The Truro Company thought of creating a dam to obstruct the flow of water and dig out the treasure. However, they discovered that somebody had already attempted this when they came across an older dam. Then a storm came.
The storm created an unusually high tide which destroyed all their hard work. At this point, they were in way too deep, and the endeavor drained their pockets. Lacking the funds to rebuild, they had to give up.
A New Group of Explorers
After putting in the work, day in and day out, their lucky break finally came: as they were drilling, they hit the jackpot. Tada! They successfully drilled through two chests filled with coins.
They thought this was the first sign of the massive hidden treasure that was promised by the stone. There was a claim that three gold links from a chain were also discovered, but these gold links went missing and no one had an inkling of what actually happened.
A Deeper Pit
The Truro Company realized that the so-called “Money Pit” was deeper. As such, they had to keep draining the water over and over. However, as they repeated the process, they noticed something strange was happening: the level of the water in the pit was moving with the tides.
This realization led to the discovery that the entire beach was artificial; a complex construction with drains and flow tunnels beneath it. Surely this kind of effort would only be undertaken to protect a pretty hefty treasure, right?
The First Loss
In 1861, the Oak Island Association tried their luck at cracking the case. They poured their hearts and time into reaching an 88-foot depth in the Money Pit. They made a new shaft to stop the water from entering.
Unfortunately, the team had a devastating tragedy when the entire bottom part of the pit fell. When the pump burst, one of their members was killed. Rumors started circulating, saying that ghost pirates were acting as guards of the hidden treasure.
A Strange, Sheepskin Artifact
As the 18th century was about to come to an end, another team of explorers decided to risk their lives to try and find gold and glory. As they were in the process of investigating the mysteries that covered the Money Pit and Oak Island, they discovered a sheepskin parchment with letters printed on it, a scary artifact in itself.
But, even more, disturbing and frustrating was the fact they could not understand what it said.