Rick Lagina, Dave Blankenship, and Charles Barkhouse return from Fred Nolan's funeral, where roughly 100 people gathered to honour the veteran surveyor who first came to Oak Island in 1958 and was later invited to survey the island in 1961 by landowner M.R. Chappell. Rick reads a tribute to surveyors in Nolan's memory. In the War Room, the team discusses the practical implications of Nolan's death. Craig Tester confirms with reasonable confidence that the treasure trove licence passes with the estate and that the team's agreement to work the swamp remains valid. With the swamp accessible and the Money Pit excavation looming, Rick declares the quest goes on and commits to an aggressive agenda.
Brycon Construction continues clearing and levelling the Money Pit area for the coming caisson excavation, moving tons of earth to create a flat surface capable of supporting the massive cranes. As the earthwork proceeds, Rick and Charles discover large timbers, pottery fragments, and other debris scattered through the Dunfield spoil piles, material displaced when Robert Dunfield dug his 100-foot-wide, 140-foot-deep pit in 1965. Among the pottery are pieces with blue glazing and visible rims consistent with tableware, though whether they were left by previous treasure hunters or by earlier visitors to the island remains unclear. Charles then finds a piece of stone bearing what appears to be a carved symbol resembling an X with a hook. Some researchers, including forensic geologist Scott Wolter, have suggested the hooked X is an ancient rune symbol adopted by the Knights Templar and used to mark their path during explorations of North America as far back as the 14th century. The symbol also appears in Zena Halpern's La Formule cipher and on the lost 90-foot stone.
Matt Savelle of Canadian Seabed Research presents the results of an EM-61 metal detection survey of the triangular swamp. The device, capable of sensing metal objects up to 30 feet below ground, reveals targets at the northern tip near the back pond and along the swamp's southwestern border. One significant hit lies directly beneath the oak tree stump that Tony Sampson recovered in a previous season, carbon-dated to between 1450 and 1640. Since the stump predates any known European activity on the island, whatever is buried beneath it could be very old. Additional targets along the western swamp border appear to have considerable length, suggesting large objects lying flat. Savelle provides GPS coordinates for all targets and recommends sending a diver in with a handheld detector to narrow the positions.
Sampson returns to the swamp and enters the back pond to investigate the targets. At the stump site he discovers one of Fred Nolan's old survey markers beneath where the stump had been. He also relocates the long wooden plank first spotted in Season 1, and the team sends it for carbon dating. Results place the plank between 1680 and 1735, predating the Money Pit's discovery in 1795 and supporting the theory that human activity in the swamp goes back centuries. Rick notes that the EM-61 detected deep metallic targets that Sampson's handheld detector could not reach, meaning something substantial is buried deeper and will require excavation to retrieve. Marty agrees, and the team resolves to dig in the swamp. Fred Nolan had previously found parts of a ship in the swamp, including sections of a spar and a scupper, fuelling speculation that an ancient vessel may have been deliberately sunk and hidden in a man-made swamp.
