Oak Island Treasure - the world's greatest treasure hunt - Oak Island Treasure

Bridgewater Bulletin

By KELLEN OICKLE
South Queens Junior High School

This past Friday, August 12, I went on a tour of the mysterious Oak Island.

As you may or may not know, Oak Island is a private island owned by six men. The two men who own most of the island (78 per cent) are David Tobias and Dan Blankenship. The legend of Oak Island began in 1795 when a couple of men on the mainland saw suspicious lights on a nearby island. Once the lights were gone, these men rowed across to the island where they found a patch of ground that looked as though it had been dug up.

Right beside the patch of ground was a very big oak tree with rope tied around a branch as if there had been a pulley there. So they began digging until they came to a floor of wood, and after they broke through the floor, water came gushing in and flooded the hole. That’s when they decided that there was something buried in the deep heart of Oak Island.

On Oak Island I saw many things including the foundation of a very old house. I also saw the famous money pit which I had seen pictures of, but it seemed more like a cave than a hole.

My favourite part of the tour was when our tour guide took us inside a building where we saw a hole in the ground that went down about 215 feet and is about eight feet in diameter. Borehole 10-X is famous because in August 1971 the diggers lowered a camera into the hole and got pictures of a hand floating in the water, a pickaxe, beams and a chest.

The legend of Oak Island also says that the treasure will be found when all the oak trees are gone and seven men die. Well, the oak tree which stood over the money pit has been chopped down and six men have died trying to find the treasure.

The title deed to Oak Island has changed hands many times since its discovery in 1795. Dan Blankenship and David Tobias both dug in Borehole 10-X until they were about 50 feet from the treasure and digging had to stop because of a money issue. Now Oak Island is for sale for a price of $7 million.

Some people hope that the government will purchase the island and turn it into a tourist attraction, which is a good idea, but you have to say to yourself, do we want a tourist attraction for a treasure that has haunted people for more than 200 years? I think we do. It would be a great attraction as people from around the world would come to see it.