MYSTERIOUS MICHIGAN
The Mysterious Michigan Relics

Written by Chad Stuemke | Chadstuemke.com
“All matter must be in a constant state of flux to ensure progress, for what was wrong yesterday might be right tomorrow.” Henriette Mertz
In the late 1800’s, farmers and laymen alike were migrating to different areas of Michigan and claiming their newly acquired parcels of land. These common folk were unaware of the amazing discoveries that would soon be unearthed from the many ancient mounds that dotted the landscape. Farmers destroyed many of the mounds while preparing their lands for crops. In the meantime, other citizens were digging into the mounds out of pure curiosity.
Imagine the disbelief when they began uncovering what was perceived to be ancient relics from a forgotten time. Estimates on the number of relics recovered ranges from 10,000 to 30,000. The artifacts were comprised mainly of clay, copper, and slate. The majority of the relics contained strange inscriptions that were unrecognizable to those who discovered them.
The thousands of relics bearing an unrecognizable language were almost immediately declared a hoax of unprecedented proportions. Although this was, and is, the conclusion of mainstream archaeology, there were, and are others who disagree.
The hope of this article will not be to prove or disprove the authenticity of the artifacts but to bring awareness to them. They have been all but forgotten by the general public. If they did turn out to be authentic, they would be one of the most important archaeological discoveries of all time. That said, let’s see what the authorities say in regard to what they feel could be the greatest hoax of all time.
One of the tablets in the Michigan Relics collection. Photo courtesy of Ancient American Magazine
During the time the relics were unearthed, it did not take the authorities long to dismiss them as forgeries. Not only did the relics contain inscriptions that seemed to be a mix of several ancient languages, but the tablets contained depictions of ancient religious art. The art on the tablets contained depictions of Noah’s Ark, the Tower of Babel and the Crucifixion among others. Many times the stories depicted had a slight variation to the known beliefs of the 18 and 1900’s, making no sense to those analyzing them. Considering the scrambled language and the “cartoon-like” religious art, they were dismissed as forgeries. They even had a group of culprits to blame.


Left Photo: Father James Savage
Right Photo: Daniel E. Soper
Although no one was ever “charged”, the authority’s main culprits were James Scotford, Daniel Soper and Father James Savage. Soper was a former Secretary of State and Father James Savage was pastor of Detroit’s’ Most Holy Trinity. James Scotford was a relics collector and a supposed expert at “slight-of-hand” maneuvers. It was postulated by some that these men, Scotford in particular, would forge Daniel the artifacts and then bury them in mounds around the state of Michigan. At a later time, they would then take groups of artifact hunters out and unearth what were perceived to be ancient relics.
Others thought that Scotford may have introduced the relics (sometimes large tablets) by a slight-of-hand, consistently fooling fellow treasure hunters. In general, all digs were said to have been accompanied by highly acclaimed witnesses who later signed affidavits in regards to their discoveries. Unconvinced authorities proclaimed the artifacts hoaxed leading to the “Michigan Relics” largely being forgotten for much of the 20th century.

James Scotford and Daniel E. Soper stand around their “artifacts.” Photo circa 1911.
After Father Savage passed away, his collection of artifacts were eventually relocated to Notre Dame. The main bulk of the artifacts remained there until an authority from the L.D.S. church showed enough interest that the university gifted him the collection in its entirety. Milton R. Hunter also purchased Daniel Soper’s collection from his son around the same time.
With the death of Hunter, the relics were finally deeded to the Church of L.D.S. They remained in storage for years, unavailable for viewing for the most part. Then in 2001, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Oakland University, Dr. Richard Stamps, was asked to do an analysis of the relics. After analyzing several relics with modern technologies, Dr. Stamps concluded they were forgeries. On some of the slate tablets, he has discovered what he feels are modern saw and file marks left by the hoaxers. In regards to some of the images, he points out that the use of perspective wasn’t used until the 15th century. He also had several of the copper relics analyzed by a metallurgist and concluded the copper wasn’t pounded as one would expect from the natives, but rather smelted. It should be noted that one of the tablets portrayed a possible smelting process.
The Church of Latter-Day Saints was convinced with Dr. Stamp’s results, declaring the relics frauds and in 2003, returned them to their original home of Michigan. They were briefly displayed in an exhibit at the Michigan Historical Museum called “Digging Up The Controversy.” They now reside in a back storage room due to renovations at the museum. Michigan’s lead archaeologist says, “They may be in this condition for the next five to six years.” He wonders if anyone will see them again.
According to not only the Smithsonian Institute but mainstream archaeologists, these artifacts were hoaxed. Their mind is made up. It should be noted at this juncture, for an archaeologist to admit the “white-man” could have pre-dated Columbus in North America is akin to a scientist contemplating UFO’s: career suicide.
