Giant iron ‘Death Star’ found by demolition crew in North Carolina. What is it?
A demolition crew tearing down the old Champion Paper Mill in Canton, North Carolina, found something strange that has come to be known as “The Death Star.”
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It’s a giant metal ball – 30 feet in diameter – and photos show it has an equally dramatic crack, as if something burst out.
“It was a complete surprise to the team,” according to Kimberly Ferguson, office manager at Two Banks Development, which is handling the mill demolition.
“It was uncovered during demolition work when the surrounding concrete structure was being removed.”
The find was made in August, and Two Banks Development has since determined the orb is an “acid ball” used in the paper making process.
As for the crack, well, that happened by accident when heavy equipment punched through a concrete wall and unintentionally punctured the sphere, company officials told The Mountaineer.
“The blueprints for its silo home date back to 1936, and the ball itself was constructed onsite at the mill’s foundry using riveted, rolled steel. Inside, two layers of tile-lined block helped keep the chemicals separated from the steel shell,” Two Banks Development wrote in an Oct. 12 Facebook post.
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“Acid balls” have been found at other paper mills in the country, and historians say their role was “to relieve pressure that built up in digester tanks that cooked wood chips down to pulp with sulfuric acid,” NPR reports.
Champion Paper Mill was founded in 1908 and “played a significant role in the environmental and social history in this part of the Southern Appalachians,” according to the Forestry History Society. The mill closed in 2023, the society says.
A movement to preserve the orb as giant historical artifact is gaining support in Canton. The idea is similar to a successful 2018 project in Bellingham, Washington, where an “acid ball” was put on display at a public park.
Two Banks Development is open to proposals, and Ferguson suggested grant dollars could help create an installation “somewhere in town.”
“We are currently documenting the piece to determine its history and potential for preservation, so its final fate remains to be decided,” she said in an email.
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Canton is about a 135-mile drive northwest from uptown Charlotte.
This story was originally published October 14, 2026 at 12:29 PM.
