[meteorite-list] Middlesboro Built In Meteor Crater, Geologists Say; Town Hopes To Cash In

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:29:58 2004
Message-ID: <200309210253.TAA19324_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2003/09/20ky/met-5-crater0920-6646.html

Middlesboro built in meteor crater, geologists say; town hopes to cash in
By ROGER ALFORD
Associated Press
September 20, 2003

MIDDLESBORO, Ky. - An Eastern Kentucky town that has
been struggling through economic decline is hoping that an
out-of-this-world attraction can help turn things around.

State geologists have concluded that Middlesboro was built in a meteor
crater, and local officials are confident that the discovery will pay huge
dividends in tourism dollars.

William M. Andrews Jr., a geologist with the Kentucky Geological
Survey, said erosion and vegetation have hidden most signs of the
meteor's impact. Enough evidence remains, however, to support the
conclusion, he said.

"You have the round shape, shattered rock in the middle and deformed
rocks around the sides that have been bent, folded or shoved," Andrews
said. "That's pretty strong evidence that it was a meteor impact crater."

It's enough to excite local tourism officials, who are hoping people will
come from across the nation to visit the town. They're now promoting
Middlesboro as the only town in America built inside a meteor crater.

"We're trying to get the word out," said Judy Barton, director of the Bell
County Tourism Commission. "This is just another jewel in our crown."

Middlesboro, historically dependent on the mining industry, has been in
decline for decades, suffering alongside coal operators. Mines have shut
down, shops have closed and workers have hit unemployment lines.
With no upturn in sight, local leaders have been trying to bolster the
tourism economy.

Barton said more than a million people already come to Middlesboro each
year to visit Cumberland Gap National Historic Park, which is home of
the famed mountain pass through which settlers traveled into the
nation's midsection in the late 1700s.

Tourists can walk the footsteps of the famous frontiersman Daniel
Boone, who led the way through Cumberland Gap for a flood of settlers
to come into Kentucky and beyond.

Nearby is the Lost Squadron Museum, home to a World War II fighter
plane that spend a half century encapsulated in the icy heart of a glacier.
Some 20,000 people came to Middlesboro last year to see the P-38
Lightning fly for the first time since being pulled piece by piece from
beneath 268 feet of ice and snow in Greenland.

The plane was among six fighters and two bombers forced to crash-land
during foul weather on July 15, 1942. The crews were rescued from the
glacier, but the warplanes were left behind to be slowly buried by snow
and ice. A local restaurateur spent some $3 million to recover and rebuild
the plane.

Barton said those two attractions keep Middlesboro-area hotels and
restaurants busy. When word spreads that people have the opportunity
to see an actual meteor crater, Barton believes tourism may skyrocket.

In fact, more than 60 geologists arrived in town Thursday to survey the
crater and to be on hand yesterday when the Kentucky Society of
Professional Geologists declared the city a distinguished geological site.

Andrews said geologists who have visited Middlesboro are confident that
the valley is a crater.

"Middlesboro is in this strangely round valley in the middle of Appalachia,"
he said. "You don't get round valleys here. It's not normal."

While the shape of the valley initially drew the interest of geologists,
they soon found stronger evidence. Andrews said rocks were found near
the center of the basin in 1966 that were so shattered that something out
of this world had to have occurred. The theory is that a meteor more than
1,500 feet in diameter struck the earth here some 300million years ago,
creating the crater four miles in diameter.

The crater is among those noted by the Planetary and Space Science Centre
at the University of New Brunswick, which has compiled a list of all
known meteor craters in the world.

In Middlesboro, Andrews said, huge sections of rock have been flipped
upside down or bent into odd positions, suggesting a powerful impact.

Tom Shattuck, who operates Wilderness Road Tours in Middlesboro, said
he routinely takes visitors up a mountainside in the national park to
an overlook where they can get a bird's eye view of the crater.

That, Shattuck said, is an easy way to convince doubters that a meteorite
gets credit for forming the valley. Of course, he said, standing in the
middle of town and looking up at the bowl-shaped mountains may be just
as convincing.

"It's really something to see," he said.
Received on Sat 20 Sep 2003 10:53:34 PM PDT