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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (novel)
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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
First edition
Author
Ken Kesey
Cover artist
Paul Bacon[1]
Country
United States
Language
English
Publisher
Viking Press & Signet Books
Publication date
1962
Pages
320
OCLC
37505041
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962) is a novel written by Ken Kesey. Set in an Oregon psychiatric hospital, the narrative serves as a study of the institutional processes and the human mind as well as a critique of behaviorism and a celebration of humanistic principles. It was adapted into the Broadway play One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Dale Wasserman in 1963. Bo Goldman adapted the novel into a 1975 film directed by Miloš Forman, which won five Academy Awards.
Time magazine included the novel in its "100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005" list.[2] In 2003 the book was listed on the BBC's The Big Read poll of the UK's 200 "best-loved novels."[3]
Contents
[hide]
1 Plot
2 Background
3 Title
4 Main characters
4.1 Staff
4.2 Acutes
4.3 Chronics
4.4 Other characters
5 Controversy
6 Adaptations
7 Editions
8 See also
9 References
10 Further reading
Plot[edit]
The book is narrated by "Chief" Bromden, a gigantic and docile half-Native American patient at a psychiatric hospital, who presents himself as deaf and mute. Bromden’s tale focuses mainly on the antics of the rebellious Randle Patrick McMurphy, who faked insanity to serve his sentence for battery and gambling in the hospital rather than at a prison work farm. The head administrative nurse, Mildred Ratched, rules the ward with an iron fist and with little medical oversight. She is assisted by her three day-shift orderlies and her assistant doctors.
McMurphy constantly antagonizes Nurse Ratched and upsets the routines of the ward, leading to constant power struggles between the inmate and the nurse. He runs a card table, captains the ward's basketball team, comments on Nurse Ratched's figure, incites the other patients to conduct a vote about watching the World Series on television, and organizes an unsupervised deep-sea fishing trip. His reaction after claiming to be able to and subsequently failing to lift a heavy control panel in the defunct hydrotherapy room (referred to as the "tub room") – "But at least I tried" – gives the men incentive to try to stand up for themselves, instead of allowing Nurse Ratched to take control of every aspect of their lives. The Chief opens up to McMurphy, revealing late one night that he can speak and hear. A disturbance after the fishing trip results in McMurphy and the Chief being sent for electroshock therapy sessions, but even this punishment does little to curb McMurphy's rambunctious behavior.
One night, after bribing the night orderly, McMurphy smuggles two prostitute girlfriends with liquor onto the ward and breaks into the pharmacy for codeine cough syrup, and later unnamed psychiatric medications. McMurphy persuades one of the women to seduce Billy Bibbit, a timid, boyish patient with a terrible stutter and little experience with women, so he can lose his virginity. Although McMurphy plans to escape before the morning shift starts, he and the other patients instead fall asleep without cleaning up the mess of the group’s antics, and the morning staff discovers the ward in complete disarray. Nurse Ratched finds Billy and the prostitute in each other's arms, partially dressed, and admonishes him. Billy asserts himself for the first time, answering Nurse Ratched without stuttering. Ratched calmly threatens to tell Billy's mother what she has seen. Billy has an emotional breakdown, and once left alone in the doctor's office, commits suicide by cutting his throat. Nurse Ratched blames McMurphy for the loss of Billy's life. Enraged at what she has done to Billy, McMurphy attacks Ratched, attempting to strangle her to death, tearing off her uniform and revealing her breasts to the patients and aides who are watching. McMurphy is physically restrained and moved to the Disturbed ward.
Nurse Ratched misses a week of work due to her injuries, during which time many of the patients either transfer to other wards or check out of the hospital forever. When she returns she cannot speak and is thus deprived of her most potent tool to keep the men in line. With Bromden, Martini, and Scanlon the only patients who attended the boat trip left on the ward, McMurphy is brought back in. He has received a lobotomy, and is now in a vegetative state, rendering him silent and motionless. The Chief smothers McMurphy with a pillow during the night in an act of mercy before lifting the tub room control panel that McMurphy could not lift earlier, throwing it through a window and escaping the hospital.
Background[edit]
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was written in 1959 and published in 1962 in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement[4] and deep changes to the way psychology and psychiatry were being approached in America. The 1960s began the controversial movement towards deinstitutionalization,[5][6] an act that would have affected the characters in Kesey's novel. The novel is a direct product of Kesey's time working the graveyard shift as an orderly at a mental health facility in Menlo Park, California.[7] Not only did he speak to the patients and witness the workings of the institution, but he voluntarily took psychoactive drugs, including mescaline and LSD, as part of Project MKUltra.[8]
In addition to his work with Project MKUltra, Kesey experimented with LSD recreationally. He advocated for drug use as a path to individual freedom,[9] an attitude that was reflected in the views of psychological researchers of the time.[10][11] In the 1960s LSD was thought to offer the best access to the human mind. Each individual's experiences were said to vary; emotions and experiences ranged from transformations into other life forms, religious experiences, and extreme empathy.[10] It was Kesey's experience with LSD and other psychedelics that made him sympathetic toward the patients.[12]
The novel constantly refers to different authorities that control individuals through subtle and coercive methods. The novel's narrator, the Chief, combines these authorities in his mind, calling them "The Combine" in reference to the mechanistic way they manipulate and process individuals. The authority of The Combine is most often personified in the character of Nurse Ratched who controls the inhabitants of the novel's mental ward through a combination of rewards and subtle shame.[12] Although she does not normally resort to conventionally harsh discipline, her actions are portrayed as more insidious than those of a conventional prison administrator. This is because the subtlety of her actions prevents her prisoners from understanding that they are being controlled at all. The Chief also sees the Combine in the damming of the wild Columbia River at Celilo Falls, where his Native American ancestors hunted, and in the broader conformity of post-war American consumer society. The novel's critique of the mental ward as an instrument of oppression comparable to the prison mirrored many of the claims that French intellectual Michel Foucault was making at the same time. Similarly, Foucault argued that invisible forms of discipline oppressed individuals on a broad societal scale, encouraging them to censor aspects of themselves and their actions. The novel also criticizes the emasculation of men in society, particularly in the character of Billy Bibbit, the stuttering acute who is domineered by both Nurse Ratched and his mother.
Title[edit]
The title of the book is a line from a nursery rhyme:
Vintery, mintery, cutery, corn,
Apple seed and apple thorn,
Wire, briar, limber lock
Three geese in a flock
One flew East
One flew West
And one flew over the cuckoo's nest
Chief Bromden's grandmother sang this song to him when he was young.
Main characters[edit]
Randle McMurphy: A rebellious convict sent from a normal prison. He is guilty of battery and gambling. He had also been charged with, but never convicted of, statutory rape. McMurphy is transferred from a prison work farm to the hospital, thinking it will be an easy way to serve out his sentence in comfort. In the end, McMurphy turns violent against Nurse Ratched, costing him his freedom and his health.
Chief Bromden: The novel's half-Native American narrator has been in the mental hospital since the end of World War II. Bromden pretends to be deaf and mute, and through this guise he becomes privy to many of the ward's dirtiest secrets.[12] As a young man, the Chief was a high school football star, a college student, and a war hero. After seeing his father, a Native American chieftain, humiliated at the hands of the U.S. government and his (white) wife, Chief Bromden descends into clinical depression and begins hallucinating. Soon he is diagnosed with schizophrenia. He believes society is controlled by a large, mechanized system which he calls "The Combine."
