Season 6 of The Curse of Oak Island (AI-assisted historical reconstruction, not a photograph)

The Curse of Oak IslandSeason 6

Draining Smith's Cove

22 Episodes • Nov 6 – Apr 30, 2019

Written by Corjan Mol, author & Historical Researcher, Oak Island Team

Artifacts found and discussed in Season 6

50 artifacts were found or discussed in Season 6.

All 50 artifacts

Season 6 in brief

The team builds an enormous cofferdam at Smith's Cove, pumping out the Atlantic to excavate the beach for the first time in modern history. The results are extraordinary: a U-shaped wooden structure with Roman numerals carved into its timbers, a mysterious underground wall, a stone-lined drainage system, and what appears to be a slipway leading into the ocean. Each discovery suggests large-scale construction activity centuries before the Money Pit was found in 1795. A bejeweled brooch recovered on Lot 21 and a possible crossbow bolt on Lot 26 push the artifact record further back in time. At the Money Pit, the team sinks exploratory boreholes and confirms the presence of a flood tunnel through a positive dye test, connecting Smith's Cove to the Money Pit for the first time with physical evidence.

Key events

Smith's Cove slipway (boat ramp), lead cross isotope analysis confirms Southern France origin, Roman pilum (crossbow bolt), U-shaped structure with blue clay, 14th century brooch fragment with gold

Key people

Rick Lagina
Marty Lagina
Craig Tester
Alex Lagina
Dave Blankenship
Dan Blankenship
Gary Drayton
Billy Gerhardt
Charles Barkhouse
Doug Crowell

+ 10 more

Steve Guptill
Laird Niven
Dr. Ian Spooner
Dr. Christa Brosseau
Carmen Legge
Tom Nolan
Jack Begley
Terry Matheson
Dan Henskee
Paul Troutman

The underground works of Season 6

13 holes and 4 tunnels and areas appear in Season 6 episodes, the deepest hole at 235 ft (10-X). Bars share one scale, 0 to 240 ft.

All 13 holes

Tunnels and areas

All 4 tunnels and areas

Halifax Company tunnel (1866-67)Tunnel108 to 110 ft

Open the full borehole map

Research behind the season

The Evidence

Oak Island Flood Tunnels and Box Drains: The Water Trap

The box drains at Smith's Cove look real. The coconut fibre is confirmed. But has anyone ever actual...

The Hunt

Dan Blankenship and Borehole 10-X

Dan Blankenship gave up everything for Oak Island. In 54 years he drilled the deepest shaft, survive...

The Theories

Did the Romans reach Oak Island?

Six Roman coins have surfaced on Oak Island’s Lot 5, alongside a possible Roman pilum and the discre...

