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Review of America Unearthed S03E06 "Captain Kidd's Pirate Code"

12/13/2014

51 Comments

 
So this week Scott Wolter lets viewers think that he has been taken in by a nineteenth century hoax that he doesn’t recognize is a work of fiction. If his blog post from this past week is any indication, he’ll soon be blaming me for pointing out that his show is, by its own admission in Segment 4, hiding the fact that the producers know (or, at very least, had no excuse not to know) the source of the hoax and therefore appear to have purposely omitted it from the program to make the hoax seem more credible. Consequently, they depict the debunking of the hoax as little more than the assertion of one old man rather than the full weight of history and expert opinion. It lets them have their cake and eat it, too: They tell the truth, of sorts, in a weak way should anyone complain, and that lets them play pretend for those who are unaware.

Background

Capt. William Kidd is famous as pirate, though he never claimed to be one, and his execution by hanging in 1701 would soon spark countless rumors that remnants of his treasure had been buried somewhere along the East Coast of North America, especially since only the smallest fraction of it has ever been found—at Gardiners Island, New York, in 1699, and the governor sent it back to England as evidence in Kidd’s trial. Several immortal works of literature grew from speculation over the remaining loot: Washington Irving’s “The Devil and Tom Walker,” Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Gold Bug” and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, and lesser works of more recent vintage. Such stories are more clever than the web of lies masquerading as an investigation of “history” this week. In point of fact, Kidd was among the less successful pirates and owes his posthumous reputation for lucrative expropriation to the pop culture circus that sprang up around his questioning by Parliament. A popular song of 1701, for example, claimed that “two hundred bars of gold, and rix dollars manifold, we seized uncontrolled.”

Despite centuries of attempts to find whatever treasure remains, none has ever been found, though Kidd’s ship, the Quedagh Merchant, was found off the Dominican Republic in 2007.

Captain Kidd’s legend grew around treasure no one could prove he actually had, but the German-English millionaire John Jacob Astor (1763-1848) became legendary for wealth everyone could see. Astor became a very rich man off of a monopoly on the American fur trade, and like every rich man he (in this case posthumously) attracted his share of leeches looking for a payout. In 1928 nearly 1,000 heirs of a man named John N. Emerick (who may not have ever existed), for example, claimed Emerick taught Astor how to work in the fur trade and demanded a $39 million share of the Astor family’s fortune. The lawsuit failed. Such stories give a superficial credence to one of the nineteenth century’s most celebrated hoaxes, and it is not surprising that Scott Wolter is investigating another fraud as though it were serious. The details are confusing, and a little boring, and sadly tied up in the “mystery” of Oak Island, subject of its own History Channel show.

In 1898 the industrialist, lawyer, and banker Franklin Harvey Head, author of the 1887 hoax Shakespeare’s Insomnia, wrote a humorous pamphlet named Studies in Early American History: A Notable Lawsuit describing a fictional lawsuit the architect Frederick Law Olmstead brought against the heirs of John Jacob Astor, seeking more than $5 million dollars. Head said Olmstead claimed that someone had “illegally” removed from his family’s property Kidd’s treasure, which formed the foundation of the Astor millions. Only £14,000 of the treasure Kidd had looted over his career was officially recovered (the loot sent back to England for his trial), and this is the warrant for the whole humorous exercise.

Head allegedly wrote the privately printed pamphlet for the amusement of the owners of Deer Isle, which plays a prominent role in the hoax. Olmstead had built a house on Deer Isle in 1897 for his retirement, and this was the spark for Head’s pamphlet. Sadly, though, Olmstead had become senile and spent a grand total of one summer on Deer Island before being committed to a hospital, where he lived out his days. Head’s pamphlet was accidentally somewhat cruel given Olmstead’s dementia and his hospitalization around the same time the pamphlet came out.

According to the pamphlet, Olmstead claimed that his supposed ancestor Cotton Mather Olmstead was the owner of Deer Isle at the time that Jacques Cartier, an Astor employee, removed Kidd’s treasure and sold the sealed treasure chest to Astor for $5,000. The pamphlet fills in a number of fanciful details about Astor supposedly depositing £40,000 in ancient gold coins. According to the pamphlet, when Captain William Kidd was hanged in 1701, he slipped a card to his wife on which was written the number 44106818. The “lawsuit” alleged that this number referred to the coordinates of Deer Isle, Maine (44° 10’ N by 68° 13’ W—the difference explained as a failure of old timey chronometers), and therefore was evidence that the treasure had been on Deer Isle. Supposedly a photograph of this card was presented at the “trial” Olmstead-Astor that was never held.

Olmstead allegedly asked for $5.1 million, minus $34.80 if paid in cash, or all the Astor real estate in New York City (plus back rent), whichever was more convenient. Head claimed that the trial, which he said was ongoing, would become the biggest event in legal history. Curiously, no newspaper or legal journal or court record thought to mention it.

The attorneys ascribed to the case were all prominent lawyers and diplomats, all of whom would be instantly recognizable to readers as public figures who could not possibly have actually been involved for three years in a suit no one had heard of involving celebrities. One of the Astor family’s lawyers was William M. Evarts, the former Secretary of State. Evarts’s efforts to erect the Statue of Liberty earned the honor of being folded into the Masonic conspiracy many fringe figures like Wolter see in the supposed Isis-Freemason symbolism of the statue. Oh, and the supposed treasure chest? It was “photographed” by historian Marquis F. King, 33° Freemason and manager of the Union Safe Deposit and Trust Company’s vaults. In fact, not a single non-famous person ever came within a mile of the Kidd loot!
Picture
Drawing of Capt. Kidd's alleged treasure chest, supposedly after a photo presented at the Olmstead trial.
As should be obvious, the mentally impaired Olmstead was not in the process of suing the Astor family during his decline, nor was he actively participating in a trial from his hospital room. Even in his illness Olmstead denied that he had ever tried to sue the Astors.

