London local Shawn Watson enjoys a good treasure hunt.
Like many others who venture out with a metal detector, Watson says he’s always searching for gold or jewelry, but he also looks for small historical artifacts from the city’s past.
“Everyone loves treasure hunting because you never know what you’re going to find. Some things have value and then some stuff has historic value, which is also interesting,” Watson said. “There’s always areas of the city that have been used for all different things and there’s treasures in the ground everywhere.”
His excitement for digging led him to the old Mc Cormick’s candy factory on Dundas Street.
That’s where he discovered several items that offered a peek into the property’s history.
![]()
Londoner Shawn Watson walks around the edges of the former Mc Cormick’s factory property with his metal detector, with the goal of finding pieces of the city’s history. (Kendra Seguin/)
“I found Mc Cormick’s tokens and their cafeteria tokens. There’s a one cent and a three cent, and I actually don’t know the exact history,” he said. “I assume they were handed out to the employees to spend on food.”
“The oldest thing I found was a Tombac button, which were the buttons that were used in the 18th and 19th century, so it could be almost 200 years old. That was probably from before the factory was built.”
Some of Watson’s other finds include a City of London dog tag from 1924, part of an old lantern, pieces of copper, old coins, tokens and shards of pottery. He discovered most items near the property’s curb at Dundas Street and Ashland Avenue.
“It’s kind of fenced off, so I don’t really go on the property, but the city started tearing up the sides of the road and they cleared off a bunch of topsoil, which makes it better to detect,” he said.
Watson shared pictures of his discoveries in a London Facebook group hoping to learn more about them.
“I was hoping someone would tell me [the history], but I haven’t heard anything yet,” he said.
![]()
Some of the items Shawn Watson dug up at the old Mc Cormick’s factory property include cafeteria tokens, a dog tag and a Tomac button. (Kendra Seguin/)
Watson was born in St. Thomas but has lived in London since elementary school; he’s been hunting for local treasures on-and-off for 12 years now. Over time, he said he’s become familiar with his metal detector and can distinguish which sounds indicate valuable or interesting finds.
“You’ll ignore sounds that you know are probably like aluminum foil or any aluminum pull tabs and stuff, and then higher tones could be a coin or piece of jewelry,” he explained. “That’s what I’m looking for usually.”
If necessary, he digs about 10 inches down into the soil to retrieve an item.
Nows that he’s checked out Mc Cormick’s site well enough , Watson plans to use an 1800s map of London to seek out other old properties that no longer exist and continue searching there.
Source link
Source link
