I’m sure that’s a question that burns in the minds of many Knoxville residents as they scurry past the place. You might be thinking I’ve lost my marbles, but this isn’t the first time I’ve suggested as much. Back in December of 2010 I wrote about aliens and time travelers in Krutch Park.
I’d forgotten about that until I happened to be walking through Krutch Park last month. I was in a hurry to get a photograph of something nearby and had my head bent down, facing the ground because the air and wind were so cold. Facing down gave me a full view of the ground and as I walked past the park bench closest to Gay Street next to the Holston Building, I noticed something I’d never seen before. It appeared to be a brass marker of some sort attached to the sidewalk.
Further investigation revealed the brass marker or medallion pictured above. In case you can’t read the words, it says “Nine Pointed Star .com 2010.” inside a nine pointed star. Clever marketing technique? I suspected it was, but I couldn’t resist going to the website to see what was up. It seemed a pretty odd marketing technique with a likely low return. I mean, it’s on the ground where few people will see it, so how much traffic are you going to get?
The site Ninepointedstar.com wasn’t what I expected. It belongs to an artist who lives in San Francisco. She edits books, writes, takes extreme trips around the world, draws and sculpts. As far as I can tell, there is nothing for sale on her site. I didn’t find the gaudy, money-grubbing come-on that I fully thought would greet me at the end of my search. It’s actually a beautiful site devoted to the various projects, travels and interests of Kelly Booth.
She does have an entire page devoted to the medallions, but it isn’t what I expected either. I expected her to explain why she places the medallions in the places where they land. I mean, Krutch Park is a long way from Golden Gate Park. Instead, she claims to have no idea why our medallion sits where it does nor why they sit any of the other places. It turns out that, so far, she knows of fifty-six that have been placed all around the country. They are all the same and are somehow attached to sidewalks.
There are few clues as to who is placing them. They all say “2010,” regardless of when they were placed – or at least discovered, though that would seem to be a reference to the year. I notice that none of them are placed in larger cities which, again, would make more sense for a marketing campaign. But then again, she has nothing for sale and claims she really didn’t want publicity for the site which she only started in 2012.
Numerous people have gotten interested in the nine-pointed star medallions and a number of theories have emerged as to their presence. I’ll let you follow the link and read them all for yourself, if you are interested, but they range from a very elaborate prank to geo-caching. Some say it has a spiritual, some say musical and others say an artistic purpose of some sort.
And then there is the alien time traveler theories. Is it a simple coincidence that I’ve previously written about both aliens and time travelers in Krutch Park? These two theories, as Ms. Booth points out, are not mutually exclusive. And when was it that I had my strange encounters in Krutch Park? Ah yes, it was 2010!