About This Button
A military-style cuff button recovered by metal detection expert Gary Drayton and David Fornetti along the stone pathway near the northeastern border of the triangle-shaped swamp during Season 8 Episode 21, aired 6 April 2021. The find emerged during an excavation led by Alex Lagina with archaeologists Miriam Amirault and Dr. Aaron Taylor and heavy equipment operator Billy Gerhardt, who had just uncovered what appeared to be a corner in the pathway, suggesting it turned uphill toward the interior of the island. The cuff button was one of four artifacts recovered from the immediate area in the same session, together with a piece of iron the team identified as a possible fire grate from a nearby burn feature, a fragment of French transfer print pottery dated to the early 1760s, and a possible musket gunflint potentially dating to the early 1600s.
Drayton dated the button to between 1750 and 1850 based on its military style. Cuff buttons of this type were a standard component of British and French infantry and naval officer's coats from the mid-eighteenth through the early nineteenth century, typically cast in copper or copper alloy with regimental, decorative, or plain devices on the face. The 1750 to 1850 range spans the period during which both Britain and France maintained an active military presence in Nova Scotia, including the British garrisons at Halifax established in 1749 and French operations along the Atlantic coast prior to the fall of Louisbourg in 1758.
The stone pathway at the northeastern border of the swamp has been interpreted as part of an engineered swamp construction predating the 1795 discovery of the Money Pit, with surveyor Steve Guptill subsequently dating the broader swamp construction zone to between 1630 and 1750. The pottery, gunflint, and cuff button recovered together at the pathway corner place military activity in the area at some point between the mid-seventeenth and mid-nineteenth centuries. The find sits alongside other military-period artifacts on the island, including a British naval officer's button from the Samuel Ball foundation on Lot 25 in the same season and a dandy button recovered by Drayton on Ball's Lot 24 in Season 4.
Historical Context
Gary Drayton and David Fornetti recovery; The Curse of Oak Island Season 8 Episode 21 "Off the Railing" (6 April 2021)
Where It Was Found
Found at Stone pathway corner, northeastern border of swamp — the triangle-shaped swamp on Oak Island's southeastern quadrant.
