From longtime Rolling Stone contributing editor and journalist
Randall Sullivan, The Curse of Oak Island explores the curious history
of Oak Island and the generations of individuals who have tried and
failed to unlock its secrets.
In 1795, a teenager discovered a mysterious circular depression in the
ground on Oak Island, in Nova Scotia, Canada, and ignited rumors of
buried treasure. Early excavators uncovered a clay-lined shaft
containing layers of soil interspersed with wooden platforms, but when
they reached a depth of ninety feet, water poured into the shaft and
made further digging impossible.
Since then the mystery of Oak Island's "Money Pit" has enthralled
generations of treasure hunters, including a Boston insurance salesman
whose obsession ruined him; young Franklin Delano Roosevelt; and film
star Errol Flynn. Perplexing discoveries have ignited explorers'
imaginations: a flat stone inscribed in code; a flood tunnel draining
from a man-made beach; a torn scrap of parchment; stone markers forming
a huge cross. Swaths of the island were bulldozed looking for answers;
excavation attempts have claimed two lives. Theories abound as to what's
hidden on Oak Island―pirates' treasure, Marie Antoinette's lost jewels,
the Holy Grail, proof that Sir Francis Bacon was the true author of
Shakespeare's plays―yet to this day, the Money Pit remains an enigma.
The Curse of Oak Island is a fascinating account of the strange, rich
history of the island and the intrepid treasure hunters who have driven
themselves to financial ruin, psychotic breakdowns, and even death in
pursuit of answers. And as Michigan brothers Marty and Rick Lagina
become the latest to attempt to solve the mystery, as documented on the
History Channel's television show The Curse of Oak Island, Sullivan
takes readers along to follow their quest firsthand.
