Cufflinks at Colonial Michilimackinac are more than 200 years old
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Cufflinks at Colonial Michilimackinac are more than 200 years old

Aug 02, 2023

To an untrained eye, the dirty green glimmers unearthed at Colonial Michilimackinac may look like trash, but to archeologists and historians, they are treasure.

According to a recent release from Mackinac State Historic Park, a pair of cufflinks, found on Aug. 10, represent the latest finds in a fruitful 64th archeological field season at the preserve.

Set in brass, the green glass paste stones form a "joined sleeve button," akin to a modern cuff link, and date back to 1781.

The archeological season, which ends Aug. 20, has yielded old buttons, paperweights, antique French gun remnants, among other historic treasures.

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Previously sacred ground for the Mackinac bands of the Chippewa and Ottawa tribes, Mackinac Island, or Michilimackinac, as it was called by the tribes, saw European settlers arrive in the 1600s.

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