Who knew this little medallion would be part of a national mystery? These medallions are apparently in over 170 locations around the country, and NO ONE KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE OR WHO IS MONUMENTING THEM! If that's not a Best Kept Secret, I don't know wjat is! :)
This particular monument is located on the east side sidewalk to the Calhoun County Courthouse along S 2nd Street.
From the website ninepointedstar.com: (
visit link)
"If you found a brass medallion that looks like these, you’re not alone.
Something curious has been happening ever since my website first went live in early 2012: People all over the continental US have been contacting me with reports of mysterious brass medallions they’ve found attached to (glued, cemented, riveted, embedded, or pounded into) sidewalks outside of libraries and small businesses. 2¾ inches in diameter, the curios are imprinted with a nine-pointed star design, the number 2010, and a website address that happens to lead you right here to my site.
Based on the collective research we’ve all done, it appears that the first medallion was spotted in 2010. Yep, same as on the medallions, suggesting the number signifies the corresponding year. (A while back, I came across an article about that particular medallion.)
And they continue to pop up.
I’ve just updated the map below for the forty-first time (Literally.) And with the addition of several new reports, we have gained yet another state (Welcome, Nebraska!) Only one more state to go before all the lower 48 join the club. Exactly 105 medallions have now been reported.
Thanks to everyone who has written in. To the folks from McCook, Ottawa, Prescott, Green River, and Victoria, thanks also for your patience. (I know, it took me a while. The map is getting so crowded now it’s a lot more work to fit everything!)
In case you missed them, a couple of newspapers have reported on medallions found in their hometowns:
• On January 16th, 2015, we made the front page of the Atlantic News Telegraph
• We made the Athens Banner-Herald twice, on June 17th and June 23rd of 2016.
The map below shows all the locations I’ve heard about—so far.
So, what’s the story?
Whether you find yourself feeling amused, curious, or even downright irritated by a medallion you just found on your property, you might have questions along these lines:
What is this thing?
What does it mean?
Who put it there?
The short answer is that I have no idea.
You see, whatever’s going on here, it’s not my project. I swear. Nor have I heard from anyone claiming it’s theirs. In fact I never even imagined such things existed until you guys started emailing.
Truth be told though, I like them, whatever they’re for. After all, I’m an artist who’s inspired both by notions of place and by the fantastical things that can happen in real life. To unwittingly find myself playing a central role in a map-sized mystery is—let’s face it—pretty fantastical.
While I can’t provide answers, I can at least provide possible interpretations—my own as well as all the ones you guys have suggested. (As it happens, the theories fit into exactly nine categories—one for each star point.)
one: they’re alien
Proposed by a teenager in South Carolina, this theory suggests that aliens are marking places they’ve deemed to be worth saving when they come back to destroy the rest of the planet.
two: they’re from the future
This theory posits that a future version of myself has been laying out clues to help me (and probably you, too) save the universe.
P.S. By no means does this theory rule out aliens.
P.P.S. A special shout-out to the physics major who emailed from Rhode Island. Thanks to his investigations into actual time travel, we might be able to pull off this whole adventure sans Time Lord!
three: someone is playing
So far, the “Someone Is Playing” (SIP) camp forks in four main directions:
One: The first SIPer gang says this is all some sort of prank. If you found a medallion near your store or on your property, I can imagine how you might feel like the butt of the joke. But believe me, from where I stand, the trick would seem to be aimed squarely in my direction.
Two: Another group of SIPers suggests the medallions have something to do with the 90’s video game phenomena Myst, where players navigate an interactive forgotten world looking for clues that solve archeological puzzles and help them piece together the game’s narrative backstory.
Three: The third SIPer troupe believes the medallions are props in a live action role playing game where players are acting out the parts of fictional characters, using the real world to represent some imaginary setting.
And four: the final team of SIPers thinks the medallions are part of a treasure hunt. (Minnesota is one of the first states to report multiple medallions in multiple locations. It’s also where the famous medallion treasure hunt takes place each year at the Saint Paul Winter Carnival. Is that a clue?)
These days a lot of people are into Geocaching, the game where players rely on GPS and other navigational techniques to find containers called “geocaches” or “caches” that get hidden all over the planet. Caches may contain various types of objects, including suspiciously familiar-looking metal discs called Geocoins that sometimes end up becoming “hitchhikers,” moving from cache to cache and getting their coordinates logged online.
(Update: A few connections to Geocaching have been established. A couple of sightings have been made by people who were in the midst of geocaching when they stumbled upon medallions in obscure locations. And there was also a loose medallion that was rescued from bouncing around a parking lot in Utah. Word on the streets: It might have ended up in a geochache somewhere. Nice work, folks!)
Another idea is that maybe the medallions are simply hints leading to an even more valuable prize. Did you ever hear about that 2004 children’s book called: A Treasure’s Trove? If so maybe you remember how there were clues in the story that helped readers locate fourteen tokens hidden in parks throughout the US. Once found, each of the tokens could be exchanged for a gem-encrusted jewel representing a character from the book. That concept alone is pretty neat, but get this: Collectively, the jewels were valued at a million dollars.
four: it’s a musical tribute
Musical tributes are usually, well, musical. But in this scenario, the medallions are paying the tribute, and music—or musicians—are the recipients.
Slipknot is a head-banging, controversy-stirring heavy metal band from Iowa. Prior to the death of bassist Paul Gray (in, um, 2010) from an accidental drug overdose, the band came up with a nine-pointed star symbol to represent its nine mask-wearing members. Fans have suggested the medallions are memorials to the enduring spirit of Mr. Gray.
five: they’re enneagrams
This is one theory that’s unequivocally true; for in geometry, any nine-pointed geometric figure is defined as an enneagram (Oh, and sometimes a nonagon. See above.) But here’s another fact: I’ve met precious few mathematicians who feel compelled to leave relics of their favorite geometrical shapes scattered along the nation’s sidewalks—though I hasten to add that, statistically speaking, it could totally happen.
Anyhoo, when most non-mathematicians talk about enneagrams, they’re probably thinking of the Enneagram of Personality, that system that divides people into nine interconnected personality types. Much like the Meyers-Briggs, people take a test to determine their type, then use the information as a tool for self discovery, or to define workplace dynamics. Adherents use a star-like diagram to explain the interconnections of the personality types. But that particular figure has some extra space between the bottom two points (the four and the five) so it’s less radially symmetrical than the medallions’ stars. Or mine for that matter.
six: it’s an art project
It’s no secret that street art is big nowadays. Since earlier graffiti times it has branched out to include stencils, stickers, yarn, and who knows what other techniques and materials. So, why not medallions? This theory has been suggested by several people, and although it’s suspiciously simpatico with my own mission as an artist, any actual connection has gotta be pure coincidence.
Yes, it’s true that back in the mid nineties I designed a nine pointed star emblem to symbolize my own artistic quest. Also true that, for the year and a half that followed, I used that symbol to mark the path I made as I traveled throughout Latin America. But I made my stars with available natural materials—things like sticks, stones, flowers, or sand. I almost always made them in complete solitude, and left them behind like footprints—to be discovered or not . . . to be blown away by the wind, or washed away by the tide. The only record of them ever existing were the little dots I made on my own map. I didn’t even photograph them. Like the journey, or like life itself, they were meant to be ephemeral.
My secret hope was that once my trip reached its end, the dots on my map would reveal a giant dot-to-dot picture. And they did, sort of. If you use your imagination they almost delineate the symbol for infinity. Or at least a wiggly-looking number eight, which by the way is the one enneagram type I’m definitely not. (See above.)
Do the medallions make a picture? I can’t tell. Can you?
seven: they’re benchmarks
Benchmarks are physical, geographical markers used by land surveyors, builders, map makers, and anyone else who needs to know exact locations. They come in various forms but most of them happen to be metal discs about the same size as the star medallions. If you start looking around, you’ll likely notice them all over the place.
Many of these markers are part of the geodetic control network (technically known as the National Spatial Reference System, or NSRS) created and maintained by NOAA’s National Geodetic Survey (NGS). Most real benchmarks are searchable on databases. If a medallion you’ve found shows up on one of those, I’d love to hear about it.
P.S. A while back I heard from a survey and construction crew in Bowbells, North Dakota who had to remove a sidewalk containing one of the medallions for a construction project. At first they assumed the medallion was a genuine benchmark, something they pay close attention to in their line of work. Upon further investigation though, they discovered the object’s true nature. Last I heard they were hoping to set the medallion back into the new sidewalk. By sheer coincidence, a second construction crew—this one in New Hampshire—had a similar experience. The exact same week. (Cue the eerie sound effects.)
eight: it’s a campaign
Have you heard of the Toynbee tiles? Since the ’80s, tiles containing cryptic messages have been found embedded in asphalt in a number of North and South American cities. Most of the tiles read:
nine: they’re spiritual or philosophical
People have always used images and objects to promote spiritual and philosophical ideas. In this case, the specifics may diverge, but generally speaking, the symbol of a nine-pointed star seems to express positive notions or characteristics associated with a variety of world views. . . . "