So how did this clear hoax become fringe history fact? As it happens, the hoax is very well written and almost plausible—if you overlook the humorous elements embedded in it. A lot of people took the text for true, both in its day and especially in the twentieth century, when the celebrities named therein had faded from prominence, robbing the hoax of much of its humor. The former machinist Johnny Goodman, a prominent Oak Island investigator, believed Captain Kidd was involved with the Oak Island Money Pit, and he brought in the “lawsuit” as evidence, manipulating the string of numbers of the supposed Kidd card to become coordinates to the Money Pitt. Goodman excavated where he thought the number led him and found nothing. He kept refining his figures, but he never admitted once that the “lawsuit” was a hoax.

The Episode

Segment 1
We open in Boston in the year 1700 with William Kidd imprisoned. A year later he is visited by his wife and, mad and raving, hands her a slip of paper on which is written Franklin Head’s numerical hoax. She takes the paper and leaves the cell and reads the number. Kidd is then hanged, but the show doesn’t tell you until after the credits that this occurred in England. We then cut to the opening credits.

After the credits, Scott Wolter tells us that Americans are fascinated by pirates, and Wolter says that he loves pirates, too. Wolter gives a potted biography of Capt. Kidd, minus the ambiguity and nuance such biography might require. Wolter is in Boston to meet a man who has a tip on finding Kidd’s lost treasure by searching the life of John Jacob Astor. Bill Scheller, described a travel writer (he’s written 33 books and appeared in dozens of magazines), gives Wolter a bunch of details that complicate Wolter’s story of Kidd, contradicting the host after just two minutes. He tells Wolter that Kidd didn’t consider himself a pirate and gives details about the men who backed him, and discusses the charges of piracy and murder that led to Kidd’s execution.

Scheller tells Wolter about the part of Kidd’s treasure that was recovered and that much of it remains unfound. Wolter then asks Scheller if John Jacob Astor gained his wealth from Kidd’s forgotten treasure. He calls this story a “rumor” and lards his description of the story with the qualifiers like “supposedly” that strongly suggest that the producers understood that the story they are telling is a fraud. Scheller is noncommittal but gives Wolter the 44106818 number. He asks Wolter to investigate the number and tell him what it means. As the author of 33 books, I can only presume he’s intentionally playing dumb for the camera. For some odd reason the reenactment of Astor depicts him as a young man in the garb of the late nineteenth century, even though he was 85 when he died in 1848. The show, apparently doing a quick Google image search, seems to have mistakenly modeled their reenactment on John Jacob Astor IV, whose clothes they aped.

Segment 2
After a text-based recap, Wolter ponders the sequence of numbers. Scheller tells Wolter the story of the numbers but without enough detail for the audience to understand that the “stories that went around” are based on a hoax. Scheller’s description of Kidd’s treasure, incidentally, is taken directly from the popular song I quoted above. Scheller and Wolter pretend that neither of them know what the number refers to, but both of them assume that the numbers are genuine artifacts of Kidd’s time. Wolter pretends that his phone told him that the numbers are the latitude and longitude of Deer Isle, Maine, and this proves that he’s knowingly working from the hoax since, as Head himself described in 1898, the coordinates are (intentionally) wrong. They are not the coordinates of Deer Isle—the minutes of longitude are off by five, which Head did on purpose.

At the old Astor home at Red Hook, New York, Wolter meets with a descendant of the Astor family. Her name is Alexandra Aldrich, and this tenth generation descendant of John Jacob Astor makes a living describing her family’s poverty, writing a memoir about it, and showing the front rooms of her (actually her father’s) house to raise money to restore the rest of the crumbling pile.

Segment 3
It is quickly becoming apparent that the show intends to purposely avoid discussing the original source for the Astor-Kidd legend, Head’s humorous account of the alleged Olmstead lawsuit, to give superficial credence to a widely debunked myth. (Seriously, almost every Astor biography makes mention of the story as a hoax.) Is this because the producers are so far down the fringe history rabbit hole that they don’t know fact from fiction, or that they just don’t care?  As evidence from Segment 4 will show, they know very well whence the story came, but have chosen to hide the fact from viewers.

After another on-screen recap, Wolter asks Aldrich if she knows of the pirate treasure. She says no and shows Wolter around the decaying Aldrich manor. Aldrich gives Wolter the potted version of her memoir, and Wolter seems a bit confused about how dividing a fortune among many heirs for ten generations could somehow result in having very little left until Aldrich explains it to him.

Wolter describes some of the Astor family’s tragedies (and wrongly gives the Astor who died on the Titanic as John Jacob Astor III instead of IV), and he asks Aldrich again if the Astors had pirate treasure. Aldrich says no, and Wolter wonders whether “jealous” people made up the story. Nevertheless, he concludes “there’s some truth to this legend,” so he travels to Deer Isle, Maine. He describes the string of numbers as his “only real evidence,” again either ignorantly or purposely asserting that the nineteenth century hoax is in fact a real historical artifact.

On a lobster boat traveling to Deer Isle, Wolter and Scheller go in search of Kidd’s treasure, and Scheller relates it quickly to the nearby Oak Island. In a badly acted scene, Wolter pretends to have no idea that another boat is pulling up alongside his, or that the pilot will offer help to find Capt. Kidd’s treasure.

Segment 4
After another on-screen recap, Wolter gives a verbal recap. At Stonington Harbor near Deer Isle, we watch the same scene from before the commercial for a second time. The pilot once again tells Wolter he can help Wolter find the treasure. This useless boating trip, which exists solely for filler, leads to an interminable sequence of watching the ships sail to Deer Isle so the three old men—Wolter, Scheller, and the new guy, charter captain Walter Reed—can stand around and talk. Wolter and Scheller show Reed the secret pirate code, and Reed tells Wolter that the numbers and Astor connection are a “myth.” He gives a quick summary of Head’s pamphlet but without mentioning Head. “It’s amazing how some of these stories can just grow on their own and become truth to many people,” Wolter said, oblivious to the irony.

