Rowe Tribe: Oak Island, Nova Scotia

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Oak Island, Nova Scotia

"If you go ashore from a boat you probably won't get shot but "they" will make their presence known."

We were having a discussion with Dutch at the Marina about Oak Island, the theories, the tours, and asking if anyone ever tries to go to shore by boat, and this was Dutch's response. ~~~The Quote of the Day

When we first started looking for a house on Nova Scotia, we were looking for one close to the town where JB is teaching his class. It was evident immediately that the only homes for short-term rent are along the Bay of Fundy on one side or up and down the Atlantic shore on the other. We refined our search to the southern shores of the province specifically looking at St. Margaret's Bay, Hubbards, and the Chester area. Unfortunately no homes were found that we could rent there, all booked so we looked a little farther south and came up with the house in Western Shore. There is actually another house on the same road that rents as well but it was already reserved. It turns out that we ended up with the best house to rent for our family. The homes here all advertise that they are overlooking Oak Island.
While we were trying to figure out why they all made such mention of an island, Scott appears and exclaims, "Oak Island, that's where those boys found the pit and dug for buried treasure." He begins to tell us the story and the history. Apparently he first found it from an e-book I downloaded from Homeschool Resource of the Day several years ago. Then I vaguely recalled the story as well. So here we are looking for a house to stay in that's right across the water from the famous Oak Island.

It is very intriguing to watch documentaries and videos about Oak Island and we are very curious now to stay near here.

Sunrise over Oak Island from our Yard

The house we're in is about as close to the island as one can get without going ashore which is not possible unless you want to be shooed away. According to Dutch at the marina, some Americans own it now for the last couple of years and have sunk about $30 million into equipment and resources to start digging again. There are only a couple of houses on there in which caretakers live and they also keep people off the island. There is a causeway to the island which has no trespassing signs on it but there are no signs or any seemingly restrictions on the rest of the shores surrounded by water. We have watched this island for days and other than an old barge that we can see on our side and an occasional vehicle on the causeway to it, there is no one and no activity.

Early in the week we went to the Chester Visitor Center which has a permanent display about Oak Island and all the happenings over the last 200 years with treasure seekers and others. There was enough visual information to get the little ones full of questions. I must have tried to answer 100 or more. There was a reproduction of the tree with the rope attached and the pit in the ground, a cross-section of the depth that has been dug with the oak logs found in between every 10 ft and lots of photographs, newspaper accounts, and even artifacts from the island.

One morning JB and Scott decided to take the boat out and they rowed over to the island and then disappeared behind it. Later they reappeared on the other side of it and hefted their boat up and over the causeway to come back on this side. They made it all the way around and no, did not go on shore. Apparently though on the side where there is an inlet that cuts into the island for a long ways, they saw the other house and child playing on its deck. There are weekends, about 4 or5 each year when you can pay $10 and go on a short tour where you see a shack and Borehole 10X in the ground but not in July. The next tour is in August.
Here are some pictures of the island from the house, the dock, and the boat.