Why Can't Anyone Dig Up This Buried Treasure? 

Perhaps the real treasure was the hole we dug along the way...

I'm pretty certain the treasure has already been found long ago, and the person who got it was bright enough not to tell anyone.

Kidd's real treasure is the amusement he gets from every person who starts digging again. He's probably got a couch setup with a bowl of popcorn where he puts his feet up to have a good laugh

I visited Nova Scotia a few years back! I wasn't actively treasure hunting but I found some anyway. The beautiful nature, great seafood and wonderful, friendly people. Love you guys!

Anyone else have the feeling this may have all started because someone dug a small hole then left it due to the rain, then someone else dug up that hole to figure out why that patch of earth was disturbed, then the next person with the same brilliant idea thought that “well if someone dug a hole it must be for an important reason”....and here we all are several brilliant ideas later on an epic adventure to understand the meaning of the hole

You had your chance to drag this out for 10 years or so, but I guess the history Channel already did that. Thanks for condensing the story into a manageable time frame.

If that area is prone to sinkholes, isn’t it possible that the wood/coins/jewelry were just pieces of the treasure that was originally buried a reasonable depth, but then a sinkhole opened up underneath it and scattered the bits?

It's amazing that none of the excavators seems to have consulted with a geologist, who might illuminate them on the concepts of water table levels, soil movement and migration and the issues with digging close to the coast. And assuming that 18th century pirates had the engineering know-how and tools to build that floodong channel "booby trap" is also insane. ^^

As a person who lives in a coastal region that's at sea level my first thought upon hearing that they started digging as deep as they could on a fairly small island was "I'm surprised the hole didn't flood." Now having seen what happened next I'm just confused as to why everyone was apparently surprised that it flooded. Seriously, what did they expect?

nothing compared to the hole ive spent the last 20 yrs of my life digging myself into

This is a really great video. I'm glad you went into the supposed existence of the planks and stone tablet, highlighting how they've 'disappeared' and if they can't be found then they're really just another part of the legend. Great work Thoughty2. I've been watching you for years.

I think Samuel Ball found whatever was there and stayed mum on it. I also never believed it was 120+ft down with flood traps. I am intrigued about the 2 different bone fragments they found deep down and the very old Templar style lead cross on the beach, that is more interesting IMO. Something went on there with the old docks they found. No doubt not treasure related, could be more from the English making a launch point during the Revolutionary War.

The problem with buried treasure, most especially when it's buried in a constantly flooding pit, is that it becomes *sunken treasure,* which makes Captain Kidd's buried treasure the ultimate *sunk-costs fallacy.*

I live in the neighbouring province to Nova Scotia, very nice to see a story so close to home on this wonderful channel. As for the treasure, I think it is an ingenious way to increase tourism.

Love your channel and the unique way in which you embellish your stories with fact and fiction! Keep them coming! 😎

Did no one stop to think he came back for his treasure dug the hole grabbed it and refilled it and left ? I mean come y’all. Haha

The biggest mystery is how the Discovery channel managed to get so many series out of people finding absolutely nothing so far! 😂

As a Canadian, I love this legend, whether true or not.

What if the mysterious treasure shaft is actually nothing but a confined well that got abandoned when it turned out that it was salty?

As a fan of Curse of Oak Island and this channel it was amazing seeing you covering it..i really believe that the treasure/secrets will be uncovered soon.

This here: "We've been leaving our crap around" got me laughing. Can you imagine in 1000 years people digging up some Pokemon figures and cards somewhere and trying to make sense why people were worshiping monsters.

Here's a hot take, assuming the stories are true: The pirates came back, dug up the treasure (removing the plank lids to inspect it, before moving it to chests) and they dropped the plaque at the bottom of the hole and refilled it, assuming nobody would ever discover it.

Nova Scotian here. My father was offered multiple jobs on oak island because, of his profession. Also my grandfather adores Oak island. It makes my happy to see one of my favorite it RU-vidrs talk about my province.

THANK YOU for saving us all from a very long, drawn out, cliffhanger-ridden netflix series that arrived at this same conclusion.

Ironically, it's pretty likely that most of the finds which have come out of OI originated from previous excavation parties. It's a bit like a self-fulfilling prophecy, enough time and effort digging there will eventually lead to a fortune in discarded and lost stuff from all those previous visits, thus creating the very horde those people are looking for. Personally I find it hilarious, and oddly serves as a good abstract definition for all of human endeavour, spend long enough doing something pointless and you might learn something valuable.

Even if (though) there is no treasure trove, the work that the Laginas and many contributors have done has uncovered a really large amount of archeological finds. The have found stone roads, wharfs, mooring anchors, the man made swamp, wooden ship era repair facilities, and evidence of heavy industry. Much more was happening on and around Oak Island than most people know.

