Let’s take a look at Season 4, Episode 10 of the History Channel’s TV series The Curse of Oak Island, entitled About Face.
The episode begins where the previous one left off: at Borehole C1, where diver Mike Huntley, with a hand-held metal detector, has just discovered what appears to be a metal object, or perhaps up to three metal objects, embedded in the wall of the cavern at the bottom of the shaft. The Oak Island crew members- with Marty Lagina and Craig Tester in virtual attendance through Skype- stand by on the surface with professional divers John Chatterton and Howard Ehrenberg, listening as Huntley describes his apparent find via radio. Due to lack of visibility, Huntley is unable to visually identify whatever set the metal detector off, and eventually returns to the surface.
Upon Mike Huntley’s ascent, John Chatterton, equipped with a hand-held metal detector, descends the shaft in the hopes of verifying Huntley’s find. Chatterton reaches the cavern at the bottom of C1 without incident and begins searching the chamber walls for any sign of Huntley’s metallic object. Try as he might, however, he is unable to replicate the metal detector ‘hits’. After searching for some time, Chatterton returns to the surface empty-handed.
Later, the crew meets with Chatterton, Huntley, and Ehrenberg in the War Room. Upon being prompted by Craig Tester (who, along with Marty Lagina, had apparently returned to the island sometime after the diving operations), Huntley and Chatterton maintain that the two of them had collectively explored about 90% of the walls and floor of the cavern at the bottom of Borehole C1. Chatterton explains to the crew that the potential tunnels indicated by Blaine Carr and Even Downie’s sonar scan (conducted in Season 4, Episode 9) are, in fact, a deep and narrow fissure and an irregular, naturally-formed ‘opening’, respectively. Ultimately, the two divers both agree that there is a “very small” chance that the cavern at the bottom of Borehole C1 is man-made.
Talk then turns to the shiny, gold-coloured object which’s presence inside the chamber at the bottom of Borehole C1 was indicated by an earlier underwater camera operation, and which both Chatterton and Huntley failed to recover. The narrator speculates that perhaps the hammergrab and drill used to widen C1 knocked the object to the cavern floor, where it was covered by a layer of silt and sediment. Rick Lagina asks the divers what the Oak Island crew could do to further the search for the shiny object. Chatterton responds by suggesting that they improve visibility in the chamber at the bottom of C1 by flushing out the water, and the Oak Island crew agrees to consider the suggestion.
Later, Rick Lagina and Charles Barkhouse travel to nearby Peggy’s Cove to meet with historian Terry Deveau. As the men shake hands, the narrator explains how, in Season 3, Episode 4, Deveau showed the Oak Island crew the ‘Overton Stone’, a stone near Overton, Nova Scotia, bearing a strange carving which Deveau suggested was indicative of a 15th Century Portuguese-Mi’kmaq peace pact.
Deveau leads Rick and Charles to a large rock in the wilderness which’s shape is vaguely suggestive of a human head. Rick notes that there are several small, rounds stones lying beneath the larger one- somewhat evocative of the mysterious, dolmen-like, Neolithic-esque megaliths scattered throughout the Canadian Maritimes- and suggests that they maybe have been placed there by man so that the stone could be oriented in a particular direction. Deveau suggests that ancient Mi’kmaq sculptors made “some modifications to [the stone’s] outline to make the facial features more prominent.” And Barkhouse notes that the late Oak Island treasure hunter Fred Nolan, years ago, discovered a large head-shaped stone buried beneath the centre of Nolan’s Cross (an array of five conical boulders on Oak Island which form a perfect cross), implying that there might be some sort of connection between this Peggy’s Cove stone and Oak Island.
After examining the stone for some time, Deveau suggests that the “distinctly Mi’kmaq features” of the supposed face carved into this Peggy’s Cove stone “absolutely look like a depiction of the Mi’kmaq” cultural hero Glooscap, to which Rich responds, “do you mean Prince Henry Sinclair?”. The narrator then outlines the theory that Oak Island’s underground workings are attributable to 14th Century Scottish-Orcadian nobleman Henry Sinclair- a knight with alleged connections to the disbanded Knights Templar who, according to legend, travelled to Nova Scotia in the late 1300’s, where he interacted with and thoroughly impressed the local Mi’kmaq, and in doing so became the basis for the Mi’kmaq cultural hero Glooscap.
Following the narrator’s explanation, Rick states that he has long believed that the legends of Glooscap were based on Henry Sinclair. He then suggests that the Peggy’s Cove stone might have a maritime connection, as the face carved onto it- if it is indeed a face- is gazing out over St. Margaret’s Bay. Using a compass, Deveau determines that the face is facing due west, in the general direction of Oak Island.
Later, Rick and Marty Lagina- along with Craig Tester on Skype- meet with father-and-son treasure hunters Dan and Dave Blankenship in the War Room. The Lagina brothers reveal that they are “running into financial constraints”, and that it seems that they will have to commit to one of two major projects: 1) airlifting the water from and exploring Borehole 10-X; 2) or digging a third hole in the Money Pit area. Dave Blankenship immediately advocates tackling Borehole 10-X, remarking that, due to lack of hard evidence, digging a third hole in the Money Pit area would be a shot in the dark. Rick echoes that sentiment, stating his desire to “put an X through” 10-X, one way or another. Marty, however, objects to spending the remaining budget on 10-X, reminding his fellow treasure hunters that, with all the equipment already in place, it will never be cheaper to dig in the Money Pit area. Craig, for the same reasons, agrees that they should focus on sinking another shaft in the Money Pit area. Finally, the elderly Dan Blankenship says that he would prefer to see 10-X thoroughly explored, as it was from there that he once extracted bits of old low-grade steel chain and other materials manufactured prior to the mid 1700’s.
