Bowling Ball Graveyard: Michigan Man Unearths A Treasure Trove

NORTON SHORES, MI — Sometimes, do-it-yourselfers don’t know exactly how their projects are going to roll.

David Olson, 33, threw a strike. Maybe a five-bagger. The DIY project is turning out to be an archeological dig that’s unearthing a slice of Americana — more than 150 bowling balls — after he took a sledgehammer to the concrete porch slab at his Norton Shores, Michigan, home. It's a discovery that's become internet famous.

Olson told CNN he’s not sure what to make of the whole thing.

Why was part of his house built on bowling balls? What purpose were they intended to serve? Are there more?

His curiosity was piqued before he began breaking up the concrete.

“Before I smashed anything with a hammer, I was able to pull one of the cinder blocks on the side out and take a peek,” Olson said. “I saw a bunch of sand and half of a black-and-blue sphere, and that’s when I was intrigued and started brushing the sand off of it and realized it was a bowling ball.”

Many of the unearthed bowling balls are missing finger holes, are misshapen or are unfinished.

“A few of them look like alien eggs,” Olson told news station WZZM. “Looks like I have some pretty nice antiques here.”

Many are engraved with the Brunswick Bowling Products logo. For more than a century, Brunswick turned out balls, pins and other bowling equipment at a factory in Muskegon County, where Norton Shores is located.

Olson has a sentimental attachment to the treasure trove of bowling balls. His grandfather worked at the Brunswick factory in Muskegon for about 50 years, he told MLive.com.

Olson got in touch with Brunswick officials, who confirmed the bowling balls were produced in the 1950s. It’s possible, Olson told MLive.com, that the purpose of the bowling ball graveyard was “to fill a void” when the house built in the 1950s. The builder may have gotten “a good deal” on the scrap bowling balls, he said.

"They told me that back in the 1950s, they used to make damaged bowling balls available for people to take for free and use as landfill," Olson told WZZM. "There's no way to know for certain if that's what the previous homeowner did, but given where the bowling balls were found, it seems logical."

Kirk Bunke, the Muskegon Heritage Museum’s site manager, told MLive the discovery shows innovation and thrift.

“It shows our industrial past and the innovation of the workers,” he said. “They saw a waste product, came up with a use and way to improve the house with no out-of-pocket expense.”
What else, besides bowling balls, lies beneath Olson’s house?

Thousands of people around the world want to know that. Olson created “The bowling ball guy” Facebook page on July 10, and by midday Friday had more than 3,600 followers waiting for the next big reveal as the Olson family renovation project continues.

“It couldn’t get weirder, right?” Olson’s wife, Megan, wrote on Facebook, “David was trying to level some of the patio pavers at the bottom of the stairs … and under the paver he pulled out an old light bulb … then another … then another.

“It was basically just a bunch of crushed light bulbs underneath,” she wrote, asking the same question that’s on the mind of people following the page: “What is going on here?”

A fellow by the name of Steve Walker suggested the bed of broken glass was an “old school way to keep moles and gophers from digging under the pavers.”

“That makes sense,” Olson responded, “but sucks to work with.”

The bowling balls are a bit more fun. The Olsons are repurposing most of them as decorative pavers in their landscaping. They’ve given some away. Olson’s not too worried about running out of balls.

“I’m about 75 percent sure there are just as many balls in the ground as there are out,” he told CNN, “maybe even more.”

The cost of the renovation is more than the Olsons expected, and the public interest in their property as an archaeological site is financially daunting for the couple.

David Olson wrote on GoFundMe’s website that he was surprised by the global interest in his renovation project and “thought long and hard” about starting a crowdfunding campaign to pay for the replacement of the patio and retaining wall so he can continue digging for bowling balls.

“This will take time and money both of which are in short supply for me,” he wrote. “I would like to expand my excavation to the patio to see just how many more bowling balls are still underground. The only reason for stopping short on my first run was my financial inability to replace the entire patio area.”

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