[meteorite-list] Paragould Meteorite Stays On Arkansas Campus For Now

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:29:59 2004
Message-ID: <200309231516.IAA19869_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.nwaonline.net/278713009066569.bsp

Paragould Meteorite Stays On Campus For Now
By Jeff Smith
The Morning News (Arkansas)
September 23, 2003

FAYETTEVILLE -- Derek Sears helped bring a historic artifact to the University of
Arkansas, and he intends to keep it there.

The chemistry professor was instrumental in bringing the Paragould meteorite to the
Fayetteville campus in 1988.

And he's saved the meteorite from making another journey back to Chicago, where
it is on loan from the Field Museum of Natural History.

The meteorite was scheduled to be shipped Monday to Chicago as the first major item to
leave the University Museum since UA officials announced its closing.

Sears convinced Chicago museum officials to delay shipment while they discuss the
possibility of the university keeping the meteorite permanently.

The Field Museum bought the 800-pound meteorite, the third largest found in the United
States, soon after it landed in the small northeast Arkansas town in 1930.

"It's an Arkansas meteorite, and it belongs in Arkansas, and I'm trying to keep it here,"
Sears said.

Sears hopes to have it on display in the new building for the Arkansas-Oklahoma Center for
Space and Planetary Sciences. The center, which he oversees, will take over the Geology
Building on Dickson Street this spring.

As long as Field Museum officials have assurances the meteorite will be cared for and
secured, they would support the meteorite staying in Fayetteville, said Meenakshi Wadhwa,
Field Museum meteorite curator.

The 15-year loan to the University Museum will have to be terminated, but a new one could
be signed next year, she said.

The meteorite measures 1 1/2 feet tall and 3 1/2 feet wide and was the second of two found
in Paragould.

An 80-pound piece was found by farmers Feb. 17, 1930, a month before another farmer found
the larger one in an 8-foot deep hole. Soil was displaced 75 feet from the impact, according
to information on the meteorite display.

The meteorite has been one of the top five attractions at the University Museum, particularly
among schoolchildren, said Anna Ancil, museum assistant to the director.

"That's what the little kids like, being able to come up and touch something from outer
space," Ancil said as she touched the smooth gray surface. "It's not a little spaceman, but
it's pretty darn close."

Sears said the meteorite unlocks people's imagination about space life.

"It taps on all these things we find fascinating," Sears said.

The meteorite has been used in a number of scientific experiments and has appeared in
several science journals, he said.

"We are very pleased with (it staying), since it doesn't seem like the University Museum
has any hope of being saved," Ancil said.

Other major collections to leave the museum soon include rare red wolves and a golden eagle
and a bald eagle. All are on loan from the federal government.

The rest of the collections housed at the museum next to the student union should go to the
collection storage facility at the Arkansas Archeological Survey off Arkansas 112, said John
Hehr, interim director of the museum and associate dean of the J. William Fulbright College
of Arts and Sciences.

The storage facility houses "99.999 percent" of the university's collections and is
air-conditioned and heated, unlike the museum, he said.

Hehr said the university will employ an undetermined number of people to maintain the
building and collections.

Officials haven't decided how many or who will be employed, but the museum has seven staff
members. One is retiring after 30 years on Dec. 31, the date all will lose their jobs at the
museum.

The other six staff members are looking at available positions elsewhere on campus, although
none has yet to find one that pays close to what the individual makes at the museum.

Most have several years of university experience and would require a higher salary because
of their senior-level status.

Hehr said officials are still working to find them jobs but depend on the individuals to
look at jobs they would like.

"Since they're already on campus and have positions, I suppose they have an advantage," he
said.

But officials can't place people in jobs without proper searches, he said.

As for the museum building, which once housed the Razorback basketball team, Hehr said
nothing will be done to it for a year.

A decision about its long-term use likely won't be made until the spring.

Hehr and a group trying to save the museum are looking at a long-term plan to build a new
museum, possibly near the collection storage facility where access would be greater than in
the heart of campus.
Received on Tue 23 Sep 2003 11:16:39 AM PDT