America Unearthed doesn’t let Reed state the source of the myth—Wolter prefers in his narration to leave it an open possibility that it’s true—but Reed then shows Wolter a photo of a treasure chest he says really is Kidd’s.

Segment 5
Reed tells Wolter that the photograph shows a chest in St. Augustine, Florida. Wolter backtracks and recaps the episode, again asserting falsely that the number sequence is a genuine piece of Kidd’s memorabilia. At an “undisclosed location” in Florida (it’s 12 S. Castillo St. in St. Augustine, if you care), Wolter meets with Pat Croce, the former owner of the 76ers basketball team. He currently runs the St. Augustine Pirate & Treasure Museum, where among Croce’s 800 pieces of personal pirate memorabilia is housed a set of Kidd artifacts Croce purchased, including his family bible and a small box.

Segment 6
After an on-screen recap, Wolter decides he’s no longer going to look for gold and therefore “the real treasure is learning the truth about who Captain Kidd really was.” I love the way the show keeps moving the goal posts—we start out hunting for Kidd’s treasure among the Astor millions and end by reading the accounts of Capt. Kidd’s trial to figure out whether he was as piratical as legend suggests. This is a total cop out and seems to suggest that the show (if not Wolter) knows that the Kidd-Astor story is a fake. But here’s what I just don’t get: Even if they want to make a show about this story and conclude, as they did here, that it’s a myth, why not tell the actual story? Why not acknowledge that the story came from a nineteenth century hoax? The show is purposely dishonest for no good reason; they gain nothing from the subterfuge.

That brings me back to my question: Are they so incompetent that they really don’t know the source? Or do they purposely choose to treat their audience as idiots?  

Wolter concludes the show by saying that maybe Astor found the treasure, or maybe he did not. The story’s truth doesn’t matter, he implies, because “the spirit of adventure” is what really counts. It is an apology of sorts for the failure to find treasure in any of the four treasure hunting episodes so far this season.
51 Comments
EP
12/13/2014 02:28:47 pm

"For some odd reason the reenactment of Astor depicts him as a young man in the garb of the late nineteenth century, even though he was 85 when he died in 1848. The show, apparently doing a quick Google image search, seems to have mistakenly modeled their reenactment on John Jacob Astor IV, whose clothes they aped."

http://blogs.publico.es/strambotic/files/2013/12/and-jesus-wept-iii-ricky-barnard.jpg

"Wolter pretends that his phone told him that the numbers are the latitude and longitude of Deer Isle, Maine, and this proves that he’s knowingly working from the hoax... They are not the coordinates of Deer Isle—the minutes of longitude are off by five, which Head did on purpose."

http://hsto.org/getpro/geektimes/comment_images/4d6/296/64f/4d629664fc6514e08ff30fd71d153f82.jpg

"Wolter decides he’s no longer going to look for gold and therefore “the real treasure is learning the truth about who Captain Kidd really was"... "The story’s truth doesn’t matter, he implies, because “the spirit of adventure” is what really counts."

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/e5/65/ec/e565ec7355089af46dfac70fffa0f599.jpg

Reply
Manfred
12/17/2014 09:22:24 am

The actor is the same one who plays a young Rockefeller in "The men who built America", in fact the random footage looked like footage from that show.

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Michael Thorson
12/17/2014 11:42:40 am

It is footage from that show guaranteed. I watched that show a few times...and it was much better than this episode, lol.

Lost Templar Freemason Pirate Giant
12/13/2014 02:44:50 pm

I cannot believe he concludes his "search" at a dimly lit tourist trap. Was Ripley's closed?

Especially after last weeks Larping. The man has no shame.

Reply
TonyD
12/13/2014 03:24:13 pm

As a life long Philadelphian now living in Fla I am greatly disappointed that Pat Croce participated in this sham of a show specifically this episode.

Just makes me sad.

Reply
Lost Templar Freemason Pirate Giant
12/14/2014 12:02:08 am

This season you get a definite sense that people are participating for the money or exposure.

Some that come to mind are, the ROV entrepreneur, the Astor relative, and the Peralta stone enthusiast. You can read the disbelief in their eyes, despite the editors best attempts to make it seem like they are agreeing with Scott.

I really dislike the new Wolter reenactments too. Like when he pulls the treasure map out of the tube, or Captain Carl pulls up along side his boat.

As if someone who found mythical treasure would leave it be so they can share it with Wolter.

Ughhh... they really think their audience is stupid. I should be offended enough to stop watching.

Varika
12/14/2014 10:41:40 am

De-cloaking to say, it's not actually particularly dimly lit. I should know. I was there while Scott Wolter was right across the street at the Castillo de San Marco, filming his odd and rambling walk (seriously, the ONLY parking garage in the area is in the exact OPPOSITE direction from how he walked, and if he'd used the Castillo's parking lot, he wouldn't have needed to walk PAST the Castillo). And those Captain Kid artifacts? Yeah, I saw them myself. Of course I didn't get to touch them, even with gloves on, but they're a public display. That area is even part of the public area.

I think we must have been there just before they filmed the section in the museum, because they had the doors to the gift shop closed and locked on that side, and were sort of trying to shoo people out gently on the other side. If I'd known at the time that it was Scott Wolter, I think I would have tried to make a pest of myself, just to be annoying...and my mother would have, she confesses, aided and abetted!