All 22 episodes of Season 6

1 Episode 1Nov 13, 2018 Rick's Big Bang Theory Rick and Marty Lagina gather their team, including Craig Tester, Dave Blankenship, Dan Blankenship, Charles Barkhouse, Jack Begley, Doug Crowell, and metal detection expert Gary Drayton, in a newly constructed War Room to launch Season 6. The agenda centers on the "Big Three": the Money Pit, Smith's Cove, and the swamp. Among last season's key finds were two 17th-century coins, a brooch… 2 Episode 2Nov 20, 2018 Gold Rush Rick Lagina and metal detection expert Gary Drayton bring the bejeweled brooch they discovered on Lot 21 to the home of veteran treasure hunter Dan Blankenship, where they show it to Dan and Marty Lagina. The artifact features a more intricate design and better preservation than the rhodolite garnet brooch found on Lot 8 the previous season. Archaeologist Laird Niven later examines the piece at… 3 Episode 3Nov 27, 2018 Depth Perception Rick and Marty Lagina, Craig Tester, Dave Blankenship, and Charles Barkhouse travel to Eagle Canada's headquarters in Calgary, Alberta, to receive the results of their seismic survey. Geophysicist Jeremy Church presents data from two key areas, beginning with the mega-bin, a site roughly 600 feet north of the Money Pit where Dan Blankenship drilled 40 exploratory boreholes in the early 1970s. The… 4 Episode 4Dec 4, 2018 A Legacy Revealed Rick Lagina presents metal detection expert Gary Drayton's latest find to the team and archaeologist Laird Niven: a metal object resembling a crossbow bolt, discovered roughly ten inches below the surface on the Lot 26 beachfront by Gary, Jack Begley, and geophysicist Mike West. Laird notes the artifact is finely made with hardened iron showing minimal rust, qualities Gary attributes to the… 5 Episode 5Dec 11, 2018 Homecoming The team drills borehole HI-4 at the Money Pit, targeting a network of tunnels detected by seismic imaging at roughly 100 feet. At 109 feet, geologist Terry Matheson identifies flat wood fragments at an angle consistent with a collapsed beam, and he and Craig Tester agree the find correlates with the Shaft Six tunnel, the passage dug by treasure hunters in 1861 who tunneled 18 feet east toward… 6 Episode 6Dec 18, 2018 Precious Metal Construction of the 525-foot steel cofferdam at Smith's Cove continues as the Irving Equipment crew, led by Mike Jardine, drives the final interlocking steel sheets into the seabed. Rick Lagina and Dave Blankenship bring 95-year-old Dan Blankenship to the site for an inspection. Dan marvels at the scale of the operation, noting the 300-ton crane and the improvements over his own earth-filled… 7 Episode 7Jan 1, 2019 Rock Solid The 525-foot steel cofferdam surrounding Smith's Cove reaches completion as Irving Equipment Limited drives the last of 117 interlocking steel sheets some 25 feet into the seabed. Mike Jardine confirms the structure went in without major complications, and the team begins pumping more than 100,000 gallons of seawater from the enclosed area. Rick Lagina, Dave Blankenship, and geophysical engineer… 8 Episode 8Jan 8, 2019 Unearthed With the 525-foot steel cofferdam now complete, Rick and Marty Lagina begin the massive excavation of Smith's Cove, a nearly 12,000-square-foot area that has never been fully explored. A large wash plant has been installed to process the enormous volume of spoils, funneling excavated earth through industrial grizzly bars and shaker decks that separate material by size while spray nozzles wash… 9 Episode 9Jan 15, 2019 As Above, So Below At Smith's Cove, the team finishes exposing the U-shaped structure first discovered by Dan Blankenship in 1971. Charles Barkhouse identifies Roman numerals XI and XII carved into additional uprights, continuing the numbering sequence found on earlier beams. Geologist Terry Matheson notes that vibrant blue clay packed against the exterior matches the clay-rich till found above 50 feet in the Money… 10 Episode 10Jan 22, 2019 Fingers Made of Stone Alex Lagina, Doug Crowell, and Paul Troutman travel ten miles northeast to the Lordly House in Chester, Nova Scotia, where the Chester Municipal Heritage Society maintains an extensive archive of Oak Island searcher records. Among the collection, Doug discovers a remarkably detailed 1863 article from The Yarmouth Herald describing the five finger drains found at Smith's Cove by the Truro Company… 11 Episode 11Jan 29, 2019 Wharfs and All At Smith's Cove, Rick Lagina, Craig Tester, and geologist Terry Matheson continue excavating a newly discovered wooden structure that appears to parallel the U-shaped structure found by Dan Blankenship in the 1970s. They determine it is the L-shaped structure, a 50-foot-long formation of wood and small stones that Blankenship partially exposed before a massive storm destroyed his cofferdam and… 12 Episode 12Feb 5, 2019 Slipway When Wet At the Money Pit, Marty Lagina and Craig Tester supervise as the Irving Equipment crew, including Vanessa Lucido and Danny, fires up the oscillator to break through the compacted plug at the bottom of the H-8 caisson. The steel cylinder had been sitting at 213 feet since the previous season, when the team believed it pushed past the Chappell Vault, the seven-foot-tall wooden structure first… 13 Episode 13Feb 12, 2019 The Paper Chase At Smith's Cove, while excavating the area around the slipway, archaeologist Laird Niven makes a surprising discovery: a concrete wall buried approximately three feet below the ocean floor. The wall is five inches thick and three feet tall, and embedded in the bottom are two connected rubber tubes. Laird notes he has found rubber artifacts dating to the 1850s, and the team considers the… 14 Episode 14Feb 26, 2019 Voyage to the Bottom of the Cenote Craig Tester and Jack Begley meet the Centre of Geographic Sciences team at the Oak Island marina to conduct a marine survey of the waters off the island's southern shore. Using lidar and side-scan sonar equipment arranged in a systematic grid of 30 lines five meters apart, the COGS crew scans the seabed for evidence of a second flood tunnel system, a theory championed by author Randall Sullivan.