01x07 - Midwest Millions

[bunniefuu]

Tonight on Beyond Oak Island...

There are treasure stories on
every island in lake michigan.

They were the
freeways of the time.

The gangs ran
prohibition from canada.

You've got a huge
smuggling operation going on.

There's a story of big treasure

somewhere near poverty island.

They were carrying gold.

Nobody's gonna go looking for it

'cause officially,
it never existed.

The treasure had
to be thrown overboard.

- How much? - $400 million.

That's poverty.

The sonar's scanning the bottom.

- This is the spot?
- Right here.

- This is a really good target.
- There we go.

All the while we
were growing up,

my brother and I were fascinated

with finding treasure.

Pirate treasure,

cursed treasure.

Civil w*r gold.

Since then,
our work on oak island

has shown us there's
a world of mysteries...

- Whoa.
- Waiting to be explored.

So, we like to reach
out to other treasure hunters.

X marks the spot,
right there. Brilliant.

- We want to hear their stories...
- That's right.

- And share our insights.
- "ill-gotten gains."

- And who knows...
- I got it.

Maybe we can help
them with their search.

Not only in america.

Wow. That is gold.

- But all over the world.
- Yeah!

Beyond oak island.

You know,
every time I'm in here,

I'm just blown
away by the history.

Absolutely.

There it is.

Man,
that reader's digest article

brought so many people here,
it's... It's unbelievable.

Then I remember,
I-I just was enthralled with it.

And told marty, of course,

because you're-you're
in eighth grade.

A treasure story? I mean,
come on.

Who's not gonna
gravitate towards that?

I-I remember him

explaining it to me,
saying, "look at this,

look at this, look at this:
There are logs every ten feet."

I go, "wow,
there's got to be something there."

It's about unknowns
and-and looking for answers

and the quest, if you will,
for knowledge.

Did you guys already
have the-the passion

for treasure hunting
stories and stuff at that point,

or do you think
that launched it?

Well,
you know we had the indian rock thing.

- Ah. - We called it the indian rock.
- Yeah.

I-I think we-we knew of
the indian rock before this.

Before this. Yeah,
well, I'm sure of it, rick.

I was very,
very young when you and greg daniels

were trying to move that thing.

We were treasure
hunting when we were

knee-high to a grasshopper.

There was a great big
giant stone up on the hill

where we used to play ball,
and we called it the indian rock.

It had a piece of quartz
that went all the way around it,

but it looked to
us like it was...

Special.

The whole community of boys

were sure there was
indian treasure underneath it,

if we could only move that rock.

Ah. - We had no tools.

We would have to sneak
dad's s-single shovel

- out of the garage.
- Yeah, that's right.

- See, now, that...
- And hope we didn't break it.

- Right.
- Right. That indicates to me maybe you guys

had read some treasure stories,
because to have that instinct,

- "underneath this might lie treasure..."
- we had...

- We had certainly read treasure island.
- Of course.

- Right.
- But when I read a story,

I could see it in my mind,
with the colors

and the... like treasure island,

I'd walked the paths,
I'd see the stones.

I'd w... look at the markers.

- You could literally lock it in your mind.
- Yes.

And that's kind of
what that article did.

I think that's what
separates the people

who,
it's sufficient just to read about it

and say, "yes,
that's very interesting,"

and then the others who kind of
immerse themselves in the story

- and want to become a part of it.
- Right.

Do you remember...
Y-you're growing up,

you're loving these tales

and you're getting
more interested in it,

do you remember
hearing anything,

I don't know, even locally,
that might have captured

your imagination in terms of
treasure or anything like that?

Well,
michigan has a lot of treasure stories.

Particularly involving islands,
and-and honestly,

quite a few on the mainland,
too.

Absolutely.

The state of michigan,

also known as "the
great lakes state,"

is home to more than
400 lost treasure mysteries,

both on land and deep under
the vast waters surrounding it.

One of the most
infamous revolves around

a 17th-century
french trading ship

that was the largest of its time,
the griffon.

On September 18, 1679,

the griffon vanished
without a trace

in the northern region
of lake michigan,

along with six crewmen
and a fortune in goods.

To this day,
it is considered the holy grail

of michigan shipwrecks
because of how elusive

it has remained to
determined searchers

and treasure hunters for
more than three centuries.

Another notorious legend

about missing midwest
treasure began in 1874,

when $74,000 in gold coins...

Worth $20 million
in today's dollars...