WHAT IF THE RELICS WERE NOT A HOAX?
There have been several other top minds over the years who have full-heartedly disagreed with the conclusions of the authorities in regards to the Michigan relics. In 1986, Henriette Mertz’s eye-opening book The Mystic Symbol was released. Henriette Mertz was born in 1896 and passed in 1985. She was a patent lawyer who was admitted to practice before the U. S. Supreme Court, the United States Patent Office, the Canadian Patent Office and the Supreme Court of Illinois. Henriette also worked on the Manhattan Project and served as a Navy lieutenant commander during World War II in the Office of Scientific Research and Development. As if those weren’t enough credentials, she was also considered an expert in cryptanalysis and was extremely interested in ancient artifacts. Known for her expertise in analyzing writing and language, she was asked to analyze the Michigan artifacts.

Not all of the relics were tablets. Photo courtesy of Wayne May and Ancient American Magazine
Before the actual language(s) were analyzed, Henriette made some basic observations. The first and most obvious observation made was that every relic seemed to bear a three-character symbol or the “Mystic Symbol”. She postulated that this three-character symbol may be akin to the Greek symbol of IHS (Jesus), which made its appearance around 312 A.D. The artifacts and tablets mainly consisted of clay, copper, and slate.
“The Pale One.” A tablet clearly representing the crucifixion of Jesus. Photo courtesy of David A. Deal and Ancient American Magazine.
The tablets were then able to be categorized again into ones that were: Covered in writing, tablets containing writing and pictures and those containing mostly depictions with few words. She then was able to categorize the relics containing both writings and depictions into three more groups: Biblical, battle scenes, and calendar records. Upon analysis, Henriette noticed something almost immediately that others had failed to recognize. She said, ”One peculiar thing stood out, even though the letters may be a mixture, the mixture within itself appeared consistently uniform.”
Continuing analysis, she discovered that the measured symmetry indicated that whoever engraved the plates must have been familiar with the language(s) in which they wrote. She felt that “Copied writing lacks fluency and no one could doubt that but one person engraved both sides and understood what he wrote with fluency, sureness, and no slight of hesitation.” Henriette claimed, “Analysis, such as would be acceptable in any recognizable court, showed that the writing had not been forged. Each tablet had been written by a different hand and no two tablets bore characteristics stemming from one single hand.”
One of the tablets in the Michigan Relics collection. Photo courtesy of Wayne May and Ancient American Magazine.
Turning her attention to the larger questions, Henriette began to focus on “who” could have manufactured these amazing relics. Postulating that whoever inscribed the tablets must have had prior knowledge of the region, a connection was made. Here the link is made between the ancient copper mines on Isle Royal Michigan (carbon-dated to 1800-1000 B.C.) and the Greek and Egyptians extensive use of copper in the same time period.
Both Greek and Egyptian records spoke of an alien people who were thought to be closely connected with the import of copper. Egyptian records had referred to them as the “Keftiu” or” Keftians”. The “Keftiu” were said to be “red-skinned” and came from the “Isles of the Sea”. It was believed that it took approximately three years to return with the copper from the “Isles of the Sea” and was postulated that the “Keftiu” may have road upon Phoenician ships. Henriette now had a possible explanation for an alien people who may have once visited North America and retained the knowledge. Now it was possible to speculate on who may have actually created and deposited the ancient Michigan artifacts.
One of the tablets in the Michigan Relics collection. Photo courtesy of Wayne May and Ancient American Magazine.
After the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D., the early Christian world was plunged into turmoil and many Christians were forced to flee for their lives, “many sailing away to parts unknown.” Henriette contemplated, “Could the depositors of these texts have been the Coptic’s who had been forced to flee from persecutions?” She felt, “If inscriptions on the Michigan tablets arose about the same time as Coptic, the mixture of Egyptian hieroglyphs with Greek alphabet letters would not be unrealistic for those times.”
After much research and analysis, Henriette Mertz came to the conclusion: “Analysis indicated that each individual tablet containing writing originated with a different hand. No two specimens examined produced identical characteristics – a humanly impossible feat if one person alone would have been guilty of forging the entire group of 3000.” And, “As noted earlier, we believe the persons who inscribed this material were Christian refugees fleeing from the Decian or Diocletian persecutions and sailing out from the harbors of Dome, Naples, Alexandria, Carthage, and other Eastern Mediterranean ports and assumed lost in the turbulent waters of the North Atlantic.” Unfortunately, Henriette Mertz passed on in 1985 leaving her legacy of research behind for others.