Reply
Mark
10/8/2017 07:43:24 pm

I watched this silly man talk about Templar Knights and laughed. But hey it is a tv show. Some people buy into these silly facts, however most people with half a brain just laugh

Reply
tm
12/13/2014 03:19:34 pm

Local news coverage doesn't quite fit with the episode narrative :)

http://islandadvantages.com/news/2014/jul/31/history-channel-films-in-stonington/

Reply
Manfred
12/13/2014 03:45:13 pm

It seems like this show is trying to become like the old show " Solving history with Olly steeds" . But where that show came right out and said, were chasing down this myth and following all leads, etc. Wolters attempt is odd. It's hard to describe what this show has become. For one he steers the viewer down a path of his choosing. Which is ok for the most part, that's how a narrative type show progresses. But he, like you have mentioned earlier, is choosing paths he knows are false, then at the end of the show he says, "aw shucks we came to another dead end". I keep waiting to see a closing scene where he is standing there with a shit eating grin saying, "tune in next week to see what kind if hijinx I get into!".

I have no problem at all watching a show where people state a myth or historical event, then proceed to chase down leads. There are tons of them, most are pretty decent with the host chasing down a lead and then speaking with a scholar who rains on their parade. But it works because it shows both sides of the story, the myth, then the reality. Wolters this year seems to be going that direction, but it's horrible. I mean would you expect to see Brad Meltzer putting on a show where he looks so dumb like Wolters does this year?

Another thing that hurts the show now is that he spent all last couple seasons acting like the supreme know it all, and now he acts worse than me doing a shoestring budget show. Think about this. This episode is no better than calling a random person in the phone book and telling them you want to give them $5000 for expenses to do a show from the common mans uneducated viewpoint. Then they proceed to do what Wolter did tonight.

Why can't they do shows like the original shows on The Learning Channel and History channel? I would love to see a new series where they chase a myth or actual event , doesn't matter. And they say upfront this is the accepted viewpoint, this is the fringe viewpoint. Then proceed to interview people who are scholars that address the issues and cite sources. I would rather see a scene on a show where they shoot down a myth by dropping 50 research papers on a table, than to say hey nobody knows......

Reply
Tj
12/16/2014 10:59:35 am

Who decides what constitutes fringe? How many people still believe a hot toddy with brandy cures what ails you? How many ethnic traditions do we do for no other reason than it's what our grandmothers have done and theirs before them? Look at what was common medical practice 50, 100, 150+ years ago compared to today. I am sure we would freak out not to see our surgeon failing to wash his hands before he operated but during the Civil War it was common practice. Just remember, it's just a TV show which has 100k plus viewers. I think Jason should approach Discovery and pitch this idea of debunking other people's TV shows, call it Fact Checking

Reply
Coridan
12/13/2014 05:31:42 pm

I am surprised they banked the entire season on treasure hunting rather than experimenting with one or two episodes of it. It's really really bad. Not that it was great before.

Reply
Roger
12/13/2014 06:23:09 pm

The show kinda worked before, not well, but ok. Common people sent requests for him to study things they found. Neat concept, it puts Wolter in the position of superiority because he is the "educated" one helping the comman man so to speak. But I guess he ran out of places to go.

But this season he goes and talks to all these random people who aren't qualified to talk about anything on TV in reference to history. If this is the direction he is going in he is making "Myth Hunters" look great in comparison. I understand if your researching a rock I found in my front yard, there might not be too many people to talk to about it., a local historian, a geologist, idk. But if your going after historical events or myths, you can gave your pick of people with many letters behind their name, but he chooses common man on the street or in the coin store to talk to. It's bad.

Reply
Only Me
12/13/2014 06:48:00 pm

Poor Scott! He went looking for Captain Kidd's booty, and had to settle for gazing at the good captain's chest!

I'm sure it's an experience he will always...treasure.

Reply
EP
12/13/2014 07:01:38 pm

"He went looking for Captain Kidd's booty, and had to settle for gazing at the good captain's chest!"

No pun intended, I'm sure ;)

Reply
Ac
12/13/2014 09:44:40 pm

I heard in an interview where Wolter said he only gets to pick a third of the topics for shows, the network / production company picks the rest. Apparantly most of the shows thus far haven't been his ideas. Im thinking the second half of the season starting next week will see the show return to a more familiar state.

Reply
Roger
12/14/2014 01:25:13 am

Well that wall he is checking out looks more interesting than anything so far. But it will be interesting to see how he distorts the accepted truth.

Reply
RLewis
12/14/2014 01:47:23 am

I knew this was going to be a bad episode when they hanged Willie Nelson in the first segment.

Reply
Matt Mc
12/14/2014 01:55:07 am

Since the episode was so uninteresting last night I timed out how long the episode would be if we removed the re-enactments, recaps, theory babbling, overused graphics, and establishing shots. With all of that removed there would be a fast paced and much more interesting 22 minute show which is perfect for the 30 minute time slot.

If AU continues on this trend perhaps they should consider doing 2 30 min episodes for the hour time slot, or two treasure hunting trips per episode.

You can tell this season is poor when even the (not-so-ethical) Rev and his (not-so) royal St.Clair have not choose to jump in the conversation.

Reply
Roger
12/14/2014 03:23:00 pm

I was wondering how short the show would be without all the repeated crap over and over edited out. I agree with you that 22 minutes is perfect for a half hour show. I refuse to watch it unless it's on the DVR anymore so I can fast forward past the textual recaps, and part of Wolters recap.

Most of the shows on the history channel are watered down like this but not to this extreme. There are several one off shows still floating around they drag out and play sometimes that are loaded with information. And some of them I'll watch again because there is so much info to take in. These shows this year have no value to re watch.

Reply
Manfred
12/14/2014 05:50:22 pm

I was kinda late to this blog and went back a bit and read some old posts. Has anybody noticed that in the old posts there are hundreds of people defending Wolter, H2, anything and everything else related to him, and now nobody defends him?

Seeing your reference to the Rev. made me think of that because he seemed to be one of the major fanboys of Wolter in the older posts I looked up, but I've not seen him once on any current posts.

Reply
EP
12/16/2014 03:31:50 am

He still shows up every once in a while to drop non sequiturs about the natural beauty of Arizona and to disclaim and sympathy for the Nazis :)

Only Me
12/16/2014 04:06:21 am

@EP

You forget his insinuations that everything wrong with Jason is from reading too much H.P. Lovecraft.

