Oak Island Theories: MESOAMERICAN INDIANS
J. Smith Collins, author
The Money Pit is the Work of Mesoamerican Indians
The discovery of the Money Pit as we know it today came in 1795, and we'll take a brief look at the possibilities of it being the work of Mesoamerican Indians. When Daniel McGinnis and his friends John Smith and Anthony Vaughn discovered the sunken ground beside that oak tree in 1795, their primary belief was buried pirate treasure, but pirate treasure comes from somewhere, and many treasure seekers believe it has ancient Indian origins from South and Central Americas.
This popular theory grew wider since the 1970s when Burt Webber discovered the wreck of the Spanish treasure ship Concepción and its sunken hoard, including Mesoamerican Indian riches. The wreck was thought lost after being found by William Phips in 1687 and lightened of part of her treasure, and then lost again until the ship's log was found by Webber and Peter Earl. This gave rise to thoughts of other missing treasures, Spanish shipwrecks, and pirates and lost loot. Oak Island was becoming the spot to place something of value buried before modern time. Why not Indian gold from the Americas?
Some theorists connected the Inca, Maya, or Aztec treasures to Oak Island through various land routes, mostly under the persecution of the early Spanish in the Americas. Since the age of the internet, the theories and connections have only grown in threadlike connections.
But does the theory of continent-traversing Mesoamericans make sense? Even if the trip was made by ocean, Oak Island is 3,200 to 3,800 miles from South and Central Americas—a long way to go on vessels made of balsa, cane, and rope and laden with gold and jewels, especially to an unknown destination. No balsa wood has been found on Oak Island (unlike coir, or coconut fiber, which was a common dunnage in European ships, and other woods).
Mesoamerican Indian gold on Oak Island likely would have been carried there by invading or trading Europeans rather than buried by the actual Indians. Here we'll look at those possibilities.
There is no direct tie to Oak Island and the Mesoamerican Indians of South and Central Americas. There are no known land markings showing a path up the North American continent's Southwest or Midwest to Oak Island, nor a marked water route along the coasts or Maritimes. There is no wreckage of balsa and bamboo ships or barges along the coast and no sign of the Indians on Oak Island.
There are, however, indirect paths for Indian treasures to Oak Island by Spanish means. This could have happened any time after the Spanish conquistadors landed in the southern Americas in the sixteenth century. Treasure and mined precious metals were scattered by sea and ill fortune for centuries after the Spanish set foot in the Americas.
Maya
The Maya rose in the Yucatan Peninsula in 2600 B.C. during the Pre-Classic Period and ran the longest of the ancient Indian civilizations, with the peak of their city building coming between 250 and 900 A.D. They were governed by kings and priests, and their settlements reached into parts of northern Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, western Honduras, and southern Mexico. Around 700 B.C., hieroglyphics as a form of writing began to develop, followed in 400 B.C. by quite accurate calendars; however, they did not utilize the wheel for work tasks requiring movement. By 100 B.C., the city-state of Teotihuacán was established in the Valley of Mexico and the first pyramids were constructed. The civilization moved its center of power among several city-states like Tikal and Chichén Itzá over the next few centuries, until the arrival of the Spanish in 1517 A.D.
Since the civilization abandoned Chichén Itzá in 1250 A.D., the Maya continued to decline and eventually the League of Mayapan was formed as the ruling entity. Over the next 200 years, uprisings against the Mayapan led to a weakening central structure, and by the late 1400s, the city-state of Mayapan was also abandoned, further dispersing the already largely farming Maya communities. This led to increased trade between the Caribbean and Gulf coasts. For the next fifty years, disease, warfare among the differing, powerful Maya states, and natural disasters plagued the Peninsula, with disease further spread by the far-reaching trade routes. Despite the land and people slowly healing from these ravages, constant war had weakened populations, making the Maya vulnerable. As the civilization as a whole recovered and the disasters fell away, Spanish ships set anchor—and in some cases, wrecked—along the Yucatan coast in 1511. The Maya lords killed most sailors managing to get ashore, but more Spanish ships followed. Three expeditions landed between 1517 and 1519.
