The Michigan Relics, also called the Scotford Frauds or Soper Frauds, are a group of claimed ancient items found in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Some people said these items proved that people from an ancient culture in the Near East lived in the area now known as the U.S. state of Michigan before European explorers arrived. However, many experts have concluded that the items are fake artifacts made to look old. The Michigan Relics are seen as one of the most detailed and large-scale fake archaeological discoveries in American history.

"Discovery" of the Relics

In October 1890, James O. Scotford from Edmore, Michigan, said he had found several artifacts, including a clay cup with unusual symbols and carved tablets that had symbols similar to hieroglyphs. The discovery attracted attention, and people eager to find more artifacts arrived in the area. More detailed items were later found near Wyman in Montcalm County, Michigan, after Scotford’s initial discovery. Scotford was known in Wyman as a person who dug for items and painted signs. He and his group would dig until they found an artifact, and then officials who supported the work would be invited to take the item. Within a year of Scotford’s first discovery, a group of interested people formed in Montcalm County. This group bought many of the artifacts and tried to use them for financial gain in the region.

In 1907, Scotford partnered with Daniel E. Soper, a former Michigan Secretary of State. Together, they displayed thousands of objects made of different materials, claiming they were found in 16 counties across Michigan. Soper had left his position as Secretary of State after being accused of misusing money. The objects included coins, pipes, boxes, figurines, and cuneiform tablets showing scenes from the Bible, such as Moses receiving the Ten Commandments. On November 14, 1907, the Detroit News reported that Soper and Scotford were selling copper crowns they claimed were found on the heads of ancient kings and copies of Noah’s diary. Scotford often arranged for a local person to watch him "discover" the items.

Scotford and Soper had many customers who believed the relics were real. In 1911, John A. Russell published a pamphlet titled "Prehistoric discoveries in Wayne County, Michigan," in which he said the items were authentic. James Savage, a former pastor at the Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Detroit, purchased 40 of the objects. Savage believed they were "remains connected to the descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel" and continued to believe in the relics until his death in 1927.

Debunking

In 1891, Professor Albert Emerson visited the sites to examine the "artifacts" he described as "not good enough in the photograph… after checking, he found they were fake." In 1892, Professor Francis W. Kelsey, a professor of Latin and Literature at the University of Michigan, and Professor Morris Jastrow, Jr., a professor of ancient languages at the University of Pennsylvania, studied the writing on the objects. Kelsey and Jastrow concluded the Michigan Relics were fake, containing a "horrible mixture" of jumbled ancient scripts. Most early scholars who examined the relics agreed they were forgeries, based on this evidence:

• The hieroglyphs were stamped cuneiform symbols placed randomly.
• Some figures showed lions without tails, a mistake that would not have happened by "early" artists.
• The clay items were dried on a board that had been cut by a machine.
• The objects fell apart in water, suggesting they were not buried for a long time.

Archaeologists and historians repeatedly concluded the objects were forgeries. On July 28, 1911, Professor Frederick Starr of the University of Chicago wrote in the Detroit News that the so-called relics were fake. Mary Robson, who lived in a room next to Scotford's sons Percy and Charles, said the boys made more "relics" all the time. In 1911, Scotford's stepdaughter signed a legal statement saying she saw him making the objects. When she said they were not real, he threatened her life. Most scholars believe Scotford created the items and Soper sold them, working together for money. Neither man ever admitted their roles and continued their work until they died in the 1920s.

The Relics and LDS

The discovery of the Michigan Relics caught the attention of some members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). In 1909, a scientist named James E. Talmage, who was a member of the LDS Church, took part in an excavation and carefully examined the artifacts in his laboratory in Utah. His research led him to conclude that the items were fake. In August 1911, he published a book titled "The 'Michigan Relics': A Story of Forgery and Deception," sharing his findings. Rudolph Etzenhouser, a traveling elder of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS), believed the relics proved the Book of Mormon was historically true. He also wrote a book about his collection of the Michigan Relics.

After James Savage died in 1927, he left his collection of the relics to the University of Notre Dame. While at Notre Dame, the relics were not used for many years until the 1960s, when Milton R. Hunter, president of the New World Archaeological Foundation, discovered them. Hunter spent the rest of his life trying to use the relics to support the idea that the Book of Mormon was historically accurate. He connected the relics to the "Michigan Mound Builders," a group he believed were the Nephites from the Book of Mormon. Hunter’s work and statements about the relics helped spread unscientific ideas in religion, including claims about pre-Columbian contact and the myth of the mound builders. In the 1960s, Notre Dame gave Hunter the collection. Before his death in 1975, Hunter gave the collection to the LDS Church. After Hunter died, the LDS Church kept the relics in their museum in Salt Lake City, Utah, for many years. In 2001, the Church had the relics studied by Professor Richard B. Stamps, an anthropologist from Oakland University, who found that the artifacts were made using modern tools.

The LDS Church kept 797 of the items in their Salt Lake City Museum. In 2003, they donated them to the Michigan History Museum in Lansing, where they are now displayed. The museum created an exhibition called "Digging Up Controversy: The Michigan Relics," which was shown during the fall and winter of 2003.