Matt Mc
12/16/2014 04:59:15 am

and to make mocking statements about peoples ethnic backgrounds and then denying it

.
12/23/2014 06:24:32 am

Dude... we all here are under that Dunwitch Horror curse!
we all have read way too much Lovecraft... unlike the good
folk who have only seen the movies made from his books!
i am proud of the fact i've read less books by Steven King
and seen more of the movies made from his books! I can
say the opposite about HPL! am on the fringes of a fandom!

gvr
12/14/2014 03:45:46 am

I have a tip that leads to a treasure worth about a billion dollars. I don't really want to become rich and quit my minimum wage job. Should I just send it to Scott?

Reply
EP
12/14/2014 03:51:23 am

Whatever you choose to do, remember: it's the spirit of adventure that is the real treasure.

Reply
tm
12/14/2014 03:51:55 am

Don't you think you should send it to someone who can actually find it? :)

Reply
gary brown
12/14/2014 04:18:38 am

what ended it all for me was when he and the other guy both pronounced the pirate ship the way it is spelled -- WHY-dah. its pronounced, WID-ah. IDIOT! pronounced ID EE UT!!!

Reply
Ragnar
12/14/2014 05:08:56 am

The numerous recaps really annoy me. They just waste time. Especially when they give a recap, then Wolter recaps everything AGAIN!

"Some that come to mind are, the ROV entrepreneur, the Astor relative, and the Peralta stone enthusiast. You can read the disbelief in their eyes, despite the editors best attempts to make it seem like they are agreeing with Scott"

My wife, who doesn't watch the show, but has seen sections of it, mentioned this. She said "look at how those people are looking at him (Scott). They are looking like "he's nuts!"

Something really funny to try though. Listen to his lines but don't watch the show. It's like he's reading to a group of children, trying to "act" interested or engaged. Lol

Reply
CHV
12/14/2014 06:02:12 am

I hate to say it, but this show was so much more interesting (albeit in a maddening way) when Scott was chasing the Knights Templar behind every rock and piece of furniture. Now it's just god-awful boring.

Reply
Clete
12/14/2014 06:25:38 am

The producers of this farce need to start thinking outside the box. They made a start when they had Scott Wolter dress up as one of Custer's troopers when he went hunting "Custer's Gold". They should have him dress up in the garb of whatever treasure he is looking for. For Captain Kidd's treasure he should have dressed up like a pirate, complete with cutlass and parrot on the shoulder. Next week he should dress up like Marko Polo, complete with journal and camel. When he went looking for the Lost Dutchman mine, he should have dressed like an old prospector, complete with pickax and donkey. If they couldn't find a donkey, they could have used the history executive who approved this show for broadcast.

Reply
Dave Lewis
12/16/2014 11:25:24 am

For the pirate costume you forgot the eye patch & fake peg leg!

Arrrrgh, Matey!

Reply
Mike Morgan
12/14/2014 07:00:35 am

Lost Templar Freemason Pirate Giant
12/13/2014 10:44pm

I cannot believe he concludes his "search" at a dimly lit tourist trap. Was Ripley's closed?

Especially after last weeks Larping. The man has no shame.
---------------------------------------------------
Only Me
12/14/2014 2:48am

Poor Scott! He went looking for Captain Kidd's booty, and had to settle for gazing at the good captain's chest!

I'm sure it's an experience he will always...treasure.
--------------------------------------------
RLewis
12/14/2014 9:47am

I knew this was going to be a bad episode when they hanged Willie Nelson in the first segment.
------------------------------------------
Clete
12/14/2014 2:25pm

"........When he went looking for the Lost Dutchman mine, he should have dressed like an old prospector, complete with pickax and donkey. If they couldn't find a donkey, they could have used the history executive who approved this show for broadcast.
----------------------------------------

Thank you all for the belly laughs, I haven't laughed so hard in months.

Reply
Clete
12/14/2014 09:18:15 am

Thinking about this later, I'm not sure that any self-repecting jackass would want to associate with this show.

Reply
Roger
12/14/2014 03:12:55 pm

That's hilarious, he should dress up like the Custer episode. And every costume should not fit.

On another note, what are the numbers for viewers this year compared to last year? Or the common size comparison percentages for whatever they consider to be in the same genre as this show?

Is this show maintaining or declining, etc?

Reply
Bill Withers
12/14/2014 03:45:22 pm

How many shows is he going to say, "I'm a forensic geologist" and then later opine about something totally outside of geology....as here, about the wood box..."I'm not an expert in X, but I think it looks "old" etc. Same for the handwriting of Davey Crockett, where he contradicts all of the real experts who said it wasn't Crockett'a signature. What happened to his area of expertise, are rocks just not sexy enough anymore?

Reply
Don
12/15/2014 01:51:19 am

Had insomnia last night. Up at 2:00. Went to the den and watched this episode on dvr. Fell right to sleep.

Reply
diggz
12/15/2014 06:12:03 pm

So does wolter no longer do any archeo-geo (whatever he calls it) anymore on the show? Or does he just go for trips around the place just talking to people. He no longer needs his Indiana Jones setup if that's the case.

Reply
TJ
12/16/2014 10:42:49 am

Wolters a geologist not an archeologist. Many people attack that fact for whatever their reason my be. Many reviews here both past and present attack the style in which he presents the story. Even Jason got the coordinates of Deer Isle incorrect. He concentrated on the 3' difference of the longitude from the "hoax" 10' to actual 13' as proof. However Jason repeated the same latitude of the "hoax" as his simple google search. However the latitude in minutes is 37' not 18'

Reply
Jason Colavito link
12/16/2014 01:03:15 pm

I gave the coordinates as they were given in Head's hoax, not as actually determined with modern measurements. Blame Head. He was probably reading off of a small-scale chart and ended up off by a few minutes. For Wolter to endorse the error is of course silly.

gary brown
12/16/2014 12:07:47 pm

i repeat...did it not irk anyone that twice the pirate ship WHYDAH was pronounced the way its spelled rather than the correct way? am i being to picky? i dont think so.

