22. Works Cited• Crooker, W. S. (1993). Oak Island Gold. Halifax, N.S.: Nimbus.
• Discover England's Theatre Genius. Retrieved March 30, 2014
• Fanthorpe, R. L., & Fanthorpe, P. A. (1995). The Oak Island mystery the secret of the world's greatest treasure hunt. Toronto: Hounslow Press.
• Finnan, M. (2002). Oak Island Secrets (Rev. ed.). Halifax, N.S.: Formac Pub.
• Harris, G., & MacPhie, L. (2005). Oak Island and Its Lost Treasure. Halifax: Formac Pub.
• Harris, R. V. (1967). The Oak Island Mystery (2d ed.). Toronto: Ryerson Press.
• Lamb, L. (2006). Oak Island Obsession the Restall Story. Toronto, Ont.: Dundurn.
• McKaig, B. (1985). Sir Francis Bacon's New Advancement of Learning Bacon is Shakespeare.
• Oak Island Money Pit. The Last Great Unsolved Mystery. (n.d.). Oak Island Money Pit. Retrieved Retrieved March 29, 2014, from http://www.oakislandmoneypit.com/
• Restall, M. Death on Treasure Island. (1965). Ottawa Citizen. Retrieved March 29, 2014
• University Archives. (n.d.). Franklin D. Roosevelt Rare Presidential Historical Artifact. University Archives - US Historical Manuscripts: Civil War Documents: American Historical Documents for Sale : University Archives . Retrieved March
29, 2014
• Pictures:
• http://photobucket.com/images/creepy%20fog?page=1
• https://www.flickr.com/photos/crowdive/710894987/in/gallery-121883566@N08-72157643147067084/
• https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=boy%20exploring%20forest
• http://www.oakislandmoneypit.com/
• http://photobucket.com/images/treasure%20chest?page=2
• https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=water%20filled%20hole
• https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=it's%20a%20trap
• https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=water%20filled%20hole
• https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=coffin
• https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=President%20Franklin%20D.%20Roosevelt
• https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=captain%20jack%20sparrow
• https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Vikings
Notes de l'éditeur
Have You Heard of The Oak Island Mystery?By Ashley ToupsPicture: http://photobucket.com/images/creepy%20fog?page=1
Oak Island is one of over 300 islands in Mahone Bay. The 140-acre island is located near Nova Scotia and Canada’s Atlantic coast. The mystery of the island started in the year of 1795 (Oak Island Money Pit, 2014).Picture: https://www.flickr.com/photos/crowdive/710894987/in/gallery-121883566@N08-72157643147067084/
In the summer of 1795 a teenage boy named Daniel McGinnis decided to go explore Oak Island. He reached a clearing, and came across a circular depression around 13 feet across. Above the depression was an old ship’s block and tackle hung from a shortened branch of an oak tree (Lionel & Patricia Fanthorpe, 1995).Picture: https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=boy%20exploring%20forest
Daniel went to get his, friends John Smith and Anthony Vaughan, to help him dig. Two or three feet down the boys found strange, flat rocks. These rocks were not like any of the other rocks on the island. At ten feet below the surface they hit a layer of old oak logs wedged into the clay of the pit’s sides. They discovered another platform of oak logs at 20 feet below the surface and then again at the 30 foot mark. After digging 30 feet without finding any treasure they decided to end their dig there, but hoped to come back one day to keep digging. After a few years John Smith bought a house near the pit, became the owner of the whole twenty-four acres at the eastern end of the island (Lionel & Patricia Fanthorpe, 1995).Picture: http://www.oakislandmoneypit.com/
The next person to take on the Oak Island challenge was Simeon Lynds. No one is really sure how Lynds became involved. Some think that he was a doctor attending the birth of John Smith’s wife’s baby, and Smith talked to him about the Money Pit. Others believe Lynds might have just been a relative of Smith’s, a family friend, or even a travelling business man. In 1803 Lynds gathered a group of men who lived in Onslow to help dig in the pit. They became known as The Onslow Company. They found many different layers of oak, charcoal, putty, and coconut fibre (Lionel & Patricia Fanthorpe, 1995). Picture: http://photobucket.com/images/treasure%20chest?page=2
The Onslow Company found a tablet with a strange inscription at the 90 foot mark of the pit (Lionel & Patricia Fanthorpe, 1995). It was not until the 1860s that a credible translation could be given for the stone slab. A man by the name of James Leitchi used a technique called simple substitution cipher to decipher the code. This method uses unique symbols to be substitutes for specific letters of an alphabet. Leitchi believes the message on the stone reads, “Forty feet below, two million pounds are buried” (Oak Island Money Pit, 2014).Picture: http://www.oakislandmoneypit.com/