Was reportedly buried along
the shores of scenic benton lake,

some 50 miles north
of the city of muskegon.

A stagecoach
was delivering the payload

to a lumbermen's camp up there,

and they got robbed
along the way.

- Hands up! Give me that thing!
- Hands up! Do it!

The robbers had taken
so much in gold coins

off the stagecoach,
and they buried them

in a potbelly stove
in benton lake...

And it's never been
discovered to this day.

But one of
michigan's most valuable

and legendary treasure mysteries

is set deep in the wilderness
on the keweenaw peninsula.

It is known simply
as the wall of silver.

In 1927, jake stockard,

a geologist
conducting a field study,

discovered what he
claimed to be the entrance

to an abandoned mine.

Upon entering, stockard reported

that as he made his
way past booby traps

and human skeletons,
he found himself standing

before an enormous
wall of pure silver.

Stockard finds this mine

that has this rich
wall of silver in it.

The area that
this wall of silver

is supposed to be
located in is in an area

that absolutely could contain
a giant deposit of silver.

For four decades,

jake stockard kept the
wall of silver a secret.

That is,
until he met richard kellogg,

the owner of a struggling
bar in the town of kearsarge.

The two became fast friends,
and jake broke his silence

to help save kellogg's
ailing business.

They were selling
the silver samples at the bar,

and the bar ended up
becoming a roadside attraction.

So it helped generate

an adequate enough
amount of traffic

for the bar to become
financially viable again.

Unfortunately, in 1973,

jake stockard passed away,
taking with him

the location of the mine,

and the legendary
wall of silver.

Over the years,
richard tried to find the location,

and he couldn't.

And to this day,
they still haven't found

the, uh, wall of silver.

Yeah, so there are treasure stories,
uh, all over michigan,

and certainly stories associated
with virtually every island

in lake michigan and lake huron.

You know,
the seas were the freeways

of the time,
so any treasure story

associated with the high seas,
what's the first stop,

if you will? Islands.

It's so funny because, you know,

again, the cliché belief when
you're talking about treasure

is caribbean or
maybe american west...

We've talked about before...

But you don't usually
think of michigan.

Think again.

- Wow.
- Not only is stuff buried on the islands

but buried in those lakes.

I mean, those are big lakes,
matty. You've seen them.

And they took a
lot of ships down.

In fact,
it's amazing you went this way, matty,

because I just got off
the phone a little while ago

with a guy named bob kreipke.

Uh, really interesting fellow,
because he was literally

the historian for
ford motor company.

That was his career.

I didn't know big companies
had such people, but...

It's a treasured michigan company,
ford itself.

Yeah,
big-time michigan company, yeah.

And, um,
he contacted me and alan kostrzewa...

- Yeah.
- Who is our partner in this,

with a story of a big
treasure in lake michigan

somewhere near an
island called poverty island.

- Yeah, a great name, right?
- That's a great name. Poverty island.

- Money pit, poverty island.
- Oh, yeah.

The story is there was a
ship that came through lake michigan

that the french
were trying to supply

the american confederacy,
so here we go

- with confederate gold again.
- Wow.

Um, it's not even a
shipwreck we're looking for.

The legend is that the treasure
had to be thrown overboard...

Because they were being pursued

and they knew they were gonna
get caught by the opposition.

But are we talking chests of gold,
silver...?

Chests of payroll.
It's a... it's payroll.

Or capital, for the south.

- Love it. - Yeah, so,

they supposedly chained
the boxes together,

threw them overboard
so they could come back

and drag the bottom.

Potentially how much?

$400 million.

Oh,
wow. That's unbelievable.

So, this fellow bob kreipke

is-is so enthusiastic
and so credible

because... rick,
rick knows this... we get, we get

input from erstwhile
treasure hunters all the time.

- Right.
- You have to kind of weed them out, you know?

But this guy was
credible and interesting,

and we're gonna
go have a go at it.

I love it. So whatever
bob said to you

prompted you to,
"let's go do this,"

and you're kind of going home,
in a way.

Yeah, look,
I love the upper peninsula.

Yeah, the-the garden peninsula

is where my company
is building a wind farm.

So I've sort of been up there a lot,
anyway.

Uh,
I do know some of the people.

Uh, yeah, I mean,

you know when all the
buttons all get pressed,

you know,
when everything clicks?

So if you don't mind,
I'm gonna take

a little leave of absence,
rick, and go have some fun.

