Season 13
Season 13 of The Curse of Oak Island aired on History Channel from November 4, 2025 to May 5, 2026 across 25 episodes. The team's two stated aims were to reach the solution channel that had carried elevated gold and silver into the Money Pit area, and to extend the medieval case the previous season had begun to assemble. Both produced results, neither produced treasure.
Five seven-foot-diameter caissons were sunk in and around the Money Pit, labeled TPF, Karma-1, Peacock-1, MS-1, and MP-1. The shafts pushed past 210 feet, recovered sinking wood, iron, and chain from depths no previous searcher had reached, and confirmed elemental silver in the solution channel sediments through Dr. Ian Spooner's XRF analysis. None of the shafts recovered an object of value. The Peacock void identified by sonar at 148 feet, with underwater camera footage that Bob Brown of Prohawk Technology assessed as more than 90 percent likely to contain man-made objects, was not re-encountered in any of the boreholes drilled within feet of the original target.
On Lot 8, archaeologists Laird Niven and Fiona Steele exposed a hand-cut stone cradle beneath a 40,000-pound boulder, bound with binders that Emma Culligan dated to a window between the 1200s and the mid-1700s. The Lot 5 round foundation produced a sixth Roman coin of Claudius II and a folded copper talisman matching early medieval Templar practice. Carbon-14 testing on leather from the cobblestone swamp pathway returned a primary range of 1148 to 1216 AD. Italian archaeoastronomy professor Adriano Gaspani dated the Lot 5 round foundation to approximately 1236 AD. Researcher Charlotte Wheatley demonstrated that three French churches dedicated to Saint Radegund share orientations of approximately 292 degrees that project across the Atlantic in the general direction of Oak Island.
In the season's final stretch, Rick Lagina, Alex Lagina, Doug Crowell, Peter Fornetti, Emiliano Sacchetti, and Corjan Mol travelled to the Portuguese Azores, where archaeologist Tiago Rodrigues at the Angra do Heroísmo Museum authenticated three Oak Island artifacts as Portuguese: a stone shot from the Money Pit area, the Pitblado Tornês escudo, and Jack Begley's iron deck spike from the Lot 5 round foundation. Portuguese numismatist Alberto Silva narrowed the Pitblado coin's striking window to no later than 1371. In the season finale, Dr. Spooner reported that wood recovered from the 2024 Shaft 2A excavation returned the highest silver and third-highest gold readings recorded on the island, opening a methodological pivot toward indirect detection. Marty Lagina committed to extending the program. The full scientific synthesis is laid out in Oak Island S13: The Medieval Case.
Key Discoveries
Five caisson shafts (TPF, Karma-1, Peacock-1, MS-1, MP-1) sunk past 210 feet to the solution channel. Elemental silver confirmed by XRF in solution channel sediments. Sixth Roman coin recovered from Lot 5 (Claudius II, 250-270 AD). Folded copper talisman from the same Lot 5 round feature. Forty-thousand-pound boulder lifted from Lot 8 to expose a hand-cut stone cradle bound with three distinct binders. Carbon-14 dating of leather from the cobblestone swamp pathway: 1148-1216 AD. Lot 5 round foundation archaeoastronomy: approximately 1236 AD. European hand cannon fragment authenticated as potentially 13th century. Three stone shots recovered, Portuguese-Azorean origin confirmed by Dr. Robert Raeside. Pitblado Tornês escudo authenticated by Alberto Silva at no later than 1371. Iron deck spike from Lot 5 authenticated by Tiago Rodrigues as Portuguese, possibly 14th century. Leeds bag seal (1662-1726). Divider tool (1500s-1600s). Washington Funeral Medal (1800) and William III sixpence (1697-1701) recovered. Lot 26 dry-stone wall matched to 15th-century Serreta construction. Three French Saint Radegund churches found to share orientations of approximately 292 degrees generally directed toward Oak Island. Wood from Shaft 2A returned the highest silver reading on the island, opening a methodological pivot toward indirect metal detection.
Key People
Rick Lagina, Marty Lagina, Craig Tester, Alex Lagina, Gary Drayton, Katya Drayton, Billy Gerhardt, Scott Barlow, Charles Barkhouse, Doug Crowell, Steve Guptill, Peter Fornetti, Tom Nolan, Terry Matheson, Jack Begley, Laird Niven, Fiona Steele, Dr. Ian Spooner, Emma Culligan, Carmen Legge, Sandy Campbell, Emiliano Sacchetti, Judi Rudebusch, Charlotte Wheatley, Corjan Mol, Professor Adriano Gaspani, Vanessa Lucido (ROC Equipment), Adam Embleton (Soletanche Bachy Canada), Joan Dawson (Fort Point historian), Bob Brown (Prohawk Technology), Matthew Balzan (Maltese military historian), Steve Salomon (Archibald descendant), Scott Clarke, Dr. Robert Raeside (Acadia University), Dr. Chris McFarlane (University of New Brunswick), Dr. Fred Michel, Tiago Rodrigues (Angra do Heroísmo Museum), Alberto Silva (Portuguese numismatist), Francisco Nogueira (Portuguese historian), Manuel Gandra (Portuguese historian), Dr. Felix Rodrigues (Grota do Medo)
All Episodes
25 episodesThe Comeback
Rick and Marty Lagina, Craig Tester, and their team gather at the Interpretive Centre to launch a new season with a clear mission: systematic drilling to the bo...
