Impossible Stuff Found In Coal And Rock

By James Donahue

It is said that coal is a by-product of decaying vegetation and that it takes from 30 to 300 million years for its natural production. Thus when "impossible" items like jewelry, a spoon, a metalic cube and other "man-made" objects are found in lumps of coal, we are inclined to perceive human history in a dramtically new light.

There is a growing list of these items that made the news in their day, but then were put aside as unexplainable anomalies. When we put them all together, however, their existence challenges everything we thought we knew about the world and human history. There are many hard-line fundamentalists who would like to sweep such things under the rug so they don't confuse their archaic belief systems.

Nevertheless, these things exist. We offer a list of the ones we presently know about. We are sure there are many others.

The Morrisonville, Illinois Times, on June 11, 1891, said Mrs. S. W. Culp found a circular shaped eight-carat gold chain, about 10 inches long, embedded in a lump of coal after she broke it apart to put in her scuttle. The chain was described as "antique" and of "quaint workmanship." The story said only part of the chain was revealed when she first broke open the coal, and that the rest of the chain remained buried within the coal. The coal came from one of the southern Illinois mines.

Yet another story found in Epoch Times told of a Colorado rancher who in the 1800s broke open a lump of coal, dug from a vein some 300 feet in the earth, and found a "strange-looking iron thimble." The item was dubbed the "Thimble of Eve" by the media. Since its discovery, however, and due to mishandling by its owners, the iron corroded and disintegrated.

In 1944, when he was a boy of 10, Newton Anderson dropped a lump of coal in the basement of his home in Upshur County West Virginia. The coal, which had been mined near his home, broke open and out fell a brass bell with a long artistic handle with what is described as a "demon-like" figure at the end. An iron clapper was still attached within the bell. The bell has been featured in a 1992 CBS documentary titled "Ancient Secrets of the Bible." The bell now belongs to a Genesis Park collection, which we believe may be in New Hampshire. .

Within the Creation Evidence Museum at Glen Rose, Texas, can be found a cast iron pot reportedly found in a large lump of coal in 1912 by a worker feeding coal into a local electric power plant. When he split open the coal the worker said the pot fell out, leaving its impression in the coal. The coal had been mined at Wilburton, Oklahoma. The bell and pot are being used by Christians to prove the Genesis story of Tubal Cain, who reportedly forged metals prior to the flood.

A large ceramic spoon or ladle was found in the ashes of a coal stove by a woman in Pannsylvania in 1937. The item was sent to The Smithsonian Institute for examination, and remained buried in the volumes of artifacts stored there until its existence was made public in 1976.

The Salzburg Cube is yet another ancient puzzle found by a worker named Reidl in an Austrian foundry in 1885. Like the others, this man broke open a block of coal and found a metal cube embedded inside.The mining engineer wrote off the item as a meteorite, but more recent analysis shows that the object was a forged iron and obviously hand crafted. The item is not perfectly square, with slightly rounded sides on two ends. It measures only two and a half by one and four-fifth of an inch. There is an incision that runs around it horizontally, suggesting it may have been a machine part.

Workers in stone quarries also have found impossible objects.

It is said that in 1844, quarry workers at Rutherford Mills, England, found a piece of gold thread embedded in rock about eight feet in the ground.

The London Times in 1851 reported that Hiram DeWitt, of Springfield, Mass, brought a piece of quartz home from a trip to California. When the stone was accidentally dropped it split open and inside was a cut-iron six-penny nail. The nail was described as perfectly straight and with its head still intact.

A British publication of 1845-51 contained a report by Sir David Brewster that a nail was found in a block of stone from the Kingoodie Quarry, North Britain. The head of the nail was exposed but an inch of it was embedded in the stone.

The oxidized remains of a tapered, threaded iron screw was found in a piece of feldspar removed from a mine near Treasure City, Nevada, in 1869.

Then there was a "mystery object of exquisite workmanship" found by workers in solid pudding stone, about 15 feet in the ground, at Dorchester, Mass. A story in the June, 1851 edition of Scientific American said the artifact was a "bell-shaped vessel" four and a half inches high, six and a half inches wide at the base, and two and a half inches wide at the top. The sides are inlaid with images of flowers, fines or a wreath. The object appears to be a composition of metals, and inlaid with silver.