- Absolutely. - So alan has-has

arranged a-a boat,
because it's a big fishing area

up there by poverty island.

And we're gonna get
bob and we're gonna get,

of course,
you know brian abbott.

- Oh, he scanned 10-x... - Yes.

For you guys,
and-and his images,

he believed he saw
some stuff down there.

- That's right. - Absolutely.

So we're gonna go have a look.

Located some six
miles off the garden peninsula,

poverty island is a small,
200-acre land mass

in lake michigan.

The garden
peninsula is at the top

of lake michigan.

It was a rural area,

but yet some of the earliest
communities in michigan

were up in that area because of the,
uh,

trading, because of the lumber.

It is remote.

Poverty island
always was quite isolated.

I mean, it's isolated enough

being out on the peninsula,
but in this day and age,

when you get out on the
water and go to poverty island,

you're really getting out there,
you know,

in no-man's-land,
and there's a lot of currents.

And back in the early days,
there was a lot

of shipping through that
area and it's treacherous.

There's a lot of shoals
and a lot of reefs.

Storms, when they came up,

everybody with their schooners

and that kind of headed
to try to get in the lee

of some of these islands,

and a lot of them
met their doom.

Because the great lakes

provided indigenous people,
explorers and sea merchants

with a natural
waterway dating back

more than two centuries,

poverty island became
a popular destination

for mineral prospectors,
hunters and even pirates

to not only explore,

but also seek refuge
from harsh storms

and in some cases, the law.

During the civil w*r,
the waters around poverty island

were used by some
european governments,

who are believed to
have been secretly aiding

and abetting the
confederate government.

Union forces had
established a blockade

of the eastern seaboard
to keep the south

from being supplied by
these foreign sympathizers.

However, the st. Lawrence seaway

could still be accessed by
ships north of the blockade

and then easily and secretly

navigate through
the great lakes.

But exactly which
nations or nation

was supplying gold to
support the southern cause?

When something
is secretive and nobody

wanted to trace it
back to their country

that was supporting
the confederates,

there's no records
to follow in that.

Britain, France,
Spain, portugal.

Any of those four
countries could have been

involved in shipping this
gold over to the great lakes.

Of all the european
powers who could have been aiding

the confederacy,
perhaps France had the most to gain.

In 1862,

napoleon iii,
France's first president

and the nephew of
napoleon bonaparte,

sent troops to mexico
with the intent of creating

a competing empire
to curb the growth

of the united states.

Two years later, he appointed

archduke ferdinand
maximilian I of austria

as emperor of the so-called
second mexican empire.

Is it possible that napoleon iii

was secretly supporting
the confederacy

as part of a grand
scheme to shift the balance

of world power
in France's favor?

If we look at the
history though,

the french never officially
supported the south.

Because the north
said that that would be

a declaration of w*r
against the united states.

France did not want to go

to w*r with the united states.

But is it possible
that the french

secretly sent
chests full of gold

down lake michigan into chicago

to get into the south's hands?

It's possible,
and it'd have to be very secret

and nobody would have
had to ever talk about it again.

If it sinks,
nobody is gonna go looking for it,

because officially,
it never existed.

The french did have an area,
a territory that they controlled

where they could
have possibly sent

a large shipment of gold from.

It's possible.

But if the french were,
in fact, secretly shipping gold

to support the south,
where did the plan go wrong?

Based on his extensive research,

bob kreipke has a
theory that he believes

may provide the answer.

One of these ships carrying gold

to supply the confederates
was up in this area,

getting ready to
go down to chicago

when, all of a sudden,

a canadian pirate ship
started to chase them.

Pirates were, uh,
very much a part of the great lakes.

In years gone by,

a lot of commodities were
shipped on the great lakes.

Stories of vessels being
sunk purposely on the lakes.

Even up in the,
the poverty island area.

So you had a lot of pirates here

that would knock
out lighthouses,

make ships run aground,

they would steal the contraband,

throw people in the
water with everything.

So there's a lot of history of
pirates during that time period.

As the pirates
were rapidly closing in

on the smugglers' ship,
the desperate sailors

are believed to have
dumped their gold

into the lake in order to make

a quicker escape.

According to legend,

it was just off the
shores of poverty island.

They dumped
the treasure in thinking

they might come back to get it.

They chained the
boxes of gold together.

And threw it overboard.

But they were never
able to find it again.

You know,
as we talk about treasure stories,

it's not just seeking
the treasure.

