Bluffton residents awoke on Oct. 1 to the sight of several "X" and dotted lines marked in white on Main Street. Speculation quickly rambled through coffee clitches around the community as to the meaning of the markings.
Several theories emerged by noon. Among them included possible UFO landing sites, such as ancient markings found in the Andes. One resident claimed that when viewed from 500 feet or higher, the dots spelled out in Morse Code "landing site."
Another thought was that the street work unearthed a map to the fabled Swiss treasure, rumored to include thousands in gold Swiss coinage from the 1840s. Several families of early pioneers are said to have buried their money throughout Richland Township.
Others believe the markings to be part of a large game board, which was thought to be part of the original streetcape program, but was scrapped due to lack of funds.
Village officials acted quickly on the markings. Orange containers were placed along the street to protect the markings so that officials from the Ohio Society of Archeological Studies in Columbus could provide further study.
Just as mysteriously as the markings appears, they disappeared later in the day.
