Sunday, May 10, 2020

Book cover plus some bonuses:
"The Oak Island Quest"



Speaking of conspiracy theories...

  • Title: The Oak Island Quest
  • Cover questions: "What is the the real truth behind the Oak Island mystery? Were pirates really ever involved?"
  • Additional cover text: "An Engineer/Surveyor investigates Oak Island and speculative theories link the mystery with an ancient civilization and the UFO phenomenon."
  • Getting the word "UFO" on the cover is clutch: Agreed.
  • Author: William S. Crooker (1934-2005)
  • Publisher: Lancelot Press (Hantsport, Nova Scotia)
  • Cover price: None
  • Year: Fifth printing, January 1985 (first published in 1978)
  • Pages: 194
  • Format: Paperback
  • Dedication: "To my wife, Joan, who made this book possible through her encouragement and untiring secretarial assistance."
  • First sentence: "The Oak Island Quest is unlike any book ever before written about Oak Island in that it tears down certain misconceptions about the mystery and introduces new speculations based on modern theories about prehistoric times and certain unexplained phenomena."
  • Fourth sentence: "This book is not primarily about UFOs per se, but the process of speculation followed ultimately runs into the field of ufology and I make no attempt to avoid the subject."
  • Oh, let's keep going. Fifth sentence: "I am not a UFO buff and I reserve a degree of personal skepticism on the matter but fact cannot be ignored and I must air out the subject as it relates to Oak Island."
  • So, fact cannot be ignored? Correct. That's what the man says.
  • UFO sentence from the middle #1: "It is common knowledge, today, that UFOs are intimately associated with the seas."
  • UFO sentence from the middle #2: "Some writers on the subject of UFOs have taken the Siberian Taiga incident of 1908, when an area of seventy square miles was devastated, as evidence of extra-terrestrial visitors."
  • Last sentence: "Perhaps with a scientific objective, not influenced by the idea of monetary gain, the closing pages of the story of Nova Scotia's legendary treasure island will finally be completed."
  • That was 1978. It's 2020. Have the "closing pages of the story" been told? Not even close.
  • Goodreads review: In 2017, Susan wrote: "Good information about the hunt for treasure over the last 100+ years. This is an older book so some of the theories have changed since the book was written. For example, you no longer hear about UFO's leaving things on the island." ... In addition, there are a pair of five-star reviews on Amazon, if you want to check them out.
  • About the author: It seems many folks just called him Bill Crooker. His biography appears on the back cover (shown above), beneath his extremely wide collar. Crooker went on to write another book on this topic, called Oak Island Gold, which was published in 1993. And he cast his net a bit wider with Tracking Treasure in 1998.

But wait, there's more!

There were some goodies tucked away inside this book. They're presumably circa 1985, given that's when this edition was published.


Shown above is a small postcard for the Best Western Oak Island Inn & Marina. It features "Excellent Cuisine, Heated Indoor Pool, Sauna, Color TV, Two Double Beds in Each Room, (and) Gift Shop."


And this is what appears to be an oversized ticket (4 inches by 6¾ inches) for a Triton Alliance tour of Oak Island, which was a reasonable $3 for adults. Adjusted for inflation from 1985, that's still just $7.21 today, which isn't bad. Although the ticket does note: "Triton Alliance assume no responsibility for any injury or loss of life to visitors to Oak Island." Also, presumably, purchase of a ticket did not guarantee a UFO sighting.

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