What is the Oak Island money pit?
Most likely: the depression was a natural sinkhole over a dissolved cavity in Windsor Group gypsum; the platforms were…Ahead on the evidence, not yet confirmed. It needs two reviews to be accepted.
Where it stands
Four answers have been proposed. The depression was a natural sinkhole over a dissolved cavity in Windsor Group gypsum; the platforms were… leads, with evidence 3 for, 1 against: partly supported by its tests. Three are still possible. Of the three narrower questions under it, none is answered yet.
Answers 4
History
- anonymous: the 1861 'Oak Island Folly' says shares sold at an enormous premium; the flood-tunnel claim first appears in…For: The story of a worked pit was invented or inflated in the 1840s to 1860s to sell shares; there may have been…
- 'Patrick' (pseudonym): 'Patrick' in 1861 reports digging under the platforms and finding it dry, contradicting the flooded-vault…For: The story of a worked pit was invented or inflated in the 1840s to 1860s to sell shares; there may have been…
- McCully puts forward: a shaft at least 90 feet deep was dug and refilled with platforms before 1795 to hide a deposit.
- McCully: accounts of 1862 and 1864 describe oak platforms at regular intervals and layers of charcoal, putty and…For: A shaft at least 90 feet deep was dug and refilled with platforms before 1795 to hide a deposit.
- Oak Island Treasure Company: the stone's 'translation' first appears in the 1893 company prospectus.For: The story of a worked pit was invented or inflated in the 1840s to 1860s to sell shares; there may have been…
- Nickell puts forward: the depression was a natural sinkhole over a dissolved cavity in Windsor Group gypsum; the platforms were…
- Joltes: no record older than 1857 mentions a pit, a treasure or the three discoverers.Against: A shaft at least 90 feet deep was dug and refilled with platforms before 1795 to hide a deposit.
- Joltes: the 1795 story names real settlers of the island, so a core event cannot be ruled out.Against: The story of a worked pit was invented or inflated in the 1840s to 1860s to sell shares; there may have been…
- Dunning: coconut fibre, a tropical material, exists from the pit and Smith's Cove; a 1970 analysis identified three of…For: A shaft at least 90 feet deep was dug and refilled with platforms before 1795 to hide a deposit.
- Dunning: coconut fibre at depth is not explained by a sinkhole alone.Against: The depression was a natural sinkhole over a dissolved cavity in Windsor Group gypsum; the platforms were…
- Dunning: a sinkhole opened under oxen on the island in 1878, and a well nearby later showed similar flagstone and log…For: The depression was a natural sinkhole over a dissolved cavity in Windsor Group gypsum; the platforms were…
- CBC News: a retired geologist who read the Warnock Hersey, Golder and Woods Hole reports concluded the pit is a…For: The depression was a natural sinkhole over a dissolved cavity in Windsor Group gypsum; the platforms were…
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