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Meteor Crater - Part 1 of 6

The National Geographic Magazine, June 1928, pp. 720-730:

The Mysterious Tomb Of A Giant Meteorite (by William D. Boutwell)

To possess a wonder of the world - the Grand Canyon, the Falls of the
Zambezi, the Taj Mahal, or the Pyramids - is a proud estate for any
nation. To possess a wonder from beyond the world is a still rarer
privilege, although it meets with less acclaim.
In the Cape York meteorite, brought back from north Greenland by Rear
Admiral Robert E. Peary, the United States has the largest single object
known to have reached the earth from the heavens. To this meteorite can
be added another remarkable prize legacy of the skies within the borders
of the United States - the largest known tomb of a meteorite. The tomb
gives evidence that a mass of metal thousands of times larger than the
Cape York meteorite dropped from the skies near Canyon Diablo, Arizona.

Meteor Crater Attracts Airmen

Because night overtook them, Lieutenant John A. Macready, aviator, and
Captain Albert W. Stevens, air photographer, set down the airplane in
which they were making a swing around the national parks in the West, on
a dry lake bed at Winslow, near Canyon Diablo, Arizona. The inliabitants
lost little time in informing them that Winslow was not just Winslow; it
was Winslow, the "Meteor City." Furthermore, they learned that the
unusual title was borrowed from the remarkable crater in the desert 20
miles away.
Early next morning the two flyers were off to see Meteor Crater. A few
minutes' flight brought them to this astonishing hole. From the air it
looked exactly like the enormously enlarged pit of a "dud" shell. The
rim of white material thrown out of the cavity by the impact framed the
hole against the purple and red surface sandstones that decorate the
Painted Desert. Across the crater bottom the early morning sun threw a
black scarf of shadow, producing a striking and significant resemblance
to the stark craters that pockmark the moon.
In all the broad area visible from the plane, Meteor Crater was the most
conspicuous object. It dominated the desert like a drop of ink on a
blotter. Twenty miles east, columns of smoke marked the railroad yards
at Winslow. Forty miles along the black etched line of the Santa Fe
Railroad, in the other direction, was San Francisco Mountain, with its
hood cloud and with Flagstaff nestling at its foot.
The railroad runs six miles north of Meteor Crater. Closer to the pit
unrolls the taut white ribbon of the transcontinental highway, the Santa
Fe Trail. Still nearer is the ragged-walled, zigzagging incision of
Canyon Diablo.
Within a circle roughly described by a six-mile radius from Meteor
Crater more meteoric iron has been picked up than has been found in any
like area over the entire surface of the Earth. Since meteorites are
more significant than diamonds to the scientist, Canyon Diablo and
Meteor Crater are well known to the scientific world, although they will
be found on few maps.
To make a closer inspection of Meteor Crater, one must drive out or take
the train as far as Sunshine Station. A boxcar forgotten by some
hurrying freight is the station; there is nothing else -except sunshine.
All alone in the midst of the desert south from Sunshine Station is a
mound that at first sight appears to be a flat-topped butte,
characteristic of the Southwest. Surmounting the center of the "butte"
is a lonely derrick.

Best wishes and good night,

Bernd

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