In the Beginning

The Money Pit During the 19th Century

The money pit seems to have been discovered by Daniel McGinnis back in 1795 when he was wandering around the island trying to find out what all the rumours were about. Apparently, for many years local folk had talked of strange comings and goings on the island. The favourite rumour seemed to be that some pirate or other was burying their ill-gotten gains somewhere on the island.

Eventually McGinnis came across a depression in the ground in a clearing in the woods. To a young farmer, this looked like someone may have dug a hole, buried his treasure and filled it in again. Over time the in-fill would have settled and left just such a depression. The story says that an oak tree at the edge of the clearing had a substantial branch overhanging the depression and the remains of an old ship’s block and tackle was hanging from it.

This suggested that someone had used the block and tackle to help dig the hole and then no doubt lower something into it.

Now, before going into what happened next let us pause and think this through.

Oak Island is not much more than a stone’s throw from the mainland and is easy to see and easy to get to. If someone was going to go to all of the trouble of digging this huge hole and all of the complicated flood tunnels etc. that go with it, would they do it on an island so close to the mainland and so easily accessible? Buried treasure of any kind usually requires a degree of secrecy. I think I might have wanted somewhere a bit further out at sea.

That Block and Tackle

As far as I can recall, I don’t think anyone has been able to definitely confirm that the block and tackle really existed, but let us assume that it did.

The money pit and it’s associated works was clearly a huge undertaking considering when it was created. There must have been quite a few workers with many skills involved over a lengthy period of time, but it seems that the only thing they left behind was that block and tackle. This was one item that clearly gave away what they were up to. They must have carefully cleaned up after themselves to prevent anyone working out what they had been up to because nothing else has ever been found so it is odd that such an important piece of kit should be left hanging in plain site. It could have been a genuine oversight of course.

However, if they had been removing their treasure rather than hiding it they might not have been too bothered if something got left behind.

So perhaps there really is nothing left down there…