Michigan Relics

The Michigan Relics are a large collection, numbering in the thousands, of forged artifacts said to have been unearthed from mounds across Michigan between the 1890s and the 1920s. Made of clay, copper, and slate and covered with a confused mixture of alphabets and with scenes drawn largely from the Bible, they were promoted as evidence that an ancient literate people of Old World origin had once lived in the American Midwest. They circulated among collectors with religious motivations, most notably the Detroit Catholic priest James Savage, and a substantial portion was for many years held by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose leaders considered whether the objects might relate to Book of Mormon peoples without ever officially endorsing them.

Scholarly and forensic examination has shown the relics to be modern forgeries, manufactured by James Scotford and promoted by Daniel Soper. The site records them as debunked, cites the analytical scholarship, and notes the custody history, including the 2003 transfer of the LDS-held portion to a Michigan museum, neutrally.

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.

The claim was that the relics were genuine ancient artifacts documenting an Old World presence in America. The case against them was strong from early on and is now conclusive. The inscriptions combine incompatible scripts in ways no real ancient culture would, and the biblical scenes reflect nineteenth-century Christian iconography; the workmanship is fresh and betrays modern tools. In 1911 Scotford's own stepdaughter said she had seen him manufacture the objects.

In 2001 the Oakland University archaeologist Richard Stamps subjected a sample to modern forensic examination, looking at tool marks, patina, and materials, and concluded that they were forgeries. The BYU Studies treatment by Ashurst-McGee, Grua and Jensen documents both the fraud and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' handling of the material, including its decision to transfer its portion to the Michigan History Museum in 2003. No scholarly authority defends the relics as authentic; they endure as one of the largest and longest-running archaeological frauds in American history.