There's a wonderful story behind

- that episode, you know?
- Yeah, absolutely.

And-and it
connects real history.

The confederacy, the struggles.

Will the union survive?

You mentioned the blockade.

I mean,
if you were to follow that story,

you could go down any
number of rabbit holes

and find a very interesting

story connected to
a real treasure hunt.

- And that's what I find fascinating about treasures.
- I know you do, yeah.

I'd like to pull
up those chests.

- Well, I was gonna say...
- I wouldn't mind it.

And I'm not gonna
say no to that.

But here's the thing,
we all love the story,

we all love history,
but if he gets hits...

You and I are packing our bags.

- Boom.
- Yeah, that would be fun, you know,

- and you'd get to see our old stomping ground.
- I love it.

Well, I can't wait to find out

what you come up with,
uh, back home.

Good deal. I'll
do it. I'll do it!

All right, stay safe.

I will, rick.

One week after his
meeting in the oak island w*r room,

Marty lagina is
on the road to fairport, michigan...

Hello? - Hello, bob!

Yeah, marty, how are you doing?

Where he's arranged
to meet up with bob kreipke,

and set out on lake michigan

in search of the long-lost
poverty island treasure.

I really appreciate
you coming on up here

to the wilds of
northern michigan.

Well, I'm glad. Well,
it's an interesting subject, marty.

It's got some credibility to it.

The pieces are kind of there.

That's what
makes it all exciting.

Bob kreipke has harbored

a lifelong fascination with
shipwrecks and sunken treasure.

He first heard about the
poverty island treasure

from a commercial fisherman
when he was just a teenager

and was instantly hooked.

Over the next several years,

bob visited the island
on numerous occasions,

filming the bleak,
uninhabited surroundings.

I've been out to the island
I-I think a total of four times.

And back then,
it was so isolated that

it was kind of sinister.

In my dealings and research,
I'm thinking,

looking for this
poverty island treasure

starts with the few
clues that we have.

There was a story that a
ship came across that treasure

in the early 1930s.

In 1932,

while passing by poverty
island during a storm,

a ship reportedly
snagged its anchor line

on something lying at
the bottom of the lake.

As the crew began
to hoist the anchor,

they saw that it
was carrying with it

what looked to be a chest.

Possibly one of the
five treasure chests

abandoned by french
smugglers during the civil w*r.

But just as they were about
to heave it aboard the ship,

the chest slipped free

and plunged back
into the watery depths.

Word kind of spread

that they did pull up something

and maybe that was worth looking for,
maybe that was gold,

maybe that was
some civil w*r gold.

And a gentleman,
wilfred behrens,

bought himself a ship,

teamed up with some other
people that were interested

in this and they
got some financing.

And they went up looking
for what became known

as the poverty island treasure.

Over the next three years,
a team of treasure hunters

conducted a salvage
operation to find the chests

and raise them from
the bottom of the lake.

Their efforts were observed

by a group of children
who lived on the island.

Among them was carly jessen,

whose father served
as the lighthouse keeper.

I had an opportunity

to talk to carly jessen,

and he was an
eyewitness to this thing.

The lighthouse keeper's kids
used to watch them offshore

looking for that treasure.

Well, one night,

it was supposedly getting dark,

they pulled up the diving
bell and the guys crawled out,

and they were jumping around,
they were happy

they had found something.

Presumably what
they were looking for.

And they were going to go
out and retrieve it the next day,

but that night a
big storm came up,

blew their ship ashore,

the diving bell
fell in the water,

and the ship was
completely destroyed.

And, uh,
that was the end of that expedition.

All right,
here's what I've got arranged.

Because this was intriguing

enough for me and...
I am totally with you.

I've got sort of a big old iron
fishing boat barge-like thing

that my partner alan kostrzewa,

- he's arranged it all.
- Excellent.

Well, that's very exciting.

You know, the older you get,

the more it matters,
I think, that you have

some kind of an adventure.

So we're gonna go on one today,
partner.

- That's the deal.
- Oh, hey, I'm looking forward to it.

All right, bob. Cheers.

In fairport, michigan,
marty lagina has just arrived

- at the local marina...
- Hey, guys.

Where he is joining
his business partner

alan kostrzewa,
alan's son aaron,

along with treasure
hunter bob kreipke...

- You ready? - I'm ready.

And underwater imaging
expert brian abbott

to begin a search for
$400 million in sunken gold.

