A heritage centre in Centreville, Nova Scotia, where blacksmithing expert Carmen Legge regularly examines Oak Island artifacts, identifying their age, origin, and function based on decades of experience with historical metalwork.
About This Site
Northville Farms Heritage Centre is located in Centreville, Nova Scotia, and serves as a working heritage site preserving traditional rural trades and craftsmanship. The centre is home to blacksmithing expert Carmen Legge, whose extensive knowledge of historical metalwork and forging techniques has made him an indispensable resource for the Oak Island team. Carmen's workshop at Northville Farms functions as an informal laboratory where iron, steel, and copper artifacts recovered from the island are brought for expert identification, dating, and analysis based on their construction methods, tool marks, and metallurgical characteristics.
Connection to Oak Island
Northville Farms has become one of the most frequently visited off-island research locations across multiple seasons. In Season 8, Doug Crowell and Scott Barlow brought Carmen Legge a mysterious metal artifact discovered in Dan Blankenship's archived files, originally found in the swamp during the 1970s. Carmen identified it as part of a large cannon, noting its layered metal construction and traces of burnt gunpowder in its exhaust ports, and dated the piece to the mid-1400s. In the same season, Charles Barkhouse, David Fornetti, and Dan Henskee returned to Northville Farms with a burned iron rod recovered near the stone pathway at the swamp's northeastern border. Carmen identified it as an eyebolt used for anchoring or securing parts of ships, dating it to as far back as the late 1600s.
Carmen Legge's identifications at Northville Farms have consistently pushed the timeline of human activity on Oak Island well before the 1795 discovery of the Money Pit. His analysis of hinges, fasteners, and military hardware has provided critical dating evidence and helped connect individual artifacts to broader patterns of European activity in Nova Scotia.
Fieldwork Notes
Multiple visits across Seasons 8 through 13. Carmen Legge examines artifacts at his workshop, assessing construction techniques, tool marks, and period-appropriate metallurgy. Items are typically brought by team members shortly after recovery for preliminary identification before being sent for formal laboratory analysis. Carmen's assessments frequently provide the first indication of an artifact's age and cultural origin.
