Rare artifact comes to Johnson's Island collection

When Dr. Dave Bush visited the Lorain County Community College’s Early College High School program to conduct an archaeology lab on Jan. 20, he didn’t know that a string of events from there would lead to the addition of a rare artifact from Johnson’s Island.

Dave’s work with Mark Jaworski’s ninth-grade science classes garnered publicity by The Morning Journal of Lorain and The Chronicle Telegram in Elyria, both of which published articles the next day. In response to those articles, the teacher received a call from Robert Young, who told him he had a cannon ball which he had discovered in the waters near Johnson’s Island. Young offered to donate the cannon ball to the Friends and Descendants of Johnson’s Island Civil War Prison.

Dave has brought the 8-pound cannon ball, which was likely shot from Naval cannons on Fort Hill, back to campus to be kept with other Johnson’s Island artifacts.

This is a unique artifact, Dave says. “Since there were no battles taking place there, the chance of finding artillery munitions is very rare.”