Last year my 4 kids and I dug 40 War of 1812 era US military buttons and it was a blast at our cottage in northern Michigan. This year was even better! We dug a total of 43 buttons! Many are flat buttons and about 10 were burnt beyond recognition. 21 were found at the same site at last year. The first spot has an area where the majority of the buttons are in and it is very apparent that there was a burn pit of some sort. The rest were found at a new site. I did not take a pic of the burned unidentifiable buttons.
Here are a some other relics. Son #1 found the handle last year and then son #2 found the fork this year and they go together nicely. There is a copper patch as well in this pic...they would patch up kettles and rivet them together...you can see the rivets on the part.
This is the smallest buckle I have ever found...that is a musket ball next to it.
I also found 2 indian copper artifacts. I found them wondering around in woods within 50 yards of the shore. The first was a copper fish hook and the other was a copper knife. Both are about 4 inches long. The knife is missing a "tang" that broke off perhaps when it was dropped. I forget the name of the tribe (Jujuten ??) but the museum near my cottage had examples of both of these items and they date around 600 years ago. I also found a couple pcs of copper here and there in the woods that I can only assume are indian related as well.
A view of the forest at the 2nd site. This trail is on a map from 1828.
There are apparently many many more spots that are around. Maybe I could take all of next summer off?
Thanks for looking!! Jared