Most conquistadors were met by Maya warriors, but the Spanish fought with cavalry as well as foot soldiers and brought cannons. The Spanish attacks pitted smith-worked edged metal weapons against the Maya wooden, flint- and rock-tipped spears and bows and arrows. Hernán Cortés sent Pedro de Alvarado and soldiers into Guatemala, sacking capitals as they progressed and looting.
In the capital city of Iximché, the Kaqchikel Maya greeted the Spanish as guests. The welcome didn't last long. The Spanish demanded tribute in gold, and eventually the city fell into abandonment. The Spanish continued their raid across the Peninsula, amassing hoards of gold and silver and other capital treasures. By 1546, most of the city-states were stripped of every valuable, loaded onto Spanish ships, and were sent sailing back to Spain. Total Spanish rule would take another 150 years of warfare.
With the Spanish ships, headed by conquistador Hernández de Córdoba and then Hernán Cortés, the period of colonization began, leading to the gutting and eventual ruin of the Maya society. With this government-sanctioned looting came the disappearance of the fabled Maya treasures, gold and gems meant for the coffers of Spain, some of which disappeared. The Maya, when extending a welcome hand to Spanish, often offered gold as a sign of peace; this only whetted the conquistadors' taste for more, leading to total occupation. It was early in the Spanish and Cuban invasion into the Peninsula that the Maya told of the Aztec Empire further west, leading to more conquest under Cortés.
While Cortés and other conquistadors explored the Yucatan Peninsula and raided the wealth of the Mesoamerican Indians under the guise of bringing salvation to the infidels, the city-states of the Mayas fell over the next thirty years. Most of the gold, silver, and treasures offered by or wrested from the Maya to the Spanish was put aboard Spanish ships and sent back to Spain. Most of it reached the motherland, but not all. Storms at sea, getting lost, piracy, and greed of ship officers interceded in some transports, perhaps even leading to Oak Island.
Inca
While the Maya have a looser thread, if any, to Oak Island, the Inca civilization had more in the range of opportunity, timeline, and artifacts to build a theory.
The Inca tribe came out of the Pre-Inca Empire around 1200 A.D. It was led by Manco Cápac, who founded the city of Cuzco in the Cuzco Valley, and expanded its empire by conquering neighboring tribes. The Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui became leader in 1438 A.D., and built the city of Machu Picchu. For the next sixty years, emperor father-to-son succession saw the rise of the Inca Empire to its strongest point until brought down by rounds of disease (likely smallpox brought by the Spanish expansion during the fifteenth century) that largely reduced the population. When Emperor Huayna Cápac died of disease in 1525, he left his sons Atahualpa and Huáscar to fight over control of the Inca Empire. After a bloody five years of civil war, Huascar was defeated, and Atahualpa, who ruled the northern half of the empire, took full control.
Meanwhile, Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro (related to Hernán Cortés of Aztec fame) landed in Peru, and with 183 soldiers (and his brothers Gonzalo, Hernando, and Juan, plus a man named Hernando de Soto), battled his way through the Andes to the new emperor. With the odds at less than 200 men to the Inca thousands, the Spanish killed over 2,000 and took another 5,000 captive with the advantage of horses, cannons, guns, and other iron weapons. Pizarro captured Atahualpa in Cajamarca in 1532. He then held Emperor Atahualpa for ransom
Pizarro gave orders to strip the city and the sun and moon temples of gold and religious artifacts. Hearing of this, Atahualpa ransomed himself to the price of enough gold and silver to fill his prison cell three times. Pizarro agreed to the price, and for the next three months, gold and silver artifacts streamed in. Pizarro had the precious metals melted down into ingots for transport back to Spain. While the Inca subjects toiled to bring in their emperor's ransom, Atahualpa remained in his cell. And, in 1533, once the price was nearly satisfied and fearing the emperor's influence over his Inca warriors, Pizarro had Atahualpa executed to stem off a revolt once freed.
