Crews discover 2 bombs from WWI while working near a high school, Texas sheriff says
Construction crews discovered multiple pieces of World War I history while working near a high school in Texas, according to authorities.
The construction workers in Waco found something unusual on Tuesday, Aug. 9, that prompted them to call for help, McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara told McClatchy News. A few days later, on Friday, Aug. 12, the workers made the same discovery and the same call for help, the sheriff said.
They’d unearthed two bombs, brown, dusty and torpedo-shaped, photos from the sheriff showed.
“That was down in the ground,” McNamara said, “it’s about a foot and a half long and has fins. It’s at least a hundred years old.”
A bomb unit responded to the construction site located across the road from Waco High School, McNamara said. Using X-ray equipment, they scanned the bombs.
“Solid steel,” the sheriff said. “They were both practice bombs. There wasn’t any danger.”
The bombs were found on land once belonging to Camp MacArthur, where troops were trained between 1917 and 1919, McNamara explained.
The high school nearby was also built on a former military site known as Rich Field Air Base that operated from 1917 until the 1940s, according to Waco History.
How the bombs ended up buried and lost for over a century remains a mystery, McNamara said. “We don’t know how these things were used. We don’t know if these things were dropped out of an old biplane or what, but it’s kind of interesting.”
McNamara said his office plans to display the historical find.
“We’re gonna keep ‘em as souvenirs put ‘em up here in the sheriff’s office,” he said.
The construction crews remain on high alert “‘cause they could find a live bomb out there,” McNamara said.
Waco is about 90 miles south of Fort Worth on Interstate 35, midway to Austin.
This story was originally published August 19, 2022 at 6:27 PM with the headline "Crews discover 2 bombs from WWI while working near a high school, Texas sheriff says."
