A Brief History
On February 13, 1961, while 3 Californians were looking for geodes, they picked up a rock believed to be 500,000 years old that was later found to contain a spark plug! Understandably, this find, now known as the “Coso artifact,” sparked a lot of mystery and controversy.
Digging Deeper
Wallace Lane, Virginia Maxey and Mike Mikesell (love that name), were poking around the geology of Olancha, California when they came across their amazing discovery.
Upon cutting open the supposed geode, they expected it to be hollow inside and containing crystals. Instead the trio’s diamond-bladed saw blade was ruined, and rather than find crystals, they found a modern spark plug instead. History and Headlines Note: Spark plugs were invented in 1860 and became common a few decades later.
Explanations for this seemingly impossible event included: speculation that an ancient advanced civilization (perhaps Atlantis?) had produced the spark plug; that it was of alien origin; or that it had been forgotten by time travelers.
More scientific investigations have concluded the spark plug was of 1920’s manufacture (Champion brand used in Model T and Model A Fords) and that the supposed geode was actually a “concretion” of clay and stone that had formed over a period of decades, not thousands of years as would a geode.
Still, the mystery continues to this day. It is unknown who originally estimated the age of the rock around the spark plug to be 500,000 years old. The location of the discovery is also unknown. Of the 3 hobby geologists, one is dead, the other cannot be found, and the third refuses to discuss it. And most mysteriously, the artifact itself has disappeared.
Question for students (and subscribers): Is this a case of 3 people finding a recently-in-human-history discarded spark plug that became encased in dirt, or could there be a more mysterious explanation? Let us know who or what you think is behind this “time-traveling” spark plug in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Chittick, Donald E. The Puzzle of Ancient Man: Evidence for Advanced Technology in Past Civilizations. Creation Compass, 2006.
Noorbergen, Rene. Secrets of the Lost Races. TEACH Services, Inc., 2015.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="9370 https://www.historyandheadlines.com/?p=9370">12 Comments
I think there is some stretching of the truth in this situation. It sounded like they identified the age of the spark plug and what car it was made for. So my thoughts are that the 3 individuals who found it were wanting to create a huge mystery.
Concretion is commonly form by the precipitation of a considerable amount of cementing material around a nucleus, such as this spark plug, by the precipitation of mineral cement within the spaces between particles, and is found in sedimentary rock or soil. Examples of concretion nuclei are World War II military shells, bombs, and shrapnel, which are found inside siderite concretions found in an English coastal salt marsh.
I think that they over estimated the time of the rock since the scientist will not talk about it and it can’t be found. Also I don’t that they had any clue what they were talking about and wanted to believe something that wasn’t true. I don’t think that it is a coincidence that they can’t find one person and the object.
It is very likely that they inaccurately estimated the age of the rock. I believe that the people that discovered the spark plug in the rock either set it up to be there or wanted to create conspiracy theories to excite and entertain the public.
I think that maybe the scientist was looking for some kind of attention. And this was the only thing they could think of to do instead of making a real discovery
I think the scientist made up a lot about it, they have the equipment to figure out how old everything was and if there where particles from a blast in it or not. i think it was mostly for the attention.
The topic overall is interesting but I feel like it was definitely just for attention and really not that believable after research was conducted.
All throughout history we have found many famous figures who were just out to seek attention this scientist here for sure was doing the same thing. This article just shows the flaws in the research.
The three who found the sparkplug clearly wanted attention and to create a possibly profitable conspiracy. Throughout time there have been people who created turmoil so that they could take advantage of it.
This is for sure just for attention. The artifact is gone, and the last man that can be contacted about it is refusing to talk.
Unless the one guy has given a logical reason for not wanting to discus it, he obviously has something to hide about the topic. It would be understanding to not want to talk if he had a reason that wasn’t hiding the truth. I wonder if he ever shared an opinion why he chooses not to talk.
Yeah I really don’t think this is relevant, unless he can provide information and the artifact then there’s no proof.