay of it.  And are there no other survivors of previous digs, or their notes or whatnot?  Why not trot them out?  Oh right, cuz they found nothing too. 

[merylinkid]

They did.   Dan Blankenship is on all the time as a "consultant."   I put it in quotes because he is actually in partnership with the Lavignas.   Also the sister of the guys who died from toxic gases was on.   She gave them her family notebooks.

[merylinkid]

New episode tonight.

 

How rude of those previous divers not to die.   Geez, don't they know the legend?  If one of them had died, the mystery would have been solved.   Selfish divers wanting to live rather than give their lives to solve a century old mystery.

[Quilt Fairy]

I spent the entire episode screaming at the TV "Just fucking dive, will you!"  Instead we get 58 minutes of set-up and more set-up and more set-up and when they finally get into the water it's time for the  "next week on the season finale" shit. What a waste of my time this show has become. I know it's one of History's most highly rated series, but I can't see that continuing after the last few boring episodes that went well the top into the fringe-pseudo-history area. Once they introduced a guy named J. Hutton Pulitzer I just knew the show was headed for the crapper.

 

ETA: They can't figure out what the four feet of debris is at 110 ft? If I had to guess I'd say all the rusted, corroded iron from the walls that we saw coming off in huge chunks the first time the bucket was down there. And can someone explain to Dan Blankenship that if he saw a body down 10X it had to be a recent body because a dead body from the 17th century would only be scattered bones. Unless the muck down there somehow preserves human flesh in a way I'm not familiar with.

Edited January 7, 2015 by Quilt Fairy

[merylinkid]

It's possible that the swamp is more like a peat bog.   A peat bog is a wonderful preservative.   On the other hand, BLankenship probably saw a mess of debris and decided it was a body.    

 

I don't know why I keep watching either.   Every week it's talk, talk talk about what might be down then, then a little progress, cut to the previews, then next week, it's ooops nothing there, let's talk some about what we might find where.   Rinse, repeat.

[riverheightsnancy]

I am kind of interested in the show, simply because I love mysteries. I was wondering if they ever actually gave serious thought to HOW could it be possible to dig these tunnels, if these guys have been unable to go down to the bottom for the last 20 years? My thought was to investigate it from the aspect of IF people from the 1600's were digging these tunnels that fill with water, HOW is it remotely possible, with the given technology for the time period? I cannot for the life of me, understand how it is possible (ruling out Ancient Aliens of course!). If they could bring forth a reasonable way that it really could be done, then I might be more likely to believe that it is possible that there is some type of man made tunnel (perhaps).