OrionzRevenge
7 Feb 2010, 07:50 AM
Tonight on the History Channel they ran a show about sensational explanations for something called "The Money Pit" on Oak Island off the coast of Nova Scotia.
The basic story being that a kid found a depression in the ground below a block and tackle tied to a tree branch. He started digging and 200 years, 6 lives, and millions of bucks later... nothing of verifiable value has come out of the ground.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_Island
In 1795, 16-year-old Daniel McGinnis discovered a circular depression in a clearing on the southeastern end of the island with an adjacent tree which had a tackle block on one of its overhanging branches. McGinnis, with the help of friends John Smith (in early accounts, Samuel Ball) 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).
This initial discovery and excavation was first briefly mentioned in print in the Liverpool Transcript[3] in October, 1856. A more complete account followed in the Liverpool Transcript,[4][5] the Novascotian,[6][7] British Colonist,[8] and A History Of Lunenburg County[9] (the latter source based on the Liverpool Transcript articles).
About eight years after the 1795 dig, according to the original articles and the memories of Vaughan, another company examined what was to become known as the "Money Pit." The Onslow Company sailed 300 nautical miles (560 km) 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, at 80 or 90 feet (27 m), they recovered a large stone bearing an inscription of symbols. Several researchers are said to have attempted to decipher the symbols. One translated them as saying: "forty feet below, two million pounds lie buried."[5] No photographs, drawings, or other images of the stone are known to have been produced prior to its claimed disappearance circa 1912. The symbols currently associated with the "forty feet down..." translation and seen in many books first appeared in True Tales of Buried Treasure, written by explorer and historian Edward Rowe Snow in 1951. In this book he claims he was given this set of symbols by Reverend A.T. Kempton of Cambridge, Massachusetts.[10] Nothing more is known about Kempton's involvement in the Oak Island tale.
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.
There is a stone (who many think is a hoax) that is claimed to have been unearthed at the 80 foot mark, and is further claimed to contain runes from a Nordic-Templar expedition to hide the holy grail... Or it might be symbols to locate a pirate's treasure. Whatever.
However, what struck me was the layers of logs laid in a row every 10 feet with remains of charcoal and coconut fibers atop. Further, at about 90 feet they ran into an unfinished / or dammed feed tunnel to the sea. Subsequently the dig flooded and the prospectors claim it to be a booby-trap to protect the treasure. Whatever (see image below)
http://mythandmystery.com/oakisland/oak_island_cross_section.gif
The two words Charcoal and Coconut Fibers (ok, three words) and the overall configuration instantly rang a bell in my own coconut.
THIS AIN'T NO MONEY PIT, IT'S A BRITA FILTER! IMO
Roasting ground-up coconut shells in an air-tight oven is the preferred modern method to make industrial tonnage of high quality activated carbon.
The island is smallish (see maps below) and any colony would find fresh-water acquisition the biggest bottleneck to growth.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/Oak_Island.png
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/6696/tmp860ua5.jpg
I think they intended the sea water to seep up the "well" and desalinate along the way.
If this indeed were the intended purpose of the effort, then the contents of the well would have been worth more than gold to a colony, and has been Fool's Gold to the imagination of everyone else since that bright eyed lad of 1795.
Finally, the two 80 something year old farts, that have kept digs at a stand-still for awhile with legal claims, have settled and sold the rights. So I expect more gold and maybe lives will be poured into this hole.
Other web links
http://www.unmuseum.org/oakisl.htm
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/614/whats-the-scoop-on-the-mysterious-buried-treasure-at-oak-island
The basic story being that a kid found a depression in the ground below a block and tackle tied to a tree branch. He started digging and 200 years, 6 lives, and millions of bucks later... nothing of verifiable value has come out of the ground.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_Island
In 1795, 16-year-old Daniel McGinnis discovered a circular depression in a clearing on the southeastern end of the island with an adjacent tree which had a tackle block on one of its overhanging branches. McGinnis, with the help of friends John Smith (in early accounts, Samuel Ball) 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).
This initial discovery and excavation was first briefly mentioned in print in the Liverpool Transcript[3] in October, 1856. A more complete account followed in the Liverpool Transcript,[4][5] the Novascotian,[6][7] British Colonist,[8] and A History Of Lunenburg County[9] (the latter source based on the Liverpool Transcript articles).
About eight years after the 1795 dig, according to the original articles and the memories of Vaughan, another company examined what was to become known as the "Money Pit." The Onslow Company sailed 300 nautical miles (560 km) 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, at 80 or 90 feet (27 m), they recovered a large stone bearing an inscription of symbols. Several researchers are said to have attempted to decipher the symbols. One translated them as saying: "forty feet below, two million pounds lie buried."[5] No photographs, drawings, or other images of the stone are known to have been produced prior to its claimed disappearance circa 1912. The symbols currently associated with the "forty feet down..." translation and seen in many books first appeared in True Tales of Buried Treasure, written by explorer and historian Edward Rowe Snow in 1951. In this book he claims he was given this set of symbols by Reverend A.T. Kempton of Cambridge, Massachusetts.[10] Nothing more is known about Kempton's involvement in the Oak Island tale.
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.
There is a stone (who many think is a hoax) that is claimed to have been unearthed at the 80 foot mark, and is further claimed to contain runes from a Nordic-Templar expedition to hide the holy grail... Or it might be symbols to locate a pirate's treasure. Whatever.
However, what struck me was the layers of logs laid in a row every 10 feet with remains of charcoal and coconut fibers atop. Further, at about 90 feet they ran into an unfinished / or dammed feed tunnel to the sea. Subsequently the dig flooded and the prospectors claim it to be a booby-trap to protect the treasure. Whatever (see image below)
http://mythandmystery.com/oakisland/oak_island_cross_section.gif
The two words Charcoal and Coconut Fibers (ok, three words) and the overall configuration instantly rang a bell in my own coconut.
THIS AIN'T NO MONEY PIT, IT'S A BRITA FILTER! IMO
Roasting ground-up coconut shells in an air-tight oven is the preferred modern method to make industrial tonnage of high quality activated carbon.
The island is smallish (see maps below) and any colony would find fresh-water acquisition the biggest bottleneck to growth.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/Oak_Island.png
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/6696/tmp860ua5.jpg
I think they intended the sea water to seep up the "well" and desalinate along the way.
If this indeed were the intended purpose of the effort, then the contents of the well would have been worth more than gold to a colony, and has been Fool's Gold to the imagination of everyone else since that bright eyed lad of 1795.
Finally, the two 80 something year old farts, that have kept digs at a stand-still for awhile with legal claims, have settled and sold the rights. So I expect more gold and maybe lives will be poured into this hole.
Other web links
http://www.unmuseum.org/oakisl.htm
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/614/whats-the-scoop-on-the-mysterious-buried-treasure-at-oak-island