Digging to resume for long-rumoured Oak Island treasure  

Four Americans to launch $200,000 treasure hunt in N.S.

29 November 2007

Appeared on page C1

HALIFAX - The hunt for buried treasure on Nova Scotia's Oak Island is about to resume for the first time in more than a decade.

Four Americans plan to spend at least $200,000 to drill next month at a spot they believe holds the key to unlocking a mystery that has foiled treasure hunters for more than 200 years.

Local partner Dan Blankenship says he and his four associates will focus their efforts on an underground shaft called Borehole 10X.

"I made some very, very important discoveries that were not followed diligently," Blankenship said of earlier exploration efforts.

For two centuries, treasure hunters have been drawn to the tiny windswept island by stories of pirate treasure buried in a booby-trapped shaft known as the Money Pit.

Theories suggest the pit is home to everything from Captain Kidd's pirate booty and the Holy Grail, to the lost jewels of Marie Antoinette and treasure plundered by Sir Francis Drake from French and Spanish ships.

At least six people have died trying to find treasure there since 1795, when three boys found a concealed shaft beneath a big oak tree.

Blankenship said he's found evidence of wire, chain and low-carbon steel in bedrock 60 metres below the surface.

He wouldn't say if he has a specific schedule of work to be done.

"If I did, I wouldn't tell you," he said with a chuckle.

The company is starting out by spending $200,000 on drilling "and other things." The results of that initial work will determine what happens next.

"We'll play it by ear," Blankenship said.

Oak Island has been the scene of excavations going back to 1795, when a local boy supposedly found an unusual depression in the ground.

Digging in the following decades reportedly turned up a series of platforms going down to at least 18 metres. Strange objects including a gold chain, a human hand and a stone inscribed with runes are said to have appeared in the pit.

But water flooded in and frustrated further excavations.

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