You’ve likely heard the name Anthony Graves if you’ve been keeping up with the recent chaotic seasons of The Curse of Oak Island. For years, the narrative of the island was dominated by the "big three" discoverers—McInnis, Smith, and Vaughan. Then, suddenly, this farmer named Anthony Graves starts popping up in every other segment.
Honestly, it feels like he came out of nowhere. One minute we’re talking about Templar knights, and the next, everyone is obsessed with a guy who lived on the island in the 1800s.
Is he just a "filler" character to keep the show going? Or did Anthony Graves actually find something that the rest of us have been missing for two centuries?
Who was Anthony Graves anyway?
Anthony Thickpenny Graves wasn't some mysterious pirate or a knight in hiding. He was a farmer. Born in 1812 in Chester, Nova Scotia, he was basically a local guy who worked the land. In 1857, he bought several lots on the island, including the ones containing the infamous Money Pit.
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He lived there until he died in 1888. That’s over 30 years of living right on top of the world's most famous treasure hunt.
Think about that for a second. While various search companies were blowing through fortunes trying to dig up the Money Pit, Graves was just... there. He was planting vegetables. He was raising 11 children.
He even leased part of his land to the Oak Island Association in the 1860s. He watched them struggle firsthand.
The Spanish Coin Mystery
The reason Anthony Graves is suddenly the "man of the hour" for theorists is the money. Local legends say Graves used to go into the town of Chester and pay for his supplies with Spanish silver and gold coins.
If you're a farmer in 19th-century Nova Scotia, where do you get a steady supply of Spanish doubloons?
Most people assume he found a small "surface cache." It’s a pretty compelling theory. In 1930, long after he was gone, a silver Spanish coin dated 1785 was actually found near the ruins of his old house.
But here’s the thing: Spanish currency was actually pretty common in Nova Scotia back then. Because of the trade routes with the Caribbean, "pieces of eight" were used as everyday legal tender in many coastal communities. It doesn't necessarily mean he hit the motherlode.
Still, the stories of his family tearing his house apart after he died suggest they believed he had a secret stash. They literally ripped up the floorboards looking for his "safety deposit box."
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The Swamp, the Brick Vault, and the Pottery
In recent episodes, the Lagina brothers have been focusing on a man-made feature in the North Swamp. They found a stone and brick structure that some think was a "root cellar" or a "vault" belonging to Graves.
Archaeologist Laird Niven found earthenware and glass jars there dating to the late 1800s. Basically, stuff Graves would have used.
Some fans are annoyed. They feel like the show is just digging up a 19th-century trash pile and calling it a mystery. You've got people on Reddit calling it the "most boring arc" in the show's history.
But there’s a counter-argument. If Graves built a structure in the swamp, why? You don't build a root cellar in a boggy marsh unless you're trying to hide something or protect a specific entry point.
The Sophia Sellers Connection
The most famous story involving the Graves family actually involves his daughter, Sophia Sellers. In 1878, she was plowing a field near the Money Pit when her oxen suddenly vanished.
Well, they didn't disappear into thin air. A hole opened up under them.
This became known as the "Cave-In Pit." It was a shaft about 10 feet deep that supposedly sat right over the "flood tunnels."
This event is one of the "hard" pieces of evidence that there really is something engineered beneath the island. The fact that it happened on Anthony Graves' farm, to his own daughter, ties him forever to the mechanical side of the mystery.
Did he actually find the treasure?
His granddaughter, Florence Eisenhauer, was interviewed back in the 1950s. She didn't think her grandpa found the "big" treasure.
However, she did tell a weird story about a ship. She said her aunt remembered a mysterious vessel coming into the cove one evening and leaving before sunrise. There were marks in the sand like heavy barrels had been rolled down to the water.
Did Anthony Graves make a deal? Did he find the treasure and sell it off in the middle of the night?
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It would explain why he lived a relatively quiet life but always seemed to have those Spanish coins when he went to town.
What we can learn from Graves
If you're looking for the "Truth" of Oak Island, Anthony Graves is a reminder that the island has layers. It’s not just about 17th-century pirates. It’s about the people who lived there and what they might have stumbled upon while just trying to survive.
Key Takeaways:
- Context Matters: Just because someone has Spanish coins in 1860 doesn't mean they found a treasure chest; it was common currency.
- The "Surface" Theory: It’s highly possible Graves found a small, secondary cache that was separate from the main Money Pit.
- The Family Knew Something: The fact that his own kids searched his house for gold after he died is the strongest evidence that he was hiding wealth.
The next time you see the team digging up a piece of 1800s pottery, don't just roll your eyes. That "trash" might be the only trail left by the one man who actually lived on top of the secret for three decades.
If you want to understand the modern search, you have to look at the ruins of the Graves homestead. Check out the latest survey maps of Lot 18 to see exactly where his house stood in relation to the Money Pit—the proximity is closer than you might think.