Richard Gray, author of A History of American Literature, said that Bromden "supplies" the novel's "vision".[13] Gray explains that Bromden's "eye" "sees the inner truth" and that Bromden "is an outsider, an innocent eye in a way like Huck Finn, but what he sees is far stranger, far more surreal."[13] Gray explained that Bromden's vision "may not be literally true but it is symbolically so because, to quote Emily Dickinson again, 'Much madness is divinest sense.'"[13]
Staff[edit]
Nurse Mildred Ratched (also known as "Big Nurse"): The tyrannical head nurse of the mental institution, who exercises near-total control over those in her care, including her subordinates. She will not hesitate to restrict her patients' access to medication, amenities, and basic human necessities if it suits her whims. Her informant is the timid Billy Bibbit, whom she coerces into divulging the unit's secrets by threatening to complain about him to his mother. McMurphy's fun-loving, rebellious presence in Ratched's institution is a constant annoyance, as neither threats nor punishment nor shock therapy will stop him or the patients under his sway. Eventually, after McMurphy nearly chokes her to death in a fit of rage, Nurse Ratched has him lobotomized. However, the damage has already been done, and Nurse Ratched's rule is broken after McMurphy's attack leaves her nearly unable to speak, which renders her unable to intimidate her patients, subordinates and superiors.
The "Black Boys" Washington, Williams and Warren: Three black men who work as aides in the ward. Williams is a dwarf, his growth stunted after witnessing his mother being raped by white men. The Chief says Nurse Ratched hired them for their sadistic nature.
Dr. John Spivey: The ward doctor. Nurse Ratched drove off other doctors, but she kept Spivey because he always did as he was told. Harding suggests that the nurse could threaten to expose him as a drug addict if he stood up to her. McMurphy's rebellion inspires him to stand up to Nurse Ratched.
Nurse Pilbow: The young night nurse. Her face, neck and chest are stained with a profound birthmark. She is a devout Catholic and has fear of sinning. She blames the patients for infecting her with their evil and takes it out on them.
Mr. Turkle: An elderly African American aide who works the late shift in the ward. He agrees to allow McMurphy to host a party and sneak in prostitutes one night.
The Japanese Nurse: The nurse in charge of the upstairs disturbed ward, for violent and unmanageable patients. She is kindly and openly opposed to Nurse Ratched's methods.
Acutes[edit]
The acutes are patients who officials believe can still be cured. With few exceptions, they are there voluntarily.
Billy Bibbit: A nervous, shy and boyish patient with an extreme speech impediment, Billy cuts himself and has attempted suicide numerous times. Billy has a fear of women, especially those with authority such as his mother. To alleviate this, McMurphy sneaks a prostitute into the ward so Billy can lose his virginity. The next morning, Nurse Ratched threatens to tell his mother; fearing the loss of his mother's love, Billy has an emotional breakdown and commits suicide by cutting his own throat.
Dale Harding: The unofficial leader of the patients before McMurphy arrives, he is an intelligent, good-looking man who's ashamed of his repressed homosexuality. Harding's beautiful yet malcontent wife is a source of shame for him.
George Sorensen: A man with germaphobia, he spends his days repeatedly washing his hands in the ward's drinking fountain. McMurphy manages to persuade him to lead a fishing expedition for the patients after discovering that he had captained a PT boat during World War II. Afterward, the staff forcibly delouse him, knowing the mental anguish this causes him.
Charlie Cheswick: A loud-mouthed patient who always demands changes in the ward, but never has the courage to see anything through. He finds a friend in McMurphy, who's able to voice his opinions for him. After McMurphy loses his confidence when he learns that his stay in the ward is indefinite, Cheswick drowns himself in the swimming pool.
Martini: A patient who suffers from severe hallucinations.
Scanlon: A patient obsessed with explosives and destruction. He is the only other non-vegetative patient confined to the ward by force aside from McMurphy and Bromden; the rest can leave at any time.
Jim Sefelt and Bruce Fredrickson: Two epileptic patients. Sefelt refuses to take his anti-seizure medication, as it makes his teeth fall out. Fredrickson takes Sefelt's medication and his own because he is terrified of the seizures, and loses teeth due to the resulting overdosage.
Max Taber: An unruly patient who was released before McMurphy arrived. The Chief later describes how, after he questioned what was in his medication, Nurse Ratched had him "fixed."
Chronics[edit]
The chronics are patients who will never be cured. Many of the chronics are in vegetative states.
Ruckly: A hell-raising patient who challenges the rules until his lobotomy. After the lobotomy, he sits and stares at a picture of his wife, and occasionally screams profanities.
Ellis: Ellis was put in a vegetative state by electroshock therapy. He stands against the wall in a disturbing messianic position with arms outstretched.
Pete Bancini: Bancini suffered brain damage at birth but managed to hold down simple jobs, such as a switch operator on a lightly-used railroad branch line, until the switches were automated and he lost his job, after which he was institutionalized. The Chief remembers how once, and only once, he lashed out violently against the aides, telling the other patients that he was a living miscarriage, born dead.
Rawler: A patient on the Disturbed ward, above the main ward, who says nothing but "loo, loo, loo!" all day and tries to run up the walls. One night, Rawler castrates himself while sitting on the toilet and bleeds to death before anyone realizes what he has done.
Old Blastic: An old patient who is in a vegetative state. The first night McMurphy is in the ward, Bromden dreams Blastic is hung by his heel and sliced open, spilling his rusty visceral matter. The next morning it is revealed that Blastic died during the night.
The Lifeguard: An ex-professional football player, he still has the cleat marks on his forehead from the injury that scrambled his brains. He explains to McMurphy that, unlike prison, patients are kept in the hospital as long as the staff desires.
Colonel Matterson: The oldest patient in the ward, he suffers from severe senile dementia and cannot move without a wheelchair. He is a veteran of the First World War, and spends his days "explaining" objects through metaphor.
Other characters[edit]
Candy: The prostitute that McMurphy brings on the fishing trip. Billy Bibbit has a crush on her and McMurphy convinces Candy to sleep with him.
Sandy: Another prostitute and friend of McMurphy. She and Sefelt sleep together. Sefelt has a seizure while they are having sex.
Vera Harding: Dale Harding's wife.
Controversy[edit]
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is one of America's most highly challenged and banned novels.
1974: Five residents of Strongsville, Ohio sued the local Board of Education to remove the novel from classrooms. They deemed the book "pornographic" and said that it "glorifies criminal activity, has a tendency to corrupt juveniles, and contains descriptions of bestiality, bizarre violence, and torture, dismemberment, death, and human elimination".
1975: The book was removed from public schools in Randolph, New York and Alton, Oklahoma.
1977: Removed from the required reading list in Westport, Maine.
1978: Banned from the St. Anthony, Idaho Freemont High School and the teacher who assigned the novel was fired.
1982: Challenged at Merrimack, New Hampshire High School.
1986: Challenged at Aberdeen Washington High school in Honors English classes.
