oak island treasure

[donhsf]

The march april issue of skeptical inquirer has a detailed article by joe nickell, whose analysis of spontaneous human combustion is featured in an update on that topic. nickell shows evidence that the pit is a natural sinkhole with natural limestone channels admitting seawater and that the details of proof of a manmade treasure are the result of imagination, exageration, and a kind of masonic parable perpetrated by some of the treasure hunting principles who were masons

[C K Dexter Haven]

Here is the article referenced: Oak Island treausre (http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_441.html)

This was a column by Cecil, not a Mailbag item, and so I am moving this topic to the appropriate forum.

[Diceman]

It may have originally been a natural sinkhole that was enlarged by man. However, unless everything that has ever been written about the Money Pit is 100% wrong, then someone definitely put alot of effort into this site. There were oak platforms at regular, 10 foot intervals for about 100 feet into the pit. An entire beach was dug up, lined with coconut fiber and flagstone, and layed out as a sump to flood the pit if it was excavated. Everything suggests an huge amount of work occurring at this site. Nothing doesn't. As you might guess, I've read alot about Oak Island. Skeptics like Joe Nickell serve a usefull purpose, but often they can be so closed-minded that they wouldn't recognize the proof if you superglued it to their forehead. Joe Nickell was correct to speculate that the pit may have had a natural origen (after all, digging a 100-foot pit is alot of work). He goofed by concluding that this meant no human activity had occurred.

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--It was recently discovered that research causes cancer in rats.

[egkelly]

I'm glad this topic came up. Imn my youth I was fascinated by stories of pirates and buried treasure. Everybody seems to assume that whatever was buried on Oak Island, it was probably put there by pirates. My question: how much actual "buried treasure" was ever actually found? I read recently, that on the whole, pirates really were pretty poor-most didn't have chests full of gold that they had to worry about hiding.

[Diceman]

As far as actual treasure, I think there has been the three gold links Cecil mentioned, plus a small jewel. Both were brought up by pod auger drills. One drill reportedly pushed through what felt like small peices of metal, although none of this was brought up by the drill. That's all in the way of treasure, although a ton of miscellaneous artifacts have been found by various people.

As far as who buried it, I seriously doubt pirates would go through all of that trouble. IMO, it was the British government who dug the pit. As for how they intended to get whatever is down there out, I wonder: Is it possable that they buried it, hoping that no one would ever recover it?

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--It was recently discovered that research causes cancer in rats.

[KimKatt]

http://www.activemind.com/Mysterious/Topics/OakIsland/

A web site which pulls together a lot of the Oak Island information, including a timeline, listing of media coverage, drawings of the inscribed stones, etc.

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Any similarities between your reality and mine are purely coincidental.

[obfusciatrist]

Another element of the Skeptical Inquirer article that I found interesting was the possible connection with the Masons.

Apparently a lot of the "legend" surrounding the Money Pit is very similar to Masonic origination myths (and apparently a lot of the early people involved were Masons).

Don't know if it is as significant as the author believed, but I found it interesting.

Obfus.

[Hail Ants]

Cecil's column didn't point out that the stone tablet with the "20 feet/20 mil pounds" message was absolutely a fake. It was written in modern English using a simple single-replacement code.

My favorite theory supposes that Bacon wrote all of Shakespear's works and that the Pit was built as a hiding place for the original manuscripts, or something like that.

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I for one welcome our new insect overlords... - K. Brockman

[Little Nemo]

No, Tom, that's the really unusual part. The Oak Island pit concealed the evidence that all of Shakespeare's plays were actually written by Kevin Bacon.

[tomndebb]

That would be Roger Bacon, of course.

[Diceman]

That would be Roger Bacon, of course.

Considering the location, I'd say the pit was dug by Roger's cousin, Canadian Bacon.

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--It was recently discovered that research causes cancer in rats.

[KP]

Kevin Bacon(*)...

The same Kevin Bacon whose works include: Digging to China... Enormous Changes at the Last Minute... He said, She Said.... Pyrates.... am I seeing a pattern or is it just time to adjust my medication


(*)Ob"Six Degrees" (C'mon you knew someone would do it):
...who co-starred in "Apollo 13" with Tom Hanks, the co-star of "The Money Pit" (There! Happy?)

[lswote]

Originally posted by Hail Ants:
Cecil's column didn't point out that the stone tablet with the "20 feet/20 mil pounds" message was absolutely a fake. It was written in modern English using a simple single-replacement code.


The interpretation may be incorrect, but what evidence do you have that proves the stone table itself is a fake?



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"The truth does not make a good story; that's why we have art."

[Hail Ants]

I can't remember specifically, but I've read descriptions of it and it's obvious that it was a fake made to help generate interest (and venture capital) in the Pit. It written using a simple, single-replacement code (A=#, B=*, C=& etc.)

More importantly, it makes no sense that a stone saying that would be put there.

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I for one welcome our new insect overlords... - K. Brockman