ROYAL OAK, Mich. – When Ben Cameron stopped by a yard sale in Madison Heights in 2023, one thing truly caught his eye.
“I’m not a treasure hunter,” Cameron said on Friday. “I’m not a picker or anything like that. But for some reason, that just stuck in my head.”
It was at that yard sale that he spotted a giant, cast-iron antique safe inscribed with the name of a Detroit pharmacist named “Carl G. Granacher.”
The safe, which was made by the National Safe & Lock Company, is estimated to be nearly 100 years old and was rescued from an abandoned building in Detroit nearly 30 years ago.
After initially passing on buying it and mulling it over, he pounced on it a few months later.
Once he got some help lugging the nearly 1-ton antique into his house, the next question was how to open it and see what, if anything, was inside it.
“For a while there, I didn’t want to damage it at all,” he said. “So, I was trying to manipulate it open myself, having no idea what I’m doing, I even got a doctor’s stethoscope.”
He eventually called in a locksmith who drilled a tiny hole into it, used a fiber optic camera, and cracked the safe.
Once inside, he found Granacher’s prohibition-era ledgers and prescription pads dating as far back as the 1930s. However, it was what was inside this small compartment on the upper left that raised Cameron’s eyebrows.
Three small boxes -- two of them containing a purple heart and a bronze star, which is awarded for going above and beyond the call of duty.
There was also a letter of commendation, dated June 30, 1945, for the Army soldier who earned it: Private First Class Milford Magnusson.
The letter, written by Maj. General A.D. Bruce said that Magnusson, an Army medic, repeatedly put himself in harm’s way to help his fellow members of the Army’s 77th Infantry Division.
“Despite the intense enemy fire, Private Magnusson, with utter disregard for his own safety, moved forward and administered first aid to every wounded man in the platoon,” the letter said in part. “When he ran out of medical supplies, he proceeded to the aid station for more supplies - even though he was under enemy mortar and artillery fire along the entire route.”
A search of records found that Magnusson was born in Manistee in 1910. He passed away in Pontiac in 1983 at the age of 72.
Cameron, who served 8 years in the Army National Guard, thinks the medals ended up with Grancher as some sort of collateral.
His goal is to get the medals back to Magnusson’s family because he understands the sacrifice he made.
“This is a piece of Detroit history that I think belongs in the hands of the family,” Cameron said. “I happened to stumble upon it.
“It’s in my living room. It’s cool. It’s a conversation piece,” he said. “But there’s no reason for me to hold on to a piece of history.”