For 12 seasons on The Curse of Oak Island, brothers Marty and Rick Lagina have been searching for treasure on Nova Scotia’s Oak Island. And while there have been some tantalizing finds discovered, the massive alleged treasure eludes them.
Let’s hope the stars of Deadman’s Curse aren’t still digging for gold over a decade from now. Airing Thursdays on The History Channel, Canada’s West Coast is the setting for this doozy of a docuseries. Mixing action and adventure with Indigenous storytelling, rumour and legend, Deadman’s Curse follows prospector Kru Williams, mountaineer Adam Palmer, Indigenous explorer Taylor Starr and her father, Don Froese, who have worked tirelessly to finally solve the mystery of Slumach’s lost gold mine.
In the first episode of Season 3, Williams and Palmer made a startling discovery, uncovering an old mine. And while what they unearthed wasn’t Slumach’s, it did get the quartet—and viewers—excited.
We spoke to mountaineer Adam Palmer about his ongoing quest.
Before we talk specifically about Season 3, I wanted to compliment the production company, Great Pacific Media. They have created a really compelling series full of action and adventure, along with history and Indigenous storytelling.
Adam Palmer: I’m glad you said that because it is truly, we’ve become a big family and working with perfectionists because that’s what they are. I have a scattered brain of all these maps and stories and leads and clues and evidence, and none of that would make sense if I didn’t have their help to format it in a way where people could understand it. I’m really noticing that when I get approached, it’s people that are watching the show are actually, I feel like they’re involved. And it’s because for that simple reason that it’s formatted in a way where we can bring history, we can bring legend, we can bring storytelling all together and in a way that people can follow it and understand it and learn from it. So that’s been a huge part, and that’s largely due to having a production company that stands behind you and presents your research or your passion in a format where everyone can feel involved and understand it.
You definitely have to put your phone down. There’s no scrolling through TikTok or Instagram or anything, although I did have to hit pause a couple of times just to do a little bit of my own kind of research, some quick Google searches.
AP: Yeah. You’re not the only one that happens to. It’s amazing. And my biggest thing was researching old newspaper articles to get pieces of the puzzle, because there’s not a lot of history that’s recorded back in those days of prospectors going, looking for this mine. And you have to consider everything. This legend takes you down a rabbit hole where you cannot turn a blind eye to anything, anyone, or any place, because it all plays an important piece of the puzzle.
In regard to the Slumach storyline, in particular with Taylor doing the research into the court case … those documents aren’t necessarily there, and even if they are there, they may be wrong when it comes to court documents versus witness statements. So it can be very convoluted and confusing.
AP: It is. There’s a lot of misinformation, and with any legend, you’re going to get people who embellish stories or put their own theories in there. I’ve taken an approach where there are kind of free piles, there’s evidence and facts, and you put that in a pile, and then there’s theories. You put that in a pile, and then there is the chaos pile, that’s all the craziness that you stumble upon. Is it related? Isn’t it related? Is a lost Spanish mine related to the lost gold mine at Pitt Lake? There’s always something in there that is a missing piece of the puzzle, and you slowly put it together. Three seasons of TV is literally like 20 years of research going into this, so it gets a little crazy.
Not only that we’re being shown more and more often that the Indigenous stories tend to be the truth.
AP: Oral history is so strong. I start with the oral history now because it’s a hundred percent proven every single time. I take that oral history, I listen to the elders, I listen to them speak. A hundred percent of the time I’ve found that oral history is proven correct, and I think it’s because it can’t be changed through written words. When someone tells a story and you’re listening, you’ll pick up clues in there that’ll change your life.
In the first episode of Season 3, you’ve got to shut everything down for the winter and come back in the spring. Was there a legitimate fear that people could have gone in that time that you were away and actually discovered the mine?
AP: No. No. You know what? I challenge anyone to try to find that. You think that there are a lot of people out there looking, but the only thing they’re looking at is Google Earth. I would love it if more people were actually out there helping; that would help me so much because they would get through a lot of the dirty work or checking off these areas that I want to check out.
I’m part of a climbing and mountaineering community, and everyone just wants to go to the top of the peak and then back home. No one wants to walk around in circles. No one wants to climb the mountain three or four times. Everyone wants to go up and go down. So it’s one of those things where, yeah, I mean, sure, I would be lying if I said I haven’t thought about it. But then again, I’m like, you know what? Out of the 20-some plus years that I’ve been searching, I haven’t seen any more incredible search team other than ourselves that is actually putting the time and effort into looking for this.
You need critical thinking skills for research. You kind of almost need to be a history buff, a mountain climber, and a prospector all in one to kind of really get started into this legend.
In the press release it mentions unconventional theories. How much are you allowed to tease what those unconventional theories are?
AP: It’s unconventional theories from unconventional people. People come out and they try to give you their theories and where they think the gold is. And a lot of times to get to the bottom of that, to really investigate that theory, you need tools, you need ways to get in there, you need ways to research it that are not necessarily the norm. This legend doesn’t present itself in a linear format.
Do you find the gold at the end of Season 3?
AP: I found something that’s going to take, if people are paying attention, they’re going to wonder why I was in Utah for these last two weeks. So there are things that are getting a little crazy, and there are things that we researched in Season 1 that we kind of come back to full circle in Season 3. And if the production company is going to film another season, it’s going to show people this. It’s going to change history.
Deadman’s Curse airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. Eastern on The History Channel.
Images courtesy of Corus Studios.
