OAK ISLAND TREASURE COMPANY
Event Number: 7
Contributor: Paul Troutman
Oak Island Company Name: The Oak Island Treasure Company
Also Know By:
Company Formation date and location:
1893 Maine, 1895 Boston and Framingham, Massachusetts
Initial Company Shares per Price: $300,000 - $5 Per Share, 60,000 Shares
Oak Island Leased by: Sophia Sellers
Years Active on Oak Island From 1893 to 1900
Deaths as a result on Oak Island: 1 - Maynard Kaiser from Gold River - rope slipped off pulley in M.P.
Names of Company Members (location extra):
A.M. Bridgeman – President – Brockton, Mass.
Frederick Leander Blair - Treasurer
William Chappell –Drilling
Captain John William Welling – On Site Manager
A.S. Lowden – General Manager
T. Perley Putnam - Drilling
Dr. Andrew E. Porter – Physician
George Houghton - Director
C.C.L. Moore - Director
H.C. Tupper –
W.H. McDonald -
Early Reference: "Lunenburg by the Sea"
Contributor: Paul Troutman
Oak Island Company Name: The Oak Island Treasure Company
Also Know By:
Company Formation date and location:
1893 Maine, 1895 Boston and Framingham, Massachusetts
Initial Company Shares per Price: $300,000 - $5 Per Share, 60,000 Shares
Oak Island Leased by: Sophia Sellers
Years Active on Oak Island From 1893 to 1900
Deaths as a result on Oak Island: 1 - Maynard Kaiser from Gold River - rope slipped off pulley in M.P.
Names of Company Members (location extra):
A.M. Bridgeman – President – Brockton, Mass.
Frederick Leander Blair - Treasurer
William Chappell –Drilling
Captain John William Welling – On Site Manager
A.S. Lowden – General Manager
T. Perley Putnam - Drilling
Dr. Andrew E. Porter – Physician
George Houghton - Director
C.C.L. Moore - Director
H.C. Tupper –
W.H. McDonald -
Early Reference: "Lunenburg by the Sea"
Created by Darcy O'Connor, shared courtesy of the Chester Municipal Heritage Society
Summary of Activity:
In 1893 Frederick Leander Blair, a twenty-six-year old insurance salesman living in Boston developed an obsession with Oak Island that was to last until his death in 1950. He formed The Oak Island Treasure Company, and was originally from Amherst, Nova Scotia and as a boy had heard detailed accounts of Oak Island from his uncle, Isaac Blair and from Jefferson W. McDonald both of whom had taken part in the search during the 1860’s. Blair moved from Brookline, Massachusetts back to Amherst, Nova Scotia in 1895. In 1893, The 1st task of this company was to start their search at “The Cave In Pit” area. Blair suspected that the creator of The Money Pit may have installed a valve or gate somewhere in the flood tunnel to be shut-off the water. They started to excavate The Cave In Pit. At a depth of 55 feet, seawater began entering it. By the next day the water was at tide level (about 15th feet from the surface at this spot) and it could not be lowered by bailing. It was abandoned, but they group was still interested in this location and convinced it had been part of the original work. It showed evidence of having been hand-dug at and earlier point, and there was no record of previous searchers being in this area, or creating a shaft. Years later, other searchers would direct their attention to this pit with the assumption that if it wasn’t an airshaft, it would have been an access point for one of the treasure locations. They also assumed that the pit wasn’t exactly in line with the Smith’s Cove water course, but was set off slightly to the side. For that reason, the caving in had not affected the flow of the water. Today the Cave In Pit is a circular crater 100 feet deep and as many feet across. The water in still rises and falls with the tide.
In the fall of 1894 another shaft (SHAFT #13) was dug 30 feet east of The Money Pit and 8 feet north
Of the suspected line of the water course. Water started entering this shaft at 43 feet, probably via an
Underground connection to the flooded tunnel by previous searches. This shaft was abandoned. In the summer of 1895, Lowden’s men began re-excavating The Money Pit, but they only got down 55 feet inside the old cribbing when once more water drove them out. The work as abandoned until the later part of 1896, when they started again. They were able to drain it with their new pumping equipment and cleared it down to 70 feet before the water became excessive. So the old SHAFT #4 (dug to a depth of 75 feet near Smith’s Cove in 1850) was cleared to 78 feet, at which point water entered it from one of the tunnels built by the Oak Island Eldorado/The Halifax Company group in the 1860’s. But by putting their pump in this pit, they found they could drain the Money Pit, which they deepened to 97 feet.
About this time, the 2nd death occurred on Oak Island on March 26, 1897. Maynard Kaiser of nearby Gold River was being hoisted to the top of one of the pits when the rope slipped off the hoisting pulley and he fell to his death. One of his coworkers, Selvin Rafuse of Martin’s Point, told the story “We used to hoist the earth up with horses then and it was when Kaiser was killed in the pits.” Following the accident, Rafuse and the other workers refused to go down into the pits, forcing operations to be halted for about a week. Many of them were convinced that Kaiser’s death was a warning and that some ghostly guardian of the buried treasure would kill anyone who tried to retrieve it. The workers were eventually persuaded back and the deepening of The Money Pit continued. Blair’s notes show that on April 22, 1897 when they reached a depth of 110 feet, they came across one of the old Eldorado/Halifax Company tunnels entering at 108 feet and noticed that all of the water flowing into the pit came through this tunnel. They explored it a short distance and came to an intersecting tunnel at the end of which was a large cribbed shaft extending up into the darkness as far as they could see. Blair says: “Water was boiling up through the bottom of this pit, and it proved to be the real Money Pit. The pit [we] had worked in all winter proved to be the old Tupper pit” (SHAFT #3) dug in the 1850 to 109 feet and situated 10 feet northwest of the actual Money Pit. Several months and a lot of money had been wasted in re-excavating the wrong pit. Moving 10 feet to the Southeast, they broke through the topsoil and soon confirmed they were now in the original Money Pit. On June 9, 1897, digging had progressed to 111 feet in The Money Pit when the workers came upon an uncribbed tunnel 2 ½ feet wide on the east side of The Money Pit. They dug down quickly, noticing that the opening was filled with smooth beach stones covered with a layer of gravel. And as they dug, water gushed through at an ever-increasing rate. They had located the flood tunnel from the sea and Smith’s Cove. Several accounts state that the tunnel was 2 ½ feet wide by 4 feet high. Welling later noted the full height couldn’t be seen because of the increasing water volume rushing into the pit. Blair Says: “It entered the pit under great pressure and finally overcame the pumps, filled the pits [Money Pit and SHAFT #3) to tide level and brought our operations to a stand still.” It was obvious to Blair and Welling that it would be impossible to plug the flood tunnel in the Money Pit itself; the force and volume of water rushing down from Smith’s Cove was too great. Work was then temporarily halted while the companies Nova Scotia board of management et in Halifax to formulate a new plan.