DAVID ALLEN DEAL
Another researcher into the relics is David Allen Deal, who has helped pick up where Mertz left off (among a few others), yet coming from a slightly different perspective. A few details may differ between the two, but his conclusions are strikingly similar. Mr. Deal feels the three-character “Mystical Symbol” is the equivalent to “YHW,” a shortened form of HWHY-Yahweh. David came to the conclusion independently that the relics must have been manufactured and transplanted by 4th century Coptic, Egyptian Christians.
Michigan-Egyptian Heiroglhpys. Photo courtesy of Ancient American Magazine.
The first clue that led him down this particular path was the theology incorporated within the majority of artifacts. He has demonstrated that many of the tablets incorporate two subordinate deities; a son of the right hand and a son of the left hand.
He says, “The Copts identified these two as high angels, as Little Yahu “Yao” sabboth the good, messiah “son of the right hand” and “Sama-el” the evil, messiah “son of the left hand…Satan.” It is these repetitive pictorial elements that have led to the speculations that the creators of the artifacts may have been in all probability with the Coptic brand of Christianity. Deal feels this is an extremely important discovery pointing out, “The theology incorporated on the plates was largely unknown until the translation in 1895 of the 3rd century Coptic, Gnostic ”Christian,” Pistis Sophia.” This, in essence, may negate the possibility of a hoaxer(s) having this knowledge prior to the date of 1895.
Obviously, this was a good piece to the puzzle. Now having an estimated time frame to play around with, it was decided to take a closer look at the tablets containing calendar systems. What was to be discovered on one tablet, in particular, was nothing short of amazing. David Allen Deal discovered a tablet showing a 13-month calendar system portraying a solar eclipse in conjunction with a meteorite!6 The tablet was unearthed on September 3rd, 1896. On the tablet, there is a figure of a man’s head and nose which are seemingly pointing to an area of the calendar that would correspond with the end of July. Mr. Deal estimated that the time would correspond to the dates 325 A.D.-425A.D. in conjunction with the Nicean Council when the Egyptian Coptic’s may have been forced to flee from persecutions. Speculations were confirmed when it was later discovered that on July 27th, 352A.D. at 10:54, there was a Solar eclipse.
Solar eclipse tablet. Photo courtesy of Ancient American Magazine.
It also happened to pass precisely over Rowland Township, where Isabella County would someday be and where the artifact was unearthed! In regards to the meteorite depicted in front of the eclipse, July 27th 352 A.D. just happened to be one of two days of maximum intensity for the annual Delta Aquarid meteor shower! David concludes that “Whoever made these tablets were depicting an actual event.” This scenario begs the question: Could hoaxers have had both the knowledge of the Coptics in conjunction with astronomical information from 352 A.D. in the late 1800s and early 1900’s? Mr. Deal feels, “This single artifact has proven the time, or at least a moment in time, that the Coptic Christians were there.”
One of the tablets in the Michigan Relics collection. Photo courtesy of Wayne May and Ancient American Magazine.
The Michigan relics now reside in storage due to renovations at the Michigan Historical Museum collecting dust. Both sides of an extremely important discovery have been presented in hopes of bringing awareness to a portion of Michigan history that has been all but forgotten. This leaves us with two scenarios. 1) The relics are one of the most elaborate hoaxes of all time or 2) The history of the Americas and Michigan, in particular, are not as we have been lead to believe. At a minimum, should we not ponder the possibility? The investigation is ongoing…
Bibliography
-
“Digging for the Truth”; Michigan Historical Museum Exhibit; 2004
-
“Tools leave Marks”; Dr. Richard Stamps; 2001
-
“Trashing America’s “Politically Incorrect” Prehistory” ; Fred Rydholm; Ancient American Magazine#32
-
“The Mystic Symbol (Mark of the Michigan Mound Builders); Henriette Mertz; 1986
-
“The Mystic Symbol Demystified”; David A. Deal
-
“Michigan Solar Eclipse Tablet and Mound Builder City”; David A. Deal; excerpt from (The Mystic Seal)
To Michigan’s Other Side
This information was compiled years ago in an attempt to understand worldwide migration. The significant information is that in the years 536 through 542 the weather was so abnormal that the weather was reported in many regions.
Note that the Irish grain crop failed in 536. Ireland is usually at the end of a long over water weather pattern, but if the North Atlantic osculation was counter-clock wise the winds would have been sweeping off the dry lands of Europe.
In North America the winds would have been swooping down from the frozen regions of the Arctic. Those winds would have produced a serious draught.
The people of Michigan may have chosen to move south. A few may have chosen to return to Greenland. The Lenape History, stanza 3, reports people living in Greenland but dreaming of Lake Michigan.
Stanza 3, the Michigan Relics, and this Chaos Information seem to be coherent.
The people, who made the Relics for several years, probably left because of a draught. Our research effort should be to determine where they went. They left plenty of evidence.
526-542 4th Chaos Period
542
Plague swept through Mediterranean & Europe.
