aka, “Mystery on Sugar Creek”
Matt and Olivia were out in the pasture yesterday, trying to separate a wiley heifer that had broken out of the stocker calves’ part of the pasture and into the mama cows’ part of the pasture, when they stumbled upon this treasure alongside the creek.
Surely the multiple floods unearthed this unusual find. The question is, where did it come from? How did an ocean artifact – and a large one at that – find it’s way into a creek in the middle of the country, about as far away from an ocean as you can get?
It’s remarkably sized, and remarkably intact. Is it just someone else’s vacation souveneir, washed from their home in these epic floods? Could be. But the top part of the shell looks like it has started to fossilize. Would that indicate that the shell has been buried in the silty bottom of Sugar Creek for many, many years, finally brought to the surface by the flood waters?
The mystery remains…where do you think it came from?
3 years ago:
1 year ago:
When you hold it to your ear, can you hear the ocean?I’m spellbound! What an exciting mystery 🙂
That is a conch shell. In the tropics you will find huge piles of these shells because people eat the critter inside. That hole is where you break the shell to make the conch slide out for dinner.My vote is that this is some kids souvenir from a vacation. (Everyone grabs one from the pile.) And they left it by the creek.But very cool non the less. I bet you could clean it up.
How cool – what a great dust catcher to set on a shelf!Kris
very interesting what a great story.
Those aliens are very tricky…
Those aliens are very tricky…
I have an award for you at my site. Thanks for your blog.Hmmm, It looks like it’s been there a long time. My vote is it’s a vacation souvenir…Unless of course more turn up then…maybe aliens…a much larger and earlier flood…?Kristi
That’s pretty funny. I’d say someone tossed it in the creek years ago with the intent that it would create a mystery when it was found. It worked!!!- Suzanne, the Farmer’s Wife
Way cool!It’d make a great mantelpiece decoration.
Here in Iowa City we have the Devonian Fossil Gorge which was unearthed by flooding in 93. I hear that the recent flood uncovered some new finds as well. So who knows, but I do agree that it is probably something someon brought back from vacation and lost.
That is amazing! And I am just crazy enough to think it’s from a loooooong time ago. Maybe it’s because I just saw an IMAX movie at the Norwalk Aquarium in CT about scientists finding ocean-dwelling dinosaur fossils in places like Kansas…Hmmmm… I think you should investigate further.
Iowa was once under the sea. Who knows what might be uncovered!!
I’m going to second Wayne here… that’s a conch-fritter hole for sure.