A long-lost, highly valuable Moon rock brought back from the Apollo 17 mission has turned up in the files of Bill Clinton.

The rock was one of 50 presented to each state, and was given to Arkansas while the ex-president was governor. The rock, worth millions of dollars, had been missing since at least 1980 until an archivist found it in old gubernatorial papers. Bobby Roberts, director of the Central Arkansas Library System, told Reuters the archivist opened a box previously archived as “Arkansas flag plaque.” The rock and a state flag were originally affixed to the plaque, but the rock had fallen off and the plaque had been misplaced.

“The moon rock, which is in a plastic container, had fallen off the plaque,” Roberts said, explaining that the rock was at the bottom of the box. “The archivist immediately knew what he had discovered.”

The rock was originally presented to Arkansas Gov. David Pryor in 1976 and hung in the governor’s office during the term of Pryor’s successor, the future president. Roberts figures that when Clinton lost his bid for re-election in 1980, everything got packed up and the plaque and its rock from outer space were misplaced.

Meh, it was probably from Texas anyway.




  1. bobbo, are we Men of Science, or Devo? says:

    So what makes this rock worth 1 Million Dollars?

    Moon dust or pixie dust?

  2. Miguel says:

    Democrats never cared much for Space exploration….

  3. Olo Baggins of Bywater says:

    #2, LOL.

    Bill was waiting for the day he could sell it on ebay.

  4. chuck says:

    Did Clinton leave a “dna sample” on it?

  5. Gary, the dangerous infidel says:

    #3 Olo, with many states so hard-pressed to balance their budgets, you may have hit on what could be a popular idea, selling moon rocks to the highest bidder. I’ve heard that some states have resorted to selling government buildings with a lease-back agreement. Wouldn’t this be preferable?

  6. Skeptic says:

    Just send $5.95 C/O Skeptic at Paypal, and you will recieve a genuine Pet Moon Rock®.

    Train them to roll over!
    Train them to play dead!
    Train them to potty and
    You’ve got rocks in your head!

  7. JD says:

    What’s the big deal? It’s not like he lost anything important like the ‘biscuit’ with the secret codes to our nucular(sic) arsenal for months. Sheesh, we all make little mistakes.

  8. Animby says:

    I suspect the moon rock was just a happy find. They still haven’t found where Hillary archived Bill’s balls.

  9. mrobb says:

    Don’t send water or blankets. Just send cash. And rocks.

  10. Faxon says:

    1969. Fortunately, I was alive and alert at the time. It seem so hard to believe that the citizens of the United States actually gave a shit about anything beside their own vapid entertainments.
    But the time did come and go, and I was lucky enough to see Walter Cronkite describe it all. Every single mission.
    Now. What do we have? A bunch of dumbshit citizens who watch American Idol and vote for Sock Monkeys for leaders.

  11. BigBoyBC says:

    Clinton always was a bit careless with his rocks, as Monica…

  12. B. Dog says:

    We all have to ask ourselves: What have we forgotten in our own junk drawers? Take a look, and may it enrich you and others.

  13. Mr Fog says:

    “but the rock had fallen off”

    O guess if he got his rocks off, it was definitely Clinton.

  14. Peppeddu says:

    If one rock is really worth “millions of dollars”, how long do you think it would take for a private company to setup a robotic mission to return hundreds of moon rocks?

    Nope, the only thing left that has value is that fact that we went to the moon in 1969.
    All the other phisical stuff leftover right now is just a pile of junk.

  15. WmDE says:

    Presented to Arkansas in 1976.

    Kept in Governor Pryor’s office until he left.

    Clinton moves in. Loses the 1980 election.

    Packs up everything he can lay his hands on into the Ya’ll Haul and leaves.

    As it belongs to Arkansas it looks like grand theft with a little interstate flight thrown in.

    When asked about it Mr. Clinton said “I did not steal that… rock.”

  16. bobbo, are we Men of Science, or Devo? says:

    I remember the moon landing as well: didn’t care. There was a social critic at the time that described it as “your father’s project.” Bunch of middle class white guys, protractors, pocket protectors: going to the moon to beat the Ruskies.

    Meanwhile, I was in Pamplona getting ready to run the bulls and then go into the military headed for Vietnam to beat the Ruskies. I didn’t care about that either.

    I was with two buddies and 3 girls. Girls had a picnic while we ran the bulls. When we came back, I saw an old guy walking away. Girls said it was James Michner and he told them all about Iberia. I did care I missed that and I did learn I did not like human cruelty towards cows. One steer could have gored me easy==but he actually moved his horns out of the way so as not to get me. I respected that and left the bull ring.

    Dumb beast–more respect for fellow creatures than the dumb ass Spaniards who were busy trying to poke his eye out with rolled up newspaper.

    In summary: I think the social critic had it right. Middle Class BS.

  17. ECA says:

    UMMMM.
    For all the moon rocks spread around and given away and SOLD…
    That ship had over a TON of rocks on it..Either that or a few are FAKE.

  18. Mars Rock says:

    The story is not unlike the Porsche in the garage/ barn that the ex-wife /grandmother sells
    Yet in this case its just a rock
    The funny part is that in 50 years the rock might of been found – being a paperweight
    Yet by then there may be thousands of moon rocks and even better mars rocks by then

  19. Dos Quattro says:

    It got lost under all those “W” keys the Clintons stole from the White House computers!

  20. Skeptic says:

    Maybe another trip to the moon is in order. A few million rocks could make you a debt free nation.

  21. Gary, the dangerous infidel says:

    Maybe the U.S. can find a way to create a moon rock bubble, and sell them to the Chinese at highly inflated prices. Goldman Sachs can handle all the details. I smell an opportunity!

  22. Lamont Relish says:

    speaking of slick willy: This story got no traction recently but it should have. Apparently since everybody is doing it who cares?

    http://mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_18855790

    Clinton is getting $150K to be a speaker at a bay area air quality conference. Nice job Bill.

  23. bobbo, are we Men of Science, or Devo? says:

    All this million dollar talks reminds that that “basically” this moon rock is not unique—its only sexual.

    Whad dat? Sexual????

    Yes, just another fu*king rock.

  24. Skeptic says:

    Ever get stuck between a rock and a hard place? I carry them with me.

  25. Skeptic says:

    Well I screwed that one up. Should have said “…stuck between rocks and a hard place”.

  26. bobbo, are we Men of Science, or Devo? says:

    That was just a sexual comment then?

  27. President Amabo says:

    The space program was the most important and impressive thing Mankind has ever done. Sad what we’ve devolved to.

  28. Skeptic says:

    Yeah, sorry Bobbo… all I got now is badly delivered jokes that aren’t funny anyway. Got hit in the head with a piece of space junk yesterday. Lucky for me that there was only a 1/3200 chance that it would kill me.

  29. deowll says:

    I find the valuation of these items used as curios to be dubious. They obviously aren’t doing jack for science.

    Of course there’s nothing wrong with having a pet rock if you want one. They don’t crap, make a mess, need to be walked, bark, or other wise make demands and if somebody breaks in you can always throw the thing at them.

  30. Buzz Mega says:

    The Apollo Program cost around $25.5 billion. That’s around $200 billion in today’s cash.

    About 13,500 ounces of Moon rocks were returned. Do the math.

    Weight = baseline value. How much did it weigh?


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