2000: Challenged at Placentia Unified School District (Yorba Linda, California). Parents say that the teachers could "choose the best books, but they keep choosing this garbage over and over again".[14]
Adaptations[edit]
The novel was adapted into a 1963 play, starring Kirk Douglas (who purchased the rights to produce it for the stage and motion pictures) as McMurphy and Gene Wilder as Billy Bibbit. A film adaptation, starring Jack Nicholson, and co-produced by Michael Douglas was released in 1975. The film went on to win five Academy Awards. The characters of Nurse Ratched and Chief Bromden appear as recurring characters in ABC's Once Upon a Time, where they are portrayed by Ingrid Torrance and Peter Marcin. A prequel series titled Ratched which follows Sarah Paulson playing a younger version of Nurse Ratched is being produced by Netflix and Ryan Murphy with a two-season, 18-episode order.[15]
Editions[edit]
ISBN 0-606-04239-3 (prebound, 1962)
ISBN 0-451-16396-6 (mass market paperback, 1963)
ISBN 0-14-004312-8 (paperback, 1977, reprint)
ISBN 0-14-023601-5 (hardcover, 1996)
ISBN 1-55651-685-1 (paperback, 1988)
ISBN 0-453-00815-1 (audio cassette, 1993, abridged)
ISBN 0-14-028334-X (paperback, 1999)
ISBN 0-8220-7154-1 (e-book, 1999)
ISBN 0-7645-8662-9 (paperback, 2000)
ISBN 0-7910-6339-9 (library binding, 2001)
ISBN 0-14-118122-2 (paperback, 2002)
ISBN 0-7910-7118-9 (paperback)
ISBN 0-330-23564-8 (paperback)
ISBN 0-14-118788-3 (paperback, 2005)
ISBN 0-14-303690-4 (hardcover, 2005)
ISBN 0-329-06383-9 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0-451-16396-7 (softcover)
ISBN 978-1-59887-052-7 (audio CD, 2006, abridged/read by Kesey; includes Fresh Air with Terry Gross interview with author)
ISBN 978-0-670-02323-3 (hardcover, 2012)
ISBN 978-0-143-12951-6 (softcover, 2016)
Photos of the first edition One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
See also[edit]
Novels portal
United States portal
1960s portal
Rosenhan experiment
Sluggish schizophrenia
Political abuse of psychiatry
Anti-Psychiatry
References[edit]
Jump up ^ "The Covers of Paul Bacon". tumblr.com. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
Jump up ^ "Time 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005". Time. October 16, 2005.
Jump up ^ "BBC – The Big Read". BBC. April 2003, Retrieved August 23, 2017
Jump up ^ "America's Civil Rights Timeline". International Civil Rights Center & Museum. 2015. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
Jump up ^ Stroman, Duane (2003). The Disability Rights Movement: From Deinstitutionalization to Self-determination. University Press of America.
Jump up ^ Scherl, D.J.; Macht, L.B. (September 1979). "Deinstitutionalization in the absence of consensus". Hospital Community Psychiatry. 30 (9): 599–604. PMID 223959. doi:10.1176/ps.30.9.599.
Jump up ^ Mitchell & Snyder, p. 174
Jump up ^ Huffman, Bennett (May 17, 2002). "Ken Kesey (1935–2001)". The Literary Encyclopedia. Retrieved March 10, 2009.
Jump up ^ "Ken Kesey Biography". Oregon History Project. 2015. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
^ Jump up to: a b Masters, R.E.L. & Jean Houston, (1966) The Varieties of Psychedelic Experience, America Press Inc., 115(4). 110.
Jump up ^ The LSD Pother (1966), America Press Inc., 115(14). 377
^ Jump up to: a b c "Life in a Loony Bin". Time. February 16, 1962. Retrieved March 10, 2009.
^ Jump up to: a b c Gray, Richard (September 23, 2011). A History of American Literature. John Wiley & Sons. p. 574. ISBN 978-1-4443-4568-1. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
Jump up ^ "Banned & Challenged Classics". American Library Association. 2015. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
Jump up ^ Goldberg, Lesley (September 6, 2017). "'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' Prequel From Ryan Murphy Scores Two-Season Order at Netflix". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved September 6, 2017.
Further reading[edit]
L. Horst, Bitches, Twitches, and Eunuchs: Sex Role Failure and Caricature in Pratt, J, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: Text and Criticism, Penguin Books (1996).
M.G. Porter, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Rising to Heroism, Boston: Twayne Publishers (1989).
E. Safer, The Contemporary American Comic Epic: The Novels of Barth, Pynchon, Gaddis, and Kesey, Detroit: Wayne State University Press (1988).
Nellie Bly: Ten Days in a Mad-House (1887)
[show]
v
t
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Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Novel
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Adaptations
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1963 play)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975 film)
Thalavattam (1986 film)
Manasukkul Mathappu (1988 film)
Kyon Ki (2005 film)
Characters
Randle McMurphy
Nurse Ratched
See also
Institutionalisation
[show]
v
t
e
Ken Kesey
Novels
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962)
Sometimes a Great Notion (1964)
Caverns (1989)
Little Tricker the Squirrel Meets Big Double the Bear (1990)
Sailor Song (1992)
Last Go Round with Ken Babbs (1994)
Collections
Kesey's Garage Sale (1973)
Demon Box (1986)
Kesey's Jail Journal (2003)
Plays
Over the Border (1973)
The Furthur Enquiry (1990)
Twister (1999)
Adaptations
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1963 play)
Sometimes a Great Notion (1971 film)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975 film)
Related
Merry Pranksters
Further bus
Acid Tests
Neal Cassady
Carolyn Garcia
Lee Quarnstrom
Ken Babbs
Paul Foster
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
Magic Trip
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This article is about the temperature scale. For the idealized thermodynamic cycle for a steam engine, see Rankine cycle. For the scale measuring recovery after stroke, see modified Rankin scale.
"°R" redirects here. For other temperature scales and sometimes indicated using this notation, see Réaumur scale and Rømer scale.
Rankine temperature conversion formulae
from Rankine
to Rankine
Celsius
[°C] = ([°R] − 491.67) × 5⁄9 [°R] = ([°C] + 273.15) × 9⁄5
Fahrenheit
[°F] = [°R] − 459.67 [°R] = [°F] + 459.67
Kelvin
[K] = [°R] × 5⁄9 [°R] = [K] × 9⁄5
For temperature intervals rather than specific temperatures,
1 °R = 1 °F = 5⁄9 °C = 5⁄9 K
Comparisons among various temperature scales
The Rankine scale (/ˈræŋkɪn/) is an absolute scale of thermodynamic temperature named after the Glasgow University engineer and physicist William John Macquorn Rankine, who proposed it in 1859. (The Kelvin scale was first proposed in 1848.)[1] It may be used in engineering systems where heat computations are done using degrees Fahrenheit.
The symbol for degrees Rankine is °R[2] (or °Ra if necessary to distinguish it from the Rømer and Réaumur scales). By analogy with kelvin, some authors term the unit rankine, omitting the degree symbol.[3][4] Zero on both the Kelvin and Rankine scales is absolute zero, but a temperature difference of one Rankine degree is defined as equal to one Fahrenheit degree, rather than the Celsius degree used on the Kelvin scale. Thus, a temperature of 0 K (−273.15 °C; −459.67 °F) is equal to 0 °R, and a temperature of−458.67 °F equal to 1 °R.
The US National Institute of Standards and Technology recommends against using the degree symbol when citing Rankine in NIST publications.[2]
Some important temperatures relating the Rankine scale to other temperature scales are shown in the table below.
Kelvin
Celsius
Fahrenheit
Rankine
Absolute zero
(by definition)
0 K −273.15 °C −459.67 °F 0 °R
Freezing point of brine
(zero point of Fahrenheit scale, old definition)
255.37 K −17.78 °C 0 °F 459.67 °R
Freezing point of water[5]
273.15 K 0 °C 32 °F 491.67 °R
Triple point of water
(by definition)
273.16 K 0.01 °C 32.018 °F 491.688 °R
Boiling point of water[6]
373.1339 K 99.9839 °C 211.97102 °F 671.64102 °R
Contents
[hide]
1 Conversion table between the temperature units
2 See also
3 Notes and references
4 External links
Conversion table between the temperature units[edit]

See also[edit]
Comparison of temperature scales
Notes and references[edit]
Jump up ^ http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rankine
^ Jump up to: a b B.8 Factors for Units Listed Alphabetically from Guide for the Use of the International System of Units (SI), NIST Special Publication 811, 2008 edition, Ambler Thompson and Barry N. Taylor
Jump up ^ Pauken, Michael (2011). Thermodynamics For Dummies. Indianapolis: Wiley Publishing Inc. p. 20. ISBN 978-1-118-00291-9.
