VANCOUVER, Wash. (KPTV/CNN NEWSOURCE) – A routine day of yardwork turned into a harrowing experience for a Washington woman when she unearthed a 12-pound cannonball in her backyard. The discovery prompted a swift response from the bomb squad and military personnel.
“I reached over here, and this is where the cannonball was,” said Stephanie Joy Mitchell. “It was heavy, it felt heavier than it should have. I think it was 12 pounds. It was pretty terrifying.”
Mitchell immediately contacted the police and alerted her neighbors, fearing the potential danger of the explosive device. “It was like maybe six or seven seconds of not processing what I was holding, like, this can’t really be a cannonball,” she said.
“I didn’t get really afraid until I was actually holding it and I realized what it was. I was kind of frozen for a bit because I didn’t want to jostle it, I didn’t want to move it.”
The bomb squad and military experts arrived at her home, successfully recovering and detonating the cannonball. Mitchell remains in disbelief over the incident. “It’s still unbelievable,” she said.
Military historian Jeff Davis explained the historical significance of the find, noting that Vancouver has a deep military history. “This was first and foremost an Army community for over 100 years,” Davis said.
He speculated that the cannonball might date back to the Civil War or earlier, possibly containing gunpowder. “Probably was just gun powder in there, but if it’s sealed it might have still been highly explosive, and if it had gone off, then the cannonball would have exploded and all the shot and everything inside of it would have also gone out and people would have been just as dead now as they would have been in the Civil War,” Davis said.
Mitchell expressed relief that the situation ended safely. “I feel really fortunate that nothing happened to my family or my pets and my neighbor,” she said.
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