History
The Lake Winnipesaukee Mystery Stone
Will we ever know the full story of the Lake Winnipesaukee Mystery Stone? The unusual New Hampshire stone egg has baffled geological experts and historians for decades.
By Montana Rogers|Sep 06 2022|
The Lake Winnipesaukee Mystery Stone, previously on display.
Photo Credit: <a href="https://bit.ly/2MBqUPQ">Photo by John Phelan / </a><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>Photo Credit : Photo by John Phelan / CC BY-SA 3.0
Where Was the Lake Winnipesaukee Mystery Stone Found?
In 1872, in the town of Meredith, New Hampshire, on Lake Winnipesaukee, construction workers hired by Seneca A. Ladd, a local businessman, unearthed a mysterious, egg-shaped stone. What could it possibly be? The stone stumped everyone. Seneca Ladd believed it to be an “Indian relic.” He kept it in his possession for many years. After his death, his daughter donated it to the New Hampshire Historical Society in 1927. Due to its discovery near the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee, the Ladd family dubbed it the “Mystery Stone of Lake Winnipesaukee.”What is the Lake Winnipesaukee Mystery Stone?
The stone measures four inches in length and two and a half inches at the widest part of its base. The creator of the stone used quartzite, a smooth rock that was formed by shifting rock layers. This type of rock is not native to New Hampshire. Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean that it wasn’t made in the state. The sculptor of the black stone covered its surface in pictographs. The symbols include carvings of arrows, a moon, spirals, an ear of corn, a face, and a tepee. These symbols have led many to believe it is in fact a Native American artifact. However, other researchers claim it may be of Celtic or Inuit origins. In other parts of the world, people have found stones of a similar shape (often referred to as “stone eggs”), but the Lake Winnipesaukee Mystery Stone is the first of its kind in the United States. What is perhaps most baffling about the stone are the holes that are bored into both sides and ends of the it. The holes vary in size and are not tapered. They are very smooth, suggesting that someone with modern tools drilled them. Perhaps someone with power tools from the 19th or 20th centuries is responsible. Possibly a Native American was the original creator, and, at a later date, a modern workman discovered it and defaced it. However, the etchings around the holes suggest that they were probably part of the original design. [text_ad]How Did the Lake Winnipesaukee Mystery Stone Come to Be?
So what was the purpose of the Lake Winnipesaukee Mystery Stone? As with many artifacts, it is sometimes impossible to know exactly what something is or what purpose it once served. In the case of the Lake Winnipesaukee Mystery Stone, there are many theories. Wesley G. Balla, Director of Collections and Exhibitions at the New Hampshire Historical Society, received a letter claiming that the stone was in all likelihood a thunder-stone. Thunder-stones exist in mythology and folklore. Hundreds of years ago, oddly shaped “stones” often turned up in fields. Farmers and peasants thought that thunderbolts fell from the sky and were buried in the earth. Later, more scientifically-inclined thinkers theorized that these “stones” were the tools of early man. Possibly the Lake Winnipesaukee Mystery Stone was some kind of ancient tool. Perhaps the holes were used to situate the stone on a strong stick that allowed the carrier to hit things. If it wasn’t a tool, some claim that it could have been a storytelling device or a way to keep record of a tribe’s history. Some have posited that the ear of corn, plus the crossed arrows, along with the tepee mean it was a treaty between two tribes. This theory is supported by the idea that the holes let it rest on a stake in the ground to mark a line between territories. It is one of the more popular theories. The last theory that seems to have any substantial proof is that the whole Lake Winnipesaukee Mystery Stone is a hoax. If someone with modern tools created the holes, perhaps an artist carved the whole stone back in the 1800s for a laugh.Where Is the Lake Winnipesaukee Mystery Stone Today?
After a brief period of time in storage, the Lake Winnipesaukee Mystery Stone is back on long-term display at the New Hampshire Historical Society in Concord. What theory do you like best? Do you have your own theory? Let us know in the comments below. This post was first published in 2016 and has been updated.SEE MORE: America’s Stonehenge Legend of Purgatory Chasm Madame Sherri’s Castle Ruins | A Legendary Site
This Corn Maiden has to do with all the seasons, it tells you by the groups shown…its not a moon, its an upside down canoe with crossed paddles stored for what season. This also shows Autumn, a marsh/lake with geese flying over a mountain the same time as a full ear of corn is present. Swab the holes for pollen. Use common sense for what tribes migrated using Tipi’s, what schedule and why. As for the holes drilled in stone, people have been doing that…forever. Native tribes were far more advanced as repeatedly shown by physical facts/objects/cities/ports left thru out the United States. As for the other markings they may have meant far different that what was “translated” for a meaning at that time by whomever- recorded by an outsider. Respectfully ask an elder of a local tribe what this is.
