At the Money Pit, the team returns to RF-1 after leaving the 26-ton hammergrab resting on the obstruction at 170 feet overnight. The strategy has worked: the blockage has shifted five feet. Digging resumes and Vanessa Lucido reports reaching 202 feet, where the crew encounters a definite void. The excitement is short-lived, as subsequent grabs bring up gravel and backfill material collapsing from nearby borehole H8, where a dangerous sinkhole formed the previous year. Craig Tester raises immediate safety concerns, and despite their belief that a breakthrough may lie just feet away, the team terminates RF-1. Rick concedes the hole was frustrating but confirmed a collapse feature demanding further exploration.
Attention shifts to the swamp, where Dr. Ian Spooner arrives with radiocarbon results from tree branches embedded beneath the paved area stones. The dates come back to approximately 1200 AD, more than 800 years ago and nearly six centuries before the Money Pit discovery. Spooner reveals the paved area is even larger than expected, measuring roughly 80 by 170 feet, nearly half an acre. Rick, Marty Lagina, and archaeologist Laird Niven all agree the evidence for human construction is not disputable, and the team heads for the War Room to process the implications.
Charles Barkhouse has arranged the year's most significant finds along a physical timeline stretching back to the 12th century. Gary Drayton highlights the tunneling tools as the season's key discoveries: an 18th-century pickax found near the Eye of the Swamp, two metal swages for sharpening tunneling tools, and an iron hand-point chisel from property once belonging to Daniel McGinnis, some dated to as much as 600 years old. Craig observes two distinct periods of intense activity: the 1100s through 1400s, aligning with Templar theories, and the 1600s, consistent with Rosicrucian and Francis Bacon theories. Doug Crowell and Tom Nolan note that dendrochronology dates from the Smith's Cove bump-out placed a massive log structure at 1741, predating the recognized era of treasure searchers.
Marty then reveals the $2 Canadian coin, or toonie, he dropped down borehole H8 two years earlier to track underground drift. The coin was recovered from RF-1 spoils at over 200 feet, roughly ten feet laterally from where it was deposited, proving that metal objects can move readily through the solution channel. The discovery strengthens the case for the so-called big dig: a massive excavation of the entire Money Pit area, potentially 100 feet in diameter and 250 feet deep. Two methods are discussed, including a concrete shaft and a freeze ring approach using glycol-filled boreholes. The cost would run into the tens of millions over as long as three years, but the team increasingly views it as the only way to reach the bottom of the mystery.
Before departing for the winter, the team gathers at the 10-X drill site to honor the late Dan Blankenship. Rick has prepared a plaque built from island rock and Dan's old drill pipe, placed as a permanent memorial at the site Dan considered his greatest breakthrough. Dan's son Dave Blankenship and daughter Linda Flowers join Billy Gerhardt, Terry Matheson, and the rest of the team for the ceremony. Rick reflects on Dan's role over the past 15 years, calling him a friend, partner, and family. Dave expresses belief that his father would be happy knowing he will be remembered by future visitors to the island.