After finding the stone tablet the men noticed water seeping through into the pit. After the 98-foot mark they struck something impenetrably hard. What they struck stretched from one side of the pit to the other. Since the water and darkness were posing serious problems the men decided to come back the next day. When they came back the next day they discovered that the pit was filled with over 60 feet of water. Somehow, either by nature or by a man-made booby trap, the Atlantic Ocean found its way into the pit. They dug a parallel shaft and reached 115 feet without any water problems, but less than 3 feet away from the spot where they believed the treasure was water came though and the clay between their tunnel and the Money Pit collapsed (Lionel & Patricia Fanthorpe, 1995). Picture: https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=it's%20a%20trap
The pit lay undisturbed for almost 40 years. The adventure on the Money Pit continued in the year of 1845. The next group up for the challenge was the Truro Company that Anthony Vaughan helped create (Harris, 1967). The men discovered that the southern part of the island’s shore was man-made (Crooker, 1993). The men decided to build a rock dam outside the tunnel that was letting the Atlantic Ocean through and into the pit. After they found the feeder vent that connected the five shafts to the tunnel they blocked it with wood pilings. Sadly, the water level refused to lower, and they left empty-handed from the 1850 expedition (Harris, 1967). In 1861 the next group called The Oak Island Association was formed. During their excavation there was a wall collapse and the bottom of the tunnel had given way. After this frightening ordeal they found pieces of debris from the bottom had risen to the top of the water. Some of the items they found were a piece of Juniper, an oak timber, and the bottom of a yellow dish (Crooker, 1993). Picture: https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=water%20filled%20hole
The first island tragedy was in 1861. The Oak Island Association decided to use a cast iron pump and steam engine to take the water out of the pit. One day a boiler exploded scalding an operator and injuring several others (Harris and MacPhie, 2005). The next tragedy was on March 26, 1897. A man named Maynard Kaiser died (Oak Island Money Pit, 2014).The last tragedy, so far, happened on August 17, 1965, and resulted in four deaths. A man named Robert Restall looked over into the tunnel to inspect his work and fell unconscious from the noxious gas coming from the pit (Restall, 1965). When Restall fell into the water shaft his son, Bobbie, rushed over to help his father, but he also fell unconscious by the fumes. Two workers, Karl Graeser and Cyril Hiltz, came to help but also suffered the same fate (Lamb, 2006).Picture: https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=coffin
Before he was president, Franklin D. Roosevelt was a treasure hunter. At the age of 27 Roosevelt joined the Old Gold Salvage and Wrecking Company in 1909. He spent the summer working on the Money Pit in hopes of finding treasure (University Archives, 1939). Picture: https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=President%20Franklin%20D.%20Roosevelt
William Chappell and a few family members decided to give the Money Pit challenge a go in 1931. They actually drilled about six feet south of the Money Pit by mistake. Between 115 and 130 feet deep the men found and anchor flute, something resembling a 250-year old Acadian axe, a miner’s pick, and the remnants of an oil lamp with seal oil. Unfortunately, the team lost the lease for them to continue excavating the site, and they were forced to suspend operations in 1932 (Crooker, 1993).Picture: http://www.oakislandmoneypit.com/
In 1937 was actually Gilbert Hedden’s second attempt at the Money Pit. He and his team found a number of interesting things in their excavation. The following are some of their findings: a miner’s oil lamp with whale oil, unexploded dynamite, clay not previously found on the island, and a tunnel they believed to be one of the original flood tunnels (Harris and MacPhie, 2005). In 1938 he stopped his drilling campaign to focus on business matters (Harris, 1967).Picture: http://www.oakislandmoneypit.com/
One common theory of who made the Money Pit is that it is the work of pirates. Many believe that Captain Kidd buried his fortune there just before he was captured in Boston in 1699. Others believe that Blackbeard buried his treasure there due to his boasts that his treasure was hidden “where none but Satan and myself can find it” (Oak Island Money Pit, 2014).Picture: https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=captain%20jack%20sparrow
