Man seeks story behind rock

[Richard]

By Ted Morris
Herald/Review
Published/Last Modified on Thursday, Jan 15, 2009 - 02:07:57 pm MST

SIERRA VISTA — Another mysterious circle stone has surfaced in the city.

The object owned by Jim Kidd is not believed to have any archaeological or paleontological value. Maybe a UFO or a petrified wheel? He challenges anyone to tell him what it is.

Kidd lives at 116 Prairie St., about a stone’s throw from a prehistoric desert Mogollon village that was recently unearthed near Golf Links Road and Buffalo Soldier Trail.
Jim Kidd of Sierra Vista holds a mysterious circular rock that he has owned for years since finding it in a home he bought in Tombstone. (Ted Morris-Herald/Review)

Kidd saw an article in the Dec. 21 Herald/Review about artifacts discovered at the ancient village site, including a mysterious “circle stone” that is baffling archaeologists but is thought to be a ritual object, certainly a man-made one.

This prompted Kidd to bring to the Herald/Review his own mystery rock, which he has owned since 1982, when he and his first wife, now deceased, bought a home in Tombstone.

“And in the basement of this home, I found this mystery object,” he said when interviewed Jan. 8. “It was a doorstop. And that’s what I know of its origin. I’ve had it ever since.”

In 1995, a professor of geology at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass., examined photographs of the object and wrote to Kidd: “I am fairly certain that it is not a fossil. My guess is that it is a wheel-shaped rubber or rubber-like composition object that sat out in the sun too long.”

Kidd admits that the object does resemble a wheel from the classic Radio Flyer red wagons, and it appears there are tread markings on its rim. He also is aware that the rock is shaped like a classic image of a UFO, but he is skeptical of that idea.

Paleontologists at the Museum of Northern Arizona told him the object is not a fossil.

A vulcanologist from Northern Arizona University’s Geology Department could not answer his question.

He talked with Ph.D.s with the U.S. Geological Survey, and they could not help.

He took chips from the object for Arizona State University scientists to study. Again, no answers.

His wife, Jan, was asked if she has a theory. She shrugs.

“Never been able to find anyone who knew anything about it at all,” Kidd said.

The object is unusually heavy for its size, the scientists say. If you lift it, you would agree.

An old miner in Tombstone told him he should break it in half in case there is “a great big gold nugget inside there.”

“It’s just a couple ounces short of 20 pounds, and it’s 10 inches in diameter, and they say there’s no metal content in it,” Kidd said.

A retired geologist in Sierra Vista borrowed it for about a month, “couldn’t find out a thing about it, but he got some paint spilled on it right there.

“That’s where that green paint came from,” Kidd said, pointing to a hardened patch of enamel on the object. “Must have been painting his house or something.”

Kidd, 82, is a freelance photographer. He entered U.S. Navy at age 17 and retired from the service in 1973.

He flew his first five years in the Navy as a combat air crewman, including a stint as a rear gunner in the Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber.

He was shot down on his 18th birthday during World War II. He also fought in Korea and Vietnam.

The Hauser Museum has some of his war artifacts.

Concerning the other artifact, the mystery wheel object, Kidd says he is willing to sell it if it has any value. Contact him at 459-7753 or [email protected] to inquire.

“No one has been able to crack it,” he said. “They don’t know what it is.”

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