It was a roughly rectangular piece of lead with something written on it in a foreign language.

That language was Latin, according to Park Manager Kevin Henning. When it was translated it was found that the tablet had apparently been placed there by an explorer who claimed the land for France.

”This was a big deal,” Henning said Monday evening.

It turned out to be a big hoax.

”It was found later that it was fake,” Henning said. ”It seems that a gentleman from Lehigh put it there, and when it wasn’t found he went back and moved it so it could be found more easily.”

But the incident of the bogus tablet brought a lot of attention to the site, which became a state park in 1925.

”It was a great deal in that it generated so much interest,” Henning said.

He said that in 2006, a Wisconsin resident found the tablet in an attic. It is now in the Webster County Museum, he said.