Mokena is no stranger to the bizarre and unusual. From our haunted flower shop to unexplained disappearances to UFO sightings, more than a few mysteries can be found in the pages of our history, if one knows where to look. We can’t quite say that we have our own Sasquatch or Loch Ness Monster, at least not yet, but there is one puzzling case that stands out upon our narrative. This author would like to take you on a trip to the distant past, to explore one of the more spellbinding open questions of our years.
The man at the center of this question is one Herman C. Lahmann, a member of a long-established area family. Born in 1887 in Homer Township, he was the son of William J. Lahmann and Wilhelmine Mindemann, both devoted members of the German United Evangelical St. John's Church. The elder Lahmann was the owner of two farms on 179th street, one of which was tenanted by Herman. The story starts out so simply, on a day on which routine work was being carried out by him on the farm. Sometime around 1920, while working in the field, Herman’s plow turned up a stone that was buried about ten inches under the soil. When Lahmann went to pick up the dark green, three-pound rock, its weird, egg-like shape caught his eye, along with the many white spots that covered it. His fascination was fleeting, however, for he quickly moved on and chucked it into a pile of many other stones that he had found in the field.
The next spring, he carted the rocks away with the intention of using them in a foundation for a new outbuilding on the farm. Once again, his interest was piqued by the oblong, speckled rock, but this time he set it aside, and it found a home in his barn. The matter with the stone wouldn’t go away, for during some down time in the winter of 1922, Herman Lahmann polished it, and took it into his house for a closer inspection. Upon giving it a thorough looking over, Lahmann was flabbergasted at what he saw. Upon holding the rock in the light at just the right angle, he was thrilled to discover that upon every one of the 200 or so tiny speckles that covered the stone, were etched tiny pictures. Depicted in lilliputian form were everything from animals, fish, snakes, and even one likeness that Lahmann declared to be Noah’s Ark. Even more baffling, he found human faces, including that of none other than Jesus Christ.
Perplexed and astounded by his find, the farmer wanted to show off the stone, if only maybe to get some clue as to its origin. He gingerly carried it into Mokena, and brought it to the Front Street office of the News-Bulletin, the village’s weekly newspaper, where it was inspected by Bill Semmler, the paper’s editor. Astonished, the newsman noted that “some of the inscriptions and carvings are so fine that they can only be discerned thru the aid of a powerful magnifying glass.” Semmler recounted seeing all the same things that Herman Lahmann did, even describing a figure with a halo around its head, as well as various letters, including the German word Thal, which signifies a valley.
Lahmann and his wondrous rock made the front page of the News-Bulletin’s October 6th, 1922 issue. Editor Semmler asserted that “…whether this curious stone is a freak of nature, or whether it was made by human hands, is a puzzle.” He went on to say that “whether this stone tells the history of some ancient race or civilization is a conjecture.” He also wondered that “if some expert geologist would examine the stone, he might be able to decipher some of its odd figures, which surely must interpret something.”
Many people came to see Herman Lahmann’s mysterious rock, and around the time the article in the News-Bulletin appeared, one bewondered viewer even offered to buy it from him for the princely sum of $100, or around $1,550 in today’s money. Nevertheless, the farmer refused to part with it, perhaps in a testament to the oddity’s authenticity. At the time the story broke, it was noted that no other stones of this sort had ever been found in the area, especially not by Lahmann.
Whether this extraordinary stone was the real thing, or simply an incredibly elaborate hoax pulled over on Bill Semmler, has long since vanished into the ether of posterity. Any photographs of it have also disappeared to the ebb and flow of time. Whatever secrets Herman Lahmann may have had, he took to his grave in 1961. Also unknown is just whatever happened to the mystery rock. Maybe it has stayed in our midst, silently residing somewhere in Mokena. Who knows, maybe it’s even serving some innocuous purpose such as a doorstop, its uniqueness long since forgotten by the ages.
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