On February 13, 1961, Wallace Lane, Virginia Maxey, and Mike Mikesell were seeking interesting mineral specimens, particularly geodes, for their “LM & V Rockhounds Gem and Gift Shop” in Olancha, California.
![500,000-year-old Spark Plug Found In Rock?]()
On this particular day, the trio were about six miles northeast of Olancha, near the top of a peak about 4,300 feet in elevation and about 340 feet above the dry bed of Owens Lake.
According to Maxey, “We hiked about three miles north, after we had parked some five miles east of State Highway 395, south of Olancha, California.” At lunchtime, after collecting rocks most of the morning, all three placed their specimens in the rock sack Mikesell was carrying.
The next day in the gift shop’s workroom, Mikesell ruined a nearly new diamond saw blade while cutting what he thought was a geode. Inside the nodule that was cut, Mikesell did not find a cavity as so many geodes have, but a perfectly circular section of very hard, white material that appeared to be porcelain.
In the center of the porcelain cylinder, was a 2-millimeter shaft of bright metal.
The metal shaft responded to a magnet.
There were still other odd qualities about the specimen. The outer layer of the specimen was encrusted with fossil shells and their fragments.
In addition to shells, the discoverers noticed two nonmagnetic metallic metal objects in the crust, resembling a nail and a washer.
![500,000-year-old Spark Plug Found In Rock?]()
Stranger still, the inner layer was hexagonal and seemed to form a casing around the hard porcelain cylinder. Within the inner layer, a layer of decomposing copper surrounded the porcelain cylinder.
Very little is known about the initial physical inspections of the artifact. According to discoverer Virginia Maxey, a geologist she spoke with who examined the fossil shells encrusting the specimen said the nodule had taken at least 500,000 years to attain its present form.
However, the identity of the first geologist is still a mystery, and his findings were never officially published.
Another investigation was conducted by creationist Ron Calais. Calais is the only other individual known to have physically inspected the artifact, and was allowed to take photographs of the nodule in both X ray and natural light. Calais’s X-rays brought interest in the artifact to a new level.
The X-ray of the upper end of the object seemed to reveal some sort of tiny spring or helix. INFO Journal Publisher Ronald J. Willis speculated that it could actually be “the remains of a corroded piece of metal with threads.”
The other half of the artifact revealed a sheath of metal, presumably copper, covering the porcelain cylinder.
Ever since the artifact was first discovered, numerous individuals have speculated about its mysterious origin and possible use.
![500,000-year-old Spark Plug Found In Rock?]()
Virginia Maxey speculated that “one possibility is that it is barely 100 years old – something that lay in a mud bed, then got baked and hardened by the sun in a matter of a few years.” However it was Maxey who supplied the claim that the artifact could be at least 500,000 years old.
“Or else it is an instrument as old as legendary Mu or Atlantis. Perhaps it is a communications device or some sort of directional finder or some instrument made to utilize power principles we know nothing about.”
INFO Journal editor Paul J. Willis speculated that the artifact was some sort of spark plug. His brother found the suggestion extraordinary.
![500,000-year-old Spark Plug Found In Rock?]()
“I was thunderstruck,” he wrote, “for suddenly all the parts seemed to fit. The object sliced in two shows a hexagonal part, a porcelain or ceramic insulator with a central metallic shaft – the basic components of any spark plug.”
However, the two could not reconcile the upper end featuring a “spring”, “helix”, or “metal threads” with any contemporary spark plug.
The mystery continues.
WATCH THE VIDEO:
On this particular day, the trio were about six miles northeast of Olancha, near the top of a peak about 4,300 feet in elevation and about 340 feet above the dry bed of Owens Lake.
According to Maxey, “We hiked about three miles north, after we had parked some five miles east of State Highway 395, south of Olancha, California.” At lunchtime, after collecting rocks most of the morning, all three placed their specimens in the rock sack Mikesell was carrying.
The next day in the gift shop’s workroom, Mikesell ruined a nearly new diamond saw blade while cutting what he thought was a geode. Inside the nodule that was cut, Mikesell did not find a cavity as so many geodes have, but a perfectly circular section of very hard, white material that appeared to be porcelain.
In the center of the porcelain cylinder, was a 2-millimeter shaft of bright metal.
The metal shaft responded to a magnet.
There were still other odd qualities about the specimen. The outer layer of the specimen was encrusted with fossil shells and their fragments.
In addition to shells, the discoverers noticed two nonmagnetic metallic metal objects in the crust, resembling a nail and a washer.
Stranger still, the inner layer was hexagonal and seemed to form a casing around the hard porcelain cylinder. Within the inner layer, a layer of decomposing copper surrounded the porcelain cylinder.
Very little is known about the initial physical inspections of the artifact. According to discoverer Virginia Maxey, a geologist she spoke with who examined the fossil shells encrusting the specimen said the nodule had taken at least 500,000 years to attain its present form.
However, the identity of the first geologist is still a mystery, and his findings were never officially published.
Another investigation was conducted by creationist Ron Calais. Calais is the only other individual known to have physically inspected the artifact, and was allowed to take photographs of the nodule in both X ray and natural light. Calais’s X-rays brought interest in the artifact to a new level.
The X-ray of the upper end of the object seemed to reveal some sort of tiny spring or helix. INFO Journal Publisher Ronald J. Willis speculated that it could actually be “the remains of a corroded piece of metal with threads.”
The other half of the artifact revealed a sheath of metal, presumably copper, covering the porcelain cylinder.
Ever since the artifact was first discovered, numerous individuals have speculated about its mysterious origin and possible use.
Virginia Maxey speculated that “one possibility is that it is barely 100 years old – something that lay in a mud bed, then got baked and hardened by the sun in a matter of a few years.” However it was Maxey who supplied the claim that the artifact could be at least 500,000 years old.
“Or else it is an instrument as old as legendary Mu or Atlantis. Perhaps it is a communications device or some sort of directional finder or some instrument made to utilize power principles we know nothing about.”
INFO Journal editor Paul J. Willis speculated that the artifact was some sort of spark plug. His brother found the suggestion extraordinary.
“I was thunderstruck,” he wrote, “for suddenly all the parts seemed to fit. The object sliced in two shows a hexagonal part, a porcelain or ceramic insulator with a central metallic shaft – the basic components of any spark plug.”
However, the two could not reconcile the upper end featuring a “spring”, “helix”, or “metal threads” with any contemporary spark plug.
The mystery continues.
WATCH THE VIDEO: