CONCORD, N.H. –In 1872, so the story goes, workers digging a hole for a fence post near Lake Winnipesaukee in Meredith found a lump of clay that seemed out of place.
There was something inside — a dark, odd-looking, egg-shaped stone with a variety of carvings, including a face, teepee, ear of corn and star-like circles.
And there were lots of questions: Who made the stone and why? How old was it? How was it carved?
To date, no one’s been able to say for sure, and the item has come to be known as the “Mystery Stone.”
Seneca Ladd, a Meredith businessman who hired the workers, was credited with the discovery.
“As Mr. Ladd is quite a naturalist, and has already an extensive private collection of relics and specimens, he was delighted with the new discovery, and exhibited and explained the really remarkable relic with an enthusiasm which only the genuine student can feel,” an article in “The American Naturalist” said that November.
Ladd died in 1892, and in 1927, one of his daughters donated the stone to the New Hampshire Historical Society. The stone, surrounded by mirrors showing …