Reply
Michael Thorson
12/16/2014 04:36:07 pm

Just a small bit of info that explains the reenactment with Astor in inaccurate period clothing. The footage the show used was from a History Channel show "The Men Who Built America" and was that shows reenactment of John D. Rockefeller and his building an oil empire.

Love your blog by the way.

Reply
gary brown
12/16/2014 05:03:10 pm

you are correct. i caught that too. that goes hand in hand with their mispronouncing whydah. not very professional. this show is going south fast. in fact, its going so south maybe he should do an antarctic thing.

Reply
kd
12/20/2014 02:54:00 pm

Thanks for starting this, I watch an episode a season and Wolter always infuriates me and the show's repetitive and tedious format

Reply
As to GO'IN SOUTH...
12/23/2014 06:37:36 am

what if Antarctica between 10 million and 3 million years ago
had Great Apes swinging thru the verdant and abundant trees
in the leafy forests before all went to an icy frozen coldness???
this notion might be totally disproved in the next 75 to 150 years
but is wide open as a debate topic because we have not looked
under the ice that often! its easier to assume that academia often
is correct in terms of a bias, and that going counter to the same
does beg for a degree of validation. H2 + A.U are running out of
topics, when they get to debating if Francis Bacon wrote most of
Will Shakespeare's plays, or if 2 of Edward IV's sons were buried
under the Tower Chapel stairwell, and if their bones were found
in the late 1600s, we will know they have run their course. I feel
that William Shakespeare ended up with Christopher Marlowe's
tidy theater chest after the poor fool's untimely disappearance...

Reply
Bad
5/10/2015 02:39:58 am

This show makes the History Channel look bad.....and that is saying a lot.

Reply
Laserguy
7/15/2015 01:59:08 pm

40+ years ago a friend of mine (now deceased) was a amateur treasure hunter that owned a antique shop in Sheetharbor N.S. he took me to a spot north of town off 7 where a road lead off to the right (there was a small war memorial in the middle of the intersection to this road. We followed the road to a spot where it came close to a cove on the right. He took me down to the cove and we travelled along it to the right of where we came in. Along this shore 50-75' was a rock with the name "Kidd" and the date 17?? (I can't remember the exact year) So who knows?

Reply
B Miller
5/31/2017 09:58:48 am

I have to say... this is the best episode I've seen (while submitting student grades and waiting for the server to record the scores). If you don't really pay attention and just look at the pictures once and a while, there's some beautiful scenery...

Reply
D. Richards
5/14/2019 10:45:54 am

When I was 13 years old I was impressed by the theories presented in "Chariots of the Gods." I am now 62. This show seems to be aimed at my younger self.

Reply
L. Jordan
7/23/2019 12:33:12 pm

Did I see a slotted screw head on the inside of the bottom of Kidd's treasure chest. FYI, slotted screws were first produced in the late 1700's by a screw cutting lathe, invented by Jesse Ramsden in 1770, it wasn't until the early 19th century that slotted screws were widely used in the production of furniture. Since Cpt. Kidd was executed in 1701 that would make that treasure box a fake.