Jump up ^ Balmer, Robert (2011). Modern Engineering Thermodynamics. Oxford: Elsevier Inc. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-12-374996-3.
Jump up ^ The ice point of purified water has been measured to be 0.000089(10) degrees Celsius – see Magnum, B.W. (June 1995). "Reproducibility of the Temperature of the Ice Point in Routine Measurements" (PDF). Nist Technical Note. 1411. Retrieved 2007-02-11.
Jump up ^ For Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water at one standard atmosphere (101.325 kPa) when calibrated solely per the two-point definition of thermodynamic temperature. Older definitions of the Celsius scale once defined the boiling point of water under one standard atmosphere as being precisely 100 °C. However, the current definition results in a boiling point that is actually 16.1 mK less. For more about the actual boiling point of water, see VSMOW in temperature measurement.
External links[edit]
Look up degree Rankine in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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Oak Island mystery
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Money pit on Oak Island
The Oak Island mystery refers to stories of buried treasure and unexplained objects on Oak Island in Nova Scotia. Since the 19th century, a number of attempts have been made to locate treasure and artifacts. In addition to treasure, theories about artifacts present on the island include Marie Antoinette's jewels, Shakespearean manuscripts and religious artifacts.
To date, no significant treasure has been found.[1]
Contents
1 Money-pit history
1.1 Early accounts
1.2 Onslow and Truro Companies (Early 1800s, 1849)
1.3 Oak Island Association (1861–1864)
1.4 1896–1898
1.5 Old Gold Salvage group (1909)
1.6 William Chappell and Gilbert Hedden (1928–1939)
1.7 Restall family and Robert Dunfield (1959–1966)
1.8 Triton Alliance (1967–1990s)
1.9 Oak Island Tours (2005–present)
2 Water in the pit
3 Stone with alleged markings
4 Notable investors and explorers
5 Theories
5.1 Natural sinkhole
5.2 Treasure trove
5.3 Artifacts
5.3.1 Marie Antoinette's jewels
5.3.2 Bacon-Shakespeare authorship
5.3.3 Masonic and other artifacts
5.4 Other theories
6 References
7 External links
7.1 News reports
7.2 Skepticism
Money-pit history[edit]
Early accounts[edit]
No direct evidence exists for any treasure-related activity on Oak Island prior to the first published account in 1856, which included stories of treasure hunts going back to the late 1700s.[2] The original lot owners' names were mapped for the Nova Scotia Crown Lands office by William Nelson and David W. Crandall on July 6, 1818.[3] According to the most widely-held story, a man named Daniel McGinnis (the island's first settler) discovered a depression in the ground around 1799 while he was looking for a location for a farm.[4] Early settlers told a story of a dying sailor from the crew of Captain Kidd (who had died in 1701). The sailor said that treasure worth £2 million had been buried on the island.[5] Gordan Chase also attempted to find treasure; he was wounded by another treasure hunter, Micheal J Whynot, in 1801. His attempts ended shortly after the attack.[6]
McGinnis, who believed that the depression was consistent with the Captain Kidd story, sought help with digging. With the assistance of two men identified only as Smith and Vaughn, he excavated the depression and discovered a layer of flagstones two feet below.[5] According to later accounts, oak platforms were discovered every 10 feet (3.0 m);[7] however, the earliest accounts simply mention "marks" of some type at these intervals.[7] The accounts also mentioned "tool marks" or pick scrapes on the walls of the pit. The dirt was noticeably loose, not as hard-packed as the surrounding soil.[7] The three men reportedly abandoned the excavation at 30 feet (9.1 m) due to "superstitious dread".[8]
The McGinnis excavation first appears in print in the Liverpool Transcript in October 1856. The first published account, which mentioned a group digging for Captain Kidd's treasure on Oak Island, was published the following year.[5] A more complete account, by a justice of the peace in Chester, Nova Scotia,[5] followed in the Liverpool Transcript,[9] the Novascotian,[10] British Colonist,[11] and A History Of Lunenburg County[3] (the latter based on the Liverpool Transcript articles). Investigator Joe Nickell reviewed the original accounts and interviews with descendants of McGinnis and the original Oak Island landowners.[2] While later sources said that the treasure had been discovered by three young boys, Nickell reported that the story was about three adult lot owners who discovered the depression on the island and began digging.[2]
Onslow and Truro Companies (Early 1800s, 1849)[edit]
About eight years after the McGinnis dig (c. 1807), a group known as the Onslow Company sailed from central Nova Scotia to Oak Island to recover what they believed to be hidden treasure. They continued the excavation down to about 90 feet (27 m), with layers of logs (or "marks") found about every ten feet (3.0 m), and also discovered layers of charcoal, putty and coconut fibre.[12] According to an 1862 account, at 80–90 feet (24–27 m) they recovered a large stone inscribed with symbols.[8] The excavation was abandoned when the pit flooded to the 33-foot (10 m) level, and bailing was ineffective.
Several unnamed researchers reportedly attempted to decipher the symbols on the stone, and one claimed that the cipher translated as "Forty feet below, two million pounds lie buried." The symbols associated with the "Forty feet below" translation first appeared in 1949's True Tales of Buried Treasure by explorer and historian Edward Rowe Snow. In his book, Snow said that he received the set of symbols from Rev. A. T. Kempton of Cambridge, Massachusetts, but no information was provided as to how or where Kempton obtained them.[13] A letter from Kempton dated April 1949 is printed in History, Hoax, and Hype - The Oak Island Legend, in which he states that he had obtained his information from "a school teacher long since dead".