There was a series on something like this many years ago that was fascinating. Unlike most such adventures, though, gold was actually found. The documentary was called “The mystery of the Applegate Treasure.”

hello from Nova Scotia! what a pleasant surprise to come across a bit of local folklore from my favourite video-doc youtuber

The Curse of Oak Island show is still going on. Recent seasons have had pit water tests with gold and silver results in the money pit area and other evidence (hundreds of years old cut tunnel timbers and more). Archeologically speaking they've also uncovered gravel road system, the swamp near the pit showing evidence that it was most likely a ship mooring spot for unloading/loading cargo and various other things. Not to say the show doesnt sensationalize but it does mean the activity on the island certainly was more than once otherwise believed.

The rock is the only thing that makes me think it may have been real, but it was probably dug up already, and obviously not claimed publicly for fear of reprisals and/or long lost relatives showing up for a handout.

OMG... Hilarious! Thanks for exploring and sharing this!

I read the Reader's Digest Story at the same time the Lagina brothers did. Wanted to go and get radical on the island and dig it out. I'm following this closely still.

This skips out on the farmer that started to buy land across the island although his crops weren't worth nearly the amount, he could have located the treasure years before

Maybe the real oak island treasure is the friends we made along the way.

The Laginas and their group have uncovered a good bit of evidence showing a previously unknown british military outpost once existed on the island, with paved roads, blacksmithing, and pretty significant ship building/repair capabilities.

Ah good ol Oak Island...it's basically just a giant sponge now. Fwiw, my ex-bf, a hobby metal detectorist, found a Spanish coin dating to 1771, quite literally across the road from where I live in Eastern Ontario. Treasure can literally be anywhere. Except on Oak Island! :-) Great channel, glad I've found it and subscribed :-)

“It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.” - Mark Twain

Humans: We need that treasure now! Water: Imma have to stop you right there.

my parents used to watch curse of oak island all the time, they were so invested lol. this brings back memories

Most pirate "booty" consisted of whatever the ship they raided happened to be carrying at the time. It was very rare that ship happened to be carrying coins and jewels.

A couple of things to consider here: He wouldn't have buried the treasure anywhere he wouldn't be able to recover it from. So 30m shafts full of water are out. And his crew are all cut-throat theives, any of whom could have left his crew after the treasure was buried and gone and retrieved it for themselves. So, no treasure on Oak Island, it's a nice yarn though.

There are so many stories of hidden treasure chests throughout the whole history of literature, with The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Treasure Island being the epitomes of such daydreaming-inducing tales. And yet I consider Peter Duck by A. Ransome to be the best of this kind, a novelette that in genuinely masterful way creates a unique synthesis of childish fantasy and down-to-earth brutal realism. Nice narrative style of the video reminding me somewhat that strange ambience of that not so infantile piece of good adventure literature.

I've been watching the show for years and I can't stop

That level of trap engineering isn't a treasure pit. It's hiding something dangerous.

I like your interpretation of this being the world's greatest practical joke.

"historical accuracy took a back seat to an exciting plot" every book ever written .

Let's imagine that the cryptographic stone did exist and was deciphered correctly. It was found in a sink hole, so maybe it started out at the surface and the treasure started out ten feet below but who knows how deep it could be now... if it was ever there to begin with.

Another classic video. Thanks, Thoughty2.

It's called "The Money Pit" due to all of the money over the years that have been thrown into it digging a hole to "nowhere". So...with modern large construction machinery digging for several years now at nearly 200 feet depth, exactly how long and how many men would it take to dig that hole by hand and fill it back in again. Oh, let's not forget all of the "supposed" tunnels and boobytraps that were designed to flood them. I call B.S. on this one.

When I saw this video title I immediately thought of oak island, it’s such a fun and intriguing tale, I’ve been following the tv show since it started like 9 years ago and I absolutely love the story, so happy you’re doing a video on it

What a fantastic teller you are, Thoughty2! I live your tales and the way you tell them👏

It's so interesting watching videos in this Chanel I just can't stop it.

As a Nova Scotian, myself....the only trap on that island while digging for the gold is a tourist trap. Neat story!... pretty cool history!... but nothing will ever be found there except rocks and sand.

I really liked the video Thoughty, in my opinion the only thing I believe these people might be missing from the information presented here, is actually a geographical and ecosystem knowledge. No matter where they dig from, if the "treasure room" is connected to the flood mechanism it is always going to be filled no matter where you dig from. So you have to do it smart, predict the low tides and focus all efforts at the correct time. It is also quite possible that after all these hundreds of years, the landscape has changed enough to create the "booby traps" itself. Lastly I don't think anyone would go through that much trouble to find a way to get such a hard spot, deep underground, just to throw away something. It might not even be treasure, but whatever it is, it is probably really interesting.

