Michigan Badger
Gold Member
NEW TODAY: 6-05-06
I had to clean the iron knife before having an expert look at it.
It's flat on one side and convex on the other.
Now comes the expensive part where I have to mail it off to be studied.
It appears from the photos to be genuine but I need documentation on it.
These relics were dug not too far from this location:
http://www.mackinacparks.com/
Thanks for looking.
Here's the original post:
Today I decided to try something different. I went to a site I knew had been worked over with heavy equipment. About 10 years ago they scraped and leveled this whole area.
The site is located in the Upper part of the lower Peninsula of Michigan and is near the two Great Lakes. This area was frequented by early french trappers and traders more than 200-300 years ago.
So when I arrived I looked out over the area and I got this feeling that I should start hunting in one particular spot. So I walked over there and stated digging foil. I dug a foil fruit juice packet some 8 inches deep!
I walked about another 8 feet and I get this giant iron signal. I almost didn't even dig it but finally I thought what the heck...so I very carelessly dug down only about 4 inches and out pops the blade!
For a split second I thought it was an ancient Copper Culture knife but then I realized they're green...not brown. This knife is iron.
As I looked at it I got excited again to see it's very old! It's flat on one side and curved out on the other. I've seen these old knives before and I'm about 80% sure this is an early fur trader knife or it's at least from that era (ca. 1650-1850's).
I was so stoked that I left the spot without checking the area around where I dug the knife. I remembered and went back and about 1 foot from where I dug the blade I dug this iron ball which I believe to be a canon grapeshot.
Thanks for reading all this...
Badger
Photos removed to save space 6-17-06
I had to clean the iron knife before having an expert look at it.
It's flat on one side and convex on the other.
Now comes the expensive part where I have to mail it off to be studied.
It appears from the photos to be genuine but I need documentation on it.
These relics were dug not too far from this location:
http://www.mackinacparks.com/
Thanks for looking.
Here's the original post:
Today I decided to try something different. I went to a site I knew had been worked over with heavy equipment. About 10 years ago they scraped and leveled this whole area.
The site is located in the Upper part of the lower Peninsula of Michigan and is near the two Great Lakes. This area was frequented by early french trappers and traders more than 200-300 years ago.
So when I arrived I looked out over the area and I got this feeling that I should start hunting in one particular spot. So I walked over there and stated digging foil. I dug a foil fruit juice packet some 8 inches deep!
I walked about another 8 feet and I get this giant iron signal. I almost didn't even dig it but finally I thought what the heck...so I very carelessly dug down only about 4 inches and out pops the blade!
For a split second I thought it was an ancient Copper Culture knife but then I realized they're green...not brown. This knife is iron.
As I looked at it I got excited again to see it's very old! It's flat on one side and curved out on the other. I've seen these old knives before and I'm about 80% sure this is an early fur trader knife or it's at least from that era (ca. 1650-1850's).
I was so stoked that I left the spot without checking the area around where I dug the knife. I remembered and went back and about 1 foot from where I dug the blade I dug this iron ball which I believe to be a canon grapeshot.
Thanks for reading all this...
Badger
Photos removed to save space 6-17-06
Upvote
0
Nice.
Today about 95% of the original area is under something. 
