Oak Island Secrets

Jane M. Wilson is a Toronto-based chartered financial analyst in the
investment business.

The artifacts, hieroglyphics, and vast complex labyrinth of tunnels and
shafts found on Oak Island off Nova Scotia’s South Shore are widely
accepted as indicators of a secret cache of enormous value. For 200
years the area has been explored and excavated, but treasure seekers
have been confounded by flooding and the lack of any historical records.
Oak Island Secrets describes these explorations, and then tackles the
mystery of the hidden cache and speculates about the identity of the
original masterminds and the treasure. The author focuses on one major
theme—a possible Masonic connection going back to the days of Sir
Francis Bacon. Although the book lacks the objectivity of William
Crooker’s Oak Island Gold (1993) or the capricious eclecticism in
matters historical of Lionel and Patricia Fanthorpe’s The Oak Island
Mystery, Finnan’s approach allows a more comprehensive examination of
a theory whose more summary treatment in other works does not convey the
same plausibility. His recounting of the history of the region and of
the role of Freemasonry in the political and social life of the early
colonials establishes a credible connection between the undiscovered
secrets of Oak Island and the Masonic code of secrecy.

Unfortunately, Finnan’s concluding discussions of psychic visions and
dreams rankle like dust in a microscope. While circumspect and pragmatic
readers will balk at his brief but earnest treatment of these phenomena,
Oak Island Secrets is still a worthwhile addition to the growing store
of books on Nova Scotia’s greatest unsolved mystery.