But the execution came at a price to the Spanish also. Pizarro was not aware of the caravan heading his way—a caravan led by Inca general Ruminahui—carrying the balance of Emperor Atahualpa's ransom. Upon learning of Atahualpa's death, Ruminahui hid the ransom treasure in the mountainous Llanganates region of Ecuador and joined the fight full force against the Spaniards. Eventually captured and tortured, Ruminahui never gave up the location of the hidden ransom treasure. That treasure was never recovered and remains one of the largest missing treasure hauls of history.
Rumors abounded, some surrounding a Spanish adventurer named Valverde who married an Inca princess who led him to the treasure. That Valverde suddenly became unexpectedly wealthy make some people believe the story. Upon his death, Valverde wrote Valverde's Derrotero—Valverde's Path—a document that laid down the landmarks in the Llanganates region that would lead to his treasure. He bequeathed this to King Charles V of Spain, who sent it to the provincial officials in Latacunga near the mountains of Llanganates. The officials took up the search, led by a Franciscan monk named Father Longo, and the search seemed promising until Father Longo went missing one night. The search was abandoned.
The hunt lay dormant until the 1700s, when a miner from the old Inca mines in Llanganates, Don Atanasio Guzmán, drafted a map. He, too, disappeared while searching.
Again the search went cold, until a British botanist rediscovered Valverde's Derrotero and Guzmán's map—both now translated into English and thoroughly noted—and another spiral of treasure hunting began and ended in vanishings.
Today, the region is the Llanganates National Park in the middle of Ecuador. It's a treacherous area of mountains, inclement weather, and extreme fog and thick mud, all mired in political unrest. Some thoughts are that the treasure was removed and reburied somewhere else, perhaps on Oak Island, by either Inca warriors, Spanish soldiers, or even one of the later treasure hunters.
Aztec
The Aztecs originally came from Aztlan in northern Mexico and migrated south over the next few centuries. After being driven out of Chapultepec by the Culhuacán tribe, the Aztecs settled on an island in Lake Texcoco and built Tenochtitlan around 1325, and made it their capital. They built canals and causeways around their capital, and for 125 years and four rulers, created farmlands for corn and made their name as great warriors. Their fourth ruler, Itzcoatl, proved to be their first imperial ruler in 1427. With aggressive tactics and skilled warriors, the Aztec Empire spread by conquering neighboring tribes, stretching over most of central Mexico to the Honduras, and numbered in the millions.
Under Montezuma's (the I, 1440-1469) reign, the Aztecs saw rapid expansion, flooding, famine, and starvation. The people weathered those and continued their bloody fame of conquest and domination. During Montezuma I's reign, the Templo Mayor (Great Temple of Tenochtitlan) was finished. By 1502, Montezuma II began his rule, and he was still on the throne when Hernán Cortés arrived in 1519.
Hernán Cortés and his fleet of eleven Spanish ships reached Mexico's coast (near present day Vera Cruz) in February of 1519. Aboard those ships were almost 600 conquistadors—all with the goal of Christianizing the New World for the Holy Roman Church. Their quest also included enriching mother Spain in any manner they saw fit.
To Montezuma II, the Spaniard Cortés must have looked like the return of the sun god Quetzalcoatl to reclaim his throne, and so was greeted that November as a guest. Perhaps a bit of anxiety over the sun god taking his seat as ruler passed through Montezuma II's mind as he tried to assuage any usurpation notions the newcomer may have had with gold and silver. He may have hoped the Spanish sun god would be satisfied with the gold and go away and let him remain in charge of the empire. The gold only drove Cortés into estimating the value in the Aztecs' lavish city, and he took Montezuma II as prisoner.
At stake was the prize of centuries of conquest and collection. While Montezuma II was imprisoned, Cortés and his men ransacked the palace and temples, uncovering massive amounts of gold, jewelry, gems, and religious artifacts laden with precious metals and stones. Through threat and torture, the Spanish reaped the wealth of conquered tribes. The people rallied to rise up against Cortés' rule, and he put the captive Montezuma II up before the people to quell the outrage. According to some accounts, the people instead took their wrath out on Montezuma II and stoned him to death, then turned on the Spaniards. Without a live hostage and with the rebellious Aztecs on their heels, Cortés and his men fled the city utilizing the canals and channels, discarding any treasure they carried as they left.