According to local legend,
five chests filled with

civil w*r-era gold
lie approximately

six and a half miles out at
the bottom of lake michigan

near a 200-acre land mass
known as poverty island.

Brian, are you ready?

I'm set up pretty much on the boat,
ready to operate.

So I'm ready to get moving.

We're off to poverty island,
then.

Let's just hope that's
not what happens to us.

Okay,
we're ready. You guys are all set?

Yeah. Excellent.

All right, captain, we're clear.

Along with his crew,
captain larry barbeau

will navigate the
treacherous waters

south of fairport,
en route to the team's destination.

It's refreshing to do this.

To see what other
treasure hunters are doing,

see what other treasure
stories are out there.

Some of these are gonna hit,
too.

You watch. Some of these are
gonna come up with treasure.

Hey, captain,
what do you do mainly, you fish?

I'm a commercial fisherman here,
uh, in fairport.

You guys ever talk about
any of these treasure stories?

We talk about 'em.

What if we catch one
with an anchor someday

and pull up a big
treasure chest?

It'd be a lot better than a fish,
wouldn't it?

- Yeah, we definitely talk about that all the time.
- Yeah.

It'll be interesting to
see what we can find.

Since we've been kids,
it's been a mystery,

- so we'll see.
- All right, okay, good.

- Well, stay away from the rocks.
- You got it.

So I tell you guys, I knew

that michigan
had a lot of various

potential treasure stories.

You can't believe
how many there are.

- I mean hundreds.
- You said... you said

over 400 or something...

- I believe it was on one site.
- It's true. Yeah.

You know,
michigan has always been a real hot spot.

- Yeah.
- People made fortunes here.

Mining,

lumbering and, of course,
wherever there's big money,

there's always gonna be that
faction of criminal involvement.

The gangs ran prohibition

from canada... they're
running booze and liquor.

So you've got the
whole great lakes here.

It's an open waterway system,

and if it's not patrolled
or taken care of,

- you've got a huge smuggling operation going on.
- Yeah.

Although most of the
midwest's great treasure mysteries

revolve around gold bullion,
silver and coins,

there have also been
numerous caches of another sort

of so-called treasure
associated with the great lakes,

what some refer
to as "liquid gold."

January 17, 1920.

The 18th amendment to
the constitution became law.

Production, importation,

transportation
and sale of liquor

became ill*gal in the
united states of america.

However, with prohibition,
a new criminal enterprise soon began:

Bootlegging.

Practically overnight,

the midwest erupted
into a hot spot

of gangland activity.

Big midwestern cities... Chicago,
detroit, milwaukee...

They were center points of
g*ng violence and bootlegging.

The great lakes
offered logistical routes

for coming into the cities.

There was a lot of
money in the area.

Much of the money and liquor

that was being ferried
across the great lakes

belonged to the most
notorious mobsters of the 1920s.

Al capone, dillinger,

baby face nelson were
all very active in the area.

We think about those gangsters

being associated with
the big cities in the east,

whereas a lot of these figures

actually had success
in the midwest.

These gangsters became
fixtures in the public imagination,

and the great lakes
played a major role

in their criminal enterprise.

Al capone's companies,

they would actually hire divers
to go out into the great lakes.

The ships might
go down in a storm,

but they might have, you know,
200 gallons of whiskey on 'em,

and that's a lot of money.

So they would hire
divers to go out,

and they would salvage the
wears on board and pretty much...

I had no idea of that.

- Yeah, absolutely.
- You keep talking

about these
bootleggers and stuff,

and I happen to have

family members who were
part of that whole thing.

My grandmother...
My grandmother was

a very small-level bootlegger,

and to make ends meet,
she ran a little hooch,

- you know? - Oh, sure.

So...

Hey,
we're coming up to poverty right now.

Look at that.

- Is that poverty?
- That's poverty.

Today,
poverty island stands barren and desolate.

It has been
abandoned since 1957,

when the lighthouse
was fully automated,

and local restrictions
now prevent anyone

from stepping
foot on the island.

This will keep marty
and the team offshore,

at a distance from the
island's natural residents.

When I was out to the
island one time with the coast guard,

poverty island was
covered with snakes.

Big snakes. That round.

Unbelievable.

I saw the largest snake I
ever saw in my life up here.

Variety. They were
all different types.

And some of them
were eating seagulls.

But there were
thousands of them.

Holy smokes.