The company directors decided that the best place to stop the flow was at Smith’s Cove. Their plan was to setup off charges of dynamite underground near the shore. This, they hoped would demolish the bothersome tunnel for good. Five holes were bored in a line about 50 feet up from the high-water mark at the Cove. They were spaced 15 feet apart. The first at a point 30 feet south of the presumed course of the flood tunnel, and the last about 30 feet north of that point. All but the third hole were bored to about 90 feet without encountering water. They were crammed with dynamite and filled with water, which served as a plug. When the dynamite was set off the water sprayed more than 100 feet into the air. The third hole apparently bored into the flood tunnel. At 80 feet the auger struck rocks, and seawater immediately rose to tide level. This hole was filled with a huge 160 pound charge. According to Blair, when it was detonated the water in both The Money Pit AND The Cave In Pit “boiled and foamed for a considerable time, and after the disturbance subsided, the oil in the dynamite showed on the water in both of these pits.” While it seems the third hole had hit the flood tunnel the drillers were perplexed by the fact that the seawater this close to the shore wasn’t encountered until a depth at 80 feet. They concluded that the tunnel didn’t simply run in a direct line from the box drains in Smith’s Cove to The Money Pit, but that it first entered a sump hole that was around 75 feet deep and just inland from the shore, and that the bottom of that hole the tunnel ran at a very slight gradient to enter The Money Pit at a depth of approximately 110 feet. This reasoning, however ignored two important earlier discoveries. The watercourse had apparently been struck at 35 feet by SHAFT #5 in 1850, and again at 55 feet down in the Cave-In-Pit in 1894. One theory that has been suggested to explain the inconsistency is that there are perhaps two flood tunnels at different levels running between Smith’s Cove and The Money Pit. But a more reasonable explanation was offered by W.L. Johnson. His opinion is that the third drill hole didn’t exactly penetrate but came very close to it. Then, while the
drill was at 80 feet, the water from the tunnel suddenly burst across and into the hole at a higher level, creating the impression that it had been struck at a depth of 80 feet. But there was a bigger puzzle to contend with. The workers assumed that the huge charge of dynamite in that third hole had effectively choked off the water supply. Yet when the pumps were subsequently run in the Money Pit, they were barely able to keep ahead of the incoming water. The blasting had had no appreciable effect on the flow from the sea. Part of the answer to this riddle would be found the following year.
While the work at the shore was being completed another crew of drillers started boring into the bottom of the southern edge of the Money Pit, which had previously been excavated to 113 feet. With the pumps holding the water level down to about the 100foot level, a drilling platform was set up at 90 feet. Experienced drillers had been hired for the job, and overseeing operations were William Chappell, T. Perley Putnam, and Captain John Welling. A full account of the drilling program is contained in notes prepared by Blair in 1900 and in an affidavit sworn to by Chappell in October 1929. Several holes were bored, most of them with a 2-inch drill through a 3-inch steel casing, usually in loose and apparently disturbed ground all the way down to 171 feet. Blue clay, which Chappell said had the "characteristics of puddled clay," was encountered between 130 and 151 feet and between 160 and 171 feet. Puddled clay is a hand-worked watertight preparation of clay, sand, and water. It is similar to putty, and it may have been this material that the 1803 searchers found (and identified as putty) on some of the original wooden platforms in the Money Pit.
The first hole was bored through wood at 126 feet. Immediately below that the drill bit struck iron, which it couldn't get through. The workers extracted the drill pipe and found it crushed on one side, indicating that it had only hit the edge of whatever that iron obstruction was. So a 1-inch drill was put down the same hole, and it was able to slip past the obstruction at 126 feet. It then went through blue puddled clay and at about 154 feet struck what the drillers first thought was sandstone, but which was later determined to be cement.
This cement was 7 inches thick, and underneath it was 5 inches of solid oak. The drill bit was replaced with an auger in order to bring up samples of this wood. Just below the wood was a 2-inch empty gap and then, according to Chappell, the auger "rested upon a substance the character of which no person would attempt to state."
The auger was twisted into his material and then carefully withdrawn. The borings were taken off the auger by Putnam who later brought them to Amherst for examination. The samples looked to him like a mixture of mud, cement, and chips of wood; but included was a tiny piece of Oak Island's puzzle. When the auger was withdrawn, it was replaced with the drilling chisel, and this was dropped back into the hole, which was now down to about 155 feet from the surface. Here the drill seemed to be on soft metal. Chappell said it was found that this metal "could be moved slightly thereby forming a crevice or space into which the drill, when in alignment, would stick or wedge." This happened several times, and the chisel had to be continually pried loose. Driving the drill down 4 inches required two hours, after which the boring became easier. But even then the drill would go down only by continuously twisting the rods and applying heavy pressure. And the workers noticed that the material being bored would fill up the hole each time the drill was raised. Blair says they "worked five and one quarter hours getting down the two feet eight inches" of this material "and the chisel came up as sharp as [when] it went down." The drillers were certain this material was metal in small pieces; similar to that which had been struck in 1849 between 100 and 104 feet in the Money Pit. At 158 feet the drill hit the same sort of soft metal that had been found just under the wood. The chisel stuck fast in this material and couldn't be turned or driven down, so the drill was withdrawn.