But Cortés was not finished with the Aztecs. He aligned with the Tlaxcala tribe, and over the next two years, defeated the Aztecs and their new ruler, Cuauhtémoc, in 1521. Under torture, the defeated Cuauhtémoc gave little information to the fortunes of the city, claiming that they were lost forever. Not believing the treasure removed, Cortés gave free rein to his men to torture anyone in hopes of finding clues to Montezuma's great treasure. These methods resulted in one clue: the treasure had been taken northwest and hidden at the bottom of a lake. With this scant description, Cortés and his men searched over 5,000 lakes.
Some people believe the treasure is still at the bottom of a lake, while others that the treasure was piecemeal spread out by fleeing conquistadors as they escaped via the canals and irrigation channels, now buried under silt and mire beneath present day Mexico City. Another theory is that the treasure was recovered and sent back to Spain on ships that were lost to tropical storms. A more fanciful theory is that the Aztecs moved the treasure before Cortés and his men returned in 1521, and moved it to a northwest desert mountain perhaps 2,000 miles away and buried it with slave labor. The slaves were then killed, and the secret of the treasure was kept.
This idea led to further searches, and included miners, Spanish friars, forgotten manuscripts and maps, the Grand Canyon, the Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine, and Oak Island (although Oak Island would have been northeast, not northwest).
Mesoamerican Indians, the Spanish Invasion, and Oak Island
For our benefit here, the Mesoamerican Indian connection to Oak Island will also include substantial Spanish influence. It's possible that the Indians could have traveled up to Oak Island without the Spanish push against their individual homelands, but there are few theories as to why they would. So, for this section, the driving force behind any Mesoamerican Indian presence on Oak Island to hide treasure will have Spanish persecution at its source.
Likewise, it's possible any Spanish involvement on Oak Island may exclude a treasure of Mesoamerican Indian origin. The Spanish were far-reaching sailors of many centuries and it's plausible they would have access to treasures from numerous cultures.
Timing
The burial of treasure in the Money Pit has been placed from shortly before 1795 to centuries earlier. This puts any of the three Mesoamerican Indian societies in line to be raided and then have cultural treasures placed at the bottom of the Money Pit. The marauding Spanish had the means and manpower to transport any size treasure.
The sixteenth century is also not out of line due to some artifacts found on the site. Some clues, including pieces of pickaxes and shovels found in the pit, indicate methods used. All three Mesoamerican Indian tribes fit the pre-discovery of the Money Pit on Oak Island and each had a vast wealth of gold, silver, gems, and religious artifacts that went missing upon encounters with the Spanish.
The timeline fits, if the Money Pit was constructed 200-270 years before it was discovered in 1795. This allows time for the sacking of the Indian societies and the carrying away with the treasures, as well as the actual digging and engineering of the burial process on Oak Island. If moved by the Indians for security purposes, the trip over land would be time consuming, but if by Spanish ships, done more swiftly.
Personnel Involved
The Maya, Inca, and Aztec were primarily farmers, but they also worked in stone. The Maya utilized the limestone of the Yucatan Peninsula and built pyramids, temples, sports courts, and public plazas. Stone columns told their history in hieroglyphs (little of their written history remains, due to Diego de Landa burning the Maya repository of books written in hieroglyphics in Merida in 1562; a few codices remain). They were familiar with working, transporting, and detailing stone and had developed limestone-based plaster and cement. They also worked largely in wood, and while they generally built upward, they also tunneled, mainly beneath their pyramids. One such tunnel discovered beneath Teotihuacán surrendered valuable religious objects, as well as mercury.
The Maya hieroglyphic system of writing was in glyph block, similar to Korean writing, except using pictographs. Glyph blocks are read in a zigzag pattern rather than lines or columns. This rules out the inscription on the 90 Foot Stone (found in 1803 by Symeon Lynds of Onslow, later the Onslow Company) being written in Maya characters in a known Maya style.
