Margery and the Scientific American Prize

Mina Crandon, the wife of a Boston surgeon and known as Margery, was the leading claimant for the $2,500 Scientific American had offered for a genuine mediumistic phenomenon. Harry Houdini sat on the committee; he built a wooden cabinet that closed around her to the shoulders, and after the sittings stated that she produced everything with her head and a foot, ringing the bell box with her knee. Her dead brother Walter left a thumbprint in wax, and that was held to be conclusive — until 1932, when the print was identified as that of the Crandons' living dentist, Frederick Caldwell, who had once shown her how an impression is taken. The prize was never awarded.

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The Oak Island Money Pit

Oak Island is a small, 140-acre tree-covered island situated in Mahone Bay off the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada. The island achieved global renown as the site of the "Money Pit"—an enigmatic subterranean shaft where treasure hunters, syndicates, and media ventures have spent hundreds of years and millions of dollars conducting the longest, most expensive treasure hunt in modern history.