The Truro Company was formed in 1849 by investors who re-excavated the shaft back down to the 86-foot (26 m) level; the pit flooded again, and it was decided to drill into the ground beneath the bottom of the shaft. According to a nineteenth-century account, the drill (pod auger) passed through a spruce platform at 98 feet (30 m). After this platform, the drill hit layers of oak, something described as "metal in pieces", another spruce layer, and clay for 7 feet (2.1 m).[8]
Oak Island Association (1861–1864)[edit]
The next excavation attempt was carried out in 1861 by a new company, the Oak Island Association. Instead of digging deeper into the now-flooded, original shaft, they drilled a side shaft to avoid the water. During the excavation of the new shaft, the bottom of the original shaft collapsed. It was later speculated that the treasure had fallen into a deep void and the pit may have been booby-trapped to protect it. The new shaft eventually flooded as well, after workers reportedly hit a booby-trapped flood tunnel. During further excavation, a man was killed when the boiler of a pump engine burst. This was the first of six accidental deaths during excavations.[14] The company abandoned their efforts when their money ran out in 1864.[15]
1896–1898[edit]
In 1896, an unknown group arrived on the island with steam pumps and boring equipment. Although the pumps were unable to keep water out of the flooded side shaft, boring samples were taken. It was claimed that one of the samples brought a tiny piece of sheepskin parchment to the surface. The parchment had two letters, "vi" or "wi", written in India ink.[16] The group attempted to block any possible booby traps with large underground dynamite blasts.[citation needed]
On March 26, 1897, a worker, Maynard Kaiser, fell to his death.[14] In 1898, excavators poured red paint into the flooded pit, which reportedly revealed three exit holes around the island.[17]
Old Gold Salvage group (1909)[edit]
Captain Henry L. Bowdoin arrived on Oak Island in August 1909 representing the Old Gold Salvage Group, one of whose members was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The "money pit" was cleared out to 113 feet (34 m), and divers were sent down to investigate.[16] Although multiple borings were taken in and around the pit, none of the cores revealed anything of interest.[16]
Bowdoin also examined Smith's Cove, where drain tunnels and a ring bolt in a rock had reportedly been seen. Although the group found the remains of an 1850 cofferdam, no evidence of anything else was found.[16] Bowdoin later examined the "stone cipher" in Halifax, and found it a basalt rock with no symbols. He was doubtful that symbols could have worn off the rock, given its hardness. The group left the island in November 1909, but Roosevelt kept up with Oak Island news and developments for most of the rest of his life.[16]
William Chappell and Gilbert Hedden (1928–1939)[edit]
August 1931 aerial photo of digs and buildings
In 1928, a New York newspaper published a feature story about Oak Island. William Chappell became interested and excavated the pit in 1931 by sinking a 12-by-14-foot (3.7 m × 4.3 m) 163-foot (50 m) shaft southwest of what he believed was the site of the 1897 shaft (which was thought, without evidence, to be near the original pit). At 127 feet (39 m), a number of artifacts, including an axe, a fluke anchor and a pick, were found. The pick was identified as a Cornish miner's pick, but by this time the area around the pit was littered with debris from previous excavation attempts and finding the owner was impossible.
Gilbert Hedden, an operator of a steel fabricating company, saw the 1928 article and was fascinated by the engineering problems involved in recovering the reported treasure. Hedden made six trips to Oak Island and collected books and articles about the island. He went to England to consult Harold T. Wilkins, author of Captain Kidd and His Skeleton Island, about a link he found between Oak Island and a map in Wilkins' book.[18] After Chappell's excavations, Hedden began digging in the summer of 1935, after he purchased the southeastern end of the island. In 1939, he informed King George VI about developments on the island.[19] Further excavations were made in 1935 and 1936, none of which were successful.[20]
Restall family and Robert Dunfield (1959–1966)[edit]
Robert Restall, partner Karle Graeser and his 18-year-old son came to Oak Island in 1959 after signing a contract with one of the property owners. In 1965, they tried to seal what was thought to be a storm drain in Smith's Cove and dug a shaft down to 27 feet (8.2 m). On August 17, Restall was overcome by hydrogen sulfide fumes. His son then went down the shaft, and also lost consciousness. Graeser and two other workers, Cyril Hiltz and Andy DeMont, then attempted to save the two men. A visitor to the site, Edward White had himself lowered on a rope into the shaft but was able to bring out only DeMont. Restall, his son, Graeser and Hiltz all died.
That year, Robert Dunfield leased portions of the island. Dunfield dug the pit area to a depth of 134 feet (41 m) and a width of 100 feet (30 m) by using a 70-ton digging crane with a clam bucket. Transportation of the crane to the island required the construction of a causeway (which still exists) from the western end of the island to Crandall's Point on the mainland, two hundred metres away.[14] Dunfield's lease ended in August 1966.
Triton Alliance (1967–1990s)[edit]
In January 1967, Daniel C. Blankenship, David Tobias, Robert Dunfield, and Fred Nolan formed a syndicate for exploration on Oak Island. Two years later, Blankenship and Tobias formed Triton Alliance after purchasing most of the island. Several former landowners, including Mel Chappell, became shareholders in Triton. Triton workers excavated a 235 feet (72 m) shaft, known as Borehole 10-X and supported by a steel caisson to bedrock, in 1971.
According to Blankenship and Tobias, cameras lowered down the shaft into a cave recorded possible chests, human remains, wooden cribbing and tools; however, the images were unclear and none of the claims have been independently confirmed. The shaft later collapsed, and the excavation was again abandoned. The shaft was later re-dug to 181 feet (55 m), reaching bedrock, but work was halted due to lack of funds and the collapse of the partnership.[21] Divers sent to the bottom of Borehole 10-X in 2016 found no artifacts.
An account of an excavation of the pit was published in the January 1965 issue of Reader's Digest.[22] The island was the subject of an episode of In Search of... which was first broadcast on January 18, 1979.
In 1983, Triton Alliance sued Frederick Nolan over the ownership of seven lots on the island and its causeway access. Two years later, Nolan's ownership of the lots was confirmed but he was ordered to pay damages for interfering with Triton's tourist business. On appeal, Triton lost again in 1989 and Nolan's damages were reduced.
During the 1990s, further exploration stalled because of legal battles between the Triton partners and a lack of financing. In 2005, a portion of the island was for sale for US$7 million.[citation needed] Although the Oak Island Tourism Society had hoped that the government of Canada would purchase the island, a group of American drillers did so instead.[23]
Oak Island Tours (2005–present)[edit]
See also: The Curse of Oak Island
It was announced in April 2006 that brothers Rick and Marty Lagina of Michigan had purchased 50 percent of Oak Island Tours from David Tobias for an undisclosed sum. The rest of the company is owned by Blankenship. Center Road Developments, in conjunction with Allan Kostrzewa and Brian Urbach (members of the Michigan group), had purchased Lot 25 from David Tobias for a reported $230,000 one year before Tobias sold the rest of his share. The Michigan group, working with Blankenship, said that it would resume operations on Oak Island in the hope of discovering buried treasure and solving the island's mystery.
In July 2010, Blankenship and the other stakeholders in Oak Island Tours announced on their website that the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources and Department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage had granted them a treasure-trove license which allowed them to resume activities until December 31, 2010.[24] After December 2010, the departments repealed the treasure-trove license and replaced it with an Oak Island Treasure Act.[25] The act, which became effective on January 1, 2011, allows treasure hunting to continue on the island under the terms of a license issued by the Minister of Natural Resources.[26] Exploration by the Lagina brothers has been documented in a reality television show airing on the History channel starting in 2014.
Water in the pit[edit]
According to an account written in 1862, after the Onslow Company had excavated to 80–90 feet (24–27 metres) the pit flooded with seawater up to the 33-foot (10 m) level; attempts to remove the water were unsuccessful. Explorers have made claims about an elaborate drainage system extending from the ocean beaches to the pit.
Later treasure hunters claimed that coconut fibres were discovered beneath the surface of a beach, Smith's Cove, in 1851. This led to the theory that the beach had been converted into a siphon, feeding seawater into the pit through a man-made tunnel. A sample of this material was reportedly sent to the Smithsonian Institution during the early 20th century, where it was concluded that the material was coconut fibre.[27]
Although one expedition claimed to have found a flood tunnel lined with flat stones at 90 feet (27 m),[7] geologist Robert Dunfield wrote that he carefully examined the walls of the re-excavated pit and was unable to locate any evidence of a tunnel.[7]
At the invitation of Boston-area businessman David Mugar, a two-week survey was conducted by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 1995 (the only known scientific study conducted on the site). After running dye tests in the bore hole, the institution concluded that the flooding was caused by a natural interaction between the island's freshwater lens and tidal pressures in the underlying geology (refuting the man-made tunnel theory). The Woods Hole scientists who viewed the 1971 videos reported that nothing conclusive could be determined from the murky images.[28] The reported five finger (or box) drains at Smith's Cove have recently been thought to be the remains of an early salt works, with no connection between the drains and any flooding of the pit.[29]
Oak Island lies on a glacial tumulus system and is underlain by a series of water-filled anhydrite cavities, which may be responsible for the repeated flooding of the pit. This type of limestone easily dissolves when exposed to water, forming caves and natural voids. Bedrock lies at a depth of 38 to 45 metres (125 to 148 feet) in the pit area.
