[meteorite-list] A Nininger Moment #23

From: almitt <almitt_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Oct 22 23:28:19 2004
Message-ID: <4179CCF8.6CB8D557_at_kconline.com>

Not All Of Nininger Hunts Are Smooth
The Trip To Loreto, Baja California

Often turning his travels, letters from various people, and talking
to farmers, ranchers and many other sources, Nininger would run
into stories about where a meteorite was thought to exist if he
would only go and check it out. Early on he often would make
special effort to check out such stories but in his later years of
experience, he would often ask questions and catalog an area
to investigate when it sounded reasonable. Such was the case
of the Loreto Meteorite which was mentioned to Nininger by
a oil man John B. Quinn.

Two years after hearing about a 150 lb meteorite that laid in a
man's yard, Nininger and Addie his wife made a trip down to
Guaymas on the Mexican mainland and from there Nininger
would fly across to the Baja peninsula to Santa Rosalia. The
trip to Loreto he was assisted by Quinn's friend a superintendent
of a large cooper mine named Peter Mahieux. On the commute
by cargo plane to Santa Rosalia, Nininger and Mr. Mahieux had
time to talk and Mahieux himself had a small meteorite he gave to
Nininger as a gift which turned up to be the Pallasite variety from
the village of Ignacio

The following day Mr. Mahieux drove Nininger by truck, 20 miles
south to where a young Mexican maintain a machine shop. The
young man had been employed by the cooper mine in the past but
had been let go which Nininger would be told of later. The young
man had been a pilot flying the plane they had flew on to commute
from the peninsula to the mainland. Mr. Mahieux explained to
Nininger that he would be flown in a plane that the young Mexican
had built himself out of crashed airplanes and auto parts but he
was the best pilot Mr. Mahieux knew. Nininger expressed concern
over this but because Mr. Mahieux had gone so far out of his way
and assured Nininger of the young Mexican's qualifications, Nininger
accepted his hosts words.

On inquiring about why the young man had been let go Mr. Mahieux
told Nininger that the young Mexican had on several occasions
played a very disturbing trick with the passengers he flew. He
would take off with a group of people then when out in the middle
of the 100 mile wide gulf he would topple over and pretend to be
unconscious, until all the passengers were all near hysterics. The
young Mexican seem to derive great fun from this activity. It would
be this young man and Nininger who would fly to Loreto along with
a retired navy captain and a young geologist who accompanied them
on other business.

The trip down was uneventful and upon arrival Nininger contacted
a padre who spoke some broken english and helped him to contact
one of Mahieux former employees who guided Nininger to a Senor
Davis, whose yard the meteorite rested. It was a true meteorite
and was heavier than Nininger had been told, weighing out at
209 lbs. A price was reached and arrangements were made to
ship the large meteorite back to Nininger's home. Nininger soon
returned to the flying field at a time that was agreed upon by the
parties flying back. All were there except for the pilot who was
last seen in a bar about an hour ago. After many uncomplimentary
comments about the pilot, the group went and retrieved the young
Mexican from the bar and they noted he seemed to be in fair shape.
He was taken to lunch an only allowed to drink coffee.

After the lunch the group went back promptly to the plane where
the young Mexican took off without a hitch. While in the air he
instructed the geologist to "take over the wheel" while he rolled
himself a cigarette. The geologist refused and the young Mexican
simply shifted the wheel over to him. Nininger and the navy captain
had a good view of the back of the geologists head and neck,
noting that the neck had turned beet red. Nininger stated that he
had never so strongly wanted to hit a man over the head as he
did the young Mexican but as he told the navy captain, "what good
would that do"? Mean while while the plane wavered, the young
Mexican leaned back and enjoyed the cigarette he had rolled,
reaching over to right the plane at the hand of the protesting
geologist. Nininger stated that the flight was only 35 or 40 minutes
but the three passengers during the flight lived as many days. Upon
arrival a perfect landing was made but none of the passengers felt
incline to thank their young pilot.

The Loreto meteorite was said to have been found from the
site in the mountains about 6 hours ride by mules from the
nearest ranch on the gulf shore. It was also told that a larger
iron, too heavy to move was also at that site. Nininger said
that from the Loreto specimen he bought, it was obvious that
it had been torn from a larger mass and that the story of a
larger mass seem to make sense. Enough sense that later in
1964 and 1965 that Nininger tried to track down the larger
mass of Loreto. As with other meteorite hunts, the larger
mass was never located. Nininger felt that someday maybe
erosion or someone knowledgeable would come upon the
mass and it would be brought to civilization to view.

The Nininger Moments are articles or books written originally by Harvey
Nininger and put into a consolidated form by Al Mitterling. Some of the
items written in the moments might be old out dated material and the
reader is advised to keep this in mind. Source: Find A Falling Star

--AL Mitterling
Received on Fri 22 Oct 2004 11:16:08 PM PDT