What treasures we find in the desert – fossils, little bones, seed pods, and now Moki balls.
These round, slightly heavy balls are scattered over large areas amidst the creosote and juniper. They can be pea-sized to ping-pong ball sized, whole or split. Officially, they are iron oxide concretions. A young man in town insists there was a ball bearing factory out there and these are just left over ball bearings! (Not true.)
Hole left by Moki ball.
Moki (also spelled Moqui) balls are ascribed magical powers – they can be purchased online and I think having this magic makes the price go up! I don’t know about the magic, but they have a nice heft to them – weighty, not smooth, but nice to hold.
Moki balls still embedded in rock.
We also found what we call the Moki ball mother rock – sometimes with round holes where the moki ball used to be and sometimes with the dark iron oxide ball still embedded. The brilliant oranges and yellows are stunning.
Mother rock – Moki ball is gone!
This is my kind of sculpture!
I learned something today – thanks!
Truly fascinating! The photosgraphs are essential to understanding this phenomenon and I learned something new; but also, rather irreverently, am imagining these being loaded into a blunderbuss in some cartoon strip – my apologies for planting that image.