A Canadian kid is proof that major scientific discoveries don’t always have to come from grizzled researchers with fancy equipment. Two years ago, then-8-year-old Lucas Atchison went on a family trip to Point Farms Provincial Park in Ontario. Armed with a metal detector he had just received as a birthday present, Atchison dutifully scanned the area, hoping to hear that coveted “beep.”
Eventually, he did. Eagerly digging into the site, Lucas uncovered a metal spike, which his father initially dismissed as something used to tie up boats. But the budding archaeologist insisted they dig further. Soon, they uncovered another spike attached to a piece of wood. The father-son pair had likely stumbled on a two-century-old shipwreck.
“We were on the beach, we got our metal detector out, and as soon as we set it up, ding! It was a spike from the shipwreck,” Lucas recently told the CBC.
Lucas’ find led to a full-on excavation
Once the duo realized what they had found, they alerted the provincial parks staff, who then contacted the nonprofit Ontario Marine Heritage Committee (OMHC). The OMHC met with Lucas in 2023, but it took several years to obtain the necessary regulatory permits to excavate the area further. Finally, earlier this month, they began digging. Though still in the early stages, marine archaeologist Scarlett Janusas told the CBC that the shipwreck’s “double frames” suggest it is of the schooner variety.
Work still needs to be done to definitively confirm the ship’s identity, but archaeologists working on the project believe they may have a likely contender in the St. Anthony. That vessel wrecked near Lake Huron in 1856 during a trip transporting wheat between Chicago and Buffalo. Researchers at the site are currently creating sketches of the wreck from above and from the side to analyze it in more detail. They are also reportedly reviewing 19th-century insurance requirements for ships, which could provide clues about the vessel’s identity and when it sank. Those documents outline specifications for ships at the time, such as the number of fasteners required in the frames. By cross-referencing those details against records of missing ships, they hope to definitively identify the wreck.
Related: [Amateur metal detector uncovers massive Iron Age treasure hoard]
You never know what you might find
Lucas’ discovery is a nice reminder that, even today, in our seemingly mapped-out, modernized world, you never know what you might find with a trusty metal detector. His case is far from unique. In just the past few months, a Romanian man used a metal detector to uncover an ancient hoard of Roman coins. Even more recently, a Scottish man discovered a 4,000-year-old axe buried on his family farm. Sometimes, people may not even realize the significance of their finds until much later. Case in point: an Australian prospector named David Hole found a large rock with a metal detector in 2016, believing it to be a gold nugget. Only recently did he learn that it was actually a far rarer 4.6 billion-year-old meteorite.
As for the Ontario shipwreck, researchers say they eventually plan to re-bury the find in an anaerobic, oxygen-free environment. That setting could help preserve it by protecting it from natural degradation caused by parasites and other organisms. Lucas, meanwhile, may be just beginning a long journey with his trusted metal detector.
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