Three young boys were exploring on Oak Island, Nova Scotia when they came across a medieval style block and tackle hung up in an old tree. The year was 1795, three hundred years after Sir Henry Saint Clair’s expedition to the area. The boys lived in a time when treasure hunting was a growing, national sport. The fad would continue for almost a hundred years and its enthusiasts would include young Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormons. Anyhoo, these boys — young men, really — began digging under the block and tackle. It is important to remember that Oak Island was about the center of the explorations Henry and his Templar Knights undertook. It was commonly known in Nova Scotia (New Scotland) that the Canadian Atlantic coast was the old St. Clair stomping ground and the possible hiding place for pirate treasure, too. The boys were, therefore, very excited to find, just under the topsoil, a man made layer of flagstones. They dug those up and, ten feet later, they hit a wooden platform.

They got reinforcements and kept digging. Another ten feet… another wooden platform. These were man made, not natural. There were nails and tongue and groove centers. At ninety feet, they found a stone with writing on it in a simple code. When broken, the code said there was treasure forty feet below its position. They kept digging and the mystery of Oak Island became stranger and stranger. It has cost six human lives and around 3 million dollars so far.

The community of diggers — for that’s what it was by now — ran into immediate trouble under the stone. The day after it was discovered, the diggers arrived to find the pit completely flooded. They had disturbed well hidden and elaborately designed booby traps that allowed seawater to pour in from hidden tunnels. Booby traps, elaborate drains, and angled tunnels defeated every attempt to get to the treasure. More inscribed stones were found along with a length of heavy gold chain but the strangest thing was the material used to plug the drains and set the traps: coconut husks. Where in the world had whatever ancient engineers who designed this trap found coconut husks… in Nova Scotia? Modern day science has run Carbon-14 dating tests on materials found buried at Oak Island and they indicate that the shafts were constructed between 1490 and 1660. The early end of those dates would fit St. Clair’s men and the communities they established. The later range would fit… well, that’s the question. Irish monks, the Norse, and some Basque fishermen all had visited this area by 1600 but none of them had any riches to hide, none of them had this kind of engineering skill, and none of them had access to coconuts. Those who came later — including the Acadians who would later become the Cajuns of Louisiana — also didn’t have riches or engineering know-how. The only explanation that makes sense is Henry St. Clair and his Templar (Rex Deus) men from Orkney, Gotland, Portugal, Spain, and Venice.

What did they bury? The standard guess is that Henry put the Templar treasure somewhere beneath Oak Island. I have my doubts about that. It seems to me that most of that treasure got to Switzerland but it can be fairly argued that a good chunk made it to Venice and Portugal. By the time of St. Clair’s expedition, there would still have been a considerable amount left, but still…He certainly had the engineering power to pull it off. Templars were great builders and artisans (remember Rosslyn Chapel and their scores of churches, forts, bridges, tunnels, and siege works). Several large stoneworks have been found in Nova Scotia and environs — stone walls, large stone enclosures, and a stone block with a carved Templar cross. No Native tribes (called First Nations in Canada) claim to have built them and they have never been officially studied by establishment sanctioned archaeologists.

The list of “what could be down there” is a long one and includes some very odd guesses such as the writings of Francis Bacon (proving that he wrote the plays, not Shakespeare) and Captain Kidd’s treasure. I won’t go through the list and show why I’m not buying it; it is just too obvious and too sad, really. Someone lived and built a sizable community in these regions, leaving stone walls, flagstone floors, inscribed stones, and long houses with stone walls and wooden roofs but… who?

Oak Island is still being worked today, but tunnels have collapsed (killing people on more than one occasion) and the pit has lost all structural integrity due to amateurs trying to outsmart it. Franklin Roosevelt even arrived here with money and engineers in 1909 only to slink away after losing his money and finding yet more tunnels. Some traps, after being sprung, revealed tunnels that went for miles away to the other end of the island. Some tunnels disappear far down and at such an angle that some believe they go all the way to the mainland or to nearby Birch Island. First Nation researchers are now looking at the inscribed stones and wondering if there isn’t a code there that has been missed by European linguists. The man who owns the island now is trying to sell it and the drilling rights for 7-10 million dollars. As of this writing, he has no takers (and he is astonished by that).

Whatever was hidden underneath Oak Island is still hidden. Some believe that the collapse of several tunnels means that the treasure (information, writings, whatever) has most likely slipped into the water table or out to sea. At this stage we have to admit that it is highly unlikely that we will ever know for sure who built this place or what it held, but one thing is beyond doubt: these were master engineers who went through a great deal of trouble to hide what they were hiding. They left behind materials non-native to this part of North America and their design has withstood the best science modern man can throw at it.

In this, it reminds me of Greek Fire. Greek Fire was a substance that could be catapulted onto the decks of ships, burning them until they sunk. Water didn’t put it out. It was malleable and could be formed to fit various delivery systems. Some records indicate that it was sticky and could be made to stick on the side of ships or siege engines. Once in place, there was no way to stop it. To this day, we cannot find the recipe for Greek Fire. We know it was real for it is mentioned by writers for centuries and their descriptions are thorough and consistent… but the recipe was tightly controlled by a few families. Now. more than a thousand years later, we cannot replicate it.

We have to get past the idea that ancient and medieval men were savages or ignorant. A great many of them were exceptional in every way. Should our electrical and internet grids go down, we would be plunged into a new savage age. They, on the other hand, would know how to prosper, build cities, and provide food for their communities…

…And have time left over to build a mind blowing puzzle on Oak Island.