The Incas created over 14,000 roads, integrated with tunnels and bridges. The fortress ruins of Sacsayhuaman still stands, overlooking Cuzco, made of fitted interlocking igneous volcanic rock without the use of mortar, a feat reported as "unmatched" in America. They were also skilled in terrace building and irrigation techniques, giving credence to being the minds behind the waterway engineering below ground on Oak Island. While the Inca did not have a written language like the Mayas and Aztecs, they did use knotted cords to indicate tallies and records.
The irrigation knowledge, stone skills, and collective mindset of labor obligation to the state make the Incas viable engineers behind some of the methods used on Oak Island. However, the 90 Foot Stone with the inscribed characters rule out the Incas creating the Money Pit and leaving the stone.
The Aztecs are known for their towering stonework, namely pyramids and temples used for human sacrifice. Much of their stonework was covered with stucco or plaster and then painted. They were also excellent waterway masters, creating canals and causeways to access and irrigate the swampy Lake Texcoco. They created aqueducts to bring in fresh water and a dike to keep out brackish water.
Like the Mayas, the Aztecs used a pictograph and logogram form of writing including syllabic signs. Although many codices were destroyed by priests due to changing ideology and later Spanish conquerors, Aztec codices made on deer hides and plant fibers still remain. This form of writing would rule them out as having written the inscription on the 90 Foot Stone.
Given their abilities to work stone and wood and manipulate water courses, any of these civilizations could have orchestrated the Money Pit, but all are ruled out as having inscribed the 90 Foot Stone in their languages of the time.
Evidence
Evidence. Little speaks louder than evidence. Is there evidence to connect the lost Mesoamerican Indian treasures to Oak Island?
Perhaps, depending on the evidence considered. As for Mesoamerican Indians making their way up to Oak Island in Nova Scotia, there is little evidence for a direct expedition. Indian treasure brought up and buried on Oak Island by other parties, such as the Spanish, is more likely.
Wood found on Oak Island is a two-part evidence. Wood can be dated by the time the tree was cut down and by also by the manner in which it was worked. The dendrochronology of logs and timbers used in Oak Island excavation companies often have saw marks showing the alternating light and dark tree rings, indicating what type of saw was used. Chopped wood tells a different story, generally older and using less equipment. How the wood was used, whether fastened with wooden pegs or worked metal nails or spikes, also tells age and dates, especially if the metal is still present. Some wood evidence from holes dug in the Money Pit area by several excavation companies tell a compelling story for the disappearance of Mesoamerican Indian gold and treasures.
A series of holes bored in the Money Pit from 1967-1970 brought up wood chips, oak pegs, wooden beams, wooden stakes, wooden slats, and a plank, as well as decayed vegetation and charcoal. These holes, some called Becker Holes, were drilled by veteran treasure hunters Dan Blankenship and David Tobias and were tested and evaluated by Geochron Laboratories, Inc. (Cambridge, Massachusetts), Brock University (Ontario), and Forest Products Lab (Ottawa). From Becker Hole 24, Tobias brought up wood chips from a depth of 193 feet, which tested to the median year 1575 A.D. (leeway of 1490-1660 A.D., Geochron, 1967).
Other lab tests in the area (from Borehole 10X to the Chappell Shaft and Hedden Shaft) tested to years that can be within range for the Mesoamerican Indian treasures. These include wood brought up from 144 feet in the Golder BH 103 in the Hedden Shaft (dated to 1776), an oak peg dating to 1676, inclined timber (1570), and log sill (1645), all tested in 1970. These dates are all within a feasible timeframe to be attached to treasure carried north from the southern Americas by conquering Europeans. This would need assistance from the Spanish or other invaders, perhaps even with the British or Dutch lending a hand. See the later section on connections.
A pair of wrought iron Spanish scissors was found on the island in 1967 in Smith's Cove beneath the manmade flooding system. The Smithsonian Institute stated they were made prior the mid-nineteenth century. They were a common style that had been made in Spain for 500 years, a timeframe encompassing Mesoamerican Indian/Spanish ties to Oak Island.
