‘Pretty terrifying’: Woman finds cannonball in her backyard while doing yard work

VANCOUVER, Wash. (KPTV/Gray News) – A woman in Washington state says she found something she wasn’t expecting in her backyard when recently doing some yard work.

Stephanie Joy Mitchell said she discovered a cannonball in her yard, which she feared could have exploded.

According to the Vancouver resident, her yard work that day almost became deadly after finding what may have been used as a weapon of war centuries ago.

“It was heavy, it felt heavier than it should have,” Mitchell said. “I think it was 12 pounds. It was pretty terrifying.”

She called the police, alerted her neighbors, and as she waited for help, she said she was terrified about what could happen if she made the wrong move.

“I didn’t get really afraid until I was holding it and 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,” Mitchell said.

A bomb squad and the military arrived at her home and were able to recover and then detonate the cannonball.

The homeowner says she is still in shock.

“It’s still unbelievable,” Mitchell said.

Military historian Jeff Davis said the discovery was a close call.

“This was first and foremost an army community for over 100 years,” he said.

According to Davis, the cannonball may have been from the Civil War or before, and it is around the same shape and size as the cannonballs used in a cannon at the Vancouver Barracks. He also said the cannonball found likely had gunpowder inside it.

“There probably was moisture in there. If it were black powder, then it was probably inert because it was wet,” Davis said. “I would not trust my life to that.”

He said that with gunpowder inside, the cannonball could have been just as dangerous now as in the past.

“It probably was just gunpowder in there. But if it was sealed, it might have still been highly explosive. And if it had gone off, then the cannonball would have exploded and everything inside of it would have also gone out,” Davis said. “People would have been just as dead as they would have been in the Civil War.”

Mitchell said she couldn’t be happier knowing the worst didn’t happen.

“I feel really fortunate that nothing happened to my family or my pets and my neighbor,” she said.