The conclusion drawn by Chappell, Blair, and the others was that below the oak wood the drill had passed through four inches of metal in bars, or ingots, which were pushed aside by the chisel. Then it went through 2 feet 8 inches of small pieces of metal, or coins, that sifted back into the hole each time the drill was raised. Below this were more bars of soft metal which, from the way it felt and from the way the drill bit retained its sharp edge, was not iron. They decided to secure this hole by putting casing below 126 feet (3-inch casing was already down to the iron obstruction) and then to bring up a sample of the metal pieces. A 1-inch casing pipe was lowered through the 3-inch pipe and forced past the obstruction. The iron, however, deflected the pipe away from the course followed by the drill and it struck the wall of the pit instead of going down into the cement. The pipe was pulled out and the drill rods were again sent down the 3-inh casing. But they followed the hole made by. the smaller pipe into the wall of the shaft. Several more attempts failed, and the passage into the cement and metal was lost. The 3-inch casing was withdrawn and reset for a second hole into the bottom of the Money Pit. This time the drill struck wood at 122 feet. It then went through 7 feet of cement between 154 and 161 feet, and one side of the drill also encountered wood from about 154 to 158 feet. Below the cement the drill was driven through more puddled clay until it hit what appeared to be an iron plate at 171 feet. Chappell said: "A magnet was run through this material and it loaded up with fine iron cuttings, thereby producing conclusive proof that it was iron we had been drilling on at 171 feet. No further attempt was made to go through this iron."
Among the many clues that have been discovered on Oak Island, one of the most interesting was included in the samples of bored material retrieved from that drill hole between 153 and 155 feet. Putnam had personally cleaned the end of the auger and the samples, as he was later to swear, were never out of his possession until they were examined at the courthouse in Amherst several days later. On September 6, 1897, Dr. Andrew E. Porter, a physician then practicing in Amherst, conducted the examination in the presence of about a dozen witnesses. Most of what he saw consisted of pieces of wood and the cement like material. But then he noticed something peculiar about what he first thought was a tiny piece of wood. It was a compact ball with a fibrous edge. He carefully untwisted it and flattened it out. After studying it under a strong magnifying glass he declared that "this is not wood and there is either paint or ink on it." He concluded it was a piece of parchment. It was sent soon after to Pictou Academy in Pictou, Nova Scotia, and to experts in Boston. The unanimous verdict was that it was a piece of sheepskin parchment on which were letters written with a quill pen in India ink. The letters appeared to be either "vi," "ui," or "wi" and seemed to form part of some word. The parchment, no larger than a five-cent piece, was kept in Blair's possession for many years before it was given to Mel Chappell, William Chappell's son.
In 1893 Frederick Leander Blair, a twenty-six-year old insurance salesman living in Boston developed an obsession with Oak Island that was to last until his death in 1950. He formed The Oak Island Treasure Company, and was originally from Amherst, Nova Scotia and as a boy had heard detailed accounts of Oak Island from his uncle, Isaac Blair and from Jefferson W. McDonald both of whom had taken part in the search during the 1860’s. Blair moved from Brookline, Massachusetts back to Amherst, Nova Scotia in 1895. In 1893, The 1st task of this company was to start their search at “The Cave In Pit” area. Blair suspected that the creator of The Money Pit may have installed a valve or gate somewhere in the flood tunnel to be shut-off the water. They started to excavate The Cave In Pit. At a depth of 55 feet, seawater began entering it. By the next day the water was at tide level (about 15th feet from the surface at this spot) and it could not be lowered by bailing. It was abandoned, but they group was still interested in this location and convinced it had been part of the original work. It showed evidence of having been hand-dug at and earlier point, and there was no record of previous searchers being in this area, or creating a shaft. Years later, other searchers would direct their attention to this pit with the assumption that if it wasn’t an airshaft, it would have been an access point for one of the treasure locations. They also assumed that the pit wasn’t exactly in line with the Smith’s Cove water course, but was set off slightly to the side. For that reason, the caving in had not affected the flow of the water. Today the Cave In Pit is a circular crater 100 feet deep and as many feet across. The water in still rises and falls with the tide.
In the fall of 1894 another shaft (SHAFT #13) was dug 30 feet east of The Money Pit and 8 feet north
Of the suspected line of the water course. Water started entering this shaft at 43 feet, probably via an
Underground connection to the flooded tunnel by previous searches. This shaft was abandoned. In the summer of 1895, Lowden’s men began re-excavating The Money Pit, but they only got down 55 feet inside the old cribbing when once more water drove them out. The work as abandoned until the later part of 1896, when they started again. They were able to drain it with their new pumping equipment and cleared it down to 70 feet before the water became excessive. So the old SHAFT #4 (dug to a depth of 75 feet near Smith’s Cove in 1850) was cleared to 78 feet, at which point water entered it from one of the tunnels built by the Oak Island Eldorado/The Halifax Company group in the 1860’s. But by putting their pump in this pit, they found they could drain the Money Pit, which they deepened to 97 feet.
About this time, the 2nd death occurred on Oak Island on March 26, 1897. Maynard Kaiser of nearby Gold River was being hoisted to the top of one of the pits when the rope slipped off the hoisting pulley and he fell to his death. One of his coworkers, Selvin Rafuse of Martin’s Point, told the story “We used to hoist the earth up with horses then and it was when Kaiser was killed in the pits.” Following the accident, Rafuse and the other workers refused to go down into the pits, forcing operations to be halted for about a week. Many of them were convinced that Kaiser’s death was a warning and that some ghostly guardian of the buried treasure would kill anyone who tried to retrieve it. The workers were eventually persuaded back and the deepening of The Money Pit continued. Blair’s notes show that on April 22, 1897 when they reached a depth of 110 feet, they came across one of the old Eldorado/Halifax Company tunnels entering at 108 feet and noticed that all of the water flowing into the pit came through this tunnel. They explored it a short distance and came to an intersecting tunnel at the end of which was a large cribbed shaft extending up into the darkness as far as they could see. Blair says: “Water was boiling up through the bottom of this pit, and it proved to be the real Money Pit. The pit [we] had worked in all winter proved to be the old Tupper pit” (SHAFT #3) dug in the 1850 to 109 feet and situated 10 feet northwest of the actual Money Pit. Several months and a lot of money had been wasted in re-excavating the wrong pit. Moving 10 feet to the Southeast, they broke through the topsoil and soon confirmed they were now in the original Money Pit. On June 9, 1897, digging had progressed to 111 feet in The Money Pit when the workers came upon an uncribbed tunnel 2 ½ feet wide on the east side of The Money Pit. They dug down quickly, noticing that the opening was filled with smooth beach stones covered with a layer of gravel. And as they dug, water gushed through at an ever-increasing rate. They had located the flood tunnel from the sea and Smith’s Cove. Several accounts state that the tunnel was 2 ½ feet wide by 4 feet high. Welling later noted the full height couldn’t be seen because of the increasing water volume rushing into the pit. Blair Says: “It entered the pit under great pressure and finally overcame the pumps, filled the pits [Money Pit and SHAFT #3) to tide level and brought our operations to a stand still.” It was obvious to Blair and Welling that it would be impossible to plug the flood tunnel in the Money Pit itself; the force and volume of water rushing down from Smith’s Cove was too great. Work was then temporarily halted while the companies Nova Scotia board of management et in Halifax to formulate a new plan.
