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survives today. But we don’t call it “Acadian.” We call it by a similar sounding word developed over time: “Cajun.”
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THE MONEY PIT
THE HIDDEN TREASURE (MAYBE) IN NOVA SCOTIA
    Buried treasure. The idea that one of us—armed with nothing more than a shovel and an X-marked map—can stumble into unknown riches has romanticized those words. Some buried treasure may be on Nova Scotia’s Oak Island, home of the so-called “Money Pit.”
    Discovered at the tail end of the eighteenth century by a sixteen-year-old, the Money Pit goes down at least ninety feet and contains man-made items at that depth. Exploring further has proven difficult because of cave-ins and flooding, which have resulted in six deaths. (Some ascribe the difficulty to a series of booby traps set by whoever buried the items.) We don’t know what’s down there, but we do know that there’s
something
in the pit, which, by almost all accounts, shouldn’t be there.
    Like most legends involving buried treasure, though, there’s reason to believe that the Money Pit is a myth. One popular theory is that the pit is a naturally occurring sinkhole, which at one point swallowed up some tools and other materials in the area. This would explain the unnatural objects located at extreme depths. While many explorers of the Money Pit may be exercising questionable judgment, at least one well-regarded person probably made his way there. In 1909, Franklin Delano Roosevelt allegedly made an attempt to find treasure buried within (there’s a picture of him and some friend at the site during an excavation attempt). FDR—and everyone else since—came up empty-handed.
    Those who believe that treasure exists at the unreached bottom of the pit cite a number of stories and theories. Allegedly, at about eighty or ninety feet, lies a large stone with symbols carved into it. Attempts to decipher the message have yielded a promise of riches: “Forty feet below, two million pounds lie buried.” But that stone was last seen in 1912, and no images of it exist today. It may have existed; it may be the stuff of legend. If it’s true, it’s led to incredible theories as to what’s buried deep below. Some people believe it to be pirate treasure; others think that Spanish Armada sailors or British troops fleeing after the American Revolution dumped items of value there. Another theory holds that at the close of the Seven Years’ War, French troops moved the coins held at the Fortress of Louisbourg (on mainland Nova Scotia) there.
    No one is certain what lies in the pit, and the mystery will likely go unsolved for many decades. Currently, Oak Island is privately owned, making further exploration of the Money Pit contingent on the whim of its owners, who have shown little interest in allowing for future, dangerous expeditions.
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    BONUS FACT
    Where’s the most likely place to find buried pirate’s treasure? Long Island, New York. William Kidd, a Scottish sailor executed for piracy in 1701, is widely believed to have buried some of his loot, with the intention of using it as leverage if he were ever brought to trial: This tactic obviously failed. We know for certain that he buried some treasure on Gardiners Island, a small island off the north coast of Long Island, as the treasure was unearthed and used as evidence against him at his trial.
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THE HALIFAX TRAGEDY
THE LARGEST MAN-MADE ACCIDENTAL EXPLOSION
    On December 6, 1917, an explosion ravaged Halifax, Nova Scotia, killing 2,000 people and injuring 9,000 others. But this mass disaster was not triggered by natural events. The explosion was, entirely, man-made.
    Just before 8:45 A.M. on that day, the SS
Imo
, an empty Norwegian passenger and freight ship, and France’s SS
Mont Blanc
, collided. The
Mont Blanc
, a cargo ship, was loaded with munitions aimed at supporting French efforts in World War I. The
Mont Blanc
caught fire, and although its crew safely made it to shore, the language barrier—the crew spoke