For over 200 years, there has been a legend that there is a very valuable and secret treasure buried on Oak Island, a privately owned island on Canada’s western coast. Stories in writing stating as far back as the 1800s speak of a man who found a depression in the ground and believed it to be the location of treasure buried in the 1700s. He began digging and formed a pit, which today is known as the Money Pit. Ever since, people have been flocking to this location in an attempt to find the buried treasure based on many different stories that they heard.
What is the treasure?
Some rumors say that the treasure is buried pirate merchandise worth over 2 million British pounds. That’s about 2.5 million US dollars. Others say that the treasure is of far more historical significance and could include the Ark of the Covenant, or original Shakespearean manuscripts, or even the Holy Grail, spoken of in the legends of King Arthur. Either way, if these rumors are true, whatever is buried there would be worth a lot of money in this day and age.
How these rumors came to be is difficult to track down exactly because different parts of the world have different legends about Oak Island, but many of these are founded on English legends and mythology as Canada was once a colony of the British Empire. Regardless of how they came to be, people have taken them very seriously and there has been some significant digging at the site for the last 200 years.
What is the curse?
The treasure comes with a catch, however. Along with legends of a treasure of immeasurable wealth being buried on Oak Island, there is also somewhat of a prophecy that states that seven men will die before the treasure is found. Just like the legends of treasure, it is unknown exactly where this prophecy originated from. To make matters even more interesting, there have been 6 recorded deaths of people who went in search of the treasure. This comes as a stern warning to the next person who attempts to find the treasure because there is a possibility that they will not find fortune but rather serious disaster.
What keeps the people going?
With this serious warning, what is it that keeps people going to Oak Island? Why would you risk serious danger to yourself for the mere legend of treasure? That might have been the case before 1862, but then something quite remarkable happened. A treasure hunter found a stone with some very unusual markings on it at the Oak Island dig site. For many years, it was debated what the markings meant but one of the more recent researchers has made the claim that the stone reads “Forty feet below, two million pounds lie buried”. Some take this to be the proof of the treasure of Oak Island and say that the curse is nothing more than a mere legend.
What’s going on there now?
Currently, the majority of the island is owned by two brothers with the family name Lagina. They currently have their own excavation project and are filming their own reality show about it. The show goes into great detail about the legend of the island and examines a number of digging sites from the island as these brothers search for the infamous and long-lost treasure. The island is open to visitors though not for digging. Visitors can wander the island and see the digging sites first hand though they are closed at times for filming of the reality show.