The company directors decided that the best place to stop the flow was at Smith’s Cove. Their plan was to setup off charges of dynamite underground near the shore. This, they hoped would demolish the bothersome tunnel for good. Five holes were bored in a line about 50 feet up from the high-water mark at the Cove. They were spaced 15 feet apart. The first at a point 30 feet south of the presumed course of the flood tunnel, and the last about 30 feet north of that point. All but the third hole were bored to about 90 feet without encountering water. They were crammed with dynamite and filled with water, which served as a plug. When the dynamite was set off the water sprayed more than 100 feet into the air. The third hole apparently bored into the flood tunnel. At 80 feet the auger struck rocks, and seawater immediately rose to tide level. This hole was filled with a huge 160 pound charge. According to Blair, when it was detonated the water in both The Money Pit AND The Cave In Pit “boiled and foamed for a considerable time, and after the disturbance subsided, the oil in the dynamite showed on the water in both of these pits.” While it seems the third hole had hit the flood tunnel the drillers were perplexed by the fact that the seawater this close to the shore wasn’t encountered until a depth at 80 feet. They concluded that the tunnel didn’t simply run in a direct line from the box drains in Smith’s Cove to The Money Pit, but that it first entered a sump hole that was around 75 feet deep and just inland from the shore, and that the bottom of that hole the tunnel ran at a very slight gradient to enter The Money Pit at a depth of approximately 110 feet. This reasoning, however ignored two important earlier discoveries. The watercourse had apparently been struck at 35 feet by SHAFT #5 in 1850, and again at 55 feet down in the Cave-In-Pit in 1894. One theory that has been suggested to explain the inconsistency is that there are perhaps two flood tunnels at different levels running between Smith’s Cove and The Money Pit. But a more reasonable explanation was offered by W.L. Johnson. His opinion is that the third drill hole didn’t exactly penetrate but came very close to it. Then, while the
drill was at 80 feet, the water from the tunnel suddenly burst across and into the hole at a higher level, creating the impression that it had been struck at a depth of 80 feet. But there was a bigger puzzle to contend with. The workers assumed that the huge charge of dynamite in that third hole had effectively choked off the water supply. Yet when the pumps were subsequently run in the Money Pit, they were barely able to keep ahead of the incoming water. The blasting had had no appreciable effect on the flow from the sea. Part of the answer to this riddle would be found the following year.
While the work at the shore was being completed another crew of drillers started boring into the bottom of the southern edge of the Money Pit, which had previously been excavated to 113 feet. With the pumps holding the water level down to about the 100foot level, a drilling platform was set up at 90 feet. Experienced drillers had been hired for the job, and overseeing operations were William Chappell, T. Perley Putnam, and Captain John Welling. A full account of the drilling program is contained in notes prepared by Blair in 1900 and in an affidavit sworn to by Chappell in October 1929. Several holes were bored, most of them with a 2-inch drill through a 3-inch steel casing, usually in loose and apparently disturbed ground all the way down to 171 feet. Blue clay, which Chappell said had the "characteristics of puddled clay," was encountered between 130 and 151 feet and between 160 and 171 feet. Puddled clay is a hand-worked watertight preparation of clay, sand, and water. It is similar to putty, and it may have been this material that the 1803 searchers found (and identified as putty) on some of the original wooden platforms in the Money Pit.
The first hole was bored through wood at 126 feet. Immediately below that the drill bit struck iron, which it couldn't get through. The workers extracted the drill pipe and found it crushed on one side, indicating that it had only hit the edge of whatever that iron obstruction was. So a 1-inch drill was put down the same hole, and it was able to slip past the obstruction at 126 feet. It then went through blue puddled clay and at about 154 feet struck what the drillers first thought was sandstone, but which was later determined to be cement.
This cement was 7 inches thick, and underneath it was 5 inches of solid oak. The drill bit was replaced with an auger in order to bring up samples of this wood. Just below the wood was a 2-inch empty gap and then, according to Chappell, the auger "rested upon a substance the character of which no person would attempt to state."
The auger was twisted into his material and then carefully withdrawn. The borings were taken off the auger by Putnam who later brought them to Amherst for examination. The samples looked to him like a mixture of mud, cement, and chips of wood; but included was a tiny piece of Oak Island's puzzle. When the auger was withdrawn, it was replaced with the drilling chisel, and this was dropped back into the hole, which was now down to about 155 feet from the surface. Here the drill seemed to be on soft metal. Chappell said it was found that this metal "could be moved slightly thereby forming a crevice or space into which the drill, when in alignment, would stick or wedge." This happened several times, and the chisel had to be continually pried loose. Driving the drill down 4 inches required two hours, after which the boring became easier. But even then the drill would go down only by continuously twisting the rods and applying heavy pressure. And the workers noticed that the material being bored would fill up the hole each time the drill was raised. Blair says they "worked five and one quarter hours getting down the two feet eight inches" of this material "and the chisel came up as sharp as [when] it went down." The drillers were certain this material was metal in small pieces; similar to that which had been struck in 1849 between 100 and 104 feet in the Money Pit. At 158 feet the drill hit the same sort of soft metal that had been found just under the wood. The chisel stuck fast in this material and couldn't be turned or driven down, so the drill was withdrawn.