After debating for some time on which enterprise to sacrifice, Marty decides to go over budget and explore both 10-X and the Money Pit. Every treasure hunter at the table agrees with the decision.
The episode ends at Borehole 10-X, where the Oak Island crew- along with Dan Henskee, a former Oak Island treasure hunter and sometime resident- watch as contractors prepare to airlift the water from the shaft.
Equipment Malfunctions on Oak Island
In this episode of The Curse of Oak Island, the men of Oak Island Tours Inc. experienced something very strange. Professional diver Mike Huntley, while exploring the cavern at the bottom of Borehole C1 with a hand-held metal detector, got a succession of hits on his metal detector indicating the presence of up to three metallic objects embedded in the walls of the cavity. However, when professional diver John Chatterton attempted to replicate Huntley’s hits, the mysterious metallic objects were nowhere to be found.
Strange as it may seem, this phenomenon is commonplace on Oak Island. For over two hundred years, Oak Island treasure hunters have been plagued by a myriad of mysterious technological mishaps which seem to occur with uncanny frequency. Some Oak Island enthusiasts take this as a sign that Oak Island is cursed, and that its supposed subterranean treasure is guarded by some sort of supernatural entity. Others attribute these many mechanical and electrical malfunctions to the aura of the treasure itself, which many believe to be a sacred religious artifact such as the Ark of the Covenant or the Spear of Longinus. Whatever the case, the sheer magnitude of equipment malfunctions experienced by Oak Island treasure hunters lends credence to the notion that some strange force, natural or otherwise, is at work on Oak Island.
The following is a list of some of the many equipment malfunctions experienced by Oak Island treasure hunters over the years:
Terry Deveau and the Overton Stone
In this episode, historian Terry J. Deveau led Rick Lagina and Charles Barkhouse to a large stone which he claimed was a carved Mi’kmaq monolith depicting the Mi’kmaq deity Glooscap. This is not Deveau’s first Oak Island experience; the historian and rock expert has appeared on The Curse of Oak Island several times before, perhaps most notably in Season 3, Episode 4, in which he introduced the Oak Island team to the Overton Stone.
The Overton Stone is a large glacial boulder on the Atlantic coast near Overton, Nova Scotia, upon which is carved- likely with a steel chisel- a stylized Christian cross in a circle surrounded by four dots, an eagle feather, two crossed tobacco leaves, and a crescent moon. It was first publically discovered in around 2009 by a local resident named Beverly Wells-Pinkney (now deceased). Some researchers believe the stone’s carving is evidence of some sort of friendship treaty between early European explorers and the local Mi’kmaq Indians, while others label it a hoax.
Terry Deveau wrote a 35-page essay on the stone, which he published on December 2, 2015. In his article (which can be found at www.neara.org/images/OvertonStone.pdf), Deveau states that the stone, discovered as recently as 2009, is located at “a popular recreational spot for shore walks, watching the waves, and picnicking… [which] leads to the suggestion that the carving was made fairly recently.” In the same vein, he acknowledges that it cannot be ruled out that the stone is a genuine archeological artifact, and thus launches into an investigation of the carving’s various aspects.
Deveau first points out that the weathering of the carving’s patina, when compared with the patina on the rest of the stone, indicates that the carving may indeed be several centuries old. He goes on to theorize that the crossed tobacco leaves- an aspect of the carving which has led some researchers to suggest the carving’s connection with the Mi’kmaq people- are of the species Nicotiana tabacum, a supposition which is corroborated by First Nations rock art expert Edward Lenik. This particular species of tobacco was not cultivated by the Mi’kmaq, although Deveau suggests that the peri- Columbian Mi’kmaq may have acquired it through trade with tribes to the south. On the other hand, the Mi’kmaq have traditionally used Lobelia inflata, a different species of tobacco commonly known as Indian tobacco, as medicine.
In regards to the carved crescent moon, Deveau writes that the Mi’kmaq used a lunar calendar, and suggests that the moon image might be some sort of evocation of the “the Creator, God, or the Great Spirit.”
Deveau states that the eagle feather, another image depicted on the Overton Stone, is another Mi’kmaq symbol associated with the Creator.
Deveau states that, if the Overton Stone was indeed carved by Portuguese explorers in commemoration of a friendship treaty with the local Mi’kmaq, the stone would probably also include an inscription of the date and the carver’s initials a short distance from the main carving. Following this assertion, he points out an area below the carving with very little patination relative to the carving and the rest of the stone, indicating that it had been deliberately defaced sometime in the past. Deveau theorizes that the area once held the carving’s date and the carver’s signature, and that 17th Century French or 18th Century British colonials likely struck those markings off in order to destroy evidence of what they might have viewed as an earlier Portuguese land claim without damaging the beautiful carving itself.
After presenting and defending his theory that the Overton Stone carving was a commemoration of a centuries-old friendship treaty between Portuguese explorers and Mi’kmaq tribesmen, Deveau critically investigates other possibilities regarding the carving’s origins. The first of these possibilities is the notion that the carving is a relatively modern creation. One piece of evidence to back this theory up are the initials ‘HT’ and the numbers ‘06/07’, which are carved on the same boulder a good distance from the original carving. Some believe that these additions are evidence that an artist with the initials HT created the Overton Stone carving in June 1807, 1907, or 2007. Deveau counters this theory, along with other theories suggesting the stone is a Norse Viking runestone or a Mi’kmaq petroglyph.
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