Stone with alleged markings[edit]
A stone found 90 feet below the surface was said to have been inscribed with "mysterious markings." It was first reported in a July 2, 1862, Halifax Sun and Advisor article, which mentioned a June 2, 1862, letter by J. B. McCully which retold the story of the stone.[8][30] Offering a secondhand description of its discovery during the 1805 excavation, McCully wrote: "Some [layers] were charcoal, some putty, and one at 80 feet was a stone cut square, two feet long and about a foot thick, with several characters cut on it." No 19th-century account attests to what the actual symbols were. The earliest documentation of the reported symbols is Edward Rowe Snow's 1949 book, True Tales of Buried Treasure. According to Snow, A. T. Kempton of Cambridge, Massachusetts provided him with the symbols but did not disclose where or how he had obtained them.
In an 1863 newspaper article, the stone was said to have been built into the "chimney of an old house near the pit".[4] Another article, a year later, claimed that the stone was held by the Smith family. On January 2, 1864, Historical Society of Nova Scotia secretary John Hunter-Duvar contacted treasure hunter George Cooke. In a January 27, 1864, letter to Hunter-Duvar, Cooke claimed that Smith built the stone into his chimney in 1824 and said that he was shown the stone by Smith in the chimney around 1850, when "there were some crudely cut letters, figures or characters upon it. I cannot recollect which, but they appear as if they had been scraped out by a blunt instrument, rather than cut with a sharp one." According to Cooke, when he made inquiries in 1864, he discovered that the chimney had been enclosed in wood and surrounded by a staircase; the stone was no longer visible.[31] An undated post-1893 letter by William Blair read, "Jefferson W. McDonald, who first mentioned Oak Island to me in 1893, worked under George Mitchell. Mr. McDonald, who was a carpenter by trade, also told of taking down a partition in Smith's house, in order that he with others might examine the characters cut on the stone used in the fireplace in the house. The characters were there all right, but no person present could decipher them."[32] Mitchell was the superintendent of works for the Oak Island Association, which was formed on April 3, 1861, and ceased operation by March 29, 1865.[3]
In his 1872 novel, The Treasure of the Seas,[33] James DeMille describes being a summer resident of Chester Basin during the later 1860s. DeMille lived on Oak Island for a summer and had firsthand knowledge of the area. The characters in the novel find that the stone had been removed from the chimney when they arrived on the island;[34] until then, no one had been able to decode the mysterious symbols reportedly on the stone, which an inn landlord describes as 'rather faint, and irregular' — he also says that 'men who don't believe in Kidd's treasure ... say that it isn't an inscription at all ... it's only some accidental scratches'.[35][36] Reginald Vanderbilt Harris (1881–1986) wrote in his 1958 book, The Oak Island Mystery,[37] "About 1865–1866 the stone was removed and taken to Halifax. Among those who worked to remove the stone was Jefferson W. MacDonald." The Blair letter mentioned above states that MacDonald took down the partition in order to examine the stone, not to remove it. Harris provides no source for the claim that the stone was removed in 1865 or 1866. The next mention of the stone is in an 1893 Oak Island Treasure Company prospectus. According to the prospectus, the stone was taken out of the chimney and moved to Halifax; there, an unnamed expert was said to have deciphered the stone as reading: "Ten feet below are two million pounds buried."[38]
On August 19, 1911, Collier's magazine published a firsthand account by Captain H. L. Bowdoin of the stone (which was then in use at Creighton's bookbindery in Halifax). Bowdoin described the rock as "of a basalt type hard and fine-grained." The stone he saw had no symbols on it. Although Bowdoin was told that they had worn off, he was skeptical because of the stone's hardness.[16] According to Charles B. Driscoll's 1929 book, The Oak Island Treasure (based on secondhand accounts),
The stone was shown to everyone who visited the Island in those days. Smith built this stone into his fireplace, with the strange characters outermost, so that visitors might see and admire it. Many years after his death, the stone was removed from the fireplace and taken to Halifax, where the local savants were unable to translate the inscription. It was then taken to the home of J.B. McCulley in Truro, where it was exhibited to hundreds of friends of the McCulleys who became interested in a later treasure company. Somehow the stone fell into the hands of a bookbinder, which used it as a base upon which to beat leather for many years. A generation later, with the inscription nearly worn away, the stone found its way to a bookstore in Halifax, and what happened to it after that I was unable to learn. But there are plenty of people living who have seen the stone. Nobody, however, ever seriously pretended to translate the inscription."[39]
The stone was reportedly brought by A. O. Creighton (of the 1866 expedition) from the Smith home to Creighton's bookbindery in Halifax. Harry W. Marshall (born 1879), the son of an owner of the bookbindery, wrote in 1935 that: -
He well remembered seeing the stone as a boy.
"While in Creighton’s possession some lad had cut his initials ‘J.M.” on one corner, but apart from this there was no evidence of any inscription either cut or painted on the stone."
Creighton used the stone for a beating stone and weight.
When the business was closed in 1919, ... the stone was left behind.[40]
Notable investors and explorers[edit]
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, stirred by family stories originating from his sailing and trading grandfather (and Oak Island financier) Warren Delano, Jr., began following the mystery in late 1909 and early 1910. Roosevelt continued to follow it until his death in 1945.[41] Throughout his political career, he monitored the island's recovery attempts and development. Although the president secretly planned to visit Oak Island in 1939 while he was in Halifax, fog and the international situation prevented him from doing so.[42]
Australian-American actor Errol Flynn invested in an Oak Island treasure dig.[43] Actor John Wayne also invested in the drilling equipment used on the island and offered his equipment to be used to help solve the mystery.[44] William Vincent Astor, heir to the Astor family fortune after his father died on the Titanic, was a passive investor in digging for treasure on the island.[44]
Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, Jr. was also a passive investor in Oak Island exploration and treasure hunting, and monitored their status.[2] Byrd advised Franklin D. Roosevelt about the island;[45] the men forged a relationship, forming the United States Antarctic Service (USAS, a federal-government program) with Byrd nominally in command.[46]
Theories[edit]
Natural sinkhole[edit]
Wide-ranging speculation exists about how the pit was formed and what it might contain. According to Joe Nickell, there is no treasure; the pit is a natural phenomenon, probably a sinkhole connected to limestone passages or caverns.[2] Suggestions that the pit is a natural phenomenon (accumulated debris in a sinkhole or geological fault) date to at least 1911.[47][48][49][50] A number of sinkholes and underground caves, to which the "booby traps" are attributed, exist on the mainland near the island.
