"Lost" meteor
Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2009 1:14 pm
Friends,
I have an interesting story I'd like to relate.
As a young boy my father and I were walking some railroad tracks that had once belonged to my grandfather. As we were passing by a certain spot my father stopped and stared around.
He told me he and his brothers had been walking in just this spot when he was my age (12+/- which would have been around 1927) when they heard a loud noise and crashing off into the woods near them. Upon exploration they came across an open spot in the tree canopy above them with broken branches and a crater beneath it.
They left for shovels and returned to uncover what they were certain was a meteor. He then went on to tell me that they had removed the meteor to an old tool shed by the railroad tracks. Upon searching about, we located the remnants of the old shed now thirty-odd years later. By tracing the boundaries of the ruin he was able to locate the corner he recalled the meteor being stored. We dug through the leaves and debris and there it was, exactly as he remembered it.
This meteor sat around in our yard for years until we lost interest in it and my father contacted universities to see if they would be interested in having it. So it disappeared
and I have no idea where it ended up (where did that meteor eventually land?) I'd love a short reunion with it along with my geologist son, but there are no family records of just where it went.
What I do know is that it landed near what was then called Hunter's Mill and was later renamed the Betty "B" Landing along the Tahaquamenon River in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The donation date would have been in the late 1950's / early 1960's. The meteor was approximately basketball sized and stoney, not iron. My only recollection was that dad (Alfred Glen Hunter) had included a number of Michigan universities in his search for interested parties, but that most had rejected his offer and that some had said it couldn't be a meteor because this sort of thing just didn't happen. One obviously did not agree and happily received this donation. (Can you imagine that happening today!)
There's the story - hope you enjoyed it. Now a question - is this nebulous trace trackable?
Do I simply hold on to the shared experience of re-finding a lost meteor, or is there info enough now-a-days to search out its current whereabouts and re-refind it for a photo op?
Jerry Hunter
logmark@comcast.net
Please use "Meteor" in subject line
-
I have an interesting story I'd like to relate.
As a young boy my father and I were walking some railroad tracks that had once belonged to my grandfather. As we were passing by a certain spot my father stopped and stared around.
He told me he and his brothers had been walking in just this spot when he was my age (12+/- which would have been around 1927) when they heard a loud noise and crashing off into the woods near them. Upon exploration they came across an open spot in the tree canopy above them with broken branches and a crater beneath it.
They left for shovels and returned to uncover what they were certain was a meteor. He then went on to tell me that they had removed the meteor to an old tool shed by the railroad tracks. Upon searching about, we located the remnants of the old shed now thirty-odd years later. By tracing the boundaries of the ruin he was able to locate the corner he recalled the meteor being stored. We dug through the leaves and debris and there it was, exactly as he remembered it.
This meteor sat around in our yard for years until we lost interest in it and my father contacted universities to see if they would be interested in having it. So it disappeared
and I have no idea where it ended up (where did that meteor eventually land?) I'd love a short reunion with it along with my geologist son, but there are no family records of just where it went.
What I do know is that it landed near what was then called Hunter's Mill and was later renamed the Betty "B" Landing along the Tahaquamenon River in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The donation date would have been in the late 1950's / early 1960's. The meteor was approximately basketball sized and stoney, not iron. My only recollection was that dad (Alfred Glen Hunter) had included a number of Michigan universities in his search for interested parties, but that most had rejected his offer and that some had said it couldn't be a meteor because this sort of thing just didn't happen. One obviously did not agree and happily received this donation. (Can you imagine that happening today!)
There's the story - hope you enjoyed it. Now a question - is this nebulous trace trackable?
Do I simply hold on to the shared experience of re-finding a lost meteor, or is there info enough now-a-days to search out its current whereabouts and re-refind it for a photo op?
Jerry Hunter
logmark@comcast.net
Please use "Meteor" in subject line
-
