Friday, May 2, 2014

The Curse of Oak Island

Has anyone else watched this series on the History Channel? I happened upon it last night and was pretty fascinated. I have enjoyed reading about the Knights Templar and the Rosicrucians since reading Foucault's Pendulum. The Lagina brothers are from Michigan. There definitely is an intriguing mystery there. I hope they find treasure, but the legend says that one more must die for the secrets to be revealed. *gulp*

15 comments:

chickelit said...

The Rosacrucians are an interesting bunch. Did you know that their international headquarters is here in Oceanside? They have a beautiful temple "ecclesia" which sits atop a prime piece of real estate which commands an ocean view on one side and a view of the inland San Luis Rey river valley on the other. view

john said...

Doesn't the icon in the upper left corner of the video tell you more than you want to know about this story?

History channel was one of the major reasons we cancelled our cable TV. That and Cox removing Robert Osborn (TCM) from our choices, but that's another story.

Darcy said...

That's pretty cool, chickenlittle.

john said...

Besides, everyone knows that swallows carried the coconut fibers to the island.

European swallows, not African.

Chip Ahoy said...

I did know of this, for my knowledge of the world is broad and shallow. I meant deep just now but shallow cam out instead. The money pit innit.

The thing is they found palm fronds as one of the layers and palm fronds are not around Nova Scotia, but they would be available to... pirates!

▽◭k%Ø△↙ ◭: :△ t:C%▢ △▢% ‡:.CC%X ⍬%tX▞⦿ ●Ø: t+Ø :. : ▞

Does that show?

Forty feet below two million pounds are buried.

Smithsonian 1988, when it was still good and not taken over by DNC and their ceaseless shilling for same. Before they reduced reader's letters to editor from several tremendously interesting pages to a mere paragraph, thus showing explicitly their presumptuous 'lording over information' attitude toward their own readers.

john said...

The famous Lost Dutchman Mine is another one of those incredible legends that has made quite a few folks wealthy over the years.

Despite the educated conjecture that if one could grind up the entire range of Superstition Mountains he would not recover enough gold to fill a tooth.

Where does all that wealth come from? Doesn't make sense.

Darcy said...

I thought that was a pretty cool find as well, Chip. Also interesting are all of the tunnels. An elaborate joke? Why would anyone go to such trouble?

Chip Ahoy said...

Unrelated threadjack, as my wont over here, something innocent and sweet happened yesterday, a few things, actually that takes away from the hateful spiteful utterly maliciously banality of government oppression, rolling over mindlessly with taxes and fees, and charges added onto normal regulatory functions like traffic fines and phone bills, by unaccountable bureaucrats feathering their own nests.

Our garage door jammed as I was leaving so change of plans for lunch caused e to walk across the street to Taste of Philly to buy a sandwich for myself and for the ladies stuck at work in the office. First of the month they're especially busy.

The guy working there is 20-something hipster who projects deep disinterest in his job, wearing an American Idiots t-shirt too large for his scrawny body. He gives the short shrift. Minimal talk, not a conversationalist. Devoid of humor. He said,

"Chip, right?"

Smiled mischievously. I have absolutely no clue whatever how he knows my name. I never gave it. Never wrote it. Perhaps he overheard a friend say it months ago. I don't know.

A guy came in. Everybody is short. "Are you guys still looking for a driver?"

"We're looking for a manager too."

"Dude, go for the manager position!" And he did.

The original guy stood there and chatted it up while my order was processed.

And that is charming!

For a change.

Secondly, a woman with two tiny children that both can walk but just barely. That young. Mixed race kids. Gorgeous little kids. Had an interest in me by passing but their mum kept them corralled. Not so easy a task.

The boy seemed a year older than the girl, in the office when I delivered the sandwich-present, the boy craned his neck amusingly and awkwardly looking upward at me as if studying a giant from way down there. I knelt down to toddler-level so our faces were closer. Asked his name, and introduced myself. Then all five the women in the office laughed at that. For some reason they found that funny. I still don't know why.

Third, my neighbor comes and goes in flashes. Years elapsed and no conversation. That is the guy who was waiting with others for his own door to be opened from inside. An uncomfortable situation all around. Inviting them in for the wait changed things. But that was only possible due to them being captive audience.

Then later I mentioned I have an industrial carpet cleaner he is welcome to use anytime. That seems to have advanced things considerably.

Yesterday we passed again, me going out, he coming in, so another of those passing in the night sort of things. His lady stepped right in and so did her child, but he stood outside and prolonged our exchange, for the purpose of prolonging an exchange.

Fourth, went shopping late. as I do, and the lines are all closed only self-checkout available that late. Seeing my full cart an employee said, "over here" and ran me through expertly, saving me from my own inept checking and that really was a tremendous help.

I owe it all to orange pants.

I swear. I'm not kidding. Orange pants changes the way people interact with me. It makes them want to engage. Small children and grown men alike. They mark me as friendly. More friendly than I actually am.


Lydia said...

About those palm fronds, wasn't it actually coconut fiber that was found? Here's The Skeptoid on that, and the tunnels:

"A 1970 analysis by the National Research Council of Canada did identify three of four samples submitted as being coconut fiber. Radiocarbon dating found that the coconut came from approximately the year 1200 — three centuries before the first European explorers visited the region, and two centuries after the only known Viking settlement more than 600 miles away."

and

"The region [where Oak Island is situated] is primarily limestone and anhydrite, the conditions in which natural caves are usually formed. In 1878, a farmer was plowing Oak Island just 120 yards away from the Money Pit when suddenly her oxen actually broke through the ground, into a 12 foot deep sinkhole above a small natural limestone cavern. 75 years later, just across the bay, workers digging a well encountered a layer of flagstone at two feet, and as they dug to a depth of 85 feet, they encountered occasional layers of spruce and oak logs. Excitement raged that a second Money Pit had been found, but experts concluded that it was merely a natural sinkhole. Over the centuries sinkholes occasionally open up, trees fall in, and storms fill them with debris like logs or coconuts traveling the ocean currents. These events, coupled with the underground cavern at the bottom of the Money Pit discovered in 1971 and the discoveries of numerous additional sinkholes in the surrounding area, tell us that Oak Island is naturally honeycombed with subterranean limestone caverns and tunnels. The geological fact is that no Royal Corps of Engineers is needed to explain how a tunnel open to the sea would flood a 90 foot deep shaft on Oak Island, booby trap style."

Darcy said...

That was really interesting, Lydia! Thanks.

P.S. I believe in Tinker Bell too! lol

Darcy said...

And Chip, that comment was adorbs.

john said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
john said...

So I'm going shopping this afternoon for socks and decent shorts. Orange pants would never have made my shopping list, but I'm hearin' I should make some changes in my life so maybe I'll try on a pair.

I'm sure Target does not carry men's orange pants. Maybe I should try Cabela's?

chickelit said...

"Money Pit" is a sarcastic pun?

chickelit said...

Growing up near Madison, me a friend learned the secret locations of a two abandoned refuse pits which had been largely grown over by woods. We dug there one summer, unearthing mostly glass shards but also the occasion intact bottle. All of them were local and no more than a hundred years old or so. I gave my collection to the Middleton Historical Society years ago but I'll never divulge the locations of the salvage sites.

Argh! Shiver me timber!