August 2019 Issue #32 August 2019 Issue #32 | Page 219

3 – Oak Island
While not TECHNICALLY part of the Halifax Region, Oak Island is just a quick day-trip
from the area and is a fascinating piece of Nova Scotian history.
Oak Island is one of over 350 islands in Mahone Bay, located on Nova Scotia’s South
Shore. The island is about an hours drive from downtown Halifax, and under a half
hour drive from Old Town Lunenburg, one of only two urban communities in North
America designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
For more than 200 years, Oak Island has fascinated and frustrated those who have
search for the renowned Oak Island Treasure. Despite the difficulties and risks, there
have been many determined efforts by people to find the legendary treasure, even at-
tracting the interest of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The mystery of Oak Island began in 1795 with the discovery of a circular depression
in the ground by a local teenaged boy. Not long after this discovery, another group of
treasure hunters took over. They were convinced that it was the site of long-lost buried
treasure, a so-called ‘Money Pit’, possibly belonging to Captain Kidd or Blackbeard.
The group claimed to have found a flagstone etched with symbols that, according to
an amateur cryptologist, translated into “forty feet below, two million pounds
lie buried”. Unfortunately, after persistent flooding, the group was forced to
abandon their search for the treasure below.
219
HALIFAX