… 15 Episode 15Mar 5, 2019 Dye Harder The H-8 sinkhole that formed two days earlier remains a serious concern as Rick Lagina and Craig Tester survey the damage at the Money Pit. Vanessa Lucido and Mark from Irving Equipment propose using a vibro hammer to shake the 50-inch steel caisson until the surrounding earth settles and stabilizes. The process risks triggering a larger cave-in, but the alternative is abandoning the borehole… 16 Episode 16Mar 12, 2019 Detour In the War Room, Rick and Marty Lagina and Craig Tester discuss the results of the dye test conducted at the Money Pit. After pumping up to half a million gallons of seawater mixed with nontoxic red dye into borehole C-1, Gary Drayton spotted red-colored water seeping from the ground at Smith's Cove, water that tested positive for traces of the dye. The team agrees to pursue excavation beneath… 17 Episode 17Mar 19, 2019 Clue or False? In the War Room, Rick and Marty Lagina and members of the team meet with professional surveyor Steve Guptill, who has compiled roughly a dozen historical survey plans into a single master map of the Money Pit area. By overlaying records from sources including R.V. Harris in 1958 and Fred Nolan, Guptill identifies a consensus location for Shaft Six, the searcher tunnel dug in 1861 that should… 18 Episode 18Mar 26, 2019 Heavy Metal At the Money Pit, Rick Lagina, geologist Terry Matheson, and the team continue excavating borehole S-6, which three days earlier penetrated what they believe to be the Shaft Six tunnel at 101 feet, yielding a hand-cut oak timber, possible leather bookbinding, and iron chain. The spoils are now being processed through the large-scale wash plant near Smith's Cove, where Billy Gerhardt's crew… 19 Episode 19Apr 2, 2019 Striking Distance At the Money Pit, historians Doug Crowell and Paul Troutman, geologist Terry Matheson, and crane operator Danny monitor the excavation of the 60-inch borehole GG-1. The oscillator pressure climbs to nearly 210 bar, more than double its normal level, as the caisson drills into extremely hard material at 111 feet. Oak timbers appear in the spoils, and at 113 feet the crew pulls a massive five-foot… 20 Episode 20Apr 9, 2019 Short Days and Tall Knights A strike by unionized Nova Scotia crane operators brings Money Pit drilling to an abrupt halt, with the walkout potentially lasting three weeks. In the War Room, Rick and Marty Lagina and Craig Tester decide to redirect efforts toward Smith's Cove excavation, wash table processing, and metal detection. At Smith's Cove, Rick, Marty, Charles Barkhouse, and Gary Drayton watch as heavy equipment… 21 Episode 21Apr 16, 2019 Seismic Matters With only two weeks remaining before winter forces the team off the island, the Money Pit excavation at the Site Three borehole has ground to a halt after the provincial union of crane operators goes on strike. The walkout could last anywhere from one to 21 days, leaving Rick Lagina, Craig Tester, and Marty Lagina, who joins by video from the War Room, to decide how to use whatever time remains.… 22 Episode 22Apr 30, 2019 Lost and Founding In the Season 6 finale, Rick and Marty Lagina visit veteran treasure hunter Dan Blankenship at his home to share the dendrochronology results from Smith's Cove. When told that the U-shaped structure and slipway have been dated to 1769 with 99.99 percent accuracy by Dr. Colin Laroque at the University of Saskatchewan, Dan, who first discovered both structures during his own large-scale…

Keep exploring Season 6

Deepest hole 10-X 235 ft, on the borehole map Top artifact U-shaped wooden structure See the full record Research Oak Island Flood Tunnels and Box Drains: The Water Trap Read the analysis

Season 6

Frequently Asked Questions

Question One

How many episodes does Season 6 have?

Season 6 of The Curse of Oak Island has 22 episodes, which aired on the History Channel from November 6, 2018 to April 30, 2019. Every episode has its own summary page, listed below.

Question Two

What was found in Season 6?

Artifacts recorded as found in or discussed during Season 6 include U-shaped wooden structure, Red dye emerging at Smith's Cove, Iron projectile (Lot 26, possible Roman pilum). This page lists all 50, each with its own record.

Question Three

Which holes were drilled or discussed in Season 6?

Season 6 episodes refer to 13 holes on Oak Island, including 10-X, H-8, DE-6. The deepest record of the season is 10-X, at 235 feet. Each links to its record on the Money Pit borehole map.

Written by

Corjan Mol Author & Historical Researcher, Oak Island Team since 2019 TheCurseOfOakIsland.com

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