Coins found on Oak Island give a strong slant to the Spanish, and perhaps Mesoamerican Indian, connection. Spanish coins, whether brought by Spanish or British, could be part of the melted and recast Indian gold from Mesoamerican treasure sources. These coins, most found by noted metal detector-wielding treasure hunter Gary Drayton and The Curse of Oak Island team members, include a Templar coin, Spanish coins dating from 1652, and copper coins bearing King George II of Great Britain (1727-1760). These coins possibly place the Spanish and British on Oak Island. More on this in the following section below on connections.
The hammered gold cross presented by Joan, Jean, and Joyce McGinnis, relatives of Daniel McGinnis, on The Curse of Oak Island season three's finale, was dated to 1550-1700 by an antiquities expert. The expert also maintained the holes in the hammered rose gold once held emeralds and was created in the Spanish West Indies—perhaps even as part of a royal Mesoamerican Indian treasure. Other finds by treasure hunting done by Drayton off the coast of Florida searching for lost riches from the wrecked Spanish treasure fleet of 1715 include an Inca ring of gold with nine flawless Columbian emeralds, similar to the McGinnis cross, and more seventeenth century silver religious items.
Other telling clues, similar to coins, are buttons. In season four of The Curse of Oak Island, team members uncover an eighteenth century "dandy" button—made for show more than only function and were plated or stamped with eye catching designs—from Lot 24 and a gold-plated military officer's button from Lot 18. Both of these buttons point to a British military presence on Oak Island in areas important to the Money Pit.
Plausibility
This section will not focus on gold and silver taken from Indian mines and transported back to Spain, but more on looted treasure in its originally crafted form or melted down into bullion. Since the Spanish melted down much of the fashioned gold and silver before transporting it to Spain, identifiable precious metals in bullion would be difficult to claim as "Indian" plunder. Because of this, any Spanish ships of the time that went missing or were looted by pirates or enemies could be candidates. Jewelry, gemstones, and treasure in its original form are more identifiable as Indian. This makes some of the missing, wrecked, or plundered Spanish ships of the sixteenth century ripe targets (gold and silver from mines in Mexico would also be in ingot or bar form or minted into coins, and no longer in "original" treasure form). Ships of the time were known to wreck from storms, go missing in storms, be attacked by pirates or enemies and plundered, and be rerouted by renegade ship officers.
Treasure hunting interests have since located some ships lost or wrecked by storms shortly after the wreck or reported as missing, and also by modern salvage companies. Early salvage attempts may or may not have made it back to Spain or whoever had organized the attempt. Ships attacked by pirates are also prospects for putting Spanish-looted Indian treasure on Oak Island (this will be touched on in Oak Island Theories: Pirates). Mesoamerican Indian treasure taken from a Spanish treasure ship on its way home to Spain may have been attacked by pirates, carried north to Oak Island, and buried. This scenario is one of the few plausible reasons there may be Pre-Columbian Indian gold on Oak Island.
The most general of hypotheses would be that the treasures from any of the Mesoamerican Indian rulers was melted down into bullion and coins (generally later from New World mints), put aboard Spanish ships and shipped home to Spain, but took a detour to Oak Island, where it was buried. This could have been done by a renegade captain or mutinous crew and officers. A variation on this is this is that treasure ships wrecked in a storm and then possibly a salvage attempt followed a stealthy trek to Oak Island by a corrupt crew or captain. This theory rides close to the Spanish theories, even if the gold had Indian origins, making discussing the theories intertwined at times.
Shipwrecks of the time have many candidates. In 1708, the San Jose, a Spanish galleon, was sunk by the British in the Caribbean Sea near Cartagena, drowning one of the richest treasures from the Pre-Columbian Indian lands. Later, in July of 1733, the Spanish Treasure Fleet left Havana for Spain. Of the over twenty ships bound for the Old World, only one made it safely. The others were scattered and wrecked by a hurricane. Salvage authorities recovered some of the treasures, and more has been brought up in modern times, but enough is missing to place it high on any missing treasures list.
Other ships include The Tierra Firm Fleet—including The Atocha and The Santa Margarita of the twenty-seven ships—carrying silver, gold, emeralds, and pearls from Peru, Mexico, Colombia, and Venezuela in 1622 (much of this has been found by salvager Mel Fischer since 1985), and the 1715 Spanish Treasure Fleet of twelve vessels (one being a French ship) sailing from Havana to Spain for Phillip V, with much of its $14 million of gold and silver lost among Florida's coral reefs.