The conclusion drawn by Chappell, Blair, and the others was that below the oak wood the drill had passed through four inches of metal in bars, or ingots, which were pushed aside by the chisel. Then it went through 2 feet 8 inches of small pieces of metal, or coins, that sifted back into the hole each time the drill was raised. Below this were more bars of soft metal which, from the way it felt and from the way the drill bit retained its sharp edge, was not iron. They decided to secure this hole by putting casing below 126 feet (3-inch casing was already down to the iron obstruction) and then to bring up a sample of the metal pieces. A 1-inch casing pipe was lowered through the 3-inch pipe and forced past the obstruction. The iron, however, deflected the pipe away from the course followed by the drill and it struck the wall of the pit instead of going down into the cement. The pipe was pulled out and the drill rods were again sent down the 3-inh casing. But they followed the hole made by. the smaller pipe into the wall of the shaft. Several more attempts failed, and the passage into the cement and metal was lost. The 3-inch casing was withdrawn and reset for a second hole into the bottom of the Money Pit. This time the drill struck wood at 122 feet. It then went through 7 feet of cement between 154 and 161 feet, and one side of the drill also encountered wood from about 154 to 158 feet. Below the cement the drill was driven through more puddled clay until it hit what appeared to be an iron plate at 171 feet. Chappell said: "A magnet was run through this material and it loaded up with fine iron cuttings, thereby producing conclusive proof that it was iron we had been drilling on at 171 feet. No further attempt was made to go through this iron."
Among the many clues that have been discovered on Oak Island, one of the most interesting was included in the samples of bored material retrieved from that drill hole between 153 and 155 feet. Putnam had personally cleaned the end of the auger and the samples, as he was later to swear, were never out of his possession until they were examined at the courthouse in Amherst several days later. On September 6, 1897, Dr. Andrew E. Porter, a physician then practicing in Amherst, conducted the examination in the presence of about a dozen witnesses. Most of what he saw consisted of pieces of wood and the cement like material. But then he noticed something peculiar about what he first thought was a tiny piece of wood. It was a compact ball with a fibrous edge. He carefully untwisted it and flattened it out. After studying it under a strong magnifying glass he declared that "this is not wood and there is either paint or ink on it." He concluded it was a piece of parchment. It was sent soon after to Pictou Academy in Pictou, Nova Scotia, and to experts in Boston. The unanimous verdict was that it was a piece of sheepskin parchment on which were letters written with a quill pen in India ink. The letters appeared to be either "vi," "ui," or "wi" and seemed to form part of some word. The parchment, no larger than a five-cent piece, was kept in Blair's possession for many years before it was given to Mel Chappell, William Chappell's son.
Photo Triton Alliance - As seen in History of a Treasure Hunt by D'Arcy O'Connor
The circumstances surrounding the discovery of the piece of parchment were sworn to by several persons who were present at its initial examination. Blair, in an affidavit, states that he was well acquainted with Putnam ("a man in whose honesty and integrity I would place the greatest reliance"), and that there was no doubt the parchment came from about 154 feet down in the Money Pit.
Dr. Porter also later testified under oath that the sample had been handed directly to him by Putnam in the courthouse. It is also noteworthy that all those involved in the 1897 drilling program purchased additional shares following the parchment's discovery and identification. And Dr. Porter, who had had no interest in Oak Island prior to that time, became a shareholder as a result of this tangible piece of evidence having been brought to the surface. While the examiners in Amherst were certain of the identity of · the samples of oak wood, there was a difference of opinion over whether the chips of cement were natural or man-made. Samples were therefore sent to A. Boake Roberts & Co. Ltd., a large chemical analysis firm in London, England. They replied: "We have carefully analyzed the two samples of stone received from you recently and have to report that we find them to be of the following compositions:
No.1 No.2
Lime(CaO) 37.40% 37.18%
Carbonate (CO2) 33.20% 34.00%
Silica (SiO2) 13.20% 13.92%
Iron & Alumina (FE & AL) 2O3 10.19% 10.13%
Moisture (at 120°C) 0.34% 0.29%
Magnesium etc. 5.67% 4.48%
100.00% 100.00%
"These stones are very soft and both of them have the composition of cement."
A. Boake Roberts & Co. was then asked to give an opinion on the probable origin of the cement. They reported that "from the analysts it is impossible to state definitely, but from the appearance and nature of the samples, we are of the opinion that it is a cement which has been worked by man." In autumn of 1897, the directors of the Oak Island Treasure Company were more convinced than ever that a large and valuable deposit lay far down in the Money Pit. The results of their drilling program led them to believe that a cement-encased vault, perhaps 7 feet high, had been constructed. Moreover, they speculated that this chamber contained bars of a relatively soft metal such as gold or silver, wooden chests of coins and jewels, and even historical documents of some kind. Above and below the vault, they had encountered puddled clay, a material that apparently was artificial, since it hadn't been found at any depth other than in the Money Pit. Based on these findings, the company became almost a closed corporation with existing shareholders readily advancing the necessary funds to continue operations. In early October work was begun on a new shaft SHAFT #14 about 45 feet south of the Money Pit. The intention was to sink it to a depth of 180 feet and then tunnel to the Money Pit at a point well below the iron obstruction encountered at 171 feet in that summer's drilling. This shaft would also serve as a pumping station to help drain the Money Pit and the latter could then be excavated ·down into the treasure chamber. By December the diggers had reached a depth of 95 feet when salt water began seeping in at the 70-foot level. Overnight the shaft flooded to within roughly tide level. Work on this hole ended when a tunnel that had been dug by the 1860's searchers was found only 3 feet away. It was responsible for the heavy volume of water entering the shaft. The workers then moved 30 feet southwest of the abandoned pit and began a new shaft SHAFT #15 in January of 1898. Work continued until the first of April when, at a depth of 160 feet, a large volume of salt water suddenly burst in from the southwest side of the shaft and drove the men out. Pumping attempts failed, and it was finally abandoned. In May the workers again decided to try to plug the water entrance at Smith's Cove. In order to locate the position of the drains, they put a pump on the south shore and pumped water from the bay into SHAFT #15 Their intention was to fill it above sea level and force the muddy water out through the flood tunnel and the inlet at the cove. They filled the shaft to the top and, as anticipated, the water started falling back to tide level. But the experiment yielded an unexpected and horrifying result: the muddy water was bubbling out not at Smith's Cove but at about the low water mark on the south side of the island about 300 feet from the Money Pit. The same thing happened the following day when red dye was poured into the pit. The searchers now had two known flood tunnels to contend with. Moreover, the southern tunnel must have had several inlets, as the muddy water appeared at three widespread locations offshore. Presumably this had been the tunnel that had caused the sudden flooding of SHAFT #15 at a depth of 160 feet. The discovery also helped to explain why the dynamiting of Smith's Cove a year earlier hadn't checked the flooding of the Money Pit. It wasn't known at what level this second tunnel entered the Money Pit, but it was presumably lower than the 160-foot depth at which it was encountered in SHAFT #15
The workers subsequently dumped large amounts of rock plaster and clay over and around the presumed inlets at the South Shore Cove. But Blair says this "failed to materially stop the flow of water." A proposal to build a proper cofferdam was rejected as prohibitively expensive, since the cove on that part of the island is about 1,600 feet across, considerably larger than the crescent shaped Smith's Cove. Besides, two cofferdams built at Smith's Cove in 1850 and 1866 had been destroyed quickly by Atlantic storms. Between June 1898 and late summer 1899 four more shafts had been dug (SHAFTS # 16 to #19). These had all been started with the hope of driving them deep enough to tunnel through to the Money Pit’s treasure vault about 160 feet down. SHAFT #16 was abandoned because of the rocky nature of the soil. The other three encountered excessive flooding. Moreover, as Blair and Chappell later observed, the water problem wasn't caused only by the two known flood tunnels. It was aggravated by some of their shafts striking lateral tunnels that had been made by searchers in the 1860's. These had created an uncharted labyrinth of underground streams through the eastern end of the island. Some later searchers were to speculate that Blair and his associates had been a little hasty in assuming that all of those cribbed tunnels they encountered were the work of previous treasure hunters. Oak Island's original underground architect had possibly constructed something even more cunning than a single treasure pit with two flood tunnels feeding directly into it.
