We’re getting well into the latest season of the show, and possible Curse of Oak Island spoilers abound, so make sure you read with caution. Next up for the Lagina Brothers is a find that might result in a bevy of new leads–among them fresh connections with (at least) one former US president.
First of all, here’s the latest Curse of Oak Island trailer, featuring the latest dive into the Money Pit, an especially amusing tongue-in-cheek comment from Marty Lagina:
In fact, thanks to the recent string of preview clips History has furnished–plus a savvy glance at some of Season 4’s upcoming episode titles–it seems plausible to assume that the show is going to head back in the direction of the Old Gold Salvage Group and its infamous 1909 attempt at “solving the Oak Island mystery.” This particular attempt was mounted by Captain Henry L. Bowdoin, who raised $250,000–approximately $70 million in 2017–and put together a motley crew of roustabouts, engineers, and bankers worthy of John Huston’s keenest attention. The stated goal of Bowdoin’s Old Gold Salvage and Wrecking Company was “[resuming] the search for the assumed treasure of pirate Captain Kidd, or the Crown Jewels of France,” then believed to be the likeliest and missingest of the island’s treasure possibilities.
Nowadays, the group is perhaps best-known for its association with a then-27-year-old Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who purchased stock in the company upon its initial offering and was said to keep up with its doings for the rest of his life. Unfortunately, there was never much new information for Roosevelt to pore over: the Old Golds closed up shop at the end of 1909, after much digging and little discovery. And their two-year charter with the government of Nova Scotia, which expired at the end of 1911, was not renewed. However, Frederick Blair, the group’s Vice President, did later negotiate a second lease for the Money Pit with Sophia Sellers, the widow who owned the entire eastern half of the island for the first third of the 20th century. Blair never gave up hope that he would outlast the island; he died in 1950, at the age of 83, and five years after President Roosevelt.
It’s not currently known whether, after 1909, Roosevelt had anything more than a passing interest in Oak Island. However, if it’s true that he did have any involvement in excavations–or even a stake in them–the Oak Island treasure is not only the second to be connected to a US president, but it’s the second to be linked definitively to the same presidential family. FDR’s 1909 involvement was hardly the first time a Roosevelt had a hand in the disappearance of mysterious treasure: Billion Dollar Wreck fans will recall that the RMS Republic was reportedly carrying $250,000 in gold coins intended as payroll for the US Navy. Still more disturbing is the fact that both the sinking of the RMS Republic and FDR’s association with an Oak Island excavation both took place in the same year. One can’t help but wonder what the Roosevelt family was trying to keep hidden–and whether in fact the combination of these two treasure-based coincidences is far too unlikely to be anything less than a conspiracy, one that reaches higher than any of either show’s fans has yet contemplated…
#conspiracydelirium
Of course, there’s always the possibility that Oak Island is also infested with trolls:
I wonder if a local goes round throwing nails and wood around for them to find #oakisland
— Andrew Plant (@PlantTheTank) January 4, 2017
And, while some fans appear more frustrated than ever, it seems like most of the show’s audience, to quote George Michael Bluth, is simply loving the ride:
@HISTORY They never find anything but I love this show?
— David (@ballou_david) January 10, 2017
Curse of Oak Island Season 4 continues Tuesday nights on History.
(Photo credits: Curse of Oak Island spoilers via History)