Billion Dollar Baby
In the Money Pit area, the team continues drilling borehole J-9 into the solution channel, targeting the zone between 150 and 220 feet where they believe the or...
Medieval Intentions
In the Oak Island lab, Rick and Marty Lagina and members of the team gather to hear Emma Culligan's analysis of a coin that Marty and Katya Drayton discovered o...
The Smoking Gun
In the Money Pit area, Rick and Marty Lagina and the team begin drilling borehole F-5.5, located just seven feet from borehole F-4 where the highest levels of g...
Keep On Rockin'
In the Money Pit area, Rick and Marty Lagina and the team drill borehole G-4.5, targeting the solution channel between 168 and approximately 212 feet below grade.
The Heat Is On
In the Money Pit area, the team recovers a 30-foot core from borehole F-8.5, spanning 178 to 208 feet with bedrock hit at 205, in an area where previous water t...
Walk The Line
In the Money Pit area, the team drills borehole I-9.5 targeting the deepest sections of the solution channel at 210 to 230 feet, an area where new water tests conducted by Dr.
Into The Fold
The team begins drilling borehole H-9.25, located in the southwest corner of the former Chappell Shaft and just five feet south of the H-8 shaft, where in 2017 ...
So Close, Yet Sonar
Rick and Marty Lagina and their team begin drilling borehole BN-13.5 in the area Marty has dubbed the Peacock, 45 feet northeast of recent drilling locations an...
Boulder And Wiser
In the Money Pit area, the team drills borehole DN-13 in the Peacock, a few feet northwest of borehole BN-13.5, where a possible man-made cavity was discovered at 150 feet one week earlier.
A Knight's Journey
In the Money Pit area, Rick and Marty Lagina and their team drill borehole BN-14 in the Peacock, just three feet west of where a ten-foot void was discovered at...
A Fort Knight
In the War Room, Rick and Marty Lagina and their team review snake camera footage captured beneath the massive boulder on Lot 8, where archaeologists Laird Nive...
Testing Their Metal
On Lot 8, Rick and Marty Lagina and Craig Tester join archaeologists Laird Niven and Fiona to continue investigating the massive boulder feature, beneath which ...
The Shining
In the War Room, Rick and Marty Lagina, Craig Tester, and their team meet virtually with Vanessa Lucido of ROC Equipment and Adam Embelton of Soletanche Bachy C...
Swamped
Teams from ROC Equipment and Soletanche Bachy Canada arrive on Oak Island with a 135-ton telescoping drill rig to begin excavating the TPF shaft, a seven-foot-d...
Raising the Stakes
The season's most ambitious Money Pit operation runs into an immediate obstacle when the TPF-1 caisson seizes up at just 25 feet, pinned in compacted backfill g...
The Missing Links
On Lot 8, archaeologist Fiona Steele continues excavating beneath the site of the 40,000-pound boulder removed one week earlier from its artificially placed ring of support stones.
Breaking the Seal
The Karma-1 shaft reaches its full depth of 212 feet in the solution channel, but the final spoils searched by Rick Lagina, metal detection expert Gary Drayton, and Terry Matheson produce no hits.
Axis of Medieval
On Lot 8, Rick Lagina and Craig Tester join archaeologist Fiona Steele at the cradle-shaped stone feature beneath the removed 40,000-pound boulder.
The Sands of Time
Rick Lagina, Marty Lagina, Craig Tester, and the team gather in the War Room with Steve Guptill to assess their next move.
A Sacred Symbol
On Lot 8, archaeologists Laird Niven and Fiona Steele continue excavating the cradle-shaped stone feature beneath the 40,000-pound boulder, with Alex Lagina and Craig Tester observing.
Road Trip
In the war room, Rick and Marty Lagina, Craig Tester and members of the team meet with Dr.
Island Hopping
On Oak Island, crews from ROC Equipment and Soletanche Bachy Canada, with Adam Embleton and Billy Gerhardt, repair the Money Pit area for another eight-foot-dia...
Overseaing the Dig
In the Portuguese Azores, Rick Lagina, Alex Lagina, Peter Fornetti, Doug Crowell, and Emiliano Sacchetti join researcher Corjan Mol and local historian Francisc...
Pure Gold
In the Money Pit area, the season's final caisson, MP-1, advances toward the solution channel where soil sampling earlier in the year identified the strongest silver concentrations on the island.