The Oak Island Treasure Company was having trouble keeping its head above water in more ways than one. The euphoria that had followed the encouraging drilling results of 1897 was beginning to wear off as some of the group's principal investors found themselves close to personal bankruptcy. T. Pearly Putnam, for instance, was out $20,000 on the venture, and much of this was money he had borrowed. In early 1900 the company once more updated and reissued its prospectus in an attempt to inject much-needed capital into the treasury. This new pamphlet detailed the findings of the 1897 drilling program, but it withheld any mention of the discouraging discovery of the second flood tunnel. Funds were raised to continue the work. Still another shaft SHAFT #20 was dug, flooded, and abandoned, and in May and early June several drill holes were sunk from a platform at the surface into the bottom of the now water-filled Money Pit. But because of the twisted condition of the cribbing only the southeast corner of the pit could be reached from the top. These probes went down to between 116 and 162 feet without striking anything significant. By now the company was financially doomed. Creditors were moving in with liens on equipment, and workers were demanding back wages. That summer saw the end of seven years' work by the Oak Island Treasure Company.
Blair and his group had been beaten, but they hadn't lost faith in the existence of the treasure. In fact, the deposit seemed more valuable than ever, because they now assumed that at least two separate caches lay in the Money Pit. The first, struck at about 100 feet by the auger in 1849, had apparently fallen to some deeper level when the pit collapsed in 1861. It was thought that the wood and iron encountered between 122 and 126 feet in the 1897 drilling program may have been part of this deposit. Those drilling results had also convinced Blair and the others that an even larger cache rested below 154 feet in the pit and that the original work went down to at least 171 feet. In addition, the discovery of a second flood tunnel-though it increased their frustration-was also seen as further proof that no ordinary treasure had been hidden in the pit. Blair would later learn more of Oak Island's strange secrets. One of these had been stumbled on by Captain Welling near the island's south shore in 1897, and he had pointed it out to Blair and Chappell. It was a large equilateral triangle made of beach stones. None of them attempted to figure out what it meant, and forty years passed before its significance was realized. Toward the end of 1900, Blair acquired all the shares of the Oak Island Treasure Company from the other major investors. He retained a lease on the Money Pit area as well as treasure trove rights under his own name, and proceeded to see out other partners to continue the search on Oak Island.
Key Events:
[1893]:
[1894]:
[1895]:
[1896]:
[1897]:
[June 1898 to Summer 1899]:
[1900]:
Dr. Porter also later testified under oath that the sample had been handed directly to him by Putnam in the courthouse. It is also noteworthy that all those involved in the 1897 drilling program purchased additional shares following the parchment's discovery and identification. And Dr. Porter, who had had no interest in Oak Island prior to that time, became a shareholder as a result of this tangible piece of evidence having been brought to the surface. While the examiners in Amherst were certain of the identity of · the samples of oak wood, there was a difference of opinion over whether the chips of cement were natural or man-made. Samples were therefore sent to A. Boake Roberts & Co. Ltd., a large chemical analysis firm in London, England. They replied: "We have carefully analyzed the two samples of stone received from you recently and have to report that we find them to be of the following compositions:
No.1 No.2
Lime(CaO) 37.40% 37.18%
Carbonate (CO2) 33.20% 34.00%
Silica (SiO2) 13.20% 13.92%
Iron & Alumina (FE & AL) 2O3 10.19% 10.13%
Moisture (at 120°C) 0.34% 0.29%
Magnesium etc. 5.67% 4.48%
100.00% 100.00%
"These stones are very soft and both of them have the composition of cement."
