Northern Michigan Fur trade...gold??

[mk4125]

I made my way back into the dense Michigan forest to an elevated spot along an old riverbed. A few weeks back I had blindly discovered what I believed to be an old fur traders camp site (1730’s French trade silver, fur trade rings, trappers knife, musket balls, etc). I felt that I had the area picked clean so I decided to work the spots around a few large rocks that were marking, what I could tell, the small foundation perimeter of the once-upon-a-time shack. One of the boulders had a spotty mid-tone signal so I tried figure out what/where the signal was coming from. I rolled the 50lb rock out of the way and got a solid tone 8 inches down. I took my time clearing the rocky earth to find this gold ring. It came out of the ground looking nearly untarnished and has Native American symbols (sun, moon and some outline of a bird I think). The gold appears to be soft and worn. I am not aware of any previous findings of trade gold in Northern Michigan but given the symbols...maybe??
*** Added more pics. Hopefully they are clearer ***

 

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[Argentium]

When i enlarge the pics , they get a bit blurry - suffice it to say if this is actually trade period gold, I can hardly imagine a more banner worthy find !

 

[mikefromIllinois]

Very nice find and agree if it is trade period deserves to be on top. Congrats.

 

[Jose The Goon]

Sadly to say, but people did die at these camps & had to be buried. Typically rocks & stones were placed atop the grave to keep animals
from digging. Ran into this years ago. A hand hammered silver ring was found. Little white bones around the the ring told us it had been
on someone's hand. For what it's worth. Sorry to be ghoulish, but it's a possibility.

 

[Whyme]

That looks like a nice little ring. Can't see any detail though. Nice find!

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Congratualtions!

 

[Rookster]

Great find.Congrats

 

[mk4125]

Sadly to say, but people did die at these camps & had to be buried. Typically rocks & stones were placed atop the grave to keep animals
from digging. Ran into this years ago. A hand hammered silver ring was found. Little white bones around the the ring told us it had been
on someone's hand. For what it's worth. Sorry to be ghoulish, but it's a possibility.

Possible. The area is elevated and is very dry with a lot of rock. I am hesitant to think that it's a tomb for human remains because the rocks would prevent a burial any deeper than maybe 12 inches...without removing some large rocks. In saying that anything is possible.

 

[mk4125]

I will get a better pic of the details.

 

[mk4125]

Pics added

 

[washingtonian]

I don't know much about the history of anything but this seems really neat. Worthy of banner consideration in my book!

 

[P.ALLEN]

Looks like a ladies ring.

 

[Gene Mean]

Beautiful ring. Congrats on an exciting find! Download a magnifier app to get sharper pics.

 

[SD51]

Great finds MK! Agree on the Banner find!