Borehole 10-X: The Obsession That Nearly Killed Dan Blankenship and Ignited the Greatest Oak Island Mystery

There’s a hole on Oak Island that doesn’t appear on old maps.

It wasn’t built by pirates, templars, or secret societies.

It was carved by obsession.

Its name is Borehole 10-X — and it remains one of the most enigmatic and terrifying features of the Oak Island saga. Not because of what it revealed... but because of what it almost did.

What it almost uncovered.

What it almost killed.

At the center of this harrowing legend stands one man: Dan Blankenship — the iron-willed treasure hunter who spent over 50 years chasing what lay beneath the island’s cursed soil.

And 10-X was his greatest gamble.

The Birth of a Borehole: A Man, a Machine, and a Dream

In the early 1970s, after years of setbacks and collapses at the original Money Pit, Dan Blankenship turned his attention to a new location — a spot some 180 feet northeast of the traditional dig site.

Why here?

He had identified geological anomalies. Strange magnetic readings. Faint evidence that something unnatural — something engineered — lay deep beneath the surface.

With blueprints in hand and steel resolve in his heart, Dan began drilling what would become Borehole 10-X — a steel shaft 27 inches wide and over 230 feet deep, reinforced with casing, pulleys, and grit.

It wasn’t easy. The machinery failed. The shaft flooded. The surrounding ground threatened collapse. But Dan wouldn’t stop.

This wasn’t just treasure hunting anymore.

It was a vow.

A Glimpse Into the Void: The Underwater Camera Footage That Shocked a Nation

As 10-X reached full depth, Dan lowered an underwater camera into the borehole — hoping to see rock. Or timber. Or maybe nothing at all.

What he saw instead ignited decades of debate.

According to Dan and his team, the grainy, murky footage revealed the following:

Hewn tunnel walls — squared off, artificially shaped.

What appeared to be chest-like shapes, partially covered in silt.

And then… something chilling.

A human-like figure, motionless, hunched in the corner of the chamber.

A body? A statue? A trick of the light?

No one could say for sure.

But what Dan felt was certainty.

That someone had been here before.

That something still waited in the depths.

To him, it was the clearest evidence yet that Oak Island was hiding more than myth.

A Near-Fatal Collapse: The Island Fights Back

But Oak Island doesn’t surrender its secrets without a price.

In 1976, Dan Blankenship attempted a full descent into Borehole 10-X via a steel casing — hoping to reach the mysterious chamber.

Midway down, disaster struck.

The casing twisted. The shaft collapsed inward. Dan was trapped — suspended between mud, metal, and the crushing weight of the Earth.

He survived.

Barely.

But the message was clear: the island would not yield easily.

The borehole had nearly become his tomb.

And yet, he refused to abandon it.

Because to Dan, Borehole 10-X wasn’t just a shaft. It was a portal — a doorway to truth. A place where the myths and facts of Oak Island came dangerously close to colliding.

The Skeptics and the Believers: A Rift in the Mystery

In the years that followed, researchers, production crews, and academics have studied the 10-X footage.

Some dismissed the images as sediment illusions or camera malfunctions. Others claimed pareidolia — the human tendency to see shapes where none exist.

But not everyone scoffed.

Those who knew Dan Blankenship best — those who walked the island’s paths and pored over its maps — saw something in his eyes when he talked about 10-X.

Not greed.

Faith.

Faith that what he saw wasn’t an illusion. It was history — buried alive.

The Enigma Deepens: Is Borehole 10-X Connected to the Money Pit?

One of the biggest questions surrounding Borehole 10-X is whether it’s connected to the original Money Pit or is part of a separate underground structure.

Some theorists believe 10-X was an auxiliary chamber, or even a decoy vault, constructed to throw treasure seekers off the true trail.

Others suggest it may be part of a larger underground complex — a web of chambers, tunnels, and vaults spread beneath the island like a buried fortress.

And then there’s the possibility that 10-X holds something the Money Pit does not:

Evidence of human life. Or loss.

No one knows for sure. But what is known is this: the borehole still exists.

And it still haunts.

Why Borehole 10-X Still Matters

Despite more advanced technologies and new dig zones, Borehole 10-X remains a sacred symbol in the Oak Island narrative.

It represents:

Dan Blankenship’s ultimate gamble.

A camera’s glimpse into the unthinkable.

The cost of obsession.

Even now, decades later, the chamber at the bottom of 10-X remains a tantalizing blank page — one that the current team hesitates to revisit fully, either out of caution or out of respect.

Because some places on Oak Island feel more than physical.

They feel charged.

And 10-X is one of them.

Conclusion: The Shaft That Shook the Legend

Borehole 10-X may never yield treasure. It may never reveal the truth behind what the camera saw in that silted chamber.

But it has already given something greater.

It has given the Oak Island story stakes — real danger, real sacrifice, and real mystery.

And in a world overflowing with myths, very few legends are backed by such tangible risk.

Dan Blankenship gave everything to that shaft — time, money, health, nearly his life.

And in doing so, he made sure that Borehole 10-X would never be forgotten.

Because beneath all the science and speculation, beneath the sonar scans and seismic maps, there is still one undeniable truth:

Something — or someone — was down there.

And it’s still waiting.