Although just on the cusp of turning 16, Jack MacMillan has a passion for the past rarely mirrored in people twice his age. It’s a keen interest that leads him to trek for hours holding a heavy piece of equipment, dig through the muck of low tide and freedive frigid waters.
The result is a massive collection of items that, with a little legwork, spell out small stories of those who lived here more than a century ago.
“I do a lot of research, it’s part of the fun for me. History is my passion in general,” the Royal Bay Secondary student explains.
Following the stuff kids can safely consume on YouTube and other online media spurred his interest a few years ago.
“I always wanted to be the one out finding stuff,” MacMillan says.
The teen asked his parents for a metal detector and received a kids' version of the gear a few years ago, quickly learning its limitations. A couple of years ago, he scored the more sophisticated version. Still, the hobby takes determination, at least 50 per cent of the signals reveal modern nails or some other innocuous object, though the old-school square nails make the occasional appearance.
That passion led the Grade 10 student to add mucking and freediving in his search for historic pieces of glass and ceramic, and brick.
Between his foraging activities, he’s amassed an impressive collection of metal and glass, and an equally impressive amount of trash removed from the landscape, says driver dad Jeff MacMillan.
“It’s hard to leave a mess,” the teen admits.
Dad figures Jack has a knack, or sixth sense, for where to go looking, and there’s likely some truth there, given his success. But Jack’s careful to note the work that goes into an exploration ahead of a simple walk in the park.
“A lot of research and time goes into finding places to search,” he said.
Jack knows the history of his collection and can tell the story of each one, building on them as he learns more
Shadow boxes of objects spell out those stories, narrated as best he can with ever-ongoing research. One showcases daily use items – a chauffeur's tag from 1924, a pocket watch with its holding chain, makeup compact, buckles, glasses, razor, and a small tool container – all provide a snapshot of life a century ago.
“A couple of months ago, I got incredibly lucky when I stumbled upon a ‘hoard’ of buttons and badges from World War I,” he said. “Over the course of just two days, I unearthed 13 pieces, all within a foot of each other.”
The find exceeded any expectation.
“It’s one of my crowning achievements.”
The finest of the find are tidied up and laid out – military badges and buttons that could all lead back to one service member as far as his reading reveals.
It includes general service buttons, and those of the British Merchant Navy, Second World War artillery, BC Artillery, and BC Horse 5th Regiment.
The 103 Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Force shoulder badge is a particularly prime find.
“There’s a very short window when this could have existed,” Jack explains. Formed and recruited in Victoria in late 1915, the 103 embarked for Britain in July 1916. In early 1917, it was absorbed by another unit and disbanded later that year.
The rarity is echoed in his glass finds and his first piece of stoneware recently unearthed – a Regal Mineral Water Co. bottle dates between 1914 and 1916, making it about 110 years old.
He enjoys walks on the shoreline with an eye to the silty bottom in search of historic glass. Sometimes the finds are alongside metal bits, while others are dug from the muck on waterways with old pieces found at low tide, along rivers or while diving.
In such a niche collecting and foraging hobby, online communities and research provide a plethora of information; Jack also sources from new friends who’ve been around a while. At group meetups, he remains – generally by a far margin – the youngest.
One gang of fellows – and they are all lads of a certain age – is impressed with his Gorge Waterway discoveries. Until Jack, they were pretty confident they’d picked it clean decades ago.
“There’s a community to it, definitely,” he says. “Not a lot of people my age are in the hobby.”
