A 200-year-old sword was found in a pond in Florida

History is full of important lessons, like if you’re ever walking through a pond with a sword, don’t drop it because it’ll likely be lost for 200 years. 

A Jupiter Farms woman recently found a 200-year-old Seminole War sword in her property’s pond, reports the Palm Beach Post.

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, handed the relic over to the Loxahatchee River Preservationists, a local volunteer group dedicated to preserving the area’s history.

Gary Bachmann, co-founder of the group, said “she told us her pond dried up last February more than it had ever been. She found the sword lying in the mud.”

But after a call to Louisiana Civil war relic expert Richard Angelico, and quite a bit of rust remover, acetone, polyurethane, and tannic acid, the old American blade was once again looking sharp.

The Loxahatchee River Preservationists plan to display the refurbished the sword at their next event, on Nov. 11, at Riverbrand Park.

As for the sword itself, Angelico claims it was probably made in England in the late 1700s or early 1800s. Speaking to the Palm Beach Post, he said “thousands of those swords came to the United States through trade.”

Engravings on the sword’s pommel indicate it was an officer’s weapon with the U.S. Military. Angelico speculates it was lost while being used to cut through thick grasses encountered by American soldiers on their way to one of the Battles of Loxahatchee, in 1838. The battles were instrumental in the long and deadly Seminole Wars, spanning 1816 to 1858.

Jack Islin, also a member of the Loxahatchee River Preservationists, remarked on the difficulty of travel in Florida at the time. “They were fighting through cypress trees. Getting cut up by the grass. There were snakes and bugs. They were losing their shoes and equipment in the mud. It must have been very difficult for the commander to maintain moral.”

This article appears in Nov 1-7, 2017.