Archives and research centre at Cape Breton University in Sydney, Nova Scotia, housing documents donated by the Chappell family that include sworn affidavits and records from early twentieth-century Oak Island excavations.
About This Site
The Beaton Institute is the archives and research centre of Cape Breton University, located in Sydney, Nova Scotia, roughly 300 miles northeast of Oak Island. Named after Sister Margaret Beaton, a librarian who recognised in the 1950s that documents of historical significance to Cape Breton were being lost and began collecting them, the institute has served as the regional archive for Cape Breton Island for over six decades.
The collection includes more than 3,000 manuscript collections, 60,000 images, 2,500 sound recordings, and 2,000 maps and plans. Among its holdings are documents donated by the Chappell family, whose members were among the most active Oak Island searchers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Connection to Oak Island
In Season 5, Episode 5, Alex Lagina, Charles Barkhouse, Peter Fornetti, and historian Doug Crowell travelled 300 miles northeast to the Beaton Institute to examine documents donated by M.R. Chappell. The Chappell family had been deeply involved in Oak Island excavations dating back to the 1890s, and their papers represented a potentially significant untapped source of primary documentation.
Among the materials the team found a sworn affidavit by Frederick Blair, one of the most persistent and well-documented Oak Island searchers, whose involvement with the island spanned from the 1890s through the 1940s. Blair's affidavits and correspondence have served as key primary sources for understanding the early excavation history, and the Beaton Institute's holdings provided the team with access to original documents rather than secondary accounts.
Fieldwork Notes
The team made a single confirmed visit to the Beaton Institute in Season 5, Episode 5. The 300-mile journey from Oak Island to Sydney represented one of the longer domestic research trips undertaken during the series. The Chappell family documents examined during the visit informed subsequent episodes and contributed to the team's understanding of the early searcher era.
