Uncovering the Mystery of the Money Pit

[matthyaouw]

Imagine yourself walking through the trees of a wooded island rumored to hide buried pirate treasure. Suddenly you come across a depression in the ground. It's roughly circular and there's a tree standing above it with a branch that has been cut and appears to have been used as a pulley. Your imagination is fired and hope soars. You run off to get your friends and digging equipment.

You and two friends return the next day, shovels in hand, ready to claim your prize. The digging is easy. The dirt loose. Only two feet down your shovel strikes rock. As you clear the dirt away you find a neatly arranged layer of flagstone covering a circular area 13 feet in diameter. You pry the stones out, expecting treasure but there's only more dirt.

You begin again. Digging down 8 more feet with no luck. Suddenly you hit wood. This is it. You scrap away the dirt only to find a platform of oak logs covering the pit. You pull out the logs and resume your digging.

Ten more feet and still nothing. Finally, you strike wood. This MUST be it. As you clear the area you find another level of oak logs.

Now you know there's something valuable here. Why else would anyone go to so much trouble?

Now 20 feet below the surface you heave to again. Another 10 feet. Another set of oak boards.

Disappointed, you and your friends decide that you can't go any further alone. You leave but vow to return to retrieve your treasure.



Now imagine that it's more than 200 years later. The pit has been explored to more than 150 feet. The treasure, if any, that was buried is still there, protected by an ingenious booby trap that floods the pit with sea water anytime someone gets close.

Group after group after group have tried to solve the riddle. Neither brute force nor technology have been able to overcome the problems. Six lives have been lost and millions of dollars spent trying to uncover the secrets of what has become known as the Money Pit. Still, no one knows what lies at the bottom, who built it or why. There are numerous theories but little proof.

http://www.activemind.com/Mysterious/Topics/OakIsland/

This has been absolutely fascinating to me ever since I heard about it. It really astounds me to see the legnths that someone has gone to in order to protect whatever lies at the bottom of this pit. The engineering is quite astounding.

Anyone have any thoughts?

 

[zoobyshoe]

I can't make heads or tails of it. I saw something about this on TV a couple years ago, and I don't even have an inkling of what it's about.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Well they can't really be positive that there is a treasure ofcourse. Is there any possible reason for anyone to have placed these objects there buried in layers like that? Something to do with the ground water possibly?

 

[Evo]

I also saw the tv show about it. They're only speculating there could be some treasure, but what could be the purpose? Talk about overkill. How were the original builders going to get back into this shaft, if indeed they wanted to?

Maybe something's down there that isn't supposed to ever be dug up.

 

[nwall]

Maybe something's down there that isn't supposed to ever be dug up.

pandoras box

 

[JamesU]

The videos of the original star trek

 

[JamesU]

and it's called a jackhammer

 

[zoobyshoe]

I also saw the tv show about it. They're only speculating there could be some treasure, but what could be the purpose? Talk about overkill. How were the original builders going to get back into this shaft, if indeed they wanted to?

Maybe something's down there that isn't supposed to ever be dug up.

The strongest suspicion I had about it was that this must be one of those insane constructions by someone who was out of their mind, like the guy who made stuff out of coral, or the guy who spent his whole life digging a pefectly useless tunnel through a mountain out west here all by himself.

 

[Chronos]

It was devised by an engineer who did not wish to risk his valuables before field testing his design. The real treasure is still in his root celler loosely covered by burlap sacks and a coil of rope.

 

[Tarheel]

Maybe something's down there that isn't supposed to ever be dug up.

I bet it's Richard Simmons. STOP DIGGING NOW!

 

[JamesU]

I don't get this...is this supposed to be true, or a story or something?

 

[levanter]

That immediately reminds me of the wall used to seal the Gog and Magog by the two horned one.

 

[kleinjahr]

Yes, Yomamma, there is an Oak Island.

Most people believe the pit contains Blackbeard's treasure. A few coins and artifacts have been recovered. But nothing definitive.
An alternative theory connects it to the Earl Sinclair of Orkney, the Freemasons and the Knights Templar. Supposedly the Earl came exploring, following some old tales/sagas, and the Templar treasure was buried on Oak Island. Before you ask, yes these are the Sinclairs of Rothesay Chapel, as featured in the Davinci Code and Holy Blood, Holy Grail. (cue spooky music)