Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, holds Oak Island on its southern shore. The Mi'kmaq called the bay Sebetre and Mush-a-Mush. The French administered it for sixty-five years as Mirligueche, surveying it for naval oak under Louis XIV in 1684 and granting it as a seigneury to Captain Pierre Denys de Bonnaventure in 1702. The name Mahone Bay first appears on a 1736 British chart by Captain Thomas Durell.

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Season 13 of The Curse of Oak Island did something the show had not quite managed before. Independent scientific methods (carbon-14 on swamp leather, archaeoastronomy on Lot 5, binder analysis on the Lot 8 cradle, and a Portuguese coin authenticated to no later than 1371) converged on the medieval window.

Read the full article, with its sources, at https://thecurseofoakisland.com/the-record/oak-island-s13-medieval-case

Daniel McGinnis discovered evidence of a previously excavated shaft on Oak Island around 1795. He recruited John Smith and Anthony Vaughan to help dig, and they found oak log platforms at regular intervals before stopping at roughly 30 feet. The earliest published sources disagree on nearly every detail of the discovery, including who McGinnis was, what he found, and who helped him.

Read the full article, with its sources, at https://thecurseofoakisland.com/hunt/the-real-daniel-mcginnis-of-oak-island

Captain William Kidd is the name most closely linked to the origin of the Oak Island legend. A dying sailor's confession, first recorded in 1863, placed treasure worth two million pounds on an island "east of Boston." Kidd is the only major pirate known to have buried treasure, confirmed by recoveries from Gardiners Island in 1699. Four maps found hidden in furniture attributed to Kidd between 1929 and 1934 depict an island some believe resembles Oak Island, while 17th century coins recovered on the island during the television series fall within his operating period. Whether Kidd acted alone or in partnership with Henry Every, the "King of Pirates," the tradition connecting him to Oak Island is the oldest and most persistent of all the theories.

Read the full article, with its sources, at https://thecurseofoakisland.com/theories/captain-kidd-and-the-hidden-maps

Captain James Anderson (c.1748-1796) was a Maryland sea captain who took the American patriot's oath in 1776, defected to the British in 1778, was charged with high treason by Virginia Governor Thomas Jefferson, escaped to Nova Scotia, and lived on Oak Island from 1785 to 1788 as the owner of Lot 26 before selling to Samuel Ball.

Read the full article, with its sources, at https://thecurseofoakisland.com/theories/captain-james-anderson-the-pirate-who-lived-on-oak-island

The Knights Templar and Oak Island are linked through 20 medieval-dated artifacts that converge on the year 1211. The cluster was produced by radiocarbon dating, lead-isotope analysis, metallurgical typology and archaeoastronomy, working independently. The Templar order was active 1119 to 1312, suppressed in 1307 with its treasury missing from Paris.

Read the full article, with its sources, at https://thecurseofoakisland.com/theories/the-knights-templar

The Ark of the Covenant vanished from Solomon's Temple in 586 BC and has never been recovered. For six centuries, the papal cathedral in Rome claimed to possess it. In 1745, Pope Benedict XIV ordered its removal. Fifty years later, three boys on Oak Island allegedly discovered a shaft that would consume the next two centuries of searching.

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Multiple pre-1795 Oak Island lot owners were documented Freemasons in Nova Scotia lodges. The physical layout of the Money Pit parallels the Masonic vault of nine arches described in Scottish Rite and York Rite degree rituals. Masonic symbols have been found across the island, though some may have been added to the legend by Freemason treasure hunters in the 1860s.

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Four independent researchers have decoded what they believe are hidden directions to Oak Island within Shakespeare's published works. Petter Amundsen found a celestial map in the 1623 First Folio pointing to the island via the star Deneb. Drilling at the Money Pit has since recovered parchment, leather bookbinding, and cotton rag paper from depths exceeding 150 feet.

Read the full article, with its sources, at https://thecurseofoakisland.com/theories/william-shakespeare-the-lost-works

Francis Bacon's posthumous work Sylva Sylvarum, published in 1627, describes both a tidal seawater filtration pit and a method of preserving documents in mercury. Mercury has been found repeatedly on Oak Island. His protege Thomas Bushell recovered flooded mines in Wales using Cornish miners. Carbon dating of Money Pit timbers to 1626 falls within Bacon's lifetime.

Read the full article, with its sources, at https://thecurseofoakisland.com/theories/francis-bacon-s-secret-island