About This Artifact
A granite boulder bearing a hand-drilled hole, located roughly fifty feet north of the Money Pit. Treasure hunter Frederick Blair reported the stone's existence to Gilbert Hedden in 1937. The show's Season 11 account credits Blair with the original 1895 discovery, while journalist Randall Sullivan's history of the island attributes the initial find to Captain John Welling in 1897. Hedden traced a matching drilled boulder near the Smith's Cove shoreline, its hole aligned with this one, and engaged Halifax land surveyor Charles Roper to record the positions of both stones together with the nearby Stone Triangle. Roper's 1930s survey established a point eighteen rods east of the Smith's Cove stone and seven rods west of this one, landing directly on the Cave-in Pit.
The stone was subsequently moved from its original position, though its coordinates remain recorded on Roper's survey. Sullivan notes that when Dan Blankenship later discovered Borehole 10-X sat on the exact line between Hedden's two drilled stones, it renewed Triton Alliance's interest in the site. During Season 8, the team referenced Hedden's find while investigating anchor points drawn from a map belonging to the late researcher Zena Halpern. In Season 11, author and Freemason Christopher Morford incorporated the stone into his analysis of Nolan's Cross, tracing a sightline from Cone C through Cone A and along a series of drilled marker stones. Surveyor Steve Guptill calculated that the stones sit at exactly half the distance to the Money Pit, with the line terminating not on the Garden Shaft but directly on top of the tunnel discovered beneath it.
Historical Context
Frederick Blair, via Gilbert Hedden, 1937; Charles Roper survey, 1930s; Steele & Fader, Oak Island Mystery Solved; Sullivan, The Curse of Oak Island; S8E5 "The Master Plan"; S11E15 "On Target"
Where It Was Found
Found at About 50 feet north of the Money Pit. Location: the original 1795 excavation shaft on Oak Island, Nova Scotia.
