# What else don't we know - mysterious objects **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 24, 2024, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-else-dont-we-know-mysterious-objects/996570 "2024-01-24T00:02:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2024, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-else-dont-we-know-mysterious-objects/996570/101 "2024-02-05T23:54:07Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > > [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > > > (and has been unfurled more than three times; Sir Walter Scott inspected it on a trip to Skye, once.) > > Was Scott a danger to the Macleod clan at the time, though? > > Maybe it isn’t the literal unfurling that’s the issue, but the use against danger > > (At any rate, that’s the story I’d tell the tourists, if one of them brought that up – ) Understandable. However, family legend says it’s been unfurled three times already to protect the clan; once when they were battling the Macdonalds, and twice to stem cattle plagues on Skye. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2024, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-else-dont-we-know-mysterious-objects/996570/102 "2024-02-06T00:14:11Z")
> [@Eric1](#): > > I wonder what it was like for the inventors back then. Maybe they could get grants or funding in those eras. [InventHelp](http://www.smbceo.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/InventHelp-logo.jpg) claims to have been around for a long time. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2024, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-else-dont-we-know-mysterious-objects/996570/103 "2024-02-06T00:19:33Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > But I also saw a claim that there is an article in the Desert Dispatch newspaper from Dec 8, 1990. And that this article identifies the object as a drum placed there by a local land owner. > > That does appear to be a newspaper by that name but I wasn’t able to get access to the Dec 8 1990 edition of the paper. Well, we’re in luck! I just signed up for a free trial of newspapers dot com today for an unrelated matter. Here’s a clip from the front page and a transcript. Mystery solved, I guess! [![](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53510732447_c237e447b2_c.jpg) ](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53510732447_c237e447b2_c.jpg) _The Drum_ _Bill Mann, field trip guide for the Mojave River Valley Museum, happened upon an unusual steel object atop a ridge in the Crucero y Hills about 25 to 30 miles north of of Ludlow._ _Speculation ranged from a movie prop to a modern art sculpture to something solely to confound at the curious._ _Dennis Daraghy, Bureau of a Land Management ranger in Needles, had the chance to meet its at maker about a year ago._ _The skillfully welded object is the body of a drum. The drummer hauls up skins for drum heads and wires the drum to a generator-powered amplifier. It is on private land, but Daraghy met the pair who rigged the elaborate setup after they traveled slightly off-road onto nearby public land._ _The drum is perched atop a high, rocky ridge._ _Daraghy says the drummer didn’t why he had chosen that at particular spot. The device doesn’t appear to be aligned with anything, sitting roughly 15 degrees off of a north-south angle._ _The climb up to is is somewhat precarious, and Daraghy was told the drum was hauled up there by in hand, though it weighs some 350 pounds._ _It is about 7 feet, 5 inches long and bolted into granite. It sits far enough back from the road that it is easy to miss unless spotted against the skyline._ _Bill Mann likens its shape to two big megaphones, back-to-back and bolted together._ _Gene Stoops, assistant field trip coordinator for the museum, is a welder himself, and says building the drum must have been a “labor- intensive” effort._ _Hopefully it was well worth the effort._ ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2024, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-else-dont-we-know-mysterious-objects/996570/104 "2024-02-06T00:41:04Z")
Thanks for posting the image of the article! I gotta say, though, it reads a whole lot like, "This guy I knew talked to a buddy of his, and … " I mean, “its maker” isn’t ezzactly a verifiable source. Still, an interesting article to read, even if it does raise far more questions than it answers. . . How did a BLM ranger find (“have a chance to meet”) the person who installed this? No word on _WHY_ “its maker” did this. There’s stuff about how drummers are supposed to use it. But has any drummer actually drummed on the mystery drum thingie? > The drummer hauls up skins for drum heads and wires the drum to a generator-powered amplifier. So they’re hauling generators, too? What, by mule? ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2024, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-else-dont-we-know-mysterious-objects/996570/105 "2024-02-06T00:43:44Z")
I was wondering why nobody mentioned the [Antikythera mechanism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism), but I see that it has been reconstructed and is fairly well understood. Poking around the internet, the function of the Masuda no iwafune of Japan remains a mystery. > **[The Purpose Of Japan's Huge "Rock Ship Of Masuda" Is Lost To Time](https://www.iflscience.com/the-purpose-of-japans-huge-rock-ship-of-masuda-is-lost-to-time-68519)** > > Aliens? It definitely wasn't aliens... It looks to me like a socket of some kind. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2024, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-else-dont-we-know-mysterious-objects/996570/106 "2024-02-06T00:55:17Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > Thanks for posting the image of the article! > > I gotta say, though, it reads a whole lot like, "This guy I knew talked to a buddy of his, and … " > > I mean, “its maker” isn’t ezzactly a verifiable source. > > Still, an interesting article to read, even if it does raise far more questions than it answers. . . [This blog post](https://armchairtravelogue.blogspot.com/2013/01/mysterious-mojave-megaphone.html) provides some additional speculation and lists a few assorted theories/rumors. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2024, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-else-dont-we-know-mysterious-objects/996570/107 "2024-02-06T11:34:37Z")
It’s a farming implement. The wheels at the bottom are harrowing discs, and the pieces between the wheels create rows and the drums on top dispense seeds. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2024, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-else-dont-we-know-mysterious-objects/996570/108 "2024-02-06T22:37:52Z")
