National Historic Site atop Gallows Hill in Lunenburg, roughly 20 miles southwest of Oak Island. The nearby South Shore Genealogical Society holds an 1883 map labelling Oak Island properties with the notation "Kidd's Treasure."
About This Site
Lunenburg Academy is a National Historic Site situated atop Gallows Hill in the town of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, approximately 20 miles southwest of Oak Island. The imposing wooden building, constructed in 1895, served as the town's primary educational institution for over a century. Lunenburg itself is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, recognized for its remarkably preserved colonial grid layout and wooden architecture dating to its founding by British Protestants in 1753. The town's South Shore Genealogical Society maintains an important archive of regional historical documents, land records, and maps spanning several centuries of Nova Scotia history.
Connection to Oak Island
In Season 4, Charles Barkhouse and investigative journalist Randall Sullivan traveled to the South Shore Genealogical Society in Lunenburg. Archivist Stephen Ernst produced an 1883 A.F. Church Company map of the area that labelled Oak Island properties by household name and included a handwritten notation reading "Kidd's Treasure," a direct reference to the 17th-century pirate Captain William Kidd, who was hanged in 1701 after offering to trade his life for a mysterious treasure he claimed was buried somewhere east of Boston. The map also identified the McGinnis family, one of the founding families connected to the 1795 Money Pit discovery, as property owners on the island. The "Kidd's Treasure" notation on an official surveying company map demonstrated that the pirate treasure theory was well established in the local community by the late 19th century.
Fieldwork Notes
Visited during Season 4 by Charles Barkhouse and Randall Sullivan. Archivist Stephen Ernst presented the 1883 A.F. Church Company map with the "Kidd's Treasure" notation and McGinnis family land identification at the South Shore Genealogical Society.
