On History’s “The Curse of Oak Island,” viewers follow a group of treasure hunters, led by brothers Rick and Marty Lagina, as they search the island for artifacts and treasure. Many in the group are family, and some have been searching on the island for years. The hunt for treasure on the Nova Scotian island dates all the way back to 1795 when a teenager named Daniel McGinnis and his friends supposedly discovered a man-made shaft that looked to be dug deep into the ground. The 140-acre island had long been rumored to contain pirate treasure, which may have fueled curiosity about what could be in the pit. However, while attempting to excavate the pit several years later, it allegedly flooded, causing McGinnis and his comrades to give up the search (via The Canadian Encyclopedia).
Since then, there have been many others who have come to the island to try and discover who built the pit and why. Still, no cache of pirate booty has been found, but the persistent curiosity and spooky stories related to the island keep people coming back. There are even a few ghost stories that might have you wondering whether Oak Island could be haunted.
Oak Island’s history is dotted with spooky stories
One of the strongest pieces of evidence that points to a haunting on Oak Island comes from a letter sent by Florence Eisenhauer to M.R. (Mel) Chappell in 1955 (via Oak Island Treasure). Eisenhauer’s grandfather, Anthony Graves, had lived on Oak Island for decades, and Eisenhauer tells Chappell about visiting a man years ago who had known her Uncle, Will Graves. The old man said that when her uncle Will had been dying of consumption, he had told him, “I am a dying man and I would not lie about it, and I was out in my boat one evening, lobster spearing on the North side of the Island, when I saw the figure of a man.” He went on to describe the man as having “long white whiskers,” and claimed that the man called to him and said, “‘Come here and I will give you all the gold you can carry.'” Apparently, her uncle was frightened by the encounter and rowed away from the figure.
And that’s not the only story of a haunting on Oak Island. Probably the most interesting spooky tale about the island comes from Peggy Adams, who lived on the island in the early to mid 20th century with her parents, who were the caretakers at the time. Even though they had told her nothing about the history of the place, she kept seeing strange figures. She told her mother she saw what seemed to be British soldiers coming up from the shore. Another day, she came in crying, and after telling her mother what she’d seen, her mother realized she was describing pirates (via Oak Island Treasure).
Haunted or not, if there’s treasure on Oak Island, someone is eventually bound to find it.