Did it belong to a witch? A pirate? N.S. homeowner puzzled by high-heeled rubber boot

What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever found on your property?

Melissa Laforge, who purchased an abandoned home in Baxters Harbour, N.S., in 2016, has uncovered cars, a boat, fridges, bed frames, kids toys and broken Christmas lights — among other things.

“It’s been endless. Absolutely endless. In fact, we thought we were done and last night was a bit of a surprise,” Laforge said Wednesday.

Her latest discovery? A high-heeled rubber boot.

“When we looked at the design, we realized that this is not like any rubber boot we’ve ever seen before,” she said. 

“Either it’s really old or it was really stylized for some reason, but it’s certainly no fisherman’s rubber boots.”

She and her husband, Charles, discovered the single boot buried deep in their lawn after mowing the grass too short and catching a glimpse of the black sole.

They weren’t surprised more debris was unearthing itself, but they expected it to be a standard boot, like one of many they’ve already found on the property.

“But in this case, it’s more of your quintessential witch’s boot,” Laforge said.

“It’s got about a two or three-inch heel and it’s got some designs on it that make it look like it’s trying to be a very fancy rubber boot.”

The size-10 shoe is embossed to make it appear as if it has laces tying up the front and there’s a full-length zipper down the side.

The heel says “Made in Canada,” but there are no other indications of what brand it is, what decade it was made or what it was worn for.

Without many clues, Laforge turned to Facebook.

She posted a photo of the boot in the Ask Nova Scotia group and queried: “Hey Nova Scotia, was this a thing? High heeled rubber boots? So far only 1. No leg attached.”

People immediately started dropping suggestions. Could it be a military boot? An equestrian riding boot? Or could it be a “rubber,” which were worn over other footwear?

Laforge said she liked the idea that it could be a rubber, but the heel is solid and wouldn’t fit the heel of another shoe.

She said she appreciates the speculation, but so far, there’s been no definitive answers.

“People are still kind of speculating on what era it came from and I truthfully don’t know,” she said. “I’m not a specialist in footwear or clothing and it would be really interesting to see if someone can chime in with some more information.”

Others suggested the boot could’ve belonged to a witch buried in the lawn or that Laforge is now part of a “Maritimer Cinderella story!”

But, Laforge said, it’s more likely the boot was worn by someone on the harbour, although she likes to think it was a pirate, rather than a witch.

“Your imagination can kind of run wild on people of the past. The family that was here before us certainly lived a long, colourful life … and I can speculate that either someone was looking to be real fancy and go out on the boat with their fancy, fancy rubber boots or I don’t know,” she said.

“Honestly, I’m trying to figure out who on a working harbour would be wearing a very, very fancy rubber boot.”

Mystery solved?

Elizabeth Semmelhack, the director and senior curator of the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, said she’s not sure what brand the boot is, but it likely dates back to the 1970s and was modelled after boots worn in the 1910s.

“It is just a rubber version of what was already a popular silhouette and style that was somewhat nostalgic,” she said.

Semmelhack said there was a “real push to make shoes to answer the needs of every single kind of moment one would find themselves” during post-war industrialization.

“And so having a pair of fashionable boots for the rain makes perfect sense, and I can see why people would have gravitated towards them.”

But, she said, it’s unlikely the boot belonged to a witch or pirate.

“I’m sorry to burst anybody’s bubble, but I don’t believe that the boots would have belonged to anybody but a young woman interested in fashion,” she said with a laugh.

Still, Laforge said she’ll be keeping the boot around as a “fireside funny” for now.

“Whether we treat it like a kiss-the-cod kind of ceremony and we screech people in with the boot, I don’t know, but we’re definitely open for some jovial fun with it,” she said.

One other option, she said, would be to fill it with treasure, bury it on the beach and wait for someone to find it.

“It’s just been fun.”