The Humbug of Oak Island

1/17/2018

I spent most of yesterday on the couch battling a germ. While waiting for the NyQuil to kick in last night I watched 15 minutes of The Curse of Oak Island. Although I'm sure I have tuned into the program since the infamous sword debacle of the 2015-2016 season, I can't remember exactly when.

Based on what I saw, the program is pretty much right where it has been for years: long on holes, dramatic music, speculation, and imagination; short on results.

I'm not a fan of the show and the short time I spent watching it last night reminded me why. If learning nothing is the goal, I can think of a hundred other ways I'd rather spend my time.

The program is still on the air, however, because a lot of people are watching it. I know from groups on Facebook that some people watch it religiously. Despite years of baloney, misdirection, and nonsense, they still watch: the program is one of the top-rated cable shows on its Tuesday time slot, successfully competing with professional wrestling.

Why?

The first chapter of the book Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News (by Kevin Young, 2017) provides a possible answer. Young draws a comparison between the rise of reality TV and P.T. Barnum's 19th century success with "humbug," noting Barnum's own distinction between "humbug" and other brands of fakery (swindle, forgery, hoaxing, etc.). Young (page 9) quotes Barnum:

"An honest man who thus arrests public attention will be a called a "humbug," but he is not a swindler or an imposter. If, however, after attracting crowds of customers by his unique displays, a man foolishly fails to give them a full equivalent for their money, they never patronize him a second time, but they very properly denounce him as a swindler, a cheat, an imposter; they do not, however, call him a "humbug." He fails, not because he advertises his wares in an outre manner, but because, after attracting crowds of patrons, he stupidly and wickedly cheats them."

in other words, the most important component of successful "humbug" is actually giving the people something for their money. People walk away satisfied, even if they know they didn't see exactly what they were told they were going to see.

It is Young's comparison to reality TV (page 10) that resonates in my mind with the loyalty I see among Oak Island fans:

"As viewers, we inheritors to Barnum's America tend to feel a mix of I can't believe I'm watching this and I can't believe that person did that to I can't wait to see what happens next.
. . . Barnum also proved brilliant at making the audience part of the hoax, saying effectively, you're smart, or better yet, you think you're so smart: come see and decide for yourself. He made everyone an expert."

There's no question in my mind that a good portion of the success of Oak Island can be traced to exactly that dynamic, where viewers can participate in endless debate about who buried what on Oak Island and what all the clues mean. It doesn't matter if nothing is ever found: the product that is being sold is the fishing, not the catching. The show is successful because it gives the viewers what they really want (a sense of participation) not what they say they want (an answer).

Here is my falsifiable hypothesis about Oak Island: there is nothing "special" buried on Oak Island.

Nothing.

Zip.

I have seen no evidence that convinces me that anything special happened on Oak Island: no buried treasure, no wondrous underground constructions, no Phoenicians, no Ark of the Covenant, no Knights Templar, no Roman armies, no bones of Jesus, no Shakespeare manuscripts, nothing. Before you start giving me the "what abouts," have a look at this critical source on Oak Island.

I am a professional archaeologist. I have been doing research in the field and lab for over two decades now. Nothing that I've seen on Oak Island since the first season resembles in any way how I would go about trying to answer a question about what happened there in the past and when it happened. Random metal detecting, drilling blind holes, entertaining a string of kooks to spout off about this or that "theory" . . . these things are fuel for the humbug, not steps taken to address a question.

Don't get me wrong: I understand the appeal of humbug. I paid to take my daughter to the Mystery Spot in St. Ignace, Michigan. I probably would have paid to see Barnum's Feejee Mermaid and the Cardiff Giant.

But as far as Oak Island and "rewriting history," I checked out long ago and won't be back unless there's a real reason. FYI: "real reason" does not include another beach artifact found while metal detecting, another piece of wood retrieved from a hole drilled into an area that has been previously excavated, or another "artifact" handed to the film crew with a shaggy dog story attached.

During Swordgate, I made some internet friends that are connected in one way or another to the story of Oak Island. My goal in writing this isn't to make anyone mad, but to call it like I see it: when you strip away the show business from the show, what's left? Not much, in my opinion. That doesn't stop a lot of people from enjoying the ride, obviously. But I'm not among them.

22 Comments

Peter de Geus

1/17/2018 09:28:30 am

Have you tried NeoCitran instead of NyQuil? I've never used NyQuil and think I'm building immunity to NeoCitran. Otherwise....yes.

Andy White

1/17/2018 10:07:04 am

This seemed like a good time to be officially done with Oak Island groups on Facebook. Send me an email when they drill through the Holy Grail.

