GOLD DISCOVERED in Old Shaft | The Curse of Oak Island

Hey, Brandon.

BRANDON VANDERHOOFT:
Good morning, Alex, Rick.

• How you doing?
• How’s it going?

BRANDON VANDERHOOFT:
Perfect timing.
We’re just getting started with the probe drill.

Okey-doke.
Cool.

NARRATOR:
Every new day on Oak Island begins with hope and excitement
for brothers Rick and Marty Lagina,
their partner Craig Tester,
and the rest of their team.

[beep]
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Right there.

NARRATOR:
However, today has been especially anticipated,
as it marks the beginning of a new probe drilling operation
that will be conducted from within the garden shaft
by representatives from Dumas Contracting Limited
in order to look for valuables just outside the structure.

This dilapidated 80-foot deep shaft,
which is currently being refurbished by Dumas,
has not only yielded high trace evidence of gold
through water testing,
but may also sit within mere feet
of a possible treasure chamber connected to the original money pit.

MARTY LAGINA:
That’s exciting.
I’m hoping for something very substantial in the garden shaft.
This is where the treasure hunt actually begins.

So Brandon, this is 55 feet, right?
BRANDON VANDERHOOFT:
Yes, sir.

So close to that depth,
when we were drilling, we hit a void in this area.
So just a heads up.
MARTY LAGINA:
Wow, heads up?
BRANDON VANDERHOOFT:
Surprise, surprise, man.
MARTY LAGINA:
Surprise, surprise.

How much you think we’re missing out of that last 30 feet?
BRANDON VANDERHOOFT:
I’d say approximately 10 feet.

NARRATOR:
Earlier this summer, the team drilled into a 10-foot high void,
located several feet southwest of the garden shaft.
MARTY LAGINA:
This could be the indication of an offset chamber.

NARRATOR:
A void that Marty Lagina speculated may hold the fabled money pit treasure vault.

All good.
Let’s try it out.
OK.

They’re just lining up, getting it squared away.
NARRATOR:
Now, since Dumas has reached a depth of 55 feet
in the reconstruction of the garden shaft,
they are about to manually probe drill a number of boreholes
that will reach several feet outside of the structure
in the hopes of reaching the void
and determining just what it might contain.

If there is some sort of connection here,
they need to know it and we need to know.
MARTY LAGINA:
Mm-hmm.
If we get lucky, this will tell us.

RICK LAGINA:
Drill’s going in now.
All right, brother, we’re in business.
MARTY LAGINA:
Yep.

NARRATOR:
In order to probe drill from within the garden shaft,
the team from Dumas is using a powerful hydraulic earth drill
equipped to penetrate hard clay, sediment, and rock.

Although they are focused on finding the nearby void,
they will drill a total of three holes in each of the shaft’s four walls
for a total of 12 at different angles
in order to look for further evidence of man-made workings
and potential valuables.

RICK LAGINA:
You’re grabbing soil samples.
BRANDON VANDERHOOFT:
Yes, sir.

But the other thing is, when you cut through this tight lining,
the whole tight lining–
BRANDON VANDERHOOFT:
A wood?
RICK LAGINA:
Yes, I would like that small piece.
BRANDON VANDERHOOFT:
Yeah?

• On every hole.
  BRANDON VANDERHOOFT:
  Yeah?

RICK LAGINA:
I just want to put it in our XRF
because we have detected high gold values in the area.
BRANDON VANDERHOOFT:
High gold values.
All right.

My thought was, wood would act like a sponge.
If we test the outside of the shaft,
we know the water samples are indicating presence of gold.
Well, certainly the wood should as well.

We need to get busy.

• Hi, guys.
• Charles.
• Hey Charles.

Big man right here might know.
BRANDON VANDERHOOFT:
Yeah, drilling from here.
That’s where we started here.
Going clockwise.

RICK LAGINA:
So I’ll tell you what, guys,
I’m very interested in these wood samples and the soil samples,
so I’m going to head down to the lab,
bring them to Emma.
Dig her out.
MARTY LAGINA:
Yep.

OK.
You guys are in charge.
Anything comes up, give me a call.

• Keep me posted.
• Will do.
  Thank you.

BRANDON VANDERHOOFT:
All right, Rick, see you.
RICK LAGINA:
All right, see you.

NARRATOR:
The following morning–
MAN:
Hello!

• Oh my god, it’s a crowd.
• Hello, how are you doing?
  Please.

Emma’s got some news.
So you guys gave me these.
Right.
This piece right here,
because it’s small,
I could do a map scan of it in a short–
What is that?

EMMA CULLIGAN:
That’s the garden shaft inner lining that– the wood pieces.
MARTY LAGINA:
Yeah.
The original shaft.
EMMA CULLIGAN:
Yeah.

And from this one, I detected gold.
RICK LAGINA:
Wow.
To confirm your theory, it’s–

• Gold?
• Gold, yeah.
• Gold in the wood?
• Yeah.
• Gold.
• Wow, that’s wild.
  Wow.

EMMA CULLIGAN:
Yeah.

NARRATOR:
In the money pit area, archaeometallurgist Emma Culligan
has just shared some astonishing news.
Yeah, I confirmed it.
I had to make sure, but there’s definite gold, yeah.

NARRATOR:
The wood samples extracted from a depth of 55 feet
inside the garden shaft contain high trace evidence of gold.
MARTY LAGINA:
What degree of accuracy do you believe that to be?
EMMA CULLIGAN:
This one’s accurate.
MARTY LAGINA:
100%?
EMMA CULLIGAN:
Yeah.

Well, there you go, guys.
And it’s adhered to the organic material, the wood?
EMMA CULLIGAN:
Yeah.
0.11%, so it’s point 0.1.
But still, that is enough.

This is huge.
Isn’t that, like, a big number?
EMMA CULLIGAN:
That’s a big number from my– in my books, that’s a big number.

It is, because it’s a lot of parts per billion.
So, I mean, all we can do is continue, like,
with the water to cross-check,
like check other samples,
see if we can duplicate.
MARTY LAGINA:
This girl can find gold.
That’s a superpower round here.

RICK LAGINA:
Yeah, OK.
The results are incredible, fantastic, gobsmacking,
to use one of Gary’s terms.
ALEX LAGINA:
That’s huge, isn’t it?
Like, that’s a lot.
EMMA CULLIGAN:
That’s a pretty big– that’s significant.
Yeah.

MARTY LAGINA:
We could be close to the actual treasure.
We’ve got a little bit of time to pull it all together,
and we’re going to work together to do that.
That’s where we are right now.
I’m hopeful.

RICK LAGINA:
We’ve always said that, you know,
science had to be a real component of the search,
and now this analysis is incredibly invigorating.

Look at the smiles around the table.
I mean, everybody’s smiling.
So it’s a great component,
and we always said that this shaft would provide a unique opportunity,
if we were humble enough and smart enough,
to learn from lost opportunities, right?

MARTY LAGINA:
Yeah.
RICK LAGINA:
Anyway, I think we owe Emma a round of applause.
Oh god.

[applause]
Find gold around here, you get applause.
[laughter]
Well, thank you for bringing the news.
We appreciate it.
It’s all good news in a search for the truth.
**MARTY