Rick Lagina shows fellow landowner Tom Nolan the paved stone walkway uncovered in the swamp, a feature Tom's late father Fred Nolan never had the means to expose during his five decades investigating the area. In the War Room, Rick and historian Doug Crowell present to Marty Lagina and the team findings from their trip to Fortress Louisbourg, an 18th-century French military fort some 300 miles northeast of Oak Island. There they discovered an original stone-paved drainage floor strikingly similar to the swamp's paved area, along with evidence that large wheeled carts were used for transport, carts that would function well on the cobbly surface found in the swamp. The discovery supports naval historian Chipp Reid's theory that a French treasure may have been moved from Louisbourg to Oak Island in the early 1740s. Geoscientist Dr. Ian Spooner then examines the drained paved area and delivers what Rick calls the smoking gun: wood crushed beneath the stones proves a glacier could not have deposited them, as no trees existed during glacial periods. Spooner declares the paved area man-made and predating the Money Pit's discovery.
Jack Begley, Gary Drayton, and Billy Gerhardt continue excavating the swamp and discover the paved area extends further than previously thought. Rick Lagina, Craig Tester, and surveyor Steve Guptill arrive to inspect; Steve measures the newly exposed rocks at one foot below sea level, consistent with the main paved area's two-foot average. Probing with a steel bar confirms rocks continue in the direction of the Eye of the Swamp, approximately 150 feet from the paved area's midpoint. Near the Eye, Gary and Jack uncover an old iron pickax with unusually short tines, a design suited for tunneling rather than surface work, along with a round-point spade. Both artifacts appear to date to the 1700s and support the idea that large-scale underground digging took place in the swamp area centuries ago.
At the Money Pit, Craig Tester, historian Charles Barkhouse, and geologist Terry Matheson continue core drilling near the site of Shaft Two, the 1805 searcher tunnel built just 14 feet from the original Money Pit. At borehole G10.5, the sonic drill advances rapidly through the earth between 109 and 119 feet with almost no resistance, suggesting a void or disturbed ground. The core, however, contains undisturbed limestone-rich material with primary bedding, meaning the drill has not hit the Money Pit itself. Terry and Craig conclude the loose earth results from nearby human activity, and the target may be just feet away. They shift the drill 18 inches and resume.
Rick Lagina, Doug Crowell, Billy Gerhardt, and area resident Kevin Rideout travel 52 miles northeast to the Dartmouth Heritage Museum to search for the legendary 90 Foot Stone. Discovered in the Money Pit in 1804 and carved with symbols translated as "Forty feet below two million pounds are buried," the stone vanished after the A and H Creighton bookbindery in Halifax closed in 1919. Rideout told Rick he saw a matching gray-green stone on the museum grounds over 40 years ago. With a government permit in hand, Billy excavates a 20-by-20-foot area. The team uncovers a flat, green, square-cornered slab, but it proves too large to be the 90 Foot Stone. After several hours, the search is called off without success. Back in the War Room, Craig presents carbon dating results for the wood sample from borehole FG-12, recovered at 106 feet in the Money Pit area: 1626 to 1680. The date matches Dr. Ian Spooner's finding that significant activity occurred at the Eye of the Swamp around 1680 to 1700, and the convergence of evidence from the swamp and Money Pit strengthens the case that organized construction took place on Oak Island well before 1795.
