# Oak Island **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 8, 2018, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oak-island/810259 "2018-03-08T20:24:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2018, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oak-island/810259/21 "2018-03-09T17:08:59Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I’ve got all three in my backyard. That would be significant if true. It’s really more like a patio. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2018, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oak-island/810259/22 "2018-03-09T17:11:51Z")
My favorite part of the Roswell Incident is that there really was a genuine government conspiracy to cover it up. But they weren’t covering up an alien spacecraft: They were deliberately encouraging the rumor of an alien spacecraft, to cover up for the actual secret nuclear-test monitoring program. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2018, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oak-island/810259/23 "2018-03-09T17:44:35Z")
I view Oak Island as an exercise in skepticism. When I was a young pup many years ago, I was enthralled by a Readers Digest story about Oak Island: Block and tackle hanging from tree branch, platforms every 10 feet, flood tunnels, stone tablet with strange language markings… And, it’s all bullshit. How about that. ---
**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2018, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oak-island/810259/24 "2018-03-09T18:20:19Z")
I actually read a book on the subject when I was a kid, in the 1970’s. Years later, possibly 1986 thanks to our favorite Uncle, when I learned how perfectly hoaxed it was, I knew books are sometimes false, but it never hit me as hard. Ditto Bermuda’s triangle. Somebody wrote a best seller in the 1970’s, so it had to be factual. Nope. Not at all. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2018, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oak-island/810259/25 "2018-03-09T18:32:06Z")
Some interesting points- the flood tunnels dont seem to exist. Next the origin story about the “kids” has not be verified by period sources. It appeared out of thin air like a hundred years later. It’s a hoax. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2018, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oak-island/810259/26 "2018-03-09T19:51:23Z")
So… It really is ‘The’ definition of a Money Pit. The sheer amount of cash the new show has generated is destined to go into that muddy hole of sadness and disappointment. I find myself wishing it where true just so Rick and Marty could be happy and go home. Before someone gets killed. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2018, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oak-island/810259/27 "2018-03-09T20:47:12Z")
One of my guilty pleasures is listening to books by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Childs on my commute. They’re every bit as preposterous as Clive Cussler, and perfectly straight faced about it. One of their earlier books (but following _Relic_) was **Riptide** , which was about a thinly-disguised Oak Island treasure hunt. The premise of the book was that the treasure and the pit were real, and the pit was booby-trapped with traps like those in the Indiana Jones movies that, like those, were still in operating condition hundreds of years later. The ideas was that a Christopher Wren-like architect designed the system. so even after the hunters had cofferdammed the site and pumped out the water and gone down after the treasure, there were still deathtraps waiting for them. and, of course, there was a Deep Dark Secret down there, too. Fun reading, as long as you turn your critical faculties off and fly on Cruise Control. Probably more worthwhile than reading about the real Oak Island. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2018, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oak-island/810259/28 "2018-03-10T02:34:34Z")
> [@K364](#): > > I view Oak Island as an exercise in skepticism. Well, [yeah](https://www.csicop.org/si/show/secrets_of_oak_island). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oak-island/810259.md?page=1)