You ever see anything that looks

so quintessentially
haunted in your whole life?

Looks like that lighthouse
is looking right at us.

Yeah.

Where would you
like me to get you set up at?

- I mean, right over here...?
- Yeah. We want to go a little bit past

the lighthouse.

On lake michigan,

some six and a half miles
south of the town of fairport,

marty lagina,
treasure hunter bob kreipke,

underwater imaging
expert brian abbott

and their team have just
arrived at poverty island

to conduct a sonar scanning
operation of the deep waters.

This deserted outpost is
believed to be the location

of a vast treasure
lost during the civil w*r.

Make sure, though,
we're in about 40 to 60 feet of water.

The legend was that they

had raised their
anchor from a shoal,

and it fell down
in that deep water.

- Okay. All right. I'll get you there.
- So, see what we can.

Okay. Thank you.

You got to do your
research and try to figure out,

hey,
what was the weather back then,

what were the lake levels?

We already know there's
terrible currents out there.

It's not a very pleasant place.

It's not a place you'd
want to vacation.

It's really nice to
talk to somebody

who knows what
they're talking about.

That might be a clue, too.

Bob's a huge resource.

I mean, he's great.

An absolute wealth of knowledge.

Historian to the core.

You know,
that's what he did his entire life,

and he's got this passion
for these unsolved things.

And, um, you know,
that's infectious.

Could marty, bob and the team

be within reach of five
chests of missing gold,

as reported to bob
nearly 40 years ago

by former resident karly jessen?

In a matter of moments,
and with the help

of brian abbott's
sonar equipment,

they will find out.

We're in 60 feet of water,
so if you guys

- want to start the sonar...
- Let's start here.

- All right, brian, find us something.
- All right.

- I've seen that gizmo before.
- You have.

- 10-x.
- Around the island, too.

To visualize
today's target areas,

brian abbott will be using a
sector-scanning sonar device

called the ms1000.

Mounted on a steel tripod,

the ms1000 will be able
to stand on the lake bottom

and generate a
three-dimensional map

of the surrounding environment,

along with any near
surface-buried objects

not visible to the naked eye.

So, the deal is,
we want to set this on bottom.

This spins all the way
around as it takes the sonar,

and through the magic
of zeroes and ones,

we get a pretty picture
on the computer screen.

If by some miracle we
found something interesting,

- we got gps coordinates?
- Mm-hmm.

Okay.

We'll walk it up
towards that way.

- I'll get out of the way.
- All right.

Yeah, watch your feet,
now. Just nice and slow.

- Yep. - Okay.

People have looked
for this poverty island treasure

for years and years,
but it's eluded everybody.

If it is still there, I believe

that, literally,
electronics will help us.

- Everybody clear? - We combine

these new electronics with
some research that we did,

and, you know,
we'll see what we can find.

Okay, on bottom.

So,
we're scanning the bottom now.

What I've got is 150-foot range,

so from circle to circle
is 300 feet across.

The sonar is like a flashlight.

If I stick a flashlight
in front of a tree,

it's gonna cast a shadow.

So we're primarily
looking for shadows from this.

- Is that more or less right?
- Possibly shadows.

We'd be looking for lines,

and we're just trying
to look for something

that's, you know, man-made.

The story goes that five
boxes are linked together

with a chain,
so I would look for a line or...

Was that a common
thing they did back then,

like chain together chests,
or...?

No, that was just so they
could find them themselves.

- Oh, drag an anchor or something to catch the chain?
- Yeah, catch the chain.

Well, what's that like?

- It's a big rock.
- A big rock right there?

Yeah. What you see on
poverty island is what you get.

Out here is, it's a rock field.

So, if they're buried under
sediment or rocks or whatever,

this is no good then,
it's not gonna help us out.

It might... you know,
I doubt it's buried,

just because of the
currents out here

- and all the rocks.
- And it's rocky, yeah.

There's no sand or
anything out here?

But you see all sorts of stuff,

and this one is
interesting here.

It's got a nice acoustic shadow behind it,
it's kind of square.

So what we'll do is I'll
use a shorter range now.

You start to see some really
good definition of targets.

- That's really neat.
- I can measure the height

- of how tall it is.
- Based on the shadow?

Based on the shadow.

This is where the shadow
begins. Six feet tall.

It's interesting in the
sense of "what the hell is it?"

- yeah.
- But it's too big for what we're looking for.

Yeah, it's six feet.