A. Boake Roberts & Co. was then asked to give an opinion on the probable origin of the cement. They reported that "from the analysts it is impossible to state definitely, but from the appearance and nature of the samples, we are of the opinion that it is a cement which has been worked by man." In autumn of 1897, the directors of the Oak Island Treasure Company were more convinced than ever that a large and valuable deposit lay far down in the Money Pit. The results of their drilling program led them to believe that a cement-encased vault, perhaps 7 feet high, had been constructed. Moreover, they speculated that this chamber contained bars of a relatively soft metal such as gold or silver, wooden chests of coins and jewels, and even historical documents of some kind. Above and below the vault, they had encountered puddled clay, a material that apparently was artificial, since it hadn't been found at any depth other than in the Money Pit. Based on these findings, the company became almost a closed corporation with existing shareholders readily advancing the necessary funds to continue operations. In early October work was begun on a new shaft SHAFT #14 about 45 feet south of the Money Pit. The intention was to sink it to a depth of 180 feet and then tunnel to the Money Pit at a point well below the iron obstruction encountered at 171 feet in that summer's drilling. This shaft would also serve as a pumping station to help drain the Money Pit and the latter could then be excavated ·down into the treasure chamber. By December the diggers had reached a depth of 95 feet when salt water began seeping in at the 70-foot level. Overnight the shaft flooded to within roughly tide level. Work on this hole ended when a tunnel that had been dug by the 1860's searchers was found only 3 feet away. It was responsible for the heavy volume of water entering the shaft. The workers then moved 30 feet southwest of the abandoned pit and began a new shaft SHAFT #15 in January of 1898. Work continued until the first of April when, at a depth of 160 feet, a large volume of salt water suddenly burst in from the southwest side of the shaft and drove the men out. Pumping attempts failed, and it was finally abandoned. In May the workers again decided to try to plug the water entrance at Smith's Cove. In order to locate the position of the drains, they put a pump on the south shore and pumped water from the bay into SHAFT #15 Their intention was to fill it above sea level and force the muddy water out through the flood tunnel and the inlet at the cove. They filled the shaft to the top and, as anticipated, the water started falling back to tide level. But the experiment yielded an unexpected and horrifying result: the muddy water was bubbling out not at Smith's Cove but at about the low water mark on the south side of the island about 300 feet from the Money Pit. The same thing happened the following day when red dye was poured into the pit. The searchers now had two known flood tunnels to contend with. Moreover, the southern tunnel must have had several inlets, as the muddy water appeared at three widespread locations offshore. Presumably this had been the tunnel that had caused the sudden flooding of SHAFT #15 at a depth of 160 feet. The discovery also helped to explain why the dynamiting of Smith's Cove a year earlier hadn't checked the flooding of the Money Pit. It wasn't known at what level this second tunnel entered the Money Pit, but it was presumably lower than the 160-foot depth at which it was encountered in SHAFT #15
The workers subsequently dumped large amounts of rock plaster and clay over and around the presumed inlets at the South Shore Cove. But Blair says this "failed to materially stop the flow of water." A proposal to build a proper cofferdam was rejected as prohibitively expensive, since the cove on that part of the island is about 1,600 feet across, considerably larger than the crescent shaped Smith's Cove. Besides, two cofferdams built at Smith's Cove in 1850 and 1866 had been destroyed quickly by Atlantic storms. Between June 1898 and late summer 1899 four more shafts had been dug (SHAFTS # 16 to #19). These had all been started with the hope of driving them deep enough to tunnel through to the Money Pit’s treasure vault about 160 feet down. SHAFT #16 was abandoned because of the rocky nature of the soil. The other three encountered excessive flooding. Moreover, as Blair and Chappell later observed, the water problem wasn't caused only by the two known flood tunnels. It was aggravated by some of their shafts striking lateral tunnels that had been made by searchers in the 1860's. These had created an uncharted labyrinth of underground streams through the eastern end of the island. Some later searchers were to speculate that Blair and his associates had been a little hasty in assuming that all of those cribbed tunnels they encountered were the work of previous treasure hunters. Oak Island's original underground architect had possibly constructed something even more cunning than a single treasure pit with two flood tunnels feeding directly into it.
The Oak Island Treasure Company was having trouble keeping its head above water in more ways than one. The euphoria that had followed the encouraging drilling results of 1897 was beginning to wear off as some of the group's principal investors found themselves close to personal bankruptcy. T. Pearly Putnam, for instance, was out $20,000 on the venture, and much of this was money he had borrowed. In early 1900 the company once more updated and reissued its prospectus in an attempt to inject much-needed capital into the treasury. This new pamphlet detailed the findings of the 1897 drilling program, but it withheld any mention of the discouraging discovery of the second flood tunnel. Funds were raised to continue the work. Still another shaft SHAFT #20 was dug, flooded, and abandoned, and in May and early June several drill holes were sunk from a platform at the surface into the bottom of the now water-filled Money Pit. But because of the twisted condition of the cribbing only the southeast corner of the pit could be reached from the top. These probes went down to between 116 and 162 feet without striking anything significant. By now the company was financially doomed. Creditors were moving in with liens on equipment, and workers were demanding back wages. That summer saw the end of seven years' work by the Oak Island Treasure Company.
Blair and his group had been beaten, but they hadn't lost faith in the existence of the treasure. In fact, the deposit seemed more valuable than ever, because they now assumed that at least two separate caches lay in the Money Pit. The first, struck at about 100 feet by the auger in 1849, had apparently fallen to some deeper level when the pit collapsed in 1861. It was thought that the wood and iron encountered between 122 and 126 feet in the 1897 drilling program may have been part of this deposit. Those drilling results had also convinced Blair and the others that an even larger cache rested below 154 feet in the pit and that the original work went down to at least 171 feet. In addition, the discovery of a second flood tunnel-though it increased their frustration-was also seen as further proof that no ordinary treasure had been hidden in the pit. Blair would later learn more of Oak Island's strange secrets. One of these had been stumbled on by Captain Welling near the island's south shore in 1897, and he had pointed it out to Blair and Chappell. It was a large equilateral triangle made of beach stones. None of them attempted to figure out what it meant, and forty years passed before its significance was realized. Toward the end of 1900, Blair acquired all the shares of the Oak Island Treasure Company from the other major investors. He retained a lease on the Money Pit area as well as treasure trove rights under his own name, and proceeded to see out other partners to continue the search on Oak Island.
Key Events:
[1893]:
- When Sophia Sellers was plowing the eastern end of Oak Island with oxen in 1878, when her animals fell into a hole, which caved in directly over a point that was suspected to be the route of the water tunnels leading from Smith’s Cove’s finger drains on the beach to a convergence on the surface called a “Vertical Shaft”, and then sharply downward to the bottom of Money Pit, 350 feet away. This spot may have collapsed due to erosion of the soil. No previous searchers work had been recorded in this area. Referred to as “The Cave In Pit” or SHAFT #12 Oak Island Treasure Company would focus the 1st attempt in this location. The hole had signs of being previously hand-dug before. They excavated down to a depth of 55 feet, until seawater began entering. By the next day, the water was at tide level (about 15 feet from the surface), and could not be lowered by bailing, so it was abandoned.
[1894]:
- SHAFT #13 was dug 30 feet east of The Money Pit and 8 feet North of the suspected line of the water course. Water started entering this shaft at 43 feet, probably via an Underground connection to the flooded tunnel by previous searches. This shaft was abandoned.
[1895]:
- In re-excavating The Money Pit, they could only got down 55 feet inside the old cribbing, when water drove them out, and the work was abandoned for the moment.
