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Oak Island: The Money Pit, the Deaths, and the Curse

Two centuries of digging on a small island in Nova Scotia, and the legend that seven must die.

Quick answer

What is the Oak Island curse?

Oak Island is a small island in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, where treasure hunters have dug for a supposed buried treasure, the Money Pit, since the late 1700s. A legend says seven people must die before the treasure is found. Six people have died in search efforts, including four men killed in a single 1965 accident. No treasure has been confirmed.

Timeline

  1. 1795According to tradition, a young man named Daniel McGinnis finds a depression in the ground and begins digging.
  2. 1800sSuccessive excavation companies dig deep shafts, which repeatedly flood.
  3. 1897A treasure hunter dies in a fall during excavation.
  4. 1965Robert Restall, his son and two others die in a shaft, in the deadliest accident in the island's history.
  5. 2014The television series The Curse of Oak Island begins, bringing renewed attention and new excavations.

What is documented, and what is not

On the record

  • Organized digging on the island goes back to at least the early 1800s.
  • Six people have died in treasure-hunting accidents.
  • No treasure has been verified as found.

Disputed or unproven

  • Whether anything was ever buried there, and by whom, is unknown. Theories range from pirates to natural sinkholes.
  • The curse is folklore, with no documented origin.

Common questions

How many people have died on Oak Island?

Six people have died in treasure-hunting efforts, including four in a single accident in 1965.

Has anything been found on Oak Island?

Searchers have reported small artifacts over the years, but no treasure has been confirmed.

What is the Oak Island Money Pit?

A shaft first dug in the late 1700s that searchers believed led to buried treasure. It flooded repeatedly, and its original location is now uncertain.

Read the record yourself

Links go to official archives, museums, agencies and published research. Search links open the archive's own search for this topic.

THE FICTION BUILT ON THIS RECORD · FILE 055 · VOLUME IXOak Island Needs Seven Dead. Six Have Died.Every curse needs a volunteer.Read the first pages free →

Last reviewed 2026-10-13. This page covers the public record only. Archive files are dramatized and always marked as files.

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