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      • Volumes 21-30 Archive >
        • Volume 21 Archive
        • Volume 22 Archive
        • Volume 23 Archive
    • Television Reviews >
      • Ancient Aliens Reviews
      • In Search of Aliens Reviews
      • America Unearthed
      • Pirate Treasure of the Knights Templar
      • Search for the Lost Giants
      • Forbidden History Reviews
      • Expedition Unknown Reviews
      • Legends of the Lost
      • Unexplained + Unexplored
      • Rob Riggle: Global Investigator
    • Book Reviews
    • Galleries >
      • Bad Archaeology
      • Ancient Civilizations >
        • Ancient Egypt
        • Ancient Greece
        • Ancient Near East
        • Ancient Americas
      • Supernatural History
      • Book Image Galleries
    • Videos
    • Collection: Ancient Alien Fraud >
      • Chariots of the Gods at 50
      • Secret History of Ancient Astronauts
      • Of Atlantis and Aliens
      • Aliens and Ancient Texts
      • Profiles in Ancient Astronautics >
        • Erich von Däniken
        • Robert Temple
        • Giorgio Tsoukalos
        • David Childress
      • Blunders in the Sky
      • The Case of the False Quotes
      • Alternative Authors' Quote Fraud
      • David Childress & the Aliens
      • Faking Ancient Art in Uzbekistan
      • Intimations of Persecution
      • Zecharia Sitchin's World
      • Jesus' Alien Ancestors?
      • Extraterrestrial Evolution?
    • Collection: Skeptic Magazine >
      • America Before Review
      • Native American Discovery of Europe
      • Interview: Scott Sigler
      • Golden Fleeced
      • Oh the Horror
      • Discovery of America
      • Supernatural Television
      • Review of Civilization One
      • Who Lost the Middle Ages
      • Charioteer of the Gods
    • Collection: Ancient History >
      • Prehistoric Nuclear War
      • The China Syndrome
      • Atlantis, Mu, and the Maya
      • Easter Island Exposed
      • Who Built the Sphinx?
      • Who Built the Great Pyramid?
      • Archaeological Cover Up?
    • Collection: The Lovecraft Legacy >
      • Pauwels, Bergier, and Lovecraft
      • Lovecraft in Bergier
      • Lovecraft and Scientology
    • Collection: UFOs >
      • Alien Abduction at the Outer Limits
      • Aliens and Anal Probes
      • Ultra-Terrestrials and UFOs
      • Rebels, Queers, and Aliens
    • Scholomance: The Devil's School
    • Prehistory of Chupacabra
    • The Templars, the Holy Grail, & Henry Sinclair
    • Magicians of the Gods Review
    • The Curse of the Pharaohs
    • The Antediluvian Pyramid Myth
    • Whitewashing American Prehistory
    • James Dean's Cursed Porsche
  • The Library
    • Ancient Mysteries >
      • Ancient Texts >
        • Mesopotamian Texts >
          • Atrahasis Epic
          • Epic of Gilgamesh
          • Kutha Creation Legend
          • Babylonian Creation Myth
          • Descent of Ishtar
          • Berossus
          • Comparison of Antediluvian Histories
        • Egyptian Texts >
          • The Shipwrecked Sailor
          • Dream Stela of Thutmose IV
          • The Papyrus of Ani
          • Classical Accounts of the Pyramids
          • Inventory Stela
          • Manetho
          • Eratosthenes' King List
          • The Story of Setna
          • Leon of Pella
          • Diodorus on Egyptian History
          • On Isis and Osiris
          • Famine Stela
          • Old Egyptian Chronicle
          • The Book of Sothis
          • Horapollo
          • Al-Maqrizi's King List
        • Teshub and the Dragon
        • Hermetica >
          • The Three Hermeses
          • Kore Kosmou
          • Corpus Hermeticum
          • The Asclepius
          • The Emerald Tablet
          • Hermetic Fragments
          • Prologue to the Kyranides
          • The Secret of Creation
          • Ancient Alphabets Explained
          • Prologue to Ibn Umayl's Silvery Water
          • Book of the 24 Philosophers
          • Aurora of the Philosophers
        • Hesiod's Theogony
        • Periplus of Hanno
        • Ctesias' Indica
        • Sanchuniathon
        • Sima Qian
        • Syncellus's Enoch Fragments
        • The Book of Enoch
        • Slavonic Enoch
        • Sepher Yetzirah
        • Tacitus' Germania
        • De Dea Syria
        • Aelian's Various Histories
        • Julius Africanus' Chronography
        • Eusebius' Chronicle
        • Chinese Accounts of Rome
        • Ancient Chinese Automaton
        • The Orphic Argonautica
        • Fragments of Panodorus
        • Annianus on the Watchers
        • The Watchers and Antediluvian Wisdom
      • Medieval Texts >
        • Medieval Legends of Ancient Egypt >
          • Medieval Pyramid Lore
          • John Malalas on Ancient Egypt
          • Fragments of Abenephius
          • Akhbar al-zaman
          • Ibrahim ibn Wasif Shah
          • Murtada ibn al-‘Afif
          • Al-Maqrizi on the Pyramids
          • Al-Suyuti on the Pyramids
        • The Hunt for Noah's Ark
        • Isidore of Seville
        • Book of Liang: Fusang
        • Agobard on Magonia
        • Book of Thousands
        • Voyage of Saint Brendan
        • Power of Art and of Nature
        • Travels of Sir John Mandeville
        • Yazidi Revelation and Black Book
        • Al-Biruni on the Great Flood
        • Voyage of the Zeno Brothers
        • The Kensington Runestone (Hoax)
        • Islamic Discovery of America
        • The Aztec Creation Myth
      • Lost Civilizations >
        • Atlantis >
          • Plato's Atlantis Dialogues >
            • Timaeus
            • Critias
          • Fragments on Atlantis
          • Panchaea: The Other Atlantis
          • Eumalos on Atlantis (Hoax)
          • Gómara on Atlantis
          • Sardinia and Atlantis
          • Santorini and Atlantis
          • The Mound Builders and Atlantis
          • Donnelly's Atlantis
          • Atlantis in Morocco
          • Atlantis and the Sea Peoples
          • W. Scott-Elliot >
            • The Story of Atlantis
            • The Lost Lemuria
          • The Lost Atlantis
          • Atlantis in Africa
          • How I Found Atlantis (Hoax)
          • Termier on Atlantis
          • The Critias and Minoan Crete
          • Rebuttal to Termier
          • Further Responses to Termier
          • Flinders Petrie on Atlantis
        • Lost Cities >
          • Miscellaneous Lost Cities
          • The Seven Cities
          • The Lost City of Paititi
          • Manuscript 512
          • The Idolatrous City of Iximaya (Hoax)
          • The 1885 Moberly Lost City Hoax
          • The Elephants of Paredon (Hoax)
        • OOPARTs
        • Oronteus Finaeus Antarctica Map
        • Caucasians in Panama
        • Jefferson's Excavation
        • Fictitious Discoveries in America
        • Against Diffusionism
        • Tunnels Under Peru
        • The Parahyba Inscription (Hoax)
        • Mound Builders
        • Gunung Padang
        • Tales of Enchanted Islands
