The Curse of Oak Island (Courtesy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

The Curse of Oak Island is an active reality television series that first premiered in Canada on the History network on January 5, 2014. The show features what is known as the Oak Island mystery, showing efforts to search for historical artifacts and treasure.

Overview

The Curse of Oak Island follows brothers Marty and Rick Lagina, originally from Kingsford, Michigan, through their efforts to find the speculated treasure or historical artifacts believed to be on Oak Island. The series discusses the history of the island, recent discoveries, theories, and prior attempts to investigate the site. Areas of interest include the "Money Pit", Borehole 10-x, Smith's Cove, "Nolan's Cross", the "Hatch", and the "Swamp".

Background

The Lagina brothers became fascinated with the island after reading the January 1965 issue of Reader's Digest magazine that features an article on the Restall family's work to investigate the so-called "Money Pit". Marty and his brother Rick obtained a controlling interest in Oak Island Tours, which reportedly owns most of the island. The brothers were later approached by Prometheus Entertainment to do a reality show. Rick and Marty have engaged the assistance of father-and-son Dan and Dave Blankenship, permanent residents of the island who have likewise been searching for treasure since the 1960s. Dan Blankenship died on March 17, 2019, at age 95.

Theories

The series explores various Oak Island theories and conjectures through conversations with independent researchers. Persons featured have included Zena Halpern discussing her theory about North African gold and sharing copies of a French map of the island which she claims is dated 1347; J. Hutton Pulitzer discussing his theory of ancient mariner visitations; Petter Amundsen discussing his theory about codes hidden in Shakespearean literature and a secret project involving Sir Francis Bacon and the Rosicrucians; Daniel Ronnstam discussing his theory about the 90 foot stone being a dual cypher containing instructions as how to defeat the money pit flood tunnels with corn; authors Kathleen McGowen and Alen Butler discussing their theory involving the fabled Knights Templar treasure and an alleged relocation of historical religious artifacts to the island; and John O'Brien discussing his theory that the island contains treasures of the Aztec Empire. It has also been suggested by Zena Halpern, without evidence, that the Templars worshipped the Phoenician goddess Tanit.

Series overview

See List of The Curse of Oak Island episodes for more information

Production

Having started in 2014, The Curse of Oak Island is currently in its sixth season. On August 2, 2016, it was announced that Nova Scotia Business Inc. approved $1,271,546 in film funding for the production of the 4th season. In October 2017, a fifth season was announced, which began airing on November 7, 2017. Season 6 began airing November 13, 2018. Season 7 is scheduled to premiere on November 5, 2019.

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