Peter

1/17/2018 10:27:07 am

I'm sure we could make our own Holy Grail and do a documentary. On the other hand, maybe just a poster.

Graham

1/18/2018 09:45:36 am

You're not the only one to be completely frustrated with them, you know a show is bad when even the creator of the modern Roswell legend thinks that it's just a big tease for ratings.

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com.au/2018/01/curse-of-oak-island-mid-season-analysis.html

Wes Copas

1/17/2018 11:06:55 am

I wonder if your getting fed up, and my getting fed up on the same day is a coincidence, or something to do with weather patterns and feeling like crud? You have your NyQuil inducing symptoms, I have my mountain cedar (juniper) pollen... It *is* a good time to be fed up with humbuggery, though.

Joe Scales

1/18/2018 07:36:34 am

I admit. I hate-watch this show. I marvel at the unfettered non sequitur and folksy hosts lying their way through yet another hour of pure nonsense. And yes, the Laginas are liars. They have to know that Robert Dunfield dug up the finger drains on the beach and proved they went nowhere. Yet they continue to maintain the existence of "flood tunnels", even though Geology has ruled them out as a matter of science as early as a hundred and fifty years ago.

They have to know that the origin story evolved over time, and as Richard Joltes points out on the site our host linked to above, there was absolutely no written record of anything out of the ordinary happening on Oak Island until 1849 when a treasure license was sought during a year famous for gold fever and enterprising scams.

They have to know that the 90 foot stone never existed as the alleged coded message did not appear anywhere in print until 1948, almost a century and a half after its alleged discovery. No photographs, drawings nor depictions until then.

Then there is the whole Templar tie-in being pushed this season, no doubt to cross-promote History Channel's Templar drama Knightfall. How they do this is actually the saving grace for my hate-watch experience. As I watch I wonder who can believe this? Not only is it incredibly inaccurate from a historical perspective, the connections cannot even be described as tenuous. They are nonexistent. For example, they start with a copy of a copy of a copy of a map of an island that bears only similarities to Oak Island pushed by Zena Halpern as medieval. They take it as legitimate and then follow a name on it to some French castle. They ask a surviving family member if their ancestors were Templars. No, she says, but they did fight in the Crusades. Well, there you go. That's enough for the History Channel. Templars fought in the Crusades too, so there is the Templar connection. So by the time the next week's episode comes on, it now becomes clear that we are dealing with Templars as the family name then gets connected to a ship's log, selectively read from by the show's Oak Island "researcher" which talks about burying "treasure" somewhere on a coast... and wait for it... out of all the islands and coasts of Canada, it must be Oak Island.

Just start with the origin story itself. Three boys on an adventure (a lie, as two of the named boys were men who had owned property on the island at the alleged time of initial discovery) find dug up earth with a tackle block hanging over it on a tree limb. Yeah, you just bury the Ark of the Covenant... and you leave a tackle block hanging above it. It fails right from the beginning, as you'd figure the more logical explanation was that something was dug up rather than deposited. But greed will get you every time, and the Curse of Oak Island is simply the latest installment of the scam with the only treasure being television ratings.

Bob Jase

1/18/2018 09:26:55 am

"a tackle block hanging over it on a tree limb. "

What better way to hide the greatest treasure of all time than leaving obvious evidence of where it is? Like you I'd often visited that link that Andy provided - the ability of human to believe pretty much anything if it sounds crazy enough constantly amazes me.

I hope an actually intelligent species replaces us someday.

Andy White

1/18/2018 10:20:42 am

The Annunaki are rolling over in their graves right now.

Elizabeth Stuart

1/19/2018 10:21:30 am

Nova Scotians are great at spining yarns, sitting back and enjoying people fall for them, especially gullible Americans. Oak Island is one of those yarns. There is nothing there! There never was. It's a story concucted by some good old boys back in the 1700's. It got out of hand! How does the saying go?
Don't try and bullshit the bullshiters? Gottcha!

Uncle Ron

1/19/2018 11:16:05 am

I remember the first time I read about Oak Island sometime around the mid-1960s when I was about 16 years old. My first thought was, how could pirates, one hundred years ago, have created such a deep (I think it was 50+/- feet back then) and elaborate burial place, with all the drains and tunnels, when modern treasure hunters can't excavate it even now.
I haven't had any interest in it since.

Bob Jase

1/19/2018 12:07:31 pm

By any chance was that in Frank Edward's book Stranger Than Science? I'm pretty sure that's where I first read about it.

