History and Provenance

The operation centred on James O. Scotford, a sign-writer and sometime showman, and Daniel E. Soper, a former Michigan Secretary of State who had left office under a cloud. From the 1890s they produced objects and staged their discovery on digs to which local notables, clergy, physicians, officials, were invited to be the ones to lift the finds from the ground, lending an air of legitimacy. Over three decades the number of pieces grew into the thousands.

Religious collectors were especially drawn in: Father James Savage of Detroit amassed a large group and defended them to the end of his life, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints acquired and kept a substantial portion, curious whether the relics might corroborate its scriptural account of ancient American peoples. The objects thus passed through several religious institutions before their forgery was fully established, which is part of why they remained in circulation so long.