The Ownership of Oak Island reference is a compilation maintained by the Chester Municipal Heritage Society as part of its online research material. The document traces the ownership history of Oak Island from the original 1762 four-acre subdivision into thirty-two lots through the present.
Material covers the original eighteenth-century land grants to the Monro, Lynch, Seacombe, and Young families; the early-nineteenth-century settlers including Edward Smith and Anthony Vaughan; the consolidations effected by the various treasure-hunting companies during their periods of operation (Oak Island Association, Oak Island Treasure Company, and successors); the Chappell family ownership period; the Mel Chappell custodianship through the mid-twentieth century; the Triton Alliance consolidation under David Tobias and Dan Blankenship; the long-running dispute between Tobias-Blankenship and Fred Nolan over Lots 5, 9, 11, 13, and 17; the formation of Oak Island Tours Inc. with the Lagina brothers from 2006; and the 2019 emergence of the Michigan Group with Rick and Marty Lagina, Craig Tester, and Alan Kostrzewa.
Cross-references in the compilation link to the corporate-charter records and the personal-papers files for the principal owners of each period.
What this source documents
Lot-by-lot ownership history of Oak Island from the 1762 survey to the present; chain of title for each of the original thirty-two four-acre lots; the consolidations effected by successive treasure-hunting companies; the Chappell, Tobias, Blankenship, Nolan, and Lagina ownership periods; cross-references to corporate-charter and personal-papers files elsewhere in CMHS holdings.
Why it matters
For research questions involving who held legal access to which part of Oak Island during which period, this ownership compilation is the necessary reference. Disputes over lot ownership shape much of the documentary record of the modern search, particularly the long-running Tobias-Blankenship versus Nolan dispute over lots in the swamp area and Joudrey's Cove. The compilation is also the necessary entry point for treasure-trove licensing research.