Stone and cement foundation (Smith's Cove)

About This Structure

A large stone and cement foundation discovered by Dan Blankenship during the November 1969 Smith's Cove excavation, shaped like a horseshoe and found approximately 2 feet below the grade and about 150 feet south of the Smith's Cove beach. Blankenship described it as "quite massive."

Dimensions: roughly 12 feet wide and 25 feet long, with the open end toward the shore. The width of the footing varied from 20 inches to 30 inches and averaged approximately 3 feet deep. All the stones were cemented together in a mass, with the footing approximately 2 feet deep. The earth inside the horseshoe appeared slightly whiter than outside, and the earth toward the shore showed evidence of extensive heat - burnt deep red with patches of white in layers. Pieces of charcoal and coal were found in this area.

Blankenship noted that the remains of a stone-paved road from this area toward the Money Pit were still discernible.

He speculated on two possible interpretations: (1) it could have been the site of a steam boiler used by searchers working on the coffer dam, though he personally doubted this as he could not conceive the usefulness of a steam engine for such an operation; or (2) more likely in his view, it was the site of an original open hearth furnace where metalwork - including the manufacture of bricks and clays - could have been performed.

This structure was found in the same excavation campaign that uncovered the medieval-dated timber structures (Items #1-#11) inside the cofferdam, and its proximity to those structures, the stone road remnants, and the evidence of industrial-scale heating activity suggests it may be connected to the original depositor's operations on the island.

Graham Harris and Les MacPhie, the geotechnical engineers who wrote Oak Island and its Lost Treasure, read the burnt ground toward the shore as the likely site of a furnace used to ventilate the section of the flood tunnel dug from the Smith's Cove end. In their reconstruction the tunnel was driven from both ends, and a fire at the base of a chimney would have drawn stale air out of the workings, the same method they propose for a charcoal furnace at thirty feet in the Money Pit. They point out that the tall oaks on Isaac's Point would have hidden the chimney, and every other operation in the cove, from vessels passing at sea.