Jonathan Feinstein

1/25/2018 08:54:52 am

I first read about Oak Island at approximately the same time and my first thought was, "If there are flood tunnels bringing sea water in, why not dig them up first and cap them?" It seemed like a simple solution.

Later I wondered why anyone would want to bury treasure so deep even they couldn't recover it quickly. You want it well hidden, but when you need it again you're likely be in a vary big hurry.

And more recently when thought of Shakespearean manuscripts and the Ark of the Covenant have been postulated, I simply had to laugh. You're going to bury something make of paper or wood and set it up to be destroyed if someone tries to dig it up? A good bath in ocean water wouldn't help anything of organic matter. This smacked of "If I can't have it nobody can" reasoning. Of course, by the time Swordgate came around, I'd stopped believing there was anything there, if there ever had been, but I'll admit to watching he show sometimes for the comedic experience, although I do have to admit I have grown far too tired of the narrator popping in every few minutes to repeat what had just been said, but as a question. For example: "The Templars? Could they have buried the treasures of Jerusalem here?" My answer: not likely, but if they did, they probably put Bigfoot in chare of protecting it and he just handed it all to aliens for a box of lollipops...

Cake

2/11/2018 10:15:57 am

I agree with the sceptical view of Oak Island. However, there is one
mystery, I believe: What is the purpose of the man-made structure at Smith‘s Cove and when was it build? I know one suggestion is a saltworks, but the structure seems to be different from known historic saltworks. It would be great if this question could be answered by archaeologists. Another question is about the coconut fibres - they have been dated to the 1300s. How can this be?

Hans

3/10/2018 07:07:17 pm

Please, cut the Laginas some slack.
No, they are not liars, they are believers - against better knowledge at times. And the show is so incredibly entertaining BECAUSE they are not going about things like an archeologist would. You never know what they will find next ...

Andy White

3/11/2018 06:53:19 am

What is the most significant thing they've actually "found?" Is there anything that's been on this program that can't be explained as either a fraud (i.e., the "Roman sword"), a potential fraud, or pretty much exactly what one would expect from an area that's been both inhabited/used by Europeans for hundreds of years and then enthusiastically attacked by treasure hunters for a century?

Brenda greenslade

7/13/2018 02:22:07 pm

The hewn stone. I saw it with my own eyes. I even sat on it. It is this very long slab of rock that looks or appears just like a trees bark. But its all rock. So its hewn stone. Its got a certain width. And length has been broken off and this long slab lays over broken portions now days. So it reminds me of a portuguese Padroa. This tall columns were used to designate land owned by portugal back in the 1400s 1500s. Its the main clue, I think. And no one shows much interest in it at all. And its not to be confused with foundation stones. Also there is the
h :+: 0 stone. Which may also be portuguese. Their are other items that direct my attention to Portugal.

Hadley Hal

5/23/2018 01:55:21 pm

Watch carefully.On some episodes you may see Geraldo Rivera in the background,interviewing a Sasquatch.

Danny p

12/3/2018 09:20:02 pm

"Lead is the new gold"
Millions of dollars to find wood chips, red glass , and now.....lead..
Really???
I find this whole concept absolute horseshit, but still I watch it for laughs. Is there really any1 out there dumb enough to believe this

Fast Eddie

12/25/2018 10:13:44 pm

Amelia Earhart, Roosevelt's fore knowledge of Pearl Harbor and now Oak Island. They all boil down to the same thing - dogmatic belief without any conclusive evidence. And for those dismissing this hoax and condemn the foolish people who believe, how do you feel about man-made global warming???

Hans

12/29/2018 08:39:37 pm

No, it's not "dogmatic" belief. It's the same belief that a football fan has in his team. And even if the team does not make it to the superbowl, the fan will continue to believe in it. Because there is always another chance next year ...

Ed Conner

2/13/2019 05:53:11 am

I watch this show for the same reason I watched Gold Rush for years: I wanted to see what stupid thing Todd Hoffmann would do next. On Oak Island, I wait to see just how much money the Laginas can spend next and what stupid theory they entertain next. My prediction is after a season or two more they give up, declaring the treasure had already been removed. So they find nothing, but save face.

Alex

4/8/2019 04:26:32 pm

Is it just me or is it highly suspect that on lot 24 where the iron cross and other artifacts were supposedly found. That after 100s of years of being buried , these things were just found a shovel depth below the surface? I call bs. I think they are rapidly losing viewers and are peppering the site. I'm insulted they believe viewers are that stupid. So done with oak island!

The Humbug of Oak Island

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