About This Structure
A previously unknown tunnel running east to west was detected across three separate boreholes in the Money Pit area during Season 10. The tunnel was first encountered at a depth of 103 feet in borehole K15.5, where core samples revealed wood including part of a beam sitting in undisturbed material. Borehole M16.25, drilled eleven feet to the south, confirmed a four-foot opening at the same depth. An underwater camera lowered into the casing revealed timbers with what appeared to be a dowel in the end of one, a type of fastener predating the discovery of the Money Pit. Sonar run the following day mapped a rectangular thirty-five-foot structure with evenly spaced beams that bent and appeared collapsed on one side, trending south-southeast before turning northwest toward the Garden Shaft.
Over the following weeks, the team intercepted the tunnel at five separate locations using boreholes positioned progressively closer to the Garden Shaft. Carbon dating of wood from borehole K15.5 returned a 48.1 percent probability of 1731-1806 and a 35.5 percent probability of 1640-1687. The tunnel was not associated with any recorded search team operation. Its east-west orientation differed from the north-south axis of most known flood tunnels and searcher shafts, and video footage confirmed hand-cut timbers with construction methods predating the nineteenth century. Water samples collected from boreholes in the tunnel zone by Dr. Ian Spooner and hydrogeologist Dr. Fred Michel revealed elevated levels of gold and silver that Michel was unable to attribute to any natural source.
The area where the tunnel produced the highest metal readings was narrowed by Steve Guptill to a twenty-by-twenty-foot zone that Marty Lagina named the Baby Blob. Subsequent drilling within this zone also detected anomalous levels of copper, zinc, and tin, metals consistent with brass and bronze alloys. Dr. Spooner described these readings as highly anomalous for the local geology. The tunnel became the primary focus of the Season 10 drilling programme and led directly to the decision to restore and deepen the Garden Shaft, which Dumas Contracting began rebuilding with platforms at eight-foot intervals to a target depth of eighty feet.
Historical Context
Lagina team
Where It Was Found
Found at Money Pit area, ~103 ft depth — the original 1795 excavation shaft on Oak Island, Nova Scotia.
