Flat Stone with Hooked X

The Flat Stone with Hooked X was discovered in the Oak Island swamp by Charles Barkhouse during a metal-detecting search in Season 4 Episode 3, "Swamp Things" (November 29, 2016). The stone bears a carved symbol resembling an X with a hook on its upper arm. Geologist Phil Finck of the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources subsequently examined the stone and determined that while most markings on its surface are natural glacial striations, the hooked X itself appears to have been deliberately incised.

Forensic geologist Scott Wolter has proposed that the hooked X is a medieval rune adopted by the Knights Templar and used to mark their movements across North America from the 14th century onwards. Wolter has documented the symbol at sites including the Kensington Runestone in Minnesota, the Spirit Pond Runestones in Maine, and several locations across New England and the Maritimes, and presents the full argument in his 2009 book "The Hooked X: Key to the Secret History of North America."

The symbol carries additional weight within Oak Island research because it appears in two other sources connected to the island. The first is the cipher known as La Formule, presented to the Lagina team by author Zena Halpern and identified by her as a 17th-century French Templar document referencing Oak Island by name. The second is the lost 90-foot stone, an inscribed stone recovered from the Money Pit in 1804 and missing since the early 20th century, which according to recorded oral accounts bore similar characters among its inscriptions.

The Hooked X stone has not been re-examined or laboratory-dated in any subsequent broadcast episode through Season 13. The case for its medieval origin rests on Wolter's epigraphic interpretation of the symbol, supported by Finck's finding that the carving is artificial rather than natural.