Planning the Next Swamp Dig: Season 13 Pushes Deeper Into Oak Island’s Most Enigmatic Ground

As The Curse of Oak Island enters Season 13, the long-running search for answers has once again turned toward one of the island’s most puzzling locations: the swamp. For Rick Lagina and his team, this low-lying bog is no longer just a side location—it has become a focal point where physical evidence, historical clues, and unanswered questions converge.

Rick has long maintained a firm belief that the swamp holds critical answers to the Oak Island mystery. From his perspective, the sheer scale of work carried out in this waterlogged area defies any explanation rooted in chance or natural processes. Someone, at some point in history, invested extraordinary effort here—and that effort, the team believes, must have had a purpose.

To chart the next phase of exploration, Rick met with fellow landowner Tom Nolan and key team members at the Oak Island research center. Their goal was clear: determine where to dig next and how to connect the growing web of discoveries already made across different sections of the swamp.

A Pattern Too Precise to Ignore

Much of the discussion centered on the northern end of the swamp, an area that has repeatedly yielded a dense concentration of finds within a surprisingly small space. Stakes driven deep into the ground—uniform in size, shape, and method of construction—have become one of the most intriguing elements. Each sharpened end appears to have been carved with the same number of strokes, suggesting standardized tools and a coordinated workforce.

When plotted on maps, the stakes form patterns that are difficult to dismiss as random. According to Rick and Tom, they appear to outline paths or intentional markers, hinting at organized activity rather than ad hoc labor. “Somebody was trying to leave a path,” Rick observed—an idea that continues to reshape how the team interprets the swamp.

Echoes of a Vault

The stakes take on even greater significance when viewed alongside earlier discoveries. In previous seasons, work on Tom Nolan’s property in the northern swamp uncovered stone features and several eight-sided survey stakes that ultimately led to a vault-like structure—empty, but undeniably deliberate.

That “so-called vault” remains one of the most captivating finds in the swamp. While stone paths and roads have been found elsewhere on the island, the vault stood apart for its design and placement. Its concealment among vegetation suggested a hiding place, one chosen carefully to avoid casual discovery.

Now, the team is asking a bigger question: Are all these stone structures connected? And if one vault exists, could others still lie hidden—perhaps not empty this time?

Rick believes it would make little sense for whoever built these features to rely on a single storage location. “If you’re safeguarding something really important, you don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” he reasoned. The idea of multiple “backup vaults” has become a driving force behind the new dig.

Digging Where Clues Keep Appearing

With a plan in place, the team returned to the northern swamp to begin dismantling sections of the bog layer by layer. Metal detection expert Gary Drayton was tasked with scanning freshly excavated material, particularly soil pulled from the deepest levels—where older artifacts are most likely to appear.

The swamp has earned a reputation for defying expectations. Time and again, digs there have produced items no one would expect to find in such an environment. According to Rick, that consistency alone suggests the swamp is tied directly to whatever activities once unfolded on Oak Island.

Before long, familiar clues re-emerged. More eight-sided stakes were uncovered, driven deep into the ground at elevations remarkably consistent across the swamp—about a foot and a half above sea level. Surveyor Steve Guptill confirmed the measurements, noting that the uniform height could point to a single construction period.

For Rick, this consistency reinforces the idea of coordinated planning. A group of individuals worked here, with intent and structure, and possibly with a shared timeline.

Artifacts That Push the Timeline Back

The dig soon produced tangible artifacts. Gary recovered a forged iron object resembling a gate or door latch—a design known in England as a “gate’s neck.” Such fixtures have been in use since at least the 13th century, raising immediate questions about its age and purpose. If the latch once secured a door, what structure might it have belonged to?

Nearby, Tom Nolan discovered a fragment of green-and-blue glazed pottery. The coloration and decoration stood out, prompting comparisons to pottery found elsewhere on the island. Similar fragments had previously been recovered from a large stone wall on Lot 26—another structure that challenged conventional explanations.

That wall, investigated in 2022, was significantly wider than typical 19th-century farm walls. Carbon dating of charcoal found within it suggested an age of more than 500 years. Even more intriguing, Portuguese researcher Fran Shishko Nugra identified the wall’s construction style as consistent with old Portuguese rock fences.

A Growing Portuguese Connection?

The pottery fragment from the swamp may strengthen a theory that has been gaining traction: Portuguese involvement on Oak Island centuries earlier than traditionally believed. From the stone road and swamp features to the Lot 26 wall and even a possible Portuguese Templar coin found near the Money Pit, multiple clues now point in the same direction.

While no single discovery provides definitive proof, the accumulation of evidence has reached a point where the theory can no longer be easily dismissed. The team plans to send the latest finds to the lab for further analysis, hoping to clarify whether these artifacts share a common origin.

No Answers Yet—But Momentum Builds

As the first phase of the Season 13 swamp dig concludes, the mood among the team is cautiously optimistic. The discoveries reinforce a familiar Oak Island truth: the deeper they dig, the more complex—and compelling—the story becomes.

For Rick, Tom, and the rest of the team, the swamp continues to signal that something important happened here. What it was, who was involved, and what might still remain buried are questions that now drive the season forward. One thing is clear: the swamp is far from giving up its secrets.