Its resemblance to a human-made pit has been suggested as partly due to the texture of natural, accumulated debris in sinkholes: "This filling would be softer than the surrounding ground, and give the impression that it had been dug up before".[50] The "platforms" of rotten logs have been attributed to trees, damaged by "blowdowns" (derechos) or wildfires, periodically falling (or washing into) the hollow.[51]
Another pit, similar to the early description of the "money pit", was discovered in the area in 1949 when workmen were digging a well on the shore of Mahone Bay. At a point where the earth was soft, "At about two feet down a layer of fieldstone was struck. Then logs of spruce and oak were unearthed at irregular intervals, and some of the wood was charred. The immediate suspicion was that another money pit had been found."[52]
Treasure trove[edit]
According to the earliest theory, the pit held a pirate treasure buried by Captain Kidd;[5][53] Kidd reportedly conspired with Henry Avery, and Oak Island was their community bank. Another pirate theory involved Edward Teach (Blackbeard), who said that he buried his treasure "where none but Satan and myself can find it."[citation needed]
An additional proposed explanation is that the pit was dug by Spanish sailors to hold treasure from a wrecked galleon or British troops stationed there during the American Revolution. Others claim that British marines dug the pit to store the loot acquired from the British invasion of Cuba, valued at about £1,000,000 pounds (about $180,000,000 in 2015). John Godwin wrote that given the apparent size and complexity of the pit, it was probably dug by French Army engineers hoping to hide the treasury of the Fortress of Louisbourg after it fell to the British during the Seven Years' War.[54]
Artifacts[edit]
Marie Antoinette's jewels[edit]
Marie Antoinette's jewels, missing except for specimens in museum collections, have been reportedly hidden on the island. On October 5, 1789, an angry mob of Parisian working women was incited by revolutionaries and marched on the Palace of Versailles. According to the undocumented story, Marie Antoinette instructed her maid (or a lady-in-waiting) to take the jewels and flee. The maid fled to London with the jewels and (perhaps) other treasures, such as artwork or documents, secreted on her person or in her luggage.[55][56][57] The woman then fled from London to Nova Scotia.[58] Using royal connections, she contracted with the French Navy to construct the Oak Island pit.
Bacon-Shakespeare authorship[edit]
In his 1953 book, The Oak Island Enigma: A History and Inquiry Into the Origin of the Money Pit, Penn Leary wrote that the pit was used to hide manuscripts indicating that Francis Bacon was the author of William Shakespeare's works and a leader of the Rosicrucians.[59] Leary's "The Second Cryptographic Shakespeare", published in 1990, identified ciphers in Shakespeare's plays and poems which pointed to Bacon's authorship.[60] Author and researcher Mark Finnan[61] elaborated on Leary's Oak Island theory, which was also used in the Norwegian book Organisten (The Seven Steps to Mercy) by Erlend Loe and Petter Amundsen and the TV series Sweet Swan of Avon.[62]
Masonic and other artifacts[edit]
In his book, Oak Island Secrets,[61] Mark Finnan noted that many Masonic markings were found on Oak Island, and the shaft (or pit) and its mysterious contents seemed to replicate aspects of a Masonic initiation rite involving a hidden vault with a sacred treasure. Joe Nickell identifies parallels between Oak Island accounts, the "Secret Vault" allegory in York Rite Freemasonry and the Chase Vault on Barbados.[2] Freemason Dennis King examines the Masonic aspects of the Oak Island legend in his article, "The Oak Island Legend: The Masonic Angle".[63] Steven Sora speculated that the pit could have been dug by exiled Knights Templar and might be the final resting place of the Holy Grail or the Ark of the Covenant.[64]
Another theory holds that the Rosicrucians and their reported leader, Francis Bacon, organized a secret project to make Oak Island the home of its legendary vault with ingenious means to conceal ancient manuscripts and artifacts. Researchers and cryptographers such as Petter Amundsen and Daniel Ronnstam claim to have found codes hidden in Shakespeare, rock formations on the island, and clues hidden in other 16th- and 17th-century art and historical documents. According to Daniel Ronnstam, the stone found at 90 feet (27 m) contains a dual cipher created by Bacon.[65][self-published source]
Other theories[edit]
Author Joy Steele suggests that the money pit is actually a tar kiln dating to the historical period when "Oak Island served as a tar-making location as part of the British naval stores industry".[66] When marine biologist Barry Fell attempted to have the symbols on the stone translated during the late 1970s, he said that the symbols resembled the Coptic alphabet and read: "To escape contagion of plague and winter hardships, he is to pray for an end or mitigation the Arif: The people will perish in misery if they forget the Lord, alas."[67] According to Fell's theory, Coptic migrants sailed from North Africa to Oak Island and constructed the pit.
References[edit]
Jump up ^ "to this day, the treasure still remains buried" http://www.oakislandtreasure.co.uk/
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Nickell, Joe (March 2000). "The Secrets of Oak Island". Skeptical Inquirer.
^ Jump up to: a b c DesBrisay, Mather Byles (1895). History of the county of Lunenburg (2 ed.). Toronto: William Briggs. p. 300.
^ Jump up to: a b Phy, Paul (February 19, 1863). "Oak Island – The Reasons for expecting there is Treasure there". Yarmouth Herald. column 4. p. 1. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e Forks, J.P. (August 20, 1857). "Correspondence". Liverpool Transcript. Liverpool, Nova Scotia: S. J. M. Allen. p. 2. Retrieved January 26, 2014. , referring to letter in previous edition - Forks, J.P. (August 13, 1857). "Correspondence". Liverpool Transcript. Liverpool, Nova Scotia: S. J. M. Allen. p. 2. Retrieved April 15, 2018. - these two letters give no details of the history of the diggings.
Jump up ^ Beamish, Murdoch. A history of Nova Scotia, or Acadie, (Halifax, N.S. : J. Barnes 1865)[ISBN missing]
^ Jump up to: a b c d e Crooker, William S. Oak Island Gold (Nimbus Publishing, 1993) ISBN 1-55109-049-X
^ Jump up to: a b c d McCully, J.B. "The Oak Island Diggings." Liverpool Transcript, October 1862 - printing letter dated 2 June 1862 another link - described by the newspaper as "about the best account we have ever seen of the "diggings" - mentions the finding of the inscribed stone, but not what happened to it subsequently
Jump up ^ "The Oak Island Folly". Liverpool Transcript. column 5. August 29, 1861. p. 2. Retrieved 10 April 2018. - gives no details of the history of the diggings.
Jump up ^ Patrick. "Response to the Oak Island Folly." (11-13/130) The Novascotian, September 30, 1861 - gives details of the Onslow and Truro companies - does not mention the inscribed stone.
Jump up ^ A Member. "A History of The Oak Island Enterprise." (14-22/130) British Colonist (in 3 chapters published on January 2 (Onslow Company), 7 (Truro Company), and 14, 1864) - the inscribed stone "was preserved in the family of Mr. Smith it may be seen by the curious at the present day"
Jump up ^ "Oak Island Treasure – the world's greatest treasure hunt". Retrieved May 26, 2014.
Jump up ^ Snow, Edward Rowe. True Tales of Buried Treasure, (Dodd and Mead, 1951) ASIN B000OI2EFC[ISBN missing]
^ Jump up to: a b c The History Channel, Decoding the Past: The Templar Code, video documentary, November 7, 2005, written by Marcy Marzuni
Jump up ^ McIntee, David (2016). Fortune and Glory: A Treasure Hunter's Handbook. p. 91.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Bowdoin, H. L. "Solving the Mystery of Oak Island" Colliers Magazine, August 19, 1911 p. 19
Jump up ^ Lamb, L. (2006). Oak Island Obsession: The Restall Story. p. 207.
Jump up ^ Doyle, Lynn C. "Nova Scotia's Treasure Island." MacLean's June 1, 1931
Jump up ^ Khatri, Vikas, World Famous Treasures Lost and Found, 2012
Jump up ^ D'Arcy O'Connor, The Big Dig: the $10 Million Search for Oak Island's Legendary Treasure, 1988
Jump up ^ Ellerd, Kerry. "Finding Buried Treasure: It's an Expensive Business." Montreal STAR February 6, 1971
Jump up ^ "Scanned copy of the original Reader's Digest article" (PDF). Oakislandtreasure.co.uk. Retrieved October 15, 2010.
