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Paducah, KY- September 20, 1950- part 3

PADUCAH SUN                                         September 20, 1950

HUGE METEOR RACES OVER AREA, EXPLODES IN SKY

A fantastically large meteor blazed across this area early today, bathing
much of the section in a fleeting blue-white flash of light and leaving in
its wake a jarring rumble, like heavy thunder.

No one knows where the bulk of the meteor fell, or whether it fell at all,
but what apparently is a chunk of the racing heavenly body was found about
daylight  this morning in the Pottertown section of Calloway County .

The stone, about the size of a volleyball, weighs 11 to 12 pounds.  It is
smooth and almost round.

William Barnett found the meteor chunk buried 10 inches in the ground 10
feet from his father's front door. The Barnetts heard the stone fall into
the yard. It struck the ground at the height of a window shaking rumble from
the sky, described by the Barnetts as a sound like 100 jet planes would
make.

The stone was put on exhibition at Murray.

Reports from widespread areas of Kentucky, Illinois and Tennessee indicate
that the meteor exploded high in the sky above western Kentucky and
virtually burned itself out before any sizable chunks stuck the earth.

The meteor flashed across the sky and exploded about 2 a.m.

The intense bluish white flash darted in a southeasterly direction. Then the
streak burst into a mass of vivid red, blue and white, sending a shower of
huge sparks into space. The weird detonation followed, spreading out and
fading in a low rumble. Eyewitnesses to the blaze of light were numerous,
for 2 o'clock in the morning.

Leonard Meyer and Harry Smith and other Metropolis policemen were sitting in
a patrol car. They said the inside of the auto "got lighter than day" and
that the meteor was clearly visible.

The height of the bluish flash preceded the explosion by a split second, the
officers said. Just before the blast the object appeared to be a ball of
light trailed by a sparkling tail, they said.

Henry Castleman and Clarence Shifley, Metropolis service station attendants,
also saw the meteor clearly.

"It lit up the whole sky." Castleman said.

Shifley said the meteor was "traveling fast" in a southeasterly direction.

The others from Metropolis agreed with his direction.

Hundreds of Paducahans were startled by the blast and several saw the flash.
Police Patrolman Albert Yancy, on the desk at Paducah headquarters , had
stepped outside for a moment and he saw the light and heard the explosion.
Parker Bray was one of the hundreds awakened by the noise. He said he
thought "a couple of horses had run into our house."

W. J. Horton, 440 Thurman Avenue, said he saw " a huge, fiery object" dart
southward over Paducah about 10 minutes before the explosion. He said the
object appeared to be about two feet thick and four feet long, and made no
noise as it passed.

"The sky was light as day when it came over," he said .

Men on duty at Kentucky Dam said they saw the flash and that it appeared in
the south.

One of the most vivid descriptions of the meteor came from Murray Policeman
Charley Marr.  He and Officer Rob Lamb were sitting on the curb in front of
the Murray fire station, looking north, when the meteor burst.

"We were looking towards the court house and saw a white light. It looked
like a flash from a welding torch. As the light dimmed it broke into all
different colors. the light lasted three or four seconds. The light was
coming from the south, right at us and it was three or four times as high as
the courthouse. In about two minutes the  thunder started in the
northeast and seemed to fade to the west."

Truckers driving south in southern Illinois said that the light appeared in
front of them. A man at the wheel of a truck headed north toward Murray
agreed with Marr and Lamb that the burst was in the north.

A trucker leaving Fulton for the south stopped his truck and stayed
overnight  after seeing the flash. He said he was afraid to proceed, that he
"might run into a crater."

People in Princeton, Madisionville, Hopkinsville, Hickman and Mayfield said
they heard the rumble or saw the flash.

Police stations and other all-night stations were bombarded by telephone
calls from frightened people awakened by the noise. many thought a huge
airplane had exploded in midair. Others thought a boat had blown up on
Kentucky Lake.

There were fantastic stories, too.

A man driving south from Viennia, Ill., thought the object was a space ship.
He fled his car and laid down on the pavement.

"It was so low I was afraid it would hit me," he said.

There was also the chilling fear of space ships or Russian bombs. There even
was the rumor that a mass of something radioactive had been found and roped
off near Milan, Tenn.

Tennesseans, like Kentuckians, were sure the meteor exploded over their
area. But since the flash was seen in the south by officers at Metropolis
and in the north by policemen at Murray, it was the general opinion that the
blast occurred high above the area just south of Kentucky Lake.






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