At first, the Michigan farmer believed that he had simply dug up an old and bent fence post which was completely covered in dirt and mud. Fortunately, he didn’t just toss it aside and go on working but decided to continue clearing out the field.
Bristle explained, “We knew it was something that was out of the norm.” He added, “My grandson came over to look at it, he’s five years old, and he was speechless.” James Bristle listened to his gut which led him to a major discovery that would completely stun his family, friends, and the entire small Michigan town in which he lived.
An Unexpected Hurdle
James Bristle had recently acquired the property, which was located not far from the city of Chelsea in the Ann Arbor region. On that day in October 2015, Bristle wanted to get some work done on his infrastructure and decided that a remote soy field would be a good location for a new natural gas line.
Although the field was supposed to have loose, soft soil, heavy machinery was still needed to dig deep enough to install the gas line. Bristle and a friend were using a tractor to plow deep into what was supposed to be soft Midwestern earth when their backhoe suddenly hit something.
A Peculiar Find
Bristle stopped the work and got down on his hands and knees to examine the obstacle they had run into. He believed it was probably a stone or a big root, but as he started feeling around, he discovered that the object was smooth and hard.
The farmer was now extremely curious and continued trying to remove the soil and dirt from the mysterious object. James and his friend did not know what they were dealing with but finally managed to get off some of the mud. At that moment, they both realized that they had uncovered something extraordinary.
A Lucky Find
The object was unidentifiable at first, but after a more thorough cleaning, it became clear that Bristle had unearthed a piece of bone. The bone, however, did not bear a resemblance to anything which he’d ever seen before. His first thought was that it looked like a rib bone.
But if that was the case, it was way too big to be from any of the animals common in that region. Bristle’s family was native to the area, they had owned the farm across the road since the 1950s, but he had purchased this property only two months before stumbling upon the intriguing find. The decision to buy the land would rapidly change his life.
Digging for Clues
Bristle’s curiosity was all fired up, and there was no way he was going to stop digging for answers. He removed more and more soil from the site and ultimately unearthed another bone. The second find only made things more complicated because the second object was a lot longer than the first.
Believing that more clues would be found in the ground, Bristle brought in help, and together they dug out a ten-foot-deep tunnel in the sediment. It didn’t take long for news of the strange discovery to reach the townspeople, and there was a lot of interest in the impromptu dig site.