I believe there was a treasure down there at some point. I personally believe Samuel Ball may have found at least some of the treasure maybe with Daniel McGuinness but never told anyone. I also believe the swamp was used to hide and repair British ships during one of the wars which explains the British artifacts, the kiln and the stone path.

Well done! Logically there's likely nothing on the island, but the appeal of buried treasure will lead people to keep looking until they've dug up the whole island.

If I was a clever pirate I’d make a “treasure map” that leads to nothing. Meanwhile hiding my loot in plain sight, more or less.

This reminds me so much of One Piece. The quest for treasure that a legendary pirate buried.

im kinda obsessed with watching the curse of oak island series on the history channel and when you started the intro i was like im calling oak island, then you said it, and i was like WOOOOO CALLED IT

Thanks Aaron, I really appreciate that you take significant time on the stories you present, it does set you apart as a content creator. This one has intrigued me ever since I was a kid. Several individuals have died in the attempt to dig these shafts, and many have gone to their grave empty handed.

I gotta say I am absolutely ecstatic that you finally decided to do a deep dive on the Oak Island topic. I’ve watched of course the series all the way up until the end of the 2020 series I think I’m two seasons behind right now but with that being said they have gone over a lot of the history but to just have the history gone over and not all of the dramatic affects for TV is actually a way better story to hear about the history. Thank you so much

For those who think Captain Kid sounds familiar he was the inspiration for the One Piece character by the same name

The stereotypical pirate accent is actually not very far from the Elizabethan English accent of the Shakespearean theater as far as vowels are concerned. You can tell by the rhymes from poetry and literature written at the time. So it's not far from how English privateers would have spoken.

I don't remember where, but I seem to remember hearing about there being different sections of the money pit, not with random planks, but with actual floors of planks, and coconut husks filling the flooding tunnels. Some of it being filled wth boulders comes vaguely comes to mind, but I don't remember exactly. Also, IF there was a treasure, another option could possibly be that someone already found it and never said anything about it.

Thoughty2: We’ve been leaving our cRAP lying around for millennia, after all. Me looking around at the 5,000 random socks lying in my house: *_This is true_*

OAK ISLAND LOOKS LIKE SCRAPS FROM NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS

what you learn about our world is every time there is a wonderous, fantastic, inspiring explanation and a mundane one, it's always the mundane one.

I always thought that, if Kidd buried treasure so no one else could get it, why would he make it so he couldn’t get it himself?

I made a presentation on this in 7th grade, I am now a senior. 5 years later and seeing a video about it has put a smile to my face

Next thing you know, they say Spongebob squarepants lives in another part of the sea.

Captain Kidd, being long dead for years: “JK, just trolling”

When I was in elementary I went up to a university near where I lived for a two day opportunity my school was doing and I took a miniature course on Oak Island! My parents have been following the television series for as long as I remember and while I personally don’t watch it I’ve picked up little bits and pieces of what they’re up to just by being in the same room while they’re watching, proud that this is a Canadian tale

The show is fun. The engineering, the archeology, the tech, the team, the problem solving. It's fun. It was what, 20 or so years that the BBC Time Team show ran, digging holes in the ground to find bits of this and that. It tells a story and the story telling is entertaining.

Interesting piece and a lot of good points in these comments. I have watched some of the current program. Like Thoughty 2's conclusion, I'm afraid I simply don't believe there is anything there. In Captain Kid's lifetime and with the limited resources he may or may not have had at his disposal, I just don't think it's at all possible to bury something which would defy the attempts of 21st century technology to uncover. The story itself is intriguing but that's all I think it is. I just think as humans, we kind of want to believe. I will of course eat my hat if I'm wrong and they do find 2 million worth of buried treasure, but I just can't see the Brothers pulling up this stereotypical treasure chest out of the ground brimming with Jewlery, Diamonds, gold chains etc any time soon. Call me cynical!

The real treasure, was the friends they've made along the way.

What they found was probably the remains of an older treasure hunter's efforts to find the treasure.