        • The 1907 Ancient World Map Hoax
        • The 1909 Grand Canyon Hoax
        • The Interglacial Period
        • Solving Oak Island
      • Religious Conspiracies >
        • Pantera, Father of Jesus?
        • Toledot Yeshu
        • Peter of les Vaux-de-Cernay on Cathars
        • Testimony of Jean de Châlons
        • Rosslyn Chapel and the 'Prentice's Pillar
        • The Many Wives of Jesus
        • Templar Infiltration of Labor
        • Louis Martin & the Holy Bloodline
        • The Life of St. Issa (Hoax)
        • On the Person of Jesus Christ
      • Giants in the Earth >
        • Fossil Origins of Myths >
          • Fossil Teeth and Bones of Elephants
          • Fossil Elephants
          • Fossil Bones of Teutobochus
          • Fossil Mammoths and Giants
          • Giants' Bones Dug Out of the Earth
          • Fossils and the Supernatural
          • Fossils, Myth, and Pseudo-History
          • Man During the Stone Age
          • Fossil Bones and Giants
          • American Elephant Myths
          • The Mammoth and the Flood
          • Fossils and Myth
          • Fossil Origin of the Cyclops
          • Mastodon, Mammoth, and Man
        • Fragments on Giants
        • Manichaean Book of Giants
        • Geoffrey on British Giants
        • Alfonso X's Hermetic History of Giants
        • Boccaccio and the Fossil 'Giant'
        • Book of Howth
        • Purchas His Pilgrimage
        • Edmond Temple's 1827 Giant Investigation
        • The Giants of Sardinia
        • Giants and the Sons of God
        • The Magnetism of Evil
        • Tertiary Giants
        • Smithsonian Giant Reports
        • Early American Giants
        • The Giant of Coahuila
        • Jewish Encyclopedia on Giants
        • Index of Giants
        • Newspaper Accounts of Giants
        • Lanier's A Book of Giants
      • Science and History >
        • Halley on Noah's Comet
        • The Newport Tower
        • Iron: The Stone from Heaven
        • Ararat and the Ark
        • Pyramid Facts and Fancies
        • Argonauts before Homer
        • The Deluge
        • Crown Prince Rudolf on the Pyramids
        • Old Mythology in New Apparel
        • Blavatsky on Dinosaurs
        • Teddy Roosevelt on Bigfoot
        • Devil Worship in France
        • Maspero's Review of Akhbar al-zaman
        • The Holy Grail as Lucifer's Crown Jewel
        • The Mutinous Sea
        • The Rock Wall of Rockwall
        • Fabulous Zoology
        • The Origins of Talos
        • Mexican Mythology
        • Chinese Pyramids
        • Maqrizi's Names of the Pharaohs
      • Extreme History >
        • Roman Empire Hoax
        • American Antiquities
        • American Cataclysms
        • England, the Remnant of Judah
        • Historical Chronology of the Mexicans
        • Maspero on the Predynastic Sphinx
        • Vestiges of the Mayas
        • Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel
        • Origins of the Egyptian People
        • The Secret Doctrine >
          • Volume 1: Cosmogenesis
          • Volume 2: Anthropogenesis
        • Phoenicians in America
        • The Electric Ark
        • Traces of European Influence
        • Prince Henry Sinclair
        • Pyramid Prophecies
        • Templars of Ancient Mexico
        • Chronology and the "Riddle of the Sphinx"
        • The Faith of Ancient Egypt
        • Remarkable Discoveries Within the Sphinx (Hoax)
        • Spirit of the Hour in Archaeology
        • Book of the Damned
        • Great Pyramid As Noah's Ark
        • Richard Shaver's Proofs
    • Alien Encounters >
      • US Government Ancient Astronaut Files >
        • Fortean Society and Columbus
        • Inquiry into Shaver and Palmer
        • The Skyfort Document
        • Whirling Wheels
        • Denver Ancient Astronaut Lecture
        • Soviet Search for Lemuria
        • Visitors from Outer Space
        • Unidentified Flying Objects (Abstract)
        • "Flying Saucers"? They're a Myth
        • UFO Hypothesis Survival Questions
        • Air Force Academy UFO Textbook
        • The Condon Report on Ancient Astronauts
        • Atlantis Discovery Telegrams
        • Ancient Astronaut Society Telegram
        • Noah's Ark Cables
        • The Von Daniken Letter
        • CIA Psychic Probe of Ancient Mars
        • Scott Wolter Lawsuit
        • UFOs in Ancient China
        • CIA Report on Noah's Ark
        • CIA Noah's Ark Memos
        • Congressional Ancient Aliens Testimony
        • Ancient Astronaut and Nibiru Email
        • Congressional Ancient Mars Hearing
        • House UFO Hearing
      • Ancient Extraterrestrials >
        • Premodern UFO Sightings
        • The Moon Hoax
        • Inhabitants of Other Planets
        • Blavatsky on Ancient Astronauts
        • The Stanzas of Dzyan (Hoax)
        • Aerolites and Religion
        • What Is Theosophy?
        • Plane of Ether
        • The Adepts from Venus
      • A Message from Mars
      • Saucer Mystery Solved?
      • Orville Wright on UFOs
      • Interdimensional Flying Saucers
      • Flying Saucers Are Real
      • Report on UFOs
    • The Supernatural >
      • The Devils of Loudun
      • Sublime and Beautiful
      • Voltaire on Vampires
      • Demonology and Witchcraft
      • Thaumaturgia
      • Bulgarian Vampires
      • Religion and Evolution
      • Transylvanian Superstitions
      • Defining a Zombie
      • Dread of the Supernatural
      • Vampires
      • Werewolves and Vampires and Ghouls
      • Science and Fairy Stories
      • The Cursed Car
    • Classic Fiction >
      • Lucian's True History
      • Some Words with a Mummy
      • The Coming Race
      • King Solomon's Mines
      • An Inhabitant of Carcosa
      • The Xipéhuz
      • Lot No. 249
      • The Novel of the Black Seal
      • The Island of Doctor Moreau
      • Pharaoh's Curse
      • Edison's Conquest of Mars
      • The Lost Continent
      • Count Magnus
      • The Mysterious Stranger
      • The Wendigo
      • Sredni Vashtar
      • The Lost World
      • The Red One
      • H. P. Lovecraft >
        • Dagon
        • The Call of Cthulhu
        • History of the Necronomicon
        • At the Mountains of Madness
        • Lovecraft's Library in 1932
      • The Skeptical Poltergeist
      • The Corpse on the Grating
      • The Second Satellite
      • Queen of the Black Coast
      • A Martian Odyssey
    • Classic Genre Movies
    • Miscellaneous Documents >
      • The Balloon-Hoax
      • A Problem in Greek Ethics
      • The Migration of Symbols
      • The Gospel of Intensity
      • De Profundis
      • The Life and Death of Crown Prince Rudolf
      • The Bathtub Hoax
      • Crown Prince Rudolf's Letters
      • Position of Viking Women
      • Employment of Homosexuals
      • James Dean's Scrapbook
      • James Dean's Love Letters
      • The Amazing James Dean Hoax!
      • James Dean, The Human Ashtray
    • Free Classic Pseudohistory eBooks
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