From the information I can find, it seems that the disc harrow was invented in the late 19th century. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2024, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-else-dont-we-know-mysterious-objects/996570/109 "2024-02-06T22:53:53Z")
I don’t suppose there’s any way to be sure that it wasn’t invented previously, and then forgotten about. But that doesn’t look to me like it would work for that purpose. – hmm. If we assume a perspective problem, so that the discs should be edge down to the ground, the single disc could go at the front and open a furrow, and the rear discs cover it over – but the barrel’s in the wrong place, it would need to be in the center of the thing to drop seed into the furrow, not way out front. And those two little tabs at back don’t look like very good handles, and I don’t see any other way to move it. Plus which, isn’t the scene as a whole a war scene, not a planting scene? ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2024, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-else-dont-we-know-mysterious-objects/996570/110 "2024-02-06T23:09:21Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > Plus which, isn’t the scene as a whole a war scene, not a planting scene? That would be my contention, though I do admit it does look like a farm tool. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2024, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-else-dont-we-know-mysterious-objects/996570/111 "2024-02-06T23:33:57Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > [This blog post](https://armchairtravelogue.blogspot.com/2013/01/mysterious-mojave-megaphone.html) provides some additional speculation and lists a few assorted theories/rumors. Fascinating! Re the drum angle, just because someone stretches skins across it, doesn’t mean that was it’s original intent. Also, what the heck is that cube!? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2024, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-else-dont-we-know-mysterious-objects/996570/112 "2024-02-07T00:09:15Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > Plus which, isn’t the scene as a whole a war scene, not a planting scene? Maybe it’s a device to [salt the earth](https://www.straightdope.com/21343814/did-ancient-conquerors-punish-their-enemies-by-sowing-captured-fields-with-salt) to punish their enemies. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2024, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-else-dont-we-know-mysterious-objects/996570/113 "2024-02-07T00:17:34Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > Well, we’re in luck! I just signed up for a free trial of newspapers dot com today for an unrelated matter. Here’s a clip from the front page and a transcript. Mystery solved, I guess! Thank you! This is why I love the Dope… ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2024, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-else-dont-we-know-mysterious-objects/996570/114 "2024-02-07T08:13:48Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > > [@markn\_1](#): > > > > there’s this weird thing depicted on Trajan’s Column. > > I wonder whether all those things swivel at the connection points? > > – I don’t know what it is even if they do swivel, though I think it’s an ancient Bangalore Torpedo ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2024, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-else-dont-we-know-mysterious-objects/996570/115 "2024-02-07T17:55:16Z")
A new one has emerged, or rather submerged. The 9000 year old [Lake Michigan Stonehenge](https://www.thearchaeologist.org/blog/9000-year-old-stonehenge-like-structure-found-under-lake-michigan), found deep under water in the Great Lake. Was it built by water breathing humanoids in North American? Or that absurd explanation of a dry lake bed during an Ice Age? Whoever built it may have left carvings of mastodons on the pillars, or maybe an image of Amelia Earhart’s plane. It’s going to provide a wealth of speculation, Discovery channel TV programs, deep underlake missions, and no doubt evidence of aliens. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2024, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-else-dont-we-know-mysterious-objects/996570/116 "2024-02-07T18:15:30Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Or that absurd explanation of a dry lake bed during an Ice Age? Unless I’m being whooshed, there’s nothing absurd about lower water levels during ice ages. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2024, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-else-dont-we-know-mysterious-objects/996570/117 "2024-02-07T19:09:04Z")
From Wikipedia, “The Great Lakes are estimated to have been formed at the end of the Last Glacial Period (the Wisconsin glaciation ended 10,000 to 12,000 years ago), when the Laurentide Ice Sheet receded. The retreat of the ice sheet left behind a large amount of meltwater (Lake Algonquin, Lake Chicago, Glacial Lake Iroquois, and Champlain Sea) that filled up the basins that the glaciers had carved, thus creating the Great Lakes as they are today.” Presumably there were people in the area prior to the formation of the Great Lakes. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2024, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-else-dont-we-know-mysterious-objects/996570/118 "2024-02-07T20:06:51Z")
So let’s see, you think some scientific theory founded on actual evidence of geological changes is more likely than the Great Lakes region being settled by water breathing humanoids? You’re not going to get newsletter subscriptions that way! ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2024, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-else-dont-we-know-mysterious-objects/996570/119 "2024-02-10T20:21:18Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > The \*Bible rock on the other side of my pond. You know, Beck, you really need to post some photos somewhere. All the animals, the acid pond, the trails, the hunting lodge and now the bible rock. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2024, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-else-dont-we-know-mysterious-objects/996570/120 "2024-02-10T20:27:32Z")
There is a hengey kinda formation near me in Ohio. [https://www.google.com/maps/@41.1818712,-82.2424991,3a,58.3y,97.63h,85.31t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sFxGxVTxZNgkoafW9RH2zqg!2e0!5s20230801T000000!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu](https://www.google.com/maps/@41.1818712,-82.2424991,3a,58.3y,97.63h,85.31t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sFxGxVTxZNgkoafW9RH2zqg!2e0!5s20230801T000000!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-else-dont-we-know-mysterious-objects/996570.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-else-dont-we-know-mysterious-objects/996570.md?page=7)