When Athletic Club of Bend Maintenance Director Dave Byrd saw it, he thought it was a bomb.

“It was rusty and dirty, and I picked it up and looked at it,” Byrd said. “I thought, ‘This looks like the flare bombs we found in the neighborhood when I was a kid.’ ”

Turns out his hunch was right.

Several hours after Byrd spotted a metal projectile jutting through dirt at the edge of a club parking lot, Oregon State Police’s explosive unit confirmed that it was an Mk 23 practice bomb.

OSP Detective Mike Blank said such devices were commonly used during World War II training.

“Typically, what they did back in the WWII era, they would drop that from an airplane, and when it struck the ground it had a marker charge so it would illuminate. That way they could practice where they were dropping the bombs,” Blank said.

Blank, who came to the Athletic Club to examine the bomb, knew quickly that it was inactive. And he isn’t surprised at its location. Last May, OSP unearthed a training rifle grenade in Shevlin Park, and he said it’s not unusual to find munitions in odd spots.

Though such items are typically inactive, Blank said finding a live explosive isn’t out of the realm of possibility.

“One should never assume it’s inert if found,” he said.

Byrd and Athletic Club General Manager Kip Heilman said they have their own ideas about where the bomb was hiding for the past 70 or so years.

Heilman pointed to a recently flattened, 15-foot pile of dirt next to the lot.

“It could’ve been under there,” he said. “We were looking for a hole this morning where it could have come out of.”

When Athletic Club employees spotted the explosive, they were putting up a private property sign to ward off hikers and skiers who use the area as an impromptu parking spot.

“We were finding all manner of garbage down here. Now this kind of seals the deal. Kids at Cascade Middle (School) cross through here all the time. They could have easily found it,” Heilman said.

Des Chutes Historical Museum Director Kelly Canton-Miller believes the bomb could have been transferred from Roberts Field or the desert east of Bend, where WWII-era military maneuvers typically occurred.

“Those would have been dropped all over the place in the east of here, out near Brothers into north Lake County,” said Canton-Miller. “I’m still inclined to believe that someone carried it over and left it.”

Regardless, Heilman said the find made for an interesting day, and he’d like to have it back.

“We could put it on the mantle,” he said.