[1896]:
- Work started again in The Money Pit, and they were able to drain It out with their new pumping equipment and cleared it down to 70 feet before the water became excessive. SHAFT #4 (dug to a depth of 75 feet near Smith’s Cove in 1850) was cleared to a depth of 78 feet, at which point water entered it from one of the tunnels built by the Oak Island Eldorado/The Halifax Company group in the 1860’s. By putting their pump into this pit, they found they could drain the Money Pit, which they deepened to 97 feet.
[1897]:
- The 2nd Death On Oak Island occurred while work continued in re-excavating The Money Pit, The 2nd death occurred on Oak Island when on March 26, 1897, Maynard Kaiser of nearby Gold River was being hoisted to the top of one of the pits with containers of dirt, when the rope slipped off the hoisting pulley and he fell to his death. Following the accident, the other workers refused to go down into the pits, forcing operations to be halted for about a week, until they were convinced to continue. They reached a depth of 110 feet in The Money Pit, they came across one of the old Eldorado/Halifax Company tunnels entering at 108 feet and noticed that all of the water flowing into the pit came through this tunnel. They explored it a short distance and came to an intersecting tunnel at the end of which was a large cribbed shaft extending up into the darkness as far as they could see. They had been excavating the wrong shaft (SHAFT #3). Moving 10 feet to the Southeast, they broke through the topsoil and soon confirmed they were now in the original Money Pit. On June 9, 1897, digging had progressed to 111 feet in The Money Pit when the workers came upon an uncribbed tunnel 2 ½ feet wide on the east side of The Money Pit. They dug down quickly, noticing that the opening was filled with smooth beach stones covered with a layer of gravel. And as they dug, water gushed through at an ever-increasing rate. They had located the flood tunnel from the sea and Smith’s Cove. Several accounts state that the tunnel was 2 ½ feet wide by 4 feet high. Welling later noted the full height couldn’t be seen because of the increasing water volume rushing into the pit. Blair Says: “It entered the pit under great pressure and finally overcame the pumps, filled the pits [Money Pit and SHAFT #3) to tide level and brought our operations to a stand still.” Work was then temporarily halted while the companies Nova Scotia board of management in Halifax to formulate a new plan. The company directors decided that the best place to stop the flow was at Smith’s Cove. Their plan was to setup off charges of dynamite underground near the shore. This, they hoped would demolish the bothersome tunnel for good. Five holes were bored in a line about 50 feet up from the high-water mark at the Cove. They were spaced 15 feet apart. (see 1897 Hole Diagram of these 5 holes and The Money Pit) All but the third hole were bored to about 90 feet without encountering water. They were all crammed with dynamite and filled with water, which served as a plug. When the dynamite was set off the water sprayed more than 100 feet into the air. The third hole apparently bored into the flood tunnel. At 80 feet the auger struck rocks, and seawater immediately rose to tide level. This hole was filled with a huge 160 pound charge. According to Blair, when it was detonated the water in both The Money Pit AND The Cave In Pit “boiled and foamed for a considerable time, and after the disturbance subsided, the oil in the dynamite showed on the water in both of these pits.” While the work at the shore was being completed, another crew of drillers started boring into the bottom of the Southern edge of the Money Pit, which had previously been excavated to 113 feet. With the pumps holding the water level down to about the 100foot level, a drilling platform was set up at 90 feet. Experienced drillers had been hired for the job, and overseeing operations were William Chappell, T. Perley Putnam, and Captain John Welling. Several holes were bored, most of them with a 2-inch drill through a 3-inch steel casing, usually in loose and apparently disturbed ground all the way down to 171 feet.
- CLAY FOUND AGAIN, CEMENT VAULT, AND METAL
- PARCHMENT FOUND
- The circumstances surrounding the discovery of the piece of parchment were sworn to by several persons who were present at its initial examination. Blair, in an affidavit, states that he was well acquainted with Putnam ("a man in whose honesty and integrity I would place the greatest reliance"), and that there was no doubt the parchment came from about 154 feet down in the Money Pit.
- Dr. Porter also later testified under oath that the sample had been handed directly to him by Putnam in the courthouse. It is also noteworthy that all those involved in the 1897 drilling program purchased additional shares following the parchment's discovery and identification. And Dr. Porter, who had had no interest in Oak Island prior to that time, became a shareholder as a result of this tangible piece of evidence having been brought to the surface. While the examiners in Amherst were certain of the identity of the samples of oak wood, there was a difference of opinion over whether the chips of cement were natural or man-made. Samples were therefore sent to A. Boake Roberts & Co. Ltd who determined it was cement, and had the same chemical composition. In October, work started on a new shaft (SHAFT #14) about 45 feet south of The Money Pit. By December the diggers had reached a depth of 95 feet when salt water began seeping in at the 70 foot level. Overnight the shaft flooded to within the tide level. Work on this hole ended when a tunnel that had been dug by the 1860’s searchers was found only 3 feet away.
- In January they moved 30 feet Southwest of SHAFT #14, and started a new shaft SHAFT#15. In April they were down to a depth of 160 feet when a large volume of salt water suddenly burst in from the Southwest side of the shaft and drove the men out. Pumping attempts failed and it was abandoned.
- The 2nd Flood Tunnel on The South Shore feeding into The Money Pit was discovered:
[June 1898 to Summer 1899]:
- Four more shafts had been dug at this point to try to get into The Money Pits Treasure Vault at about 160 feet down: SHAFT #16, SHAFT #17, SHAFT #18, and SHAFT #19. SHAFT #16 were abandoned because of the rocky nature of the soil. SHAFTS #18, 17, and 19 encountered excessive flooding also caused by lateral tunnels by earlier searchers in the 1860’s.
[1900]:
- The company prospectus was updated and reissued to raise additional funds, which were getting low as principal investors were close to personal bankruptcy. Another shaft, SHAFT #20 was dug, flooded and abandoned. In May and June several drill holes were sunk from a platform at the surface of the bottom of the now water-filled Money Pit. Because of the twisted condition of the cribbing only the Southeast corner of the pit could be reached from the top. Drilling down between 116 and 162 feet without encountering anything of interest. By now the company was financially doomed, and creditors were moving in with liens on equipment, and workers demanding back wages. This was the end of 7 years of work by The Oak Island Treasure Company. 9 Years would pass before another attempt would be made on Oak Island.