Jump up ^ Whipps, Heather. "For Sale: Island with Mysterious Money Pit". Retrieved December 5, 2005.
Jump up ^ "Treasure Trove License granted!". Oak Island Treasure. Retrieved November 8, 2010.
Jump up ^ Medel, Brian (July 15, 2010). "Treasure hunter hopes new law clears path to gold" Province to replace old rules with Oak Island Act". Halifax Chronicle Herald. |access-date= requires |url= (help)
Jump up ^ "Oak Island Treasure Act". nslegislature.ca.
Jump up ^ French, Carey. "Treasure Island? Fabled Booty Eludes the Fortune Hunters." The Globe and Mail November 19, 1983
Jump up ^ Joltes, Richard (August 2002). "Appendix: Woods Hole Explores Oak Island". CriticalEnquiry.org. p. 1. Retrieved March 20, 2010.
Jump up ^ King, Dennis (February 2010). "A Solution To The Mystery Of The Oak Island Five Finger Drains". CriticalEnquiry.org. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
Jump up ^ "Canadian Newspapers on Microfilm – 2013 Catalog" (PDF). Common Wealth Imagining.
Jump up ^ Oak Island Compendium
Jump up ^ Early Oak Island Documents (71/130)
Jump up ^ DeMille, James. The Treasure of the Seas. Boston: Lea and Shepard. Same book at www.archive.org
Jump up ^ P128
Jump up ^ PP85-6
Jump up ^ PP 104-5
Jump up ^ Vanderbilt Harris, Reginald. "The Oak Island Mystery". Toronto Public Library. McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1967.
Jump up ^ Oak Island Treasure Company ([microform) : capital, sixty thousand dollars, shares only five dollars each, full paid and non-assessable - P5
Jump up ^ Driscoll, Charles B. (1929). The Oak Island Treasure. p. 685.
Jump up ^ "Statement of Harry W. Marshall".
Jump up ^ "Treasure Hunters in Nova Scotia". US National Archives.
Jump up ^ Roosevelt:, Franklin D. "White House Letter – August 24th, 1939". Heritage Auctions.
Jump up ^ "Oak Island Money Pit". Atlas Obscura.
^ Jump up to: a b Boren, Kerry Ross Boren & Lisa Lee (2000). Following the Ark of the Covenant : The Treasure of God. US: Bonneville Books. p. 199. ISBN 1555174930.
Jump up ^ "Richard E. Byrd". Virginia Historical Society.
Jump up ^ "Byrd Antarctic Expedition III". South Pole.
Jump up ^ This section follows Nickell, section "Man-made or Natural?".
Jump up ^ Bowdoin, H. L. 1911. Solving the mystery of Oak Island. Collier's Magazine, August 18. Cited and discussed in Harris 1958, 110–120; O'Connor 1988, 63–66.
Jump up ^ Faribault, E. Rudolph. 1911. Summary Report of Geological Survey Branch of the Department of Mines. Quoted in Furneaux 1972, 110.
^ Jump up to: a b Atlantic Advocate. 1965. Article in October issue, cited in Crooker 1978, 85–86.
Jump up ^ Preston, Douglas. 1988 Death Trap Defies Treasure Seekers for Two Centuries, published in the Smithsonian Magazine June 1988 53–56
Jump up ^ O'Connor (1988, 172–173)
Jump up ^ Howlett, A. "Mystery of Captain Kidd's Treasure." World Wide Magazine October 1958
Jump up ^ Godwin, John. This Baffling World. (Bantam, 1971)
Jump up ^ Bonnier Corporation (May 1939). Popular Science. Bonnier Corporation. pp. 234–35. ISSN 0161-7370.
Jump up ^ D'Arcy O'Connor (2004). The Secret Treasure of Oak Island: The Amazing True Story of a Centuries-Old Treasure Hunt. Globe Pequot Press. p. 140. ISBN 978-1-59228-279-1.
Jump up ^ Science Digest. Science Digest, Incorporated. 1951. p. 46. Roosevelt and his companions believed the pit might contain the crown jewels of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette...
Jump up ^ Arnold Gingrich (1954). Coronet. 36. D. A. Smart. p. 38. When Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette fled Paris during the French Revolution, the jewels were entrusted to a lady-in-waiting who succeeded in escaping. History shows that she did reach Louisberg, a few miles north of Oak Island on the Nova Scotia mainland...
Jump up ^ Leary, Thomas P. The Oak Island Enigma: A History and Inquiry Into the Origin of the Money Pit. (T. P. Leary, 1953)
Jump up ^ Leary, Penn (1991). "The Second Cryptographic Shakespeare". Westchester House Publishers. Retrieved November 3, 2014.
^ Jump up to: a b 'Oak Island Secrets'.(Formac Publishing 1995, 1997, 2002, 2009)
Jump up ^ Loe, Erlend, and Amundsen, Petter. Organisten (Cappelen, 2006 - English edition published on CreateSpace). Sweet Swan of Avon: EP1: https://vimeo.com/94648237, EP2: https://vimeo.com/94648236, EP3: https://vimeo.com/94648239, EP4: https://vimeo.com/94648238
Jump up ^ King, Dennis (May 12, 2010). "The Oak Island Legend: The Masonic Angle". CrititalEnquiry.org. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
Jump up ^ Sora, Steven. The Lost Treasure of the Knights Templar (Inner Traditions/Destiny, 1999). ISBN 0-89281-710-0
Jump up ^ Ronnstam, Daniel. "The Duel Cipher". The Oak Island Project.
Jump up ^ "Oak Island mystery: Its history is the real treasure". The Chronicle Herald. Retrieved December 30, 2015.
Jump up ^ Barry Fell, Saga America, pg. 172
External links[edit]
Look up money pit in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Extraordinary Story of a Hidden Treasure - Wellington Independent, Volume XXI, Issue 2492, 14 March 1867 - From the New York Herald
'The Toilers of the Isle' - first half of the previous - 'From a correspondent of the N.Y. Times' - The Daily British Colonist and Victoria Chronicle - 5 November 1866
'The Toilers of the Isle' - second half of the previous - 'From a correspondent of the N.Y. Times' - The Daily British Colonist and Victoria Chronicle - 6 November 1866
Oak Island Treasure Company Prospectus - 1893
Mysterious Treasures of Oak Island A documentary film
Oak Island Treasure A large photo gallery, growing historical document archive, latest dig news and forum
Oak Island Money Pit Detailed resource covering the money pit's history
The Mystery Pit of Oak Island containing diagrams of the money pit
The Oak Island Enigma A History and Inquiry Into The Origin of The Money Pit – Penn Leary 1953
"Mystery Island Baffles Treasure Hunters." Popular Science, May 1939, pp. 72–75
The Curse of Oak Island television show on the History channel (2014–present)
News reports[edit]
CBC Television "Dan Blankenship, treasure seeker"
CBC Television "The Oak Island money pit: how it works"
CBC Radio conversation "Nova Scotia's Oak Island mystery"
CBC Radio conversation "Engineer proposes freezing method to extract Oak Island treasure"
Ancient Aliens television show, featured in Episode 4
On Oak Island from the Straight Dope
Skepticism[edit]
"The Secrets of Oak Island", Joe Nickell, Skeptical Inquirer, March/April 2000.
History, Hoax, and Hype The Oak Island Legend, Richard Joltes, August 2006
Dunning, Brian (November 25, 2008). "Skeptoid #129: The Oak Island Money Pit". Skeptoid.
This article needs additional or more specific categories. Please help out by adding categories to it so that it can be listed with similar articles. (November 2017)
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