Who Owns Oak Island and How Much Do the Laginas Control
The Lagina brothers, Rick and Marty, are the principal private operators on Oak Island through their Michigan-based company Oak Island Tours Inc., which holds the primary exploration and drilling rights on the island. The core on-island land parcel they control is a narrow strip along the south shore, centered on the famous Money Pit area, with additional easements and access corridors granted by the province of Nova Scotia and the local municipal authority. Their operational footprint extends across much of the central and eastern sections of the island, where the Lagina-led team has drilled dozens of boreholes and built infrastructure for treasure-hunting projects. The remaining land on Oak Island is owned by the provincial Crown, the Municipality of the District of Lunenburg, and a small number of private lot holders who are not part of the Lagina operation. Public filings and land registry records confirm that Oak Island Tours Inc. is the only entity with active exploration permits on the island, giving the Laginas de facto control over most treasure-hunting activity there. For background on the Lagina family's business history, see this profile on Forbes.
Oak Island Tours Inc. Structure, Funding, and Drilling Rights
Oak Island Tours Inc. is a privately held company controlled by the Lagina family, with operations funded through a mix of personal capital, private equity, and revenue from the History Channel series "The Curse of Oak Island." The company holds exploration licenses and drilling permits issued by the Province of Nova Scotia, allowing it to conduct deep borehole projects, core sampling, and excavation work across the designated search zones on the island. The Laginas have invested tens of millions of dollars in equipment, technology, and on-site infrastructure, including a large purpose-built drilling platform and a network of access roads and support buildings. Their legal team has secured easements and access agreements that give Oak Island Tours Inc. the right to enter, survey, and drill on large portions of the island, even where surface ownership remains with the Crown or the municipality. The company's operational budget and project timelines are shaped by production schedules for the television series, which provides a significant and recurring source of funding for ongoing exploration work. Details on Nova Scotia's mineral and exploration rights framework are available on the provincial government website.
Current Ownership Share, Partners, and Future Plans for Oak Island
The Laginas do not hold a single quantifiable percentage of Oak Island in the traditional real estate sense, because most of the island is Crown land, but they control the primary exploration entity and the vast majority of active drilling and excavation rights through Oak Island Tours Inc. Their operational share of the island's treasure-hunting activity is close to one hundred percent, with no other private group currently conducting major exploration projects or holding comparable drilling permits. The company has brought in specialized partners and subcontractors for specific technical tasks, such as shaft construction, geological analysis, and metal detection, but the Laginas remain the ultimate decision-makers on project scope, funding, and site selection. Future plans for the island focus on deepening existing boreholes, expanding the search grid, and testing new hypotheses about the origin of the underground anomalies discovered over decades of exploration. Any significant changes to land use, new easements, or major infrastructure projects would require approval from Nova Scotia authorities and the local municipality, but the Laginas' exploration rights are expected to remain the dominant private interest on the island for the foreseeable future. The latest updates on the Lagina-led exploration work and on-site developments can be followed through the official Oak Island Tours Inc. channels and the series coverage on the History Channel website.