After months of putting it off, I finally knuckled under and reluctantly again watched “The Curse of Oak Island” TV series and its insufferable babble.
The sham production, and the poor editing when finds are found by the expert “metal detection expert” Gary “Hey Mate” Drayton, and the constant jibberish about when every item found will lead the team of treasure hunters to the massive hoard buried in the ground halfway to China, is maddening.
The main reason why I criticize the series is because of the way it gaslights viewers into believing that a world-changing treasure is buried hundreds of feet beneath the ground. I know, it's television. The fakery is supposed to happen. And millions of advertising dollars mean revenue to the network and all participants. Ya, I get it. But, enough is enough.
Having produced a metal detecting/treasure hunting show myself, BTW, the first of its kind, I am partial to honesty and integrity when it comes to any TV series that depicts the hobby. It’s the way we filmed. No scripting and no seeded or planted finds were my modus operandi. However, in “The Curse of Oak Island” scripting and planting coins or relics is the norm. It’s pathetic. Anything to keep the unknowledgeable viewer stuck to their chairs as they watch the charade.
I’m sure that Gary Drayton the “metal detection expert” is a fine gentleman. But if he is a “metal detection expert” as the narrator of the series keeps referring, then millions of others with metal detectors are “metal detection experts” also. The production company has turned Gary the “metal detection expert” into a worldwide metal detecting/treasure hunting phenomenon. It seems that every item he digs is going to lead the team to the massive treasure or is an identifier of something else on the Island. Sometimes, the find becomes part of a ridiculous conversation that makes the participants look like buffoons. It could be a coin, a religious artifact, a rusted railroad spike, a broken axe, and even the latest great find that Gary and the archaeologist on the team found. That game-changing find was an old square nail.
ARE YOU FREAKEN KIDDING ME? They found a square nail and they said, “This proves there was once a building that stood here.” Really? Great observation guys. The hole they were digging in with the wall of stone around it told me immediately before the square nail was dug that a building once stood there. In fact, many buildings once dotted the Island.
I’ve found hundreds of square nails of different lengths and diameters at old cellar holes. It doesn’t take an archeologist and a metal detection expert to verify that a foundation of some kind was there.
For years I’ve known that Oak Island is rich in ancient history. Generations of world travelers have visited the island and have lived there. And with so many people frequenting the island of course items will be lost, and yes…even buried for safekeeping.
A few years before “The Curse of Oak Island TV” series was filmed I reached out to Dan Blakenship the owner treasure hunter of the “money pit” the area where the voluminous treasure is supposedly buried, as well as the Oak Island and Nova Scotia authorities to get permission to film and metal detect the island, not the “money pit.” Why not search the “money pit?” Because I never believed there was a treasure there. All of my research told me there are smaller caches hidden on the island. Those would be easier to find. However, I was told that Oak Island and Dan Blakenship had already granted permission to two Michigan individuals to search for the Oak Island treasure, and to a production company for filming. The beauracrats in Nova Scotia did not want another team of treasure hunters with a film crew on the Island at the same time as the others. Even if I had no intention of being anywhere near the money pit. Of course, the two Michigan neophyte treasure hunters were Marty and Rick Lagina of the show. But now, what is interesting about “The Curse of Oak Island” TV show is this.
I believe the series will take a turn away from the search for the massive treasure toward what I have been saying for years, there are smaller and more accessible treasures on that island to search for.
In the last episode, it was “metal detection expert” Gary Drayton, with his metal-detecting wisdom, who finally said the quiet part out loud.
“It’s not the story of just the money pit anymore. We can find treasure on any one of these lots.”
Thank You, Gary!
My metal detecting/treasure hunting TV series, “Exploring History’s Treasures” EHT, was the first REAL, reality, show of its kind. There was no scripting, no planting or salting the ground with finds before we dug them. Exploring History’s Treasures can now be viewed here.
If you like what you’re reading, help me at substack by becoming a “paid” subscriber.
Thanks Frank it needed to be said. Gary is indeed a tool and does a disservice to our hobby. I feel the need to call out Laird Niven for the deer in the headlights look whenever someone asks him what an item is or how old is it. Keep up the good work mate. Did you see what I did there?
Long time fan
Mike H