This past week I took my family up to our cottage near Mackinac Island. Lots of history there from the 1700's and early 1800's with the military fort located on that island. I have mentioned this before and will again...the occupants of Fort Mackinac often visited the area where my cottage is for various reasons. My mother obtained a permission on some private property that is about a 5 minute walk behind my cottage in the woods. The first morning my Mom asked me if I wanted to go out there and see what we could find and I said lets go! The property is about 4 acres and there was lots of trash and modern bullets and casings but after an hour I came across this beauty!
I was on cloud nine and my trip was made! This is a Script "I" pewter button...yes pewter! The ground is perfect for preserving the old buttons because it is sandy and pine straw essentially.
I knew that this spot had been detected before and I happened to meet the guy who detected it when I was walking out of the woods back home and he told me that for the last 3 years he has found about 80 buttons in a rather small concentrated area. He was very nice and even told me where it was. So the next day I walked out there with all 4 of my kids (8,11, 13 and 16) and we went straight to the spot where he told us most of the buttons came from. Its a square nail infested area with a small depression/hole and there is a small area off to the side where there was a burn pile where many of the buttons came from. For some unknown reason they burned a bunch of military paraphernalia so many of buttons that came from this spot were damaged by fire and some were unidentifiable.
The second day we found 8 more buttons! Again I was just amazed at this historical treasure we were finding. Most of the ones we found on day 2 were in pretty good shape. My 11 year old girl found a US coat button (pewter) and she was pretty excited about it! My little 8 year old girl found a nice Eagle on Cannon Corps coat button!
Day 3 was crazy! The boys decided to go at the burn mound with a shovel and pinpointer only...brilliant boys!! They pulled a ton of square nails out and about 20 more buttons! again most were toasty but many were identifiable. I scanned the area with the Equinox VERY thoroughly and did quite well. Day 3 total was 31 buttons!!
Mine and my girls...
Justins...
Ashtons...
Burnt...
Here is the hole where it is thought a small structure once stood and about 15 feet away is the burn pile. My 8 year old is patiently waiting her turn with the detector!
Burn pile that my 16 year old is working...
For my buttons I only used water and rinsed them off and that worked great since the majority of mine were not found in the burn pile. There was one Eagle on Cannon Corps button though that I decided to try lemon juice to get it cleaner and then I rubbed it with come baking soda...I was in shock at how pretty this one came out.
My boys saw my result and they went and tried it with the majority of their buttons but unfortunately many were too far burnt.
We found the following that we can ID...Now I might have named them incorrectly so correct me if I am wrong.
2 - US cuff
1 - US coat
6 - Eagle on Cannon Corps cuff
5 - Eagle on Cannon Corps coat
3 - Eagle w/Script I on Shield cuff
1 - Eagle w/Script I on Shield coat
1 - Script I cuff
4 - Script I coat
3 - Script LA 1st Regiment cuff
1 - Script A 2nd Regiment cuff
1 - Eagle Script R on Shield cuff
3 - Flat buttons
9 - burnt
40 total!
Its my understanding that the majority of these are 1812-1816 but I have not researched all of them yet. They have no back markings except for the Eagle Script I cuff buttons. They have "ARMITAGE" and then the letter "C" I think. The letter is hard to make out so I might be wrong. If anyone of you button guys has any insight to any of these please let me know!
The rest of the vacation we decided to leave the spot alone. I am sure there is more there and we will go back next year and have fun again. We don't need to pillage everything.
I'd like to thank the guy who previously found this spot if he happens to come across this post...THANK YOU! He was very nice to point us in the right direction.
Its amazing that this spot has given up 120 buttons. Why so many? AND why so many different types? We found some camp lead but other than that we found square nails or modern bullets or casings. No other period items. Oh my son found part of a buckle and I found a bone handle to a table knife perhaps.
Well my year is made! I would not call it a cache or hoard...its more of a button dump it seems to me.
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