The Curse of Oak Island, a long-running reality series on History, delves deeply into the enigmas and purported riches of the titular island. It’s also an interesting look at the most recent additions to the long list of treasure hunters who have tried their luck on Oak Island in the past.
No matter how you feel about Oak Island’s alleged enormous secrets, it’s impossible to deny that the individuals attempting to find the lost treasures are quite fascinating. It takes a very special person to spend their entire life buried in research, and all too frequently, mud, in pursuit of the next hint of an enigmatic trove that may or may not be at the bottom of the fabled Money Pit.
One of the primary characters in “The Curse of Oak Island,” Rick Lagina, is one of these tenacious individuals. Who is this man, and how did he come to be searching for the fabled treasure on the titular island? Let’s explore more of Rick Lagina’s undiscovered narrative from “The Curse of Oak Island” by History.
He doesn’t like to watch the show himself
The fact that “The Curse of Oak Island” has been on television for nine seasons and inspired the spin-off “Beyond Oak Island” suggests that many people actually enjoy seeing the show’s secrets progressively be solved. You might be shocked to learn that Rick Lagina isn’t one of them, though. Lagina doesn’t actually watch the popular TV show about the mystery of Oak Island, which is somewhat unexpected for a man who has devoted so much of his life to it.
In 2015, Lagina admitted to My North, “I hardly see any of [“The Curse of Oak Island”]. “Yes, I really mean it. We’re just a couple of Yooper boys, you know, and I think it’s difficult to watch oneself on television. That doesn’t really appeal to me. But I firmly believe in Oak Island and am a great supporter of it. I think there’s still a great narrative to be told and perhaps a lost treasure to be discovered. I’m happy that people like the show.”
Lagina might not have made a special effort to watch the show, but he might have occasionally caught an episode. After all, he said to Reality Blurred in 2017 that he occasionally dislikes how the show is edited.
He genuinely thinks Oak Island might be haunted
There is the affliction of disappointment, which has undoubtedly dogged the countless treasure hunters who have sought in vain to unearth the island’s mysteries.
There is the purported real curse, according to which seven people must perish before the Oak Island riches may be found (per Deadline). Additionally, Rick Lagina has hinted in ambiguous words that there might be a supernatural element to the island, which makes the title all the more foreboding.
In a 2015 interview with My North, Lagina disclosed that some of the island’s machinery has a history of malfunctioning unexplainably, and that certain cast members of “The Curse of Oak Island” had experienced unexplained, ghostly sightings and sounds. Although Lagina claims that some of the more visceral creepiness doesn’t make it onto the broadcast, the show has occasionally mentioned the potential of paranormal activity on the island.
He noted that “paranormal groups” had conducted research there and that some of their findings were puzzling. “The island has an ambience that I find difficult to describe. Particularly when it comes to equipment failures, strange, unexplainable occurrences happen, especially in the eastern corner of the swamp, close to the Money Pit and 10X. More often than we would like to hear, machine operators have said, “That’s never occurred before.””
He’s not always happy with the things the show focuses on
Anyone who has watched “The Curse of Oak Island” will attest that the process of finding treasure is exceedingly slow. Rick and Marty Lagina also mentioned in an interview with Reality Blurred that the presence of the production crew makes things much slower.
Rick also mentioned that there are some aspects of the show with which he is not always satisfied. He doesn’t particularly like it when the necessities of the show force them to pay attention to certain very unimportant details that sidetrack their purpose in favour of producing entertaining television.
Because the show needs substance, he said, “some of the things we’ve done, the marginal stuff, we’ve expanded on those or been more aggressive on them.”
Lagina was eager to point out that there are significant benefits to the publicity, but overall he almost appears to view the show as a mixed blessing that showed up on the doorstep uninvited.
On a personal level, we didn’t seek out this show, he admitted. “Before the show contacted us, we had been actively searching for at least three years. It sort of encroaches on your private life. The good news is that we appreciate visitors to the island, to reiterate the positive. The island is now accessible to visitors. It’s encouraging to hear that others share nearly same enthusiasm for this puzzle.”
He’s prepared to walk away from Oak Island when the day comes
You could be excused for believing that the Laginas have become more or less a part of the surroundings after spending so much time investigating the secrets of Oak Island. Although initially Rick Lagina was known to remain with the Blankenships on the island, they have made a point of preserving as healthy a life-work balance ratio as the demanding shooting days allow, taking the weekends off when they can, and staying in nearby Halifax instead of the island itself.
Lagina is also aware that the Oak Island mission he has been planning since he was 11 years old could be a failure, and if that happens, he is ready to follow in the footsteps of other failed Oak Island explorers.
He told Reality Blurred that people who came before us had been “extremely passionate, intellectual, committed individuals, including a President of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt, and every one of those was able to move the dial forward.” “Surely it would be time to handover the torch at the point where we feel we aren’t making any progress,” said the speaker.
He hopes that his team won’t be the final explorers to reach Oak Island, even if he ends up abandoning the expedition himself. I believe something significant happened there, and it would be a tragedy for that tale to remain undiscovered and untold, he remarked.
The wealth of Rick Lagina
According to History UK, “The Curse of Oak Island” has a tonne of pricey machinery. How exactly did Rick Lagina manage to pay for all of that? He is, after all, a retired postal worker who, at the youthful age of 11, became enamoured with Oak Island after reading about it. Between “used to be a postal worker” and “co-runs a huge excavating business that controls much of Oak Island,” there is a bit of a gap, and the fact that Lagina likes to keep his private life private doesn’t exactly make the issue any clearer.
Of course, a lot of this can be explained by the fact that his brother and “The Curse of Oak Island” co-star Rick Lagina is a multi-millionaire businessman and is thought to be the main financier of the operation, while Marty is the one who inspired them to start their Oak Island excursion in the first place with his lifelong fascination with the island’s secrets.
But don’t suppose that the brothers fit the simple stereotypes of a rich financier and a destitute dreamer. Rick is far from being destitute, much like Marty can be quite involved in the Oak Island project. His present net worth is estimated to be anything between $2 million (History UK’s estimate) to as much as $10 million. In fact, several estimates imply that the senior Lagina’s reality TV stardom has given him a very sizable payday (via Celebrity Net Worth). He has so indirectly discovered wealth on Oak Island.
