The Lucky Thirteen

At the Smith's Cove Upper Beach, Choice Drilling sinks exploratory hole OITC-6 ten feet northwest of a previous hole that revealed evidence of the Oak Island Treasure Company's 1897 dynamiting operation. In a core sample from 50-53 feet, Paul Troutman and Terry Matheson discover two pieces of hand-cut wooden beams separated by two feet of moist earth. The undisturbed quality of the earth above the wood, combined with the absence of documented tunnels in the area, leads Matheson to suggest the wood may be part of the Smith's Cove flood tunnel. Steve Guptill maps the location of OITC-6 relative to other landmarks, revealing that a line drawn from the drillhole through the centre of the U-shaped structure and through Wall 2 extends directly to the Money Pit area. The team agrees to carbon date the wood. At the Money Pit area, Choice Drilling continues exploration drilling as part of the ongoing effort to locate the Shaft 2 tunnel and pinpoint the original Money Pit's exact position. Gary Drayton and Jack Begley metal detect on Lot 8, where they discover additional ceramic fragments and an iron artifact. In the War Room, the team reviews the alignment between OITC-6, the U-shaped structure, and the Money Pit, noting that this straight-line relationship supports the theory that the Smith's Cove structures were engineered as part of an integrated flood tunnel system designed to protect the Money Pit. The discovery of hand-cut beams at 50 feet on the Smith's Cove Upper Beach, aligned with the U-shaped structure and Money Pit, provides some of the strongest evidence yet for the existence of the legendary flood tunnel connecting Smith's Cove to the Money Pit.