[meteorite-list] NP Article, 06-1977 Old Women Meteorite Disputed

From: Steve Schoner <steve_schoner_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:28:19 2004
Message-ID: <20031001232358.83817.qmail_at_web12708.mail.yahoo.com>

--- MARK BOSTICK <thebigcollector_at_msn.com> wrote:
> Title: Color Country Spectrum
> City: Saint George, Utah
> Date: Sunday, June 19, 1977
> Page: 2
>
> Meteorite sent to Smithsonian
>
> RIVERSIDE, Calif. (UPI) - A three-ton meteorite,
> second largest ever found in the United States,
> plunked onto the desert from outer space "hundreds
> of years ago" and it may take another couple of
> years to determine who it belongs to.
> The three miners who discovered it while searching
> for a gold mine says finders keepers - to them its
> worth "a million dollars." But the Smithsonian
> Institution also wants it, as does a scientist at
> UCLA.
> Marines, using a heavy duty helicopter from Santa
> Ana MCAS, dragged the huge nickel-iron object out of
> a rocky canyon in the Old Woman Mountains 170 miles
> each of Los Angeles Friday.
> The meteorite, four feet high, three feet wide and 2
> 1/2 feet thick, was placed on a flatbed truck and
> taken to the Bureau of Land Management offices in
> Riverside, where it will be displayed for two weeks.
> Then it goes to the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.,
> where scientists plan to slice it open for study.
> "A meteorite is like a book." said curtor Dr. Roy S.
> Clarke. "it has to be opened before it can be
> understood."
> David Friburg, Mike Jendruczak and Hack Harwood, all
> of Twentynine Palms, found the meteorite in March,
> 1976, while looking for a legendary Spanish
> Conquistador gold mine.
> Jendruczak said he was drawn to the reddish-brown
> and black rock because it looked out of place among
> the tan and gray boulders littering the rugged
> shopes.
> "I tapped it," he said, "and right away I knew what
> it was. I'd seen pictures of meteorites in school
> and I've seen them in museums. So I was pretty sure
> it was a meteorite."
> Friburg said the three contemplated hiring a
> comercial helicopter to lift it out themselves,
> making a documentary film of the process which they
> would sell. They sent chips to John T. Wasson, a
> UCLA chemist and meteorite expert.
> Wasson said the sample showed a rare type of
> meteorite. "Type IIB" If subsequent tests prove this
> it would be the 15th such type found in the world.
> Eventually, Clarke came out to examine the meteorite
> and claim it for the Smithsonian under the 1906
> Antiquities Act. He said he discussed a finder's fee
> for the miners, which they refused.
> The miners are claiming the rock is theirs under the
> 1872 Mining Act. They say they could get a last 31
> million by selling chips to scientists.
>
> (Article includes photo of people standing around
> Old Women Meteorite).
>
>
> Please visit, www.MeteoriteArticles.com, a free
> on-line archive of meteor and meteorite articles.
>

And the Legal outcome of this case was terribe...

I think that it was too bad that their Lawyers did not
look carfully enough into the 1872 Mining Act permit
that the Barringers applied for with regards to all
meteorites found in "Meteor Crater"

Under that very same 1872 Mining Act, they got not
only the meteorites, but the entire crater, too.

Steve Schoner.
  
P. S.
Post more on this Mark.

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Received on Wed 01 Oct 2003 07:23:58 PM PDT