Breaking Ground

The steps at the back of David Olson's house in Norton Shores, Michigan, were crumbling and had to go.

- By Ryan Hockensmith. Illustration by Ben Kirchner

So one day last July, Olson decided to start the demo job himself.

Olson yanked the first cinder block up with his hands. He took a step back, surprised to see that the ground underneath was sand, not dirt. Even more surprising, there were three bowling balls in the hole he'd made. “No way,” Olson said out loud.

He'd recently joined two Facebook groups about people making strange discoveries, and now he had made one of his own. He posted some pictures to Facebook, then continued his work. All afternoon, Olson shoveled out sand and bowling balls.

“I had to get to the bottom,” he says. “I couldn't stop.” As Olson reached the last step, his whole body ached. He counted the balls and was stunned to get 158. Where did they come from?