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

From: j.divelbiss_at_att.net <j.divelbiss_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:29:58 2004
Message-ID: <20030921103306.19F4C536BC_at_pairlist.net>

Thanx Ron as always...well, there you go Tom...a meteoritic impact on
Kentucky living. Must be a sign...

John

>
>
> 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.
>
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Received on Sun 21 Sep 2003 06:33:05 AM PDT