Unfortunately, at least so far,

the ms1000 sonar scanning
device has not yet detected

any signs of man-made
structures or objects in this location.

So,
here's the thing. Here's what we know.

We know there's a
big mystery out here.

- Correct.
- We know your equipment works,

but this is targeted equipment.

We're kind of like a
needle in a haystack here.

- Right.
- But this gentleman has a hunch about it all.

And so I think what we should do,
bob...

I want you to do
this... I want you to pick

the exact spot,
right where your hunch would be.

Now, you steer this boat
right where you want it.

We'll put that thing back in,
brian,

and we'll just see if-if...

- Take a shot. - Take a shot.

- Yeah. Okay.
- Sounds great.

- Pick the spot, sh**ter.
- Okay. I'll go up with larry.

Okay,
watch yourself. You're gonna get real wet.

We want to go out

- in a little deeper water.
- Okay.

And just a hair back
here towards the north.

Okay.

Getting close.
Getting real close.

We'd have to get really lucky,

in one day,
to find these treasure chests

that were thrown overboard.

But you know what? Maybe.

Maybe. Maybe we hit the jackpot.

Sometimes you'd
rather be lucky than good.

No, no, always. Always.

Just off the shores of
poverty island in lake michigan,

marty lagina,
along with historian

and treasure hunter bob kreipke,

are leading a sonar
scanning operation

in search of some $400
million in civil w*r gold

believed to have been
dumped in the area back in 1864.

- You just tell me when, and we'll throw her in.
- Good. Yeah. Yeah.

Getting close,
getting real close.

Having performed numerous scans

and receiving no promising data,

they are now about
to search an area

that bob kreipke
believes to be nearest

to where an eyewitness
saw five chests

connected with a chain
dumped into the lake.

Yeah,
this should be good. This should be good.

We'll do that, okay. Okay,
go ahead, throw it!

- This is the spot?
- Right here.

My research suggested that
they were passing poverty island.

And I believe that this is where

they would've
scuttled the stuff.

And it made sense.

This is the big clue:

Those kids that lived in
that lighthouse said to me,

"bob, we stood on the shore
and could hear them talking."

so they've got to be

- right out in here.
- Wow.

Slowly let it go.

Slowly let it in the water.

Okay, here we go.

Okay, in the water.

After successfully lowering

the ms1000 sonar device
to the bottom of the lake,

brian abbott will
now begin scanning

in a 360-degree pattern.

- That's it.
- Yep. On bottom.

If the treasure
is anywhere in the vicinity,

the team could be on the
verge of making a historic find.

This is a pretty barren bottom.

We're kind of out of
the rocks and stuff.

What's your radius of
investigation right now?

Uh, the radius is 120 feet.

And we're just trying to look
for something that's a line

or a chain or boxes
in a row or anything.

Like this is a really good
target right here. See this?

That's interesting to me.

What is that?

I don't
know. It's square.

We'll walk it in closer,
we'll get better detail on it.

Oh, that's cool.

That's... I
find that unique.

So that's intriguing you, brian?

Yeah,
it's got a nice acoustic shadow behind it.

It's a square.

I would definitely
mark that as a target.

Nature doesn't make
things that are square,

rectangular and round.

Nature has different angles

and perspectives on things.

I'm gonna drop it down in
range so we get better resolution.

So we're able to go in there
and look for targets on bottom

and see that it's
out of characteristic

at the natural bottom.

So we're able to look at things
and possibly identify them.

So that thing is three feet tall,
down there.

How big are these boxes,
supposedly,

- that were thrown over?
- They couldn't have been too big.

- They couldn't have lifted them.
- Yeah.

So we're gonna mark it on here,
and then-then what?

Well,
we come back here with divers.

And then if we find
something really interesting,

we're gonna call
the state of michigan.

At what point do you decide
to send the divers down?

To me,
diving is the last resort,

and I don't mean
that in a bad way.

Let's get all our, uh,
data, our position points,

put the divers over position,

put the scanning
sonar in the water,

watch the divers go down,

then I can put them
right on the target.

So I think we're
intrigued enough to keep after this.

So what-what would we do next,
brian?

- I mean, how would you do this?
- How would I do it? I would get a side scan.

I would also think about
maybe doing multibeam out here.

You know,
you can get some of that better detail

with the multibeam and so forth.

But you're looking at a lot more money,
a lot more time.

- Has that ever been done out here?
- Uh, not to my knowledge.

