Child Treasure Hunter
A hidden treasure is supposedly buried under a small island in Nova Scotia.
No one knows for sure how it got there or if it even exists, but two Michigan brothers believed they could crack this 220-year-old mystery.
Rick Lagina was just 10 years old when he went on his first treasure hunting adventure. Across the street from where he and his younger brother Marty grew up, in Kingsford, Mich., sat an unusual granite rock that caught his eye.
Brothers Rock Discovery
He was always curious what was under the rock.
Week after week Rick and his brother would go to the rock and think about the best way to move it . Unfortunately pushing the rock to the side was not going to work. They came up with a pulley system.
Imagination
Eventually they ave up and enlisted the help of 8 neighborhood kids to help them move the rock. So what was under the rock?
Their imagination was under there. The Laginas are 50 years older now, but their imaginations are still getting the best of them.
Looking For The Jackpot
Over the last two years, the twosome has been searching for a 220-year-old hidden treasure beneath Oak Island. The island is a small, 140-acre piece of land on the south shore of Nova Scotia, Canada.
So far the brothers haven’t hit the jackpot yet but they have made some big discoveries. One discovery was a a 17th century coin from Spain.
Reality Series
By using sonar technology they have potentially found some manmade objects, and maybe even a treasure chest at the bottom of a deep well.
The brothers’ hunt, has been documented on the popular History Channel reality series “The Curse of Oak Island”.
Reader's Digest
This hunt has become somewhat of an obsession for Rick.
He originally got word of the treasure on Oak Island when he was 11. There was a Reader’s Digest article in 1965 on the island’s treasures.
Stone Tablet
The story told the tale of treasure that was stashed away by Freemasons, Captain Kidd or maybe Blackbeard. Nobody knows the real story for sure.
The more Rick researched, the more intrigued he became. He read about a stone tablet, discovered long ago, that was inscribed: "Forty feet below, two million pounds lie buried.
Oak Island Tours
It wasn't specific whether it was coins, gold or another treasure.
Rick’s curiosity was piqued, and in 2006 he and his brother bought a 50 percent stake in Oak Island Tours, a treasure hunting company.
First Treasure Hunter
A Centuries-Old Search
Rick and Marty may be the latest searchers, but many others have spent copious amounts of money, time and energy, searching for the treasure.
The first documented treasure hunter on the island was 16-year-old Daniel McGinnis. In 1795 he stumbled across the island and saw a sawed-off tree limb with an old ship’s block and tackle.
Hunting Company
The next day he went back and started digging. He found aged oak logs and pick axe marks in the clay walls of a shaft which was evidence that something was beneath the ground.
In 1803, McGinnis, one of his friends and a wealthy Nova Scotia businessman formed a treasure hunting company. They dug into what was dubbed the Money Pit and found tropical coconut fibers, charcoal, a stone with odd symbols.
Franklin Roosevelt
They never were able to get past 108 feet because water would start filling the pit.
Over the last 220 years, numerous other treasure hunters have come searching for the legendary loot. Each has dug deeper and found slightly more evidence of something lurking beneath the island.
Lost Lives
Among the early explorers was a young Franklin Roosevelt, who in 1909 had invested in The Old Gold Salvage and Wrecking Company, a treasure hunting company.
No one has found any hidden riches so far. This is because every time someone digs down water fills up the shaft.
Millions of dollars have been sunk, and six lives have been lost.