These are but a few of over 1,000 galleons and merchants ships wrecked in the area during colonial rule.
Possible Mesoamerican Indian, Spanish, and British Connections
While more convoluted, this route for placing Mesoamerican Indian gold on Oak Island not only makes sense for the seventeenth and later centuries' wartimes, empire-building activities, and engineering feats, but also explains some of the evidence found on the island. In short, Indian gold and treasure may have changed hands from Spanish to British and eventually made its way to Oak Island. It would also explain why some longtime treasure hunters believe, based on their individual findings, that the treasure is Spanish (Dan Blankenship), British (Fred Nolan), a government undertaking, and perhaps has Mesoamerican Indian origins.
One such example is the fall of the Spanish garrison in Havana to the British in 1762. In this case, approximately two million pounds in gold and silver was transported away, perhaps to Oak Island for safe burial, so it could be exhumed and shipped to England after King George III's power was more stable. (This is a variation of a tactic used in the infamous Yamashita's Gold scenario from World War II.) If the Inscribed 90 Foot Stone has been correctly deciphered as Forty Feet Below Two Million Pounds Are Buried or Twenty Feet Below Two Millions Are Buried, the amount from the garrison in Havana and the pass through Indian to Spanish to British hands makes for a coiled but plausible theory.
This would account for the complex engineering used on Oak Island (Corps of Engineers, established 1716, but officially Corps of Royal Engineers in 1789, British Army), the British and Spanish coins found, and works within the timeline of known events. The copper Spanish maravedi coin (commonly called a piece of eight) found on the island was dated 1652, and other copper coins from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries also fit this theory. The British button, possibly from a British Navy uniform, was discovered on the Samuel Ball homestead foundation, lending credence to a British hand in the operation.
Another Mesoamerican Indian-Spanish-British theory is that the treasure from the wreck of the Spanish galleon Concepción from the Bahamas made its way to Oak Island. In 1641, the Concepción left with over 100 tons of looted gold and silver from mines in Mexico and Potosi, plus the personal treasures of Diego de Pacheco the Viceroy of what was being called New Spain, as well as payments from merchants in the new colonies. Also aboard was treasure from the Orient, such as silks, spices, jade, gold, and jewels that had come via Manila galleons through land routes in Acapulco and were to voyage to Spain on the Concepción. During a series of storms, the ship ran aground on the reefs of Hispaniola (present day Dominican Republic and Haiti) and sunk.
The wreck was later found by William Phips in 1687, who was knighted by King James II of England for his discovery. Phips later returned to the wreck and brought up 25,000 pounds of gold. King James denied subsequent searches. In 1978, Burt Webber, Jr., salvaged more. Some people theorize that Phips actually did find more treasure from the Concepción, but buried it elsewhere—on Oak Island—after King James denied his return request.
Phips later settled in Massachusetts as governor. This theory has the correct time, treasure, and opportunity to be buried on Oak Island, but Phips left no proof of such a feat.
Important to note in both of these Indian-Spanish-British theories is that the British were in the Nova Scotia region during the 1750s. In fact, in 1752, the British government sent a company of Cornish miners from Falmouth, Cornwall, to the government of Nova Scotia, Annapolis Royal. The miners were paid to work on a secretive project, and among them was an expert British military tunneling engineer. If anything was buried on Oak Island from the garrison, the manpower and expertise was certainly available.
These connections also explain a variety of datable evidence on Oak Island. Any number of Mesoamerican Indian plunder or mined precious metals controlled by the Spanish could have fallen into the hands of the British during the 200 years before the Money Pit was discovered. Several authors have detailed this concept in both fiction and well-referenced nonfiction.
The lost treasures of the Incas, Aztecs, or Mayas may have been melted down to become Spanish gold and silver bullion, and the route for such a treasure to Oak Island, if buried there, may have changed hands many times, carried in many ship holds, and over the course of several centuries.
These are one writer’s thoughts and summation. It has no connection to any treasure hunting operation, podcast, worldview, or fan base.
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