Vikings would usually bury dead kings and chieftains with their ships and treasures. “If the radio carbon dating is five hundred years adrift, there’s a remote possibility that some great Viking warlord, or Celtic sea-rover, lies beneath Oak Island” (Lionel & Patricia Fanthorpe, 1995).Picture: https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=vikings
Another theory is that the Money Pit was made by either British or French military forces. Some believe that at some point during the French and Indian War and the Seven Years War the French snuck through British vessels and hid their riches under Oak Island. And some believe that the 1758 British attack on Fort Louisbourg was successful, and they pillaged the French stronghold’s riches before depositing them under the island (Oak Island Money Pit, 2014).Picture: https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=soldier
William Crooker, author of many Oak Island mystery books, suggests that King George III of England and several of his close advisors built the pit as part of a plot. In 1762 British forces captured the rich city of Havana, Cuba, from the Spanish. Much of the gold was shipped back to Spain, but the Earl of Albermarle captured two ship loads of the riches and took them to Oak Island. Conspirators had arranged for military engineers to build what they thought was a secret ammo dump complete with flood tunnels on the island. When Albermarle arrived with the sealed boxes of treasure they were put into the pit and the engineers closed the pit while still thinking they had built an ammo dump. It is thought that the madness that King George III became afflicted with towards the end of his life prevented the Albermarle from going back to the island to retrieve the treasure and was forgotten about.Picture: https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=king%20george%20III
Many believe that the Williams Shakespeare’s true identity and author of his works is a man named Sir Francis Bacon. When a parchment containing India ink lettering was found in the Money Pit many were convinced of the Shakespearean conspiracy. They believe that Sir Francis Bacon’s true literary achievements lie within the Money Pit (McKaig, 1985).Picture: http://photobucket.com/images/shakespeare?page=2
Some believe it might have been an ancient Christian site or the resting site of a high priest. Not everyone agrees what Leitchi thinks the mysterious stone slab message says. Some believe it says, “"The people shall not forget the Lord, to offset the hardships of winter, and the onset of plague the Arif, he shall pray to the Lord“ (Finnan, 2002).Picture: https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=cross
Crooker, W. S. (1993). Oak Island Gold. Halifax, N.S.: Nimbus.Discover England's Theatre Genius. Retrieved March 30, 2014Fanthorpe, R. L., & Fanthorpe, P. A. (1995). The Oak Island mystery the secret of the world's greatest treasure hunt. Toronto: Hounslow Press.Finnan, M. (2002). Oak Island Secrets (Rev. ed.). Halifax, N.S.: Formac Pub.Harris, G., & MacPhie, L. (2005). Oak Island and Its Lost Treasure. Halifax: Formac Pub.Harris, R. V. (1967). The Oak Island Mystery (2d ed.). Toronto: Ryerson Press.Lamb, L. (2006). Oak Island Obsession the Restall Story. Toronto, Ont.: Dundurn.McKaig, B. (1985). Sir Francis Bacon's New Advancement of Learning Bacon is Shakespeare.Oak Island Money Pit. The Last Great Unsolved Mystery. (n.d.). Oak Island Money Pit. Retrieved Retrieved March 29, 2014, from http://www.oakislandmoneypit.com/Restall, M. Death on Treasure Island. (1965). Ottawa Citizen. Retrieved March 29, 2014University Archives. (n.d.). Franklin D. Roosevelt Rare Presidential Historical Artifact. University Archives - US Historical Manuscripts: Civil War Documents: American Historical Documents for Sale : University Archives . Retrieved March 29, 2014Pictures:http://photobucket.com/images/creepy%20fog?page=1https://www.flickr.com/photos/crowdive/710894987/in/gallery-121883566@N08-72157643147067084/https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=boy%20exploring%20foresthttp://www.oakislandmoneypit.com/http://photobucket.com/images/treasure%20chest?page=2https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=water%20filled%20holehttps://www.flickr.com/search/?q=it's%20a%20traphttps://www.flickr.com/search/?q=water%20filled%20holehttps://www.flickr.com/search/?q=coffinhttps://www.flickr.com/search/?q=President%20Franklin%20D.%20Roosevelthttps://www.flickr.com/search/?q=captain%20jack%20sparrowhttps://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Vikingshttps://www.flickr.com/search/?q=soldierhttps://www.flickr.com/search/?q=king%20george%20IIIhttp://photobucket.com/images/shakespeare?page=2https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=cross http://photobucket.com/images/treasure%20chest?page=2
