Bristle stopped the work and got down on his hands and knees to examine the obstacle they had run into. He believed it was probably a stone or a big root, but as he started feeling around, he discovered that the object was smooth and hard.
The farmer was now extremely curious and continued trying to remove the soil and dirt from the mysterious object. James and his friend did not know what they were dealing with but finally managed to get off some of the mud. At that moment, they both realized that they had uncovered something extraordinary.
Another Farmer Unearths a Mystery
The discovery made by Jose Antonio Nieves of an enormous prehistoric fossil on his farm in Argentina was extraordinary, but surprisingly it was not the only unbelievable discovery made by an unsuspecting farmer in a small town that year.
On a different side of the planet, in the Northern Hemisphere, James Bristle, a farmer from Michigan, was working the soybean field on his farm when he unexpectedly encountered something amazing. So amazing it would turn him into a local celebrity and soon after into a worldwide media sensation.
An Unexpected Hurdle
James Bristle had recently acquired the property, which was located not far from the city of Chelsea in the Ann Arbor region. On that day in October 2015, Bristle wanted to get some work done on his infrastructure and decided that a remote soy field would be a good location for a new natural gas line.
Although the field was supposed to have loose, soft soil, heavy machinery was still needed to dig deep enough to install the gas line. Bristle and a friend were using a tractor to plow deep into what was supposed to be soft Midwestern earth when their backhoe suddenly hit something.
Just a Bent Fence Post?
At first, the Michigan farmer believed that he had simply dug up an old and bent fence post which was completely covered in dirt and mud. Fortunately, he didn’t just toss it aside and go on working but decided to continue clearing out the field.
Bristle explained, “We knew it was something that was out of the norm.” He added, “My grandson came over to look at it, he’s five years old, and he was speechless.” James Bristle listened to his gut which led him to a major discovery that would completely stun his family, friends, and the entire small Michigan town in which he lived.
A Lucky Find
The object was unidentifiable at first, but after a more thorough cleaning, it became clear that Bristle had unearthed a piece of bone. The bone, however, did not bear a resemblance to anything which he’d ever seen before. His first thought was that it looked like a rib bone.
But if that was the case, it was way too big to be from any of the animals common in that region. Bristle’s family was native to the area, they had owned the farm across the road since the 1950s, but he had purchased this property only two months before stumbling upon the intriguing find. The decision to buy the land would rapidly change his life.