Daniel Blankenship

Daniel Blankenship says he has uncovered evidence that proves Nova Scotia’s 32-hectare Oak Island is the repository for millions in silver and gold left behind by marauding Spaniards or pirates in the mid-16th century.

For three decades, Blankenship (now 80 years old, he was 42 when he gave up Miami-based contracting business and brought his family to the province’s South Shore) has been trying to uncover the mystery of Oak Island – an area that’s been called everything from “the world’s longest and most expensive treasure hunt” to “one of the great mysteries of the world”.

The story goes back centuries. In 1795, three boys stumbled upon a series of wooden platforms buried near an oak tree. Since then, and as reported recently by Canoe, “…subsequent efforts by everyone from John Wayne to Franklin Delano Roosevelt have turned up tantalizing items like bits of chain and coconut husks, but all were defeated by what seemed to be an intricate series of flood tunnels designed to protect whatever was at the bottom of the pit.”

More recently, theories have surfaced that the Money Pit holds the as-yet-undiscovered, original manuscripts of William Shakespeare. In the late 1960s, Blankenship purchased most of the island, determined to locate the loot. If he finds it, Oak Island could become a tourists’ haven, bringing in over 100,000 people a year.