Niagara Falls in the fireplace

I realize that title makes it sound like we had a terrible flood. Nope!

As we did in our own house, the prior owners of 615 replaced the mantle of their fireplace. When they did so, they found some cool stuff inside, and this coin was among that.

The other day when my friend Bill Lovis came over to pick something up from me, I showed him the coin and asked him what he thought of it. Bill is an archeologist who has worked extensively around Michigan and elsewhere. He took it home, researched it, and sent me what he discovered:

"This is a late 19th or early 20th century commemorative souvenir from Niagara Falls. Others like it indicate it's a paperweight. It appears to be made of a copper-plated pot metal or pewter. The obverse (one side) has what appears to be a Seneca Indian, while the reverse has a landscape of Niagara Falls. The reverse is partially corroded, but the letters NIA are still visible. Apparently there are a lot of these for many different tourist destinations. Uncorroded, it's worth about $30."

I'll share in a future post what else was found in the fireplace! And we'll leave it all for the future owners, so they can enjoy the history of their house.

In the meantime, here's a look at something we found in the wall of our kitchen when we renovated it in 2004.

"Health first," people!