Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike(Mont)
Yeah, I have doubts about the coins they found. One had little corrosion on it--in a saltwater environment. I immediately thought that might be a plant. The guy knew exactly what it was. Didn't even look that excited.
I think they said at one time someone mined the area and brought back tons of ore that turned out to be fools gold. Very strange.
But I hope they keep digging and see one way or the other.
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Was "Gold" or better yet "Fool's Gold" mined on Oak Island?
I believe the History Channel did a grave injustice to the Oak Island legend when it introduced that prior mining had occurred and that these underground tunnels are still located there.
Are we now to believe in such information that comes from this network, without them having produced any documentation or proof to verify?
The best article I can locate which states why Gold mining would not have been practical or even attempted is by Chesterbound:
Oak Island Gallery
"There are a number of areas within the province of Nova Scotia where considerable quantities of gold were once mined underground, and some where gold continues to be won. But could Oak Island have been the site of an underground gold mine as has been often suggested? Prior to the advent of the mechanical drill in the latter half of the nineteenth century, all underground metalliferous mines, virtually without exception, commenced with the discovery of outcrops of ore at ground surface. These outcrops were then followed underground. The richest goldfields in the world, those of the Witwatersrand of South Africa, began by working an outcrop discovered in 1852. Since then South Africa has produced half the world’s gold.As evidence of underground activity at the Money Pit was first noted in 1795, well before the invention of the mechanical drill, it may be supposed that any gold mining on Oak Island would have commenced with inclined shafts, or adits, driven from a rock outcrop. Unfortunately, there is an absence of any mention in the early historical records of derelict mining headgear existing on Oak Island in the vicinity of the Money Pit. The legendary tackle block suspended from the limb of the ancient oak, as reported by the boys who discovered the Money Pit, though suggestive of underground excavation, cannot be considered as headgear for a commercial mining enterprise. The inevitable adjuncts of such an operation would be piles of spoil and waste rock, and of these there is a total lack. Furthermore, the geological profile of the island, as determined by a deep borehole put down in 1983 (see Part IX), showed the soil overburden to consist of dense glacial till to a depth of 181 feet, which overlaid a 180 foot thick stratum of gypsum/anhydrite, which in turn was superimposed upon slate bedrock at a depth of 360 feet. The glacial till is most certainly devoid of any worthwhile gold in concentrated form, and in view of the geological processes involved in the deposition of gypsum/anhydrite, which are not conducive to gold deposition as this is an evaporite, any gold in the sequence of soil/rock strata beneath the Money Pit would be confined to the slate bedrock at considerably greater depths than that to which the Money Pit appears to have been excavated (210-230 feet). In view of the solubility of the gypsum/anhydrite bedrock any mining activity below sea level which penetrated into or through the gypsum/ anhydrite would be fraught with peril as we have seen (see Part IV). A brief comment may be made regarding exotic elements such as uranium and radium, as the suggestion is quite interesting. These are extremely reactive metals and never occur in their native states. It was not until the end of the nineteenth century that their existence was first suspected, and this eventually led to their isolation. Though both elements are widely distributed, they are also very minutely dispersed. The yield of radium from one metric ton of pitchblende is only 0.0001 gm. The isolation of both elements is a lengthy, expensive process even with modern technology."
Martin Frobisher did mine Iron Pyrite better known as "Fools Gold" but this was in Nunavut, 3000 kilometers from Oak Island.
Martin Frobisher - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
It rates right up there with claims of Cortez finding Aztec Gold here or that Columbus discovered Oak Island.
This has to be one of the most "Bizzare Stories" circulating on some "Sites", with very little research having gone into it!