Here's a puzzle...

cakewalk · Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 512

I was out hiking today in the stetson valley area, The Deem hills just north of Happy Vally road and about 43rd ave.

About 1000 feet into the desert from the nearest house and a few hundred feet elevation, no nearby trail, we came across a heavy solid metal sphere, 1.5 inches in diameter. No markings. It's rusted a bit but in pretty good shape.
It does attract a magnet.

What on earth could this be and how did it get to be where it was?. Too heavy to throw and too heavy for someone to have whacked it with a golf club. No machinery or construction, or any signs of activity, just in the desert.

I suppose it could be an industrial bearing that some person just dropped it?

It's a mystery.

azhiker96 · Joined: 05 Jan 2003 Posts: 1419

Or perhaps a cannon ball. That would be about the right size for a pack cannon I think. We had an old civil war cannon ball when I was growing up. It sounds like you've just described it.
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azhiker96 · Joined: 05 Jan 2003 Posts: 1419

It would probably look similar to this solid shot from New Mexico.
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It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring. -- Carl Sagan

beckett · Joined: 14 Feb 2005 Posts: 1066

I love a good mystery.
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cakewalk · Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 512

azbackpackr · Posted: 9/20/2009, 4:37 pm Post subject:

People do own cannons and play with them, and lob cannon balls around. Maybe it's something like that? Take it to a store that sells such toys and see if they know. I'm sure there must be one in the Valley somewhere.

Shawn · Posted: 9/20/2009, 4:54 pm Post subject:

I think the most likely answer is a bearing from heavy equipment. How it got there is another mystery.

Or it could be the auxillary energy source for a Krypton Space/Matter Converter, Model Number A-47b-2, which was in common use in planetary exploration expeditions, just before Star Fleet Command ordered the switch to the now common solid crystal Model Number B-47c-9.
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azbackpackr · Posted: 9/20/2009, 5:37 pm Post subject:

cakewalk · Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 512

Hikngrl · Posted: 9/23/2009, 2:41 pm Post subject:

I like Shawn"s answer! Laughing

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