[meteorite-list] Plymouth Resident Searching For Missing 1895 Meteorite

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:55:41 2004
Message-ID: <200201070203.SAA11606_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.southbendtribune.com/stories/2002/01/06/local.20020106-sbt-MARS-D1-Plymouth_resident_se.sto

Plymouth resident searching for missing 1895 meteorite
By JENNIFER MACK
South Bend Tribune
January 6, 2002

PLYMOUTH -- Helen Schneider's nephews have been hunting for buried treasure
on her farm.

It's not a chest filled with gold or jewels, but a cosmic rock that bounced
through the atmosphere in the late 1800s and landed about five miles from
Plymouth, on land then owned by farmer John Jefferson Kyser.

The location of the meteorite, known as the Plymouth meteorite in an 1895
issue of the American Journal of Science, remains a mystery to this day.

"It's been there a long time, but we didn't find it yet," Schneider said
Friday.

Soon, however, Schneider may get help locating the meteorite from Rick
Nowak, vice president of the International Meteorite Society, located in
Ohio.

She said he has been in contact with her and hopes to search her property in
the 16100 block of 13th Road for the meteorite later this year when the
weather is warmer.

Nowak could not be reached for comment. The group's Web site offers for sale
meteorites in his possession that have been found all over the world.

Schneider has been told by the property's previous owner, who has since
passed away, that the meteorite may be near a patch of woods.

When asked what will happen to the meteorite once it's found, Schneider
responded that she will likely get some money for it.

"I don't know how much, they don't tell you that," Schneider said.

According to Linda Rippy, director of the Marshall County Historical Museum,
the incident of a falling meteorite wasn't recorded in any local newspapers
of the time or in other historical documents other than a short article in
an 1895 issue of the American Journal of Science.

She said originally two were found on the property by its owner, farmer John
Jefferson Kyser, and his son John Kyser.

According to the American Journal of Science article, the first meteorite,
the one being sought now, was buried by the father and son on the property
to keep it from harming farming equipment. The second was given as a gift to
another Plymouth resident, who then sold it to Ward's Natural Science
Establishment in Rochester, N.Y.

According to the author of the journal article, John Kyser did attempt to
locate the meteorite 22 years after it was buried, but apparently felt
confident he would eventually turn it up. But he never found it.

"I was myself present and assisted in a further search for it in September
last, using a surveyor's magnetic needle, with the hopes of the same being
attracted to the mass and discovering it, but all to no purpose," wrote the
author, Henry Ward, in the journal article.

He wrote that the second meteorite, which was subsequently sold to a museum,
is 12 1/2 inches long, just more than 7 inches wide, and about 2 inches
thick. It was said to be tongue shaped.

"I'm not sure if it's even a meteorite," Rippy said of the object still
being sought in Schneider's field. "It may just be a big rock. We won't know
until they dig it up."

Staff writer Jennifer Mack: jmack_at_sbtinfo.com (219) 936-2921
Received on Sun 06 Jan 2002 09:03:35 PM PST