"Cannon Ball" Unearthed by Gardener Turns Out To Be Old Fence Post Finial

Police in Fort Smith, Arkansas say a man puttering in his garden was surprised to find a Civil War era cannonball in his garden. Only the "cannonball" turned out to the top of an old fencepost.

Proving that even experts can be fooled when it comes to dirty, crusty old things the four-inch round chunk of metal was "touched off" by sympathetic detonation later today and later x-rayed - when it was determined to be decorative and not combative.

There were a number of Civil War engagements in and around Fort Smith, including the Battle of Massard Prairie.