- There we go. So we'll multibeam it.
- So...

- There you go. Perfect.
- There you go.

Well, bob, you know what?

It's an intriguing story.

We had a little, uh,
poke and hope here.

- Sure.
- And you're gonna mark this, right?

Absolutely.

It is like looking for
a needle in a haystack.

But we took a chance,
and you know what?

We still know more
than we knew before.

I think that this
poverty island treasure,

if it is still there and
nobody has gotten to it yet,

I believe we're
gonna find something.

All right, well,
it gets to keep its secrets for right now.

- I think we're done for this mission.
- All right.

Yeah, well,
what does my brother always say?

"eyes and boots on the ground,"
right? I mean...

Until you get a sense of it,
like we did today,

you don't know what you're up against,
you don't know

whether it's worth
adding resources.

I mean, is there a chance
there's a treasure out there

big enough to be
worth the effort?

Sure sounds like it.

Hey, rick, I'm back.

Welcome back.

- What are you working on?
- Oh, you know,

the frustrating
part of oak island.

- All this data...
- Oh, which one?

Things just don't line up,

from map to
document to-to res...

- I mean, it's just inconsistent.
- Yeah.

Well, speaking of reports,
I've got mine.

And I'd love to hear it.

I got some good news
and some bad news.

What would you like first?

- Hmm. Bad news first.
- Eh, it's not that bad.

The bad news is
we didn't get lucky.

We didn't put the
sonar right down

on the,
on the chests chained together.

- Yeah, but that would have been...
- I know, I know.

That would have been beyond the pale,
yeah.

But-but to some extent,

we kind of got the cart
before the horse a little bit.

What we did is we used
the technique you would use

after you've done
broad side-scan sonar.

We did the zero in and look.

We'd probably been better off,
in 20/20 hindsight,

to side-scan sonar
the whole thing,

pick the ten or 15 good targets,
then drop that sonar

right down on them.

If-if we go maybe a little
bit earlier in the season,

you know, you could probably dive it,
for one thing.

- How deep is it?
- It's, like, 60 feet.

- Or he thinks it is.
- But nothing on the scanner?

Oh, all kinds of problems.
It's rocky as could be.

- Oh.
- But the good news is, it was a great adventure.

Uh, this bob kreipke guy
reminded me of the enthusiasm,

you know, I mean he's just...

- He's all in.
- Yeah, he's all in.

And poverty island
is scary-looking.

There's an old abandoned
lighthouse falling all apart,

and the island itself

is sitting on
blocks of limestone

that aren't really connected.

I mean, it is creepy.

Creepy in a real kind
of spine-tingly sense.

It's also full of snakes.

Oh. Ooh. Ooh. -

the thing about going to actually look,
which you know,

going to actually
look at a site,

you know,
you can picture it, right?

- Oh, yeah.
- You can see the ship coming.

The guys are terrified

because they're being
pursued by the enemy.

They know they're
gonna get captured,

they're in a slower boat,

so they do what
desperate people do.

There's five boxes of treasure,

supposedly containing gold and silver,
as always,

- which would be the currency of the day.
- Sure.

- Multimillions, for sure.
- Oh, really?

Perhaps-perhaps hundreds
of millions. Big numbers.

Oh, well,
so the question then is,

because it's such
a strange island,

do you think they
set sail for that

or-or went towards that,
because then they would know

where to look for the treasure,
or once that was...

Yeah, uh,
that-that could very well be,

that-that when they
were being pursued...

In-in those days,
pursuits weren't, you know,

they didn't take five minutes,
they might have taken all day.

- Sure.
- And that's a treacherous area.

There's a series of islands.

So they might have
been trying to get in there

and get out of sight.

They would have headed
for somewhere... "let's get

to somewhere where we
might be able to find this. Okay."

they chained these
chests together,

they threw them overboard
so they'd come back

- and drag the bottom and-and pick them back up.
- Sure.

And here's the
thing: Maybe they did.

Although, probably not.

I think they're still there.

He does... Obviously,
he thinks so, too.

Oh,
yeah. Yeah, he does.

It's this very spirit,
the very essence

of treasure hunting, right?

- You don't give up. - No.

You... it's still there,
you just haven't found it.

- Well. - You come next time.

- I-I will.
- We'll find it. We'll find those boxes.

Well, speaking of that,
don't you think we better

- go find those boxes...
- Yeah, I think that we've got

some boxes
of our own to find here.

So anyway, let's go.