As a home grown Nova Scotian, that's been to the island several times, I believe that if there ever _was_ a treasure, its _long_ gone. Way back in the 50's or 60's, they used a large scoop & grabbed up whatever they could down in that hole. Than, they claimed there was nothing & sold the island. Melted down any gold to avoid paying taxes on it & ran away to start a new life, low key so as not to get caught. Sneak bugger's we Scotian Nova's _can_ be... hee hee hee. 😈👍 HOWEVER, If I had all the money in the world, I'd open pit mine style that hole & most of that _entire_ island. I'd find ya's the "truth" once & for all, yes I would! 👍😁

the guy who started the legend must be the greatest troll ever

Mc Donald's mascot was chosen before clowns were considered scary. He came across about as scary as Big Bird from Sesame Street.

I think the former slave Samuel ball found the treasure. He was poor when he was released from slavery but by the time he passed away he owned a large portion of that Island. I believe he owned property on the mainland as well and was one of the wealthiest people in the area.

Fantastic break down of the story. I really enjoy the TV show I find their search and the stuff they find to be extremely interesting. I don’t necessarily believe there is treasure there and I’m not convinced that if there is/was that it had anything to do with captain kid. But what is clear and undeniable is that something was done there long before people started treasure hunting. That is undeniable given the evidence that the show has uncovered. Is it just an elaborate prank? Maybe but I doubt people would go to those lengths. I think it’s likely that it has already been found and taken off the island in secret to avoid Canada’s insane taxes and rival treasure hunter thefts.

How nobody’s mentioned the fact it looks like an elephant I’ll never know 🐘

What if the money pit was simply people who used to live on the island digging and searching for fresh water? When they realized the seawater always seeps in they abandoned it.

My old man has been working on our genealogy for decades, and discovered that we’re actually directly related to Captain Kidd. Every time I hear Oak Island brought up, I like to think that there’s nothing there and it’s all just his way of giving history the finger.

This is a great example of why the psychological tricks MMO developers use to keep you hooked work. The concept is the same: Make people believe that they're progressing towards something when there is truly nothing at the bottom of the "treasure" pit. It's just emptiness and when the servers shut off for good they'll just be slightly dusty boxes filled with metal and silicone. No treasures, no characters that you've fell in love with, no worlds that you live in. Everything you spent, both time and money, thrown into a void. And you'll always long for that facade, you'll even pay good money to try and relive those "glory days." Even though everything you experienced was nothing more than a farce put together to drain your time and money.

There is a story that there was another place on the island with a marker in a tree similar to the dagger that was found in a tree that marked the pit. Close to that tree was a passage that led directly to the treasure bypassing the holes dug in the ground. Every piece of the treasure is documented and accounted for in the archives in France

the depression could of been left from someone already having dug up the treasure and then filled in the hole again aswell, anyone ever considered that?

This sounds like a job for elongated muskrat

Legend has it, if you listen closely enough on Oak Island, you hear captain kidd still laughing.

hello this is my second time meeting you and again you're very good at narrating and picking a cool story… You're Channel seems very interesting so far. Anyway nice to see you again… I hope you're well

I've dug on the island and seen strange stuff. I think it was an old mine.

There is one documented case of "walking the plank" during the "golden age of piracy", but only one.

_"Mr. Data, beam the treasure directly to Shuttle Bay 2 !!"_ D: *aye -aye, Captain!*

What's the likelihood that this was all just misdirection? An old pirate trolling from beyond the grave?

Ah~ I see Thoughty is trying to divert us away from Oak Island so he can snatch that treasure himself! Very clever. Loved the video by the way!

Have you seen the most recent episodes where they are pulling up all sorts of man made stuff from deep in the "money pit?" Also, the trinkets you spoke of pale in comparison to the cobblestone road, the ships railings, the grape shot, and the lead cross, all of which have immense historical value. They have shown that the Knights Templar where on the island well before 1492 (sorry Columbus), showing that people sailed to North America well before our history books say they did. The fact that they have retrieved artifacts from 50m deep that are well over 800 years old, shows that someone, sometime in the way back past, definitely dug a very deep shaft and/or tunnels on the island. Also, the fact that the original description of the money pit, with its nine levels, is a close match to the Initiation Well in Portugal, makes a pretty strong claim that Templars where there and dug it for some reason. Even if they find a huge cache of treasure, the real treasure, is indeed, the history that is being unearthed.

I bet all the pirates are in heaven passing themselves laughing at all the idiots digging up JOKE ISLAND

just wanna say Fantastic video, I didnt realize the video was 19 mins long i thought it was so much longer with that amount of information

I just have to mention that the part about parrots and pirates is incorrect. Actually studied about how common they were for sea commerce and pirates thereof in university a while back, in marine archeology class. Not necessarily as a companion/talking pet/it wasn't a "famous" part of being a pirate but it certainly existed.

It has been interesting to see what has been found - evidence of the First Nations people living there, evidence of some kind of industry etc. If nothing else, the history they have discovered is interesting. But then I am a history nerd.