After the bomb squad cleared the area and loaded the chest into their truck, a lone geological technician lingered in Walter’s yard. Kneeling by the disturbed soil, he scraped samples into small vials, explaining that the authorities needed to understand how something buried so deeply had risen on its own.
The technician pointed to the soil layers, describing a freeze–thaw cycle known as frost heave. Each winter, trapped moisture beneath the box froze, forming expanding ice lenses that pushed upward with slow, unstoppable pressure. Over the decades, that invisible force had lifted the chest toward the surface.