Antioch mint not working most of decade. Used a star (comet) icon on the few coins printed.
541
Comet in France so huge the sky seemed on fire.
Real blood dropped from the sky.
540 to 542
Decreased growth in Irish bogs.
Ice core data shows extreme climate variations in Andes.
538 & 540
“Total Eclipse” from partial eclipse events.
536 & 537
“Dry Fog” in Mediterranean
536 & 538
Irish grain crop failed. Starvation in Ireland and England.
China had famine.
Few Maya buildings made.
536
No summer in Scandinavia
535, 536, & 541
Extreme cold in Sierra Nevada.
535
Krakatau exploded, causing 18 months of darkness.
526
Earthquakes and “fire from sky” in Turkey.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
.
Ancient Norse active hauling copper down Mississippi with trade route up Canadian river.
Heavner, Poteau, Shawnee Runes.
Spiro Mounds.
The text below is from a LENAPE, who heard a verbal history. The “water going away” refers to the 114th century event. But droughts are a recurring event in the Mid-west. The LENAPE history has a Stanza that hints at the People in Greenland knowing about Lake Michigan. Some of the 5th century people may have been driven away by a drought. Some of them may have returned to Greenland and thus were mentioned as knowing about Lake Michigan.
The people, who ate people, is a real part of history until Sullivan’s scorched earth campaign (1778-80) eliminated them.
AnonymousJul 6, 2018, 6:45:00 AM
Myron,
My great-grandfather was Lenape (New Jersey). When we were children, we were told of ancestors coming from a frozen land to a land of geese to a land of plenty. After a time, the water went away, suddenly, and they migrated again, south and east to New Jersey. We moved to New York when I was small, and he told us to watch out for the Indians up here because they were cannibals who called the Lenape “The Food People”. He talked about being “Turtle Clan” and about talking to anthropologist types who said that the water going away was “proof of Noah’s flood”. He also talked about the Shawnee “Going South”.
Unfortunately, he passed away 45 years ago, and I only remember a small bit of the things he talked about. I had forgotten about most of it until a woman I know (another N.J. transplant)was telling me her mother (Ramapo) made her break off a relationship with her boyfriend (Seneca) because of “Cannibalism”.
Might be an interesting idea to track Factor V Leiden clotting issues in the Algonquin descendants, specifically in the Lenape, Wendat, Shawnee, Ramapo, and related groups.
Myron PaineMar 19, 2019, 4:02:00 PM
HI, if you still recieve a reply, please email me at
mydavidpaine@gmail.com. Your comment that “there was no water” may explain many things that are a puzzle. The people, who had lived on the shores of Lake Michigan seemed to vanish. A drought (no food) would be a compelling reason to move. Thanks for the reply.
Here a DOT. There a DOT.
Thanks to Google Bots.
We can connect the DOTS.
https://myronpaine.blogspot.com/2019/03/aho-update-23-come-again-michigan-relic.html
But WHAT does it mean?
WHERE did they go?
I would like to know.
Myron
Soaking up all this beautiful history. When I found FLOAT COPPER on the Lake Superior beach across from Isle ?Royal 40 years ago, I had no idea what I was finding.and the implications in history. LOVE IT ,
Three re-readings and enthralled even more.
Perhaps, if I may, point out a editing oversite:
You may want to check the conjugation of “road upon” Phoenician ships. I believe it’s either road upon the ships or had ridden upon the ships. Grade school English was thorough and complete.
Again. Outstanding information.
Incredible. And thank goodness the artifacts weren’t destroyed but just laid to rest for the time being. Recent advances in DNA forensics has released countless wrongly accused, sentenced and imprisoned individuals. With the conclusions deduced from a combination of visual inspection, ancient history and state of the art technology, perhaps some form of advanced scientific dating methods would assist further investigation. What a shame so much was inadvertently destroyed by the settlers. One wonders if satellite imagery like that used to discover interconnecting portions of the Valley of the Kings, could be used for revealing additional, as of yet undiscovered mounds buried under the virgin areas of Michigan. Or for that matter, other Great Lakes states. Keep digging!
The MICHIGAN RELICS are an outstanding example of the smothering effect of the ENGLISH YTH.
When the English invaded, most Americans were Catholics, who spoke Norse.
The 17th century ENGLISH created a MYTH which proclaimed that there were NO Catholics or Norse in America when Columbus discovered a “NEW WORLD.”
The MYTH expanded so that we believed that NO ONE from the EAST SIDE of the ATLANTIC came to America before Columbus.
We, all, were kids. Teachers were tall, big, authority figures, who were trained by professors. All the professors taught ALL the teachers the MYTH.
We , ALL, think ANY THING that does not support the MYTH is ipso facto a FRAUD.