The Mystery Stone will be on display at the N.H. Historical Society, starting April 28, 2017 until June 3, 2017.
Maybe the stone was used for darning ancient socks. Just sayin!
This was Great! If its not a Hoax, then could it be What some back then would have called a Wedding Gift. When the Innut and the Norse, shared the end of the Ice Age up here in the north, they all believed in the World Egg, and the Sacrad Mother, so when a young women went off, she was given a gift that was of the sacrad mother world egg, that told the story of her people so she could keep her story ‘s in a new land alive for her offspring. – it was like a reminder, small enough to travel, and extremly important, as a story tellers tool. same for the holes if its not a hoax. It would also let you tell how to tell how many generations have gone by- i wish someone who have writen down all the good story’s people used to tell, no one tells anymore. So this was Great! Thanx
Very interesting. In storage? It should always be in display.
Hi Mary. We’ve just learned that the Lake Winnipesaukee Mystery Stone is now on long-term display at the NH Historical Society so we’ve updated the post. We hope you’ll go and check it out!
Can you do a carbon test on it? To find out age!
What is type of stone is it? It’s a beautiful artifact!
This “discovery” was 3 years after the “Cardiff Giant” was “discovered” in Cardiff, NY and 7 years before the Cardiff Giant was proven to be a hoax. I suspect Mr. Ladd had a hearty private laugh in 1872, and his spirit is probably still laughing.
It looks too modern and machined to be a genuine artifact.
A larger more round less polished stone was found with a partial face on it in the middle of Madison NH on the hillside
Do you have information on this stone found in NH with a face?
How about an alien artifact….looks like a cone-head!
The New Hampshire Mystery Stone is the lodestone from a compass which dates 1250 BC to 1600 BC. It is very similar to the lodestone used by Admiral George Summers which is on display in a small museum in Bermuda. The Summers stone is magnetic which allows it to function as a compass. The Mystery Stone of New Hampshire was in use by the Portuguese and Danish when they were in America before Columbus. The carvings on the stone are what the explorers observed when they were in the Mandan villages in the Dakotas. The face is a Mandan, the plate has the bison leg, the bird and fish which meats they ate, the corn is their grain, the round and teepee houses are the types observed which represent the Mandan sod home and the plains Indian which lived in harmony and co-hunted the bison. The other symbols represent the X for true north and magnetic north for determining longitude and the lunar symbols represent lunar navigation, the spiral represents the 30 day cycle of the moon and represents a 2.5 lunar month journey the expedition took to explore this area. The double size diameter hole from top to bottom of the lodestone is for loading magnetite powder into the stone in order to form a magnetic field for function in a lodestone compass that measured magnetic north and true north. If their is an interest in this authintic artifact that according to the small white crystals in the dark granite which came from the fault line in France please feel free to contact (wmsmithrock1@yahoo.com).
Does it seem plausible that what is described as a “bison leg” on the side is a North American Indian gunstock club? It was my immediate reaction upon seeing the stone for the first time, before reading other interpretations.
Some published research has linked this stone with the Picts, inhabitants of what is now known as Scotland. There are definite similarities between some of the engravings on the stone and Pictish archaeological items.
I have just completed an interview with a major tv station in Russia about the Mystery Stone. I have a working model of the compass the stone came from. This compass without the stone was found in N.Y. with other cartographers tools and material that has been carbon dated to be over 500 years old. This artifact is not a fake or cone head as some like to express. If you ask civil questions you get true answers, if you make stupid suggestions you show your inner self.
Strange stone
The subject stone will be on Russian TV on June 6th. It will show and explain all the details about this Mystery Stone. WHO (Portuguese), WHAT (Compass load stone), WHEN (1472), WHERE ( New Hampshire), WHY (Lost from compass in 1511).
This stone was part of the lodestone compass used by Joao Corte Real in 1472 when Portuguese and Denmark made an expedition into America to claim land. The carvings on the stone are to depict the life style of the Mandan Indian in western Minn. The stone is from a fault line in France due to the size of the small white crystals in the stone. The double size hole in the stone allows a steel rod to gather powder magnetite and loaded into the stone to orientate the powder to form a large magnet to produce a field that points a metal needle to magnetic north. This reading was compared to the true north called magnetic declination and provided an accurate reading of longitude on a given latitude. The rest of the compass as well as the cartographers tools were found in a cave in New York and are in the possession of a Mr Don Run.
This one of the top 10 mysteries of the USA may be close to being solved thanks to the contact made on this site to the largest Russian TV network.
Incredible find and in which learned colleagues in the comments section posit some interesting theories based on historical lore and cultural stories that make sense and seem to be consistent with World view at the time.
Thank you for sharing! Best, Ed
The last article I read said that these eggs were going to be tested with an infrared spectrometer. Can you follow up on whether or not that’s happening?