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Port Orford Meteorite Hoax - Part 2 of 6

PLOTKIN H. (1993) The Port Orford Meteorite Hoax
(Sky & Tel., September 1993, pp. 35-38):

Activity intensified in 1917 when a journal of Evans's "Route from Port
Orford Across the Rogue River Mountains" was found in New Orleans and
deposited in the Smithsonian. The institution renewed its interest in
the lost meteorite, and in 1929 it dispatched W.E Foshag, curator of
mineralogy and petrology, to look for it.
Searches reached a fever pitch in 1937, when J.H. Pruett, an astronomer
at the University of Oregon, published an article in the Sunday
Oregonian that falsely claimed the Smithsonian was offering a $2 million
reward to the finder of the lost meteorite. This irresponsible
journalism gave rise to a local Society for the Recovery of the Lost
Port Orford Meteorite. It was also responsible for enticing thousands of
persons who wished to combine a summer holiday with an adventurous
treasure hunt into the Siskiyou National Forest!
In 1939, in the midst of this flurry of activity, the Smithsonian
mounted its second search, undertaken by E.P. Henderson, associate
curator of the Division of Meteorites. No trace of the lost meteorite
turned up.
These failures did little to dampen the spirits of the meteorite's
would-be rediscoverers. Relying on the assumptions that Evans was well
trained and highly regarded by the leading scientists of his day, and
that he had no reason to lie about his discovery, they read and reread
his journal (which makes no mention of a meteorite). Thus they pitted
their wits against the evidence, hoping they would be sufficiently
clever to put all the clues together and succeed where all before
failed. Indeed, the story of the Port Orford meteorite achieved almost
mythic status.

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