published a work on his findings titled "The 'Michigan Relics': A Story of Forgery and Deception." Rudolph Etzenhouser, who was a traveling elder of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS), saw the relics as proof of the historicity of the Book of Mormon. Etzenhouser even published a book on his collection of the Michigan Relics. After James Savage died in 1927 he bequeathed his collection of the relics to the University of Notre Dame. While at Notre Dame, the relics sat dormant until the 1960s when Milton R. Hunter, president of the New World Archaeological Foundation, the research institute of the LDS Church, uncovered the relics. Hunter spent the rest of his life attempting to use the relics to prove the historicity of the Book of Mormon. Hunter connected the relics to the "Michigan Mound Builders," which he deemed to be the Nephites from the Book of Mormon. Hunter's rhetoric and work with the Michigan Relics perpetuated pseudoarchaeology in religion, with efforts to prove pre-Columbian contact and the myth of the mound builders. Notre Dame gave Hunter the collection in the 1960s and before his death in 1975 he deeded the collection to the LDS Church. Following Hunter's death, the Church kept the collection in their museum in Salt Lake City, Utah for decades. In 2001, the Church had the relics examined by Professor of Anthropology Richard B. Stamps, of Oakland University and found that the artifacts were made with contemporary tools. The LDS Church kept 797 of the objects in their Salt Lake City Museum. In 2003, they gave them to the Michigan History Museum in Lansing where they currently reside. The Museum developed an exhibition surrounding the objects called "Digging Up Controversy: The Michigan Relics" which was on display in the fall and winter of 2003. References External links Brigham Young University - Michigan relics revisited - Article discussing an artifact allegedly discovered in Michigan during the 1890s. Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact Pseudoarchaeology Hoaxes in the United States Archaeological forgeries 19th-century hoaxes Mormonism-related controversies Michigan culture