The Space Acorn Near Pittsburgh Just Might Be The Strangest Roadside Attraction Yet
By Beth Price-Williams|Published February 28, 2022
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Beth Price-Williams
Author
A professional writer for more than two decades, Beth has lived in nearly a dozen states – from Missouri and Virginia to Connecticut and Vermont – and Toronto, Canada. In addition to traveling extensively in the U.S. and the U.K., she has a BA in Journalism from Point Park University (PA), a MA in Holocaust & Genocide Studies from Stockton University (NJ), and a Master of Professional Writing from Chatham University (PA). A writer and editor for Only In Your State since 2016, Beth grew up in and currently lives outside of Pittsburgh and when she’s not writing or hanging out with her bunnies, budgies, and chinchilla, she and her daughter are out chasing waterfalls.
Anyone who grew up in the late 1980s knew that Wednesday nights meant curling up in front of the TV and hearing perhaps the spookiest voice in all of television. Each week Robert Stack would bring us new Unsolved Mysteries in that calm yet foreboding tone that often left us with chills. Then, in 1990, the Unsolved Mysteries crew made its way to our area to cover the enduring mystery of the space acorn near Pittsburgh.
If you’ve ever traveled along Water Street in Mount Pleasant, you’ve likely noticed what looks like a huge acorn perched atop a pole on the side of the road.
The story begins on a cold December evening in 1965. Countless Pennsylvanians (and others throughout the United States and Canada) tell of seeing a fireball streak across the sky before it crashed with a thunderous boom in Kecksburg.
Curious locals flocked to the crash site, only to be ushered away by members of the United States Army. A few, however, happened to catch a glimpse of what they attest was a small body on a gurney.
Rumors spread through the town, although the Army declared the cause of the fireball had been a meteor. Despite the Army’s assertion, people believed for decades – and continue to believe – that a UFO had landed in Kecksburg.
The story became a local legend, eventually drawing the hugely popular television show Unsolved Mysteries to town to film in 1990. That space acorn? It was a replica of the UFO, created by the TV production crew from eyewitness accounts, that had apparently crashed so many years ago.
When Stack and his crew left town, the space acorn made its way into storage, where it sat gathering dust for years. Then, in the early part of the 21st century, local residents took it out and mounted it in town.
Today, Kecksburg attracts curiosity seekers and has become known for its annual summer UFO Festival. The event features a full menu of fun – from a parade to delicious food.
Those who don’t believe that a UFO landed in Kecksburg on December 9, 1965 have their own theories as to what happened on that fateful night. Several, in fact, surmise that the UFO was actually an American spy satellite that had been sent to space to keep an eye on the Soviet Union.
Have you heard the tale of the space acorn near Pittsburgh? What do you think really happened that night in Kecksburg so many decades ago? Let us know in the comments! Up for more adventure after visiting Kecksburg? Here are several other roadside attractions near Pittsburgh that are worth a visit.
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