The Oak Island Mystery (20 page)

The
other
Gold River emptying into the Bay of Fundy.

Connected to this Templar theory is the theory of the
other
Oak Island. Nova Scotia has two Gold Rivers. One empties into the Bay of Fundy on the northwest of Nova Scotia. Not far from it is what was once another Oak Island, but which became part of the mainland during the financial rescue packages after the Great Depression following the Wall Street crash of 1929. The other Gold River is very close to the famous Oak Island in Mahone Bay. Some researchers have put forward the idea that in medieval times European adventurers — possibly the Templars — had built a fortified stronghold in central Nova Scotia. Because navigation was then so uncertain, their followers might have sailed up into the Bay of Fundy instead of encountering the eastern seaboard of Nova Scotia. Their instructions were to find Oak Island (either one!) and then sail up the river nearby, which would bring them to the fortified settlement in the centre of the peninsula.
Both
Oak Islands were, of course, covered with oaks that the first expedition had planted on them in order to identify them, so that later expeditions could find the central fortress.

Numerous subsidiary versions of this theory tie the Oak Island treasure to the lost Arcadian treasure associated with the mystery of Rennes-le-Château in southwestern France, and the mysterious Glozel alphabet, from an underground chamber on the farm near Vichy.

Could this be
another
Money Pit? It is situated on Frog Island in Mahone Bay, not far from Oak Island.

Our eleventh theory has been expertly developed and expanded by Keith Ranville, whose recent work on the Oak Island mystery is second to none. We went out to have a close look at Frog Island. which is not far from Oak Island, and there we found a very similar earthwork to the Oak Island Money Pit. Keith's recent researches took him to Birch Island as well, and he evolved a triangle theory in which Oak Island, Frog Island, and Birch Island all play significant parts. It is perfectly possible that the builders of the Oak Island Money Pit also went down deep and constructed a triangular labyrinth involving the other two islands.

The twelfth theory gives prominence to the Mi'kmaq Nation, an Algonquin First Nation people who have lived in Nova Scotia and other parts of Canada, and the northeastern areas of New England in the U.S. for many centuries. The English version of their name is Micmac, but the people themselves prefer the Mi'kmaq spelling. Originally regarded by historians as a peripatetic nation, rather than builders, later researchers such as Keith Ranville have suggested that the strange hieroglyphics on the mysterious engraved stone found in the Money Pit may have had Mi'kmaq origins. There is a tradition in Mi'kmaq history that a great hero named Glooscap arrived in “a boat as big as an island” and taught the people many useful and practical things that enriched their lives. He may well have been Henry, Earl of Orkney (1345–1400), one of the noble Sinclair family who allegedly sailed to America via Greenland many years before Columbus.

The great problem with pursuing the latest developments concerning the mystery of the Oak Island Money Pit is that despite all the latest modern technology, a shortage of funds hampers the work. Very advanced submarine technology and exploration of the waters around Oak Island — including the first class research by Thermacline — has not brought the recovery of the hypothetical Oak Island treasure any closer.

An outstandingly good plan put forward by engineer John Wonnacott and his colleague Les MacPhie involves defeating the floodwater by freezing an area around the Money Pit. This would mean drilling holes a metre apart in a ring around the Money Pit. Chilled brine would then be pumped in to create a ring of frozen soil some sixty metres deep — all the way down to bedrock. The area inside this frozen ring could then be dug out and waterproofed inside steel protection. The Wonnacott-MacPhie plan would undoubtedly work very well in engineering terms. Once again, however, the problem is financing the operation.

In
addition to the financial difficulties that are holding up the work, there are legal problems. Special treasure hunting licences have to be obtained from the government under new legislation dating from 2010.

Terry Ros
s Investigates

W
hile
staying with Dr. Bob, Zohara and Anna Hieronimus, and their friend Laura Cortner, in Owings Mills, near Baltimore, Maryland, in November, 1993, we received many great kindnesses. Not least of these was an introduction to the celebrated and gifted psychic, T.E. Ross. He shares our interest in Rennes-le-Château and in the Oak Island Money Pit mystery, and phenomena, and a gifted psychic in his own right — to various aspects of those enigmas.

We asked him first about the mainland camp which the original Money Pit builders were supposed to have established, and which George Young had shown us as a result of its being identified by a psychic friend of his. Terry Ross confirmed what George had said, and added that this camp site would be worth investigating.

When asked for his psychic response to the stone triangle, he felt that it was of genuine importance, but that it pointed to a significant clue rather than to the heart of the mystery itself. In response to our questions about the inscribed porphyry slab found at around the ninety-foot level in 1803 and 1804, he said it had a strange feeling, and that it was nothing to do with pirates, except perhaps later in a superficial way. Terry felt that the stone was involved with the centre of the mystery, with the centre of all the expeditions which had set out and put up the standing stone structures in New England and everywhere else. He said he thought it was probably connected with activities which took place around 2000 B.C.E.

Terry also felt strongly that the people responsible for it had a Mediterranean connection. His comments on what he referred to as their “mindset” were very interesting indeed. “The mindset of these people seems utterly and totally different from anything we know today. They were friends of the earth and their whole motivation and energy were being expended to nurture the earth and be nurtured by her.”

He then went on to talk about some fascinating archaeological work in Ohio in which he had been involved. “The mounds we've investigated in Ohio had seven levels — like Silbury Hill, in Wiltshire, England. The archaeologists sliced on mound all the way down … We found independently that there were seven layers of earth in it — like a battery, you know. One of the layers came from Iowa — all the way from Iowa to Ohio. They don't know of anywhere else where that earth is found. That would account for some very strange stones turning up in important places. The Oak Island Money Pit stone was probably brought with the people who came from the Mediterranean. It has a centring effect for whatever they wanted to do there.”

Terry gets the feeling that the flood tunnels were definitely a protective device.

When asked about Pitblado and his role in the Oak Island mystery, Terry had strong “negative vibes.” “He's not a very savoury man; that's the first feeling I have. I think that what he found was not, perhaps, all that critical or important, but he thought it was. I don't think it contained a secret or the clue to any riches. In fact I have an awful time finding riches in connection with this whole thing.”

We then asked him whether we (and all the other investigators!) had been looking at the Money Pit in entirely the wrong way. Were all its elaborate precautions and defences designed to keep something very dangerous in, rather than to keep intruders out? Terry said that he thought whoever had built it had had an entirely different motivation from that of contemporary humanity. He felt that a different approach to the problem was needed. When we asked him how different, how alien, the originators were, he replied that he got a strange sensation about them — laughingly, he used the word “spooky.” He had the distinct feeling that there was a connection with something very unusual, a feeling that there was “a back and forth of information and instructions.” The Money Pit, perhaps contained some kind of “implant” that was necessary for future developments. “I think that this is connected with earth changes to be … It's that drastic in my mind. These people, super-engineers that they were, were the only ones that could have pulled this off in that whole range of time. They were prevailed upon to do so.”

When asked about Rennes-le-Château, the Scottish Sinclair-Templar connection and Mike Bradley's “Two Oak Islands” theory, Terry felt that they were all involved to a greater or lesser extent. He felt that this was a mystery that “went right back through the Corridors of Time … almost to the Garden of Eden.”

In response to our final question about Fred Nolan and his recent discovery with William S. Crooker of the supposed huge Templar Cross on Oak Island, Terry said, “Nolan's a decent fellow, and he's holding on to some ideas that don't fit in with the others.” Just as Pitblado had produced a negative psychic response, so our mention of Nolan's work produced a strongly positive one.