[meteorite-list] Park Forest

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From: FERNLEA4_at_aol.com <FERNLEA4_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:10:06 2004
Message-ID: <149.e697c71.2bc46dbd_at_aol.com>

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Hi all,
I've just arrived back home after spending the last 5 days in Park
Forest.....it was a blast!! Just about every meteorite collector & dealer in
town met-up at Applebees each evening, to eat, drink and talk the night away,
giving a kinda "Tucson II" feel to things. Days were spent hunting and/or
wheeling and dealing with the locals who had stones to sell, but it was very
tough going. Most sellers were asking crazy prices and didn't make a sale, so
I'm sure that there will eventually be many who'll regret not taking
advantage of the reasonable offers made to purchase their stones, especially
now that the dealers have left town.
Within a couple of hours of arriving in Park Forest, Steve Witt and I were at
the Garza residence, where a ~2.5kg stone burst through the roof, broke into
two as it hit a 2 x 4 joist in the attic, made two holes in the ceiling,
destroyed a window blind, put a hefty dent in the window sill, bounced and
smashed a mirror-fronted wardrobe......it missed hitting Noe Garza's son by
only 2 or 3 feet!!!
Going back to the crazy pricing situation in Park Forest, Noe Garza shook his
head firmly and refused my $31,000 offer for the largest 2.2kg mass. "Huh????
More??? No way!!!" Noe is a great guy, very friendly and accomodating, but
like almost everyone else who had space rocks for sale, he'd been misled by
the media hype.
However, I nabbed the remaining chunks that Noe had for sale, totalling about
360g and which fit neatly onto the larger mass, so I was happy. These pieces
have layers of paint, ceiling plaster, and even wood (from the 2x4) embedded
into the fusion crust, and tell their own story nicely. The punched hole disc
fragments from the ceiling, the 2x4 joist and an affidavit from Noe came home
with me, along with the meteorites.
We didn't get around to hunting much, but managed perhaps 2 or 3 hours in
total between the rain and snow falls. Late on Sunday afternoon, Gregory
Wilson, Prof.Paul Sipiera and I checked out a couple of sites, and got lucky
fairly quickly. A 4" diameter hole in the grass next to the sidewalk looked
good, so I knelt down and began digging it out with a teaspoon from our hotel
room. The first few inches were liquid mud (it raind HARD over the weekend),
and then the teaspoon "chinked" onto something stony just another couple of
inches deeper. The teaspoon wouldn't dig any deeper, so it was time to use my
bare hands. You can imagine the mess I got into with liquid mud up my arm,
but I didn't care, because this was looking very promising indeed. I could
feel the top and sides of the stone, but breaking the suction was tricky for
several minutes, until I could get my fingers under it and pluck the stone
out. After cleaning, we had a beautiful ~350g fusion crusted individual, with
negligible oxide staining, despite sitting in wet mud for at least 24hrs.
Paul had found the hole, so it was his to keep. Gregory took a few
photographs of the "dig", with me covered in slimy mud, so I'm sure he'll
enjoy posting those pics pretty soon ;-)
All in all, and despite the pricing nonsense, we had some pretty serious
meteorite FUN in Park Forest.....Whooo-Hooo!!! :-)

Cheers,
Rob Elliott.
www.meteorites.uk.com
Fernlea Meteorites,
The Wynd,
Off Dickson Lane,
Milton of Balgonie,
Fife. KY7 6PY
United Kingdom
Tel: +44-(0)1592-751563
Fax: +44-(0)1592-751991
Mobile: 07909-773929
Email: fernlea4_at_aol.com

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<HTML>Hi all, 
I've just arrived back home after spending the last 5 days in Park Forest...=
..it was a blast!! Just about every meteorite collector & dealer in town=
met-up at Applebees each evening, to eat, drink and talk the night away, gi=
ving a kinda "Tucson II" feel to things. Days were spent hunting and/or whee=
ling and dealing with the locals who had stones to sell, but it was very tou=
gh going. Most sellers were asking crazy prices and didn't make a sale, so I=
'm sure that there will eventually be many who'll regret not taking advantag=
e of the reasonable offers made to purchase their stones, especially now tha=
t the dealers have left town. 
Within a couple of hours of arriving in Park Forest, Steve Witt and I were a=
t the Garza residence, where a ~2.5kg stone burst through the roof, broke in=
to two as it hit a 2 x 4 joist in the attic, made two holes in the ceiling,=20=
destroyed a window blind, put a hefty dent in the window sill, bounced and s=
mashed a mirror-fronted wardrobe......it missed hitting Noe Garza's son by o=
nly 2 or 3 feet!!! 
Going back to the crazy pricing situation in Park Forest, Noe Garza shook hi=
s head firmly and refused my $31,000 offer for the largest 2.2kg mass. "Huh?=
??? More??? No way!!!" Noe is a great guy, very friendly and accomodating, b=
ut like almost everyone else who had space rocks for sale, he'd been misled=20=
by the media hype. 
However, I nabbed the remaining chunks that Noe had for sale, totalling abou=
t 360g and which fit neatly onto the larger mass, so I was happy. These piec=
es have layers of paint, ceiling plaster, and even wood (from the 2x4) embed=
ded into the fusion crust, and tell their own story nicely. The punched hole=
disc fragments from the ceiling, the 2x4 joist and an affidavit from Noe ca=
me home with me, along with the meteorites. 
We didn't get around to hunting much, but managed perhaps 2 or 3 hours in to=
tal between the rain and snow falls. Late on Sunday afternoon, Gregory Wilso=
n, Prof.Paul Sipiera and I checked out a couple of sites, and got lucky fair=
ly quickly. A 4" diameter hole in the grass next to the sidewalk looked good=
, so I knelt down and began digging it out with a teaspoon from our hotel ro=
om. The first few inches were liquid mud (it raind HARD over the weekend), a=
nd then the teaspoon "chinked" onto something stony just another couple of i=
nches deeper. The teaspoon wouldn't dig any deeper, so it was time to use my=
bare hands. You can imagine the mess I got into with liquid mud up my arm,=20=
but I didn't care, because this was looking very promising indeed. I could f=
eel the top and sides of the stone, but breaking the suction was tricky for=20=
several minutes, until I could get my fingers under it and pluck the stone o=
ut. After cleaning, we had a beautiful ~350g fusion crusted individual, with=
negligible oxide staining, despite sitting in wet mud for at least 24hrs. P=
aul had found the hole, so it was his to keep. Gregory took a few photograph=
s of the "dig", with me covered in slimy mud, so I'm sure he'll enjoy postin=
g those pics pretty soon ;-) 
All in all, and despite the pricing nonsense, we had some pretty serious met=
eorite FUN in Park Forest.....Whooo-Hooo!!! :-) 
 
Cheers, 
Rob Elliott. 
www.meteorites.uk.com 
Fernlea Meteorites, 
The Wynd, 
Off Dickson Lane, 
Milton of Balgonie, 
Fife. KY7 6PY 
United Kingdom 
Tel: +44-(0)1592-751563 
Fax: +44-(0)1592-751991 
Mobile: 07909-773929 
Email: fernlea4_at_aol.com</HTML>

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Received on Tue 08 Apr 2003 02:23:57 PM PDT

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