[meteorite-list] Oregon Group Hopes To Build Willamette Meteorite Center

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Sep 14 16:35:55 2004
Message-ID: <200409142035.NAA01455_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.oregonlive.com/metrosouthwest/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/metro_southwest_news/109421264474221.xml

Group hopes to land meteorite

West Linn residents want to raise money for an interpretive center to
honor a mammoth bit of the town's history

DANA TIMS
The Oregonian
September 3, 2004

Efforts by a group of West Linn residents to create a full-blown tourist
attraction around the largest meteorite ever found in the United States
are finally taking off.

The group is planning a fund-raising event Sept. 18 that organizers hope
will net enough cash to proceed with plans to build an interpretive
center and full-size model of the Willamette Meteorite.

Ellis Hughes, a Welsh miner-turned-West Linn farmer, discovered the
151/2-ton meteorite on a hillside near West Linn in 1902. Working
secretly, he managed to haul the huge space rock to his nearby property,
where he displayed it publicly until the adjacent landowner discovered
the theft, sued and won a court victory to regain possession.

A wealthy New York socialite saw the meteorite at the 1905 Lewis & Clark
exposition in Portland. She bought it and promptly donated it to the
American Museum of Natural History in New York, where as many as 5
million visitors view it annually.

Now, the West Linn group is intent on reviving the specter of a
meteorite that scientists say actually fell somewhere in Canada.
Catastrophic ice-age floods, from 12,000 to 15,000 years ago, are
credited with floating the meteorite, encased in a huge chunk of ice, to
the spot where Hughes discovered it.

"We think it's important not only for West Linn, but for all of Oregon,
to know the story of this amazing meteorite," said Mark Buser, who as
president-elect of the West Linn Chamber of Commerce is helping
spearhead the effort. "After a lot of work, it seems like the universe
is finally conspiring to make this happen."

The group is in the second phase of a five-phase project aimed at
creating a bronze replica of the meteorite for permanent display in West
Linn's historic Willamette neighborhood. The project's $80,000 budget
includes plans for a 1,000-square-foot interpretive center across the
street from the replica.

Group members have applied for several grants to help finance the
effort, including one to the Spirit Mountain community fund. The fund is
run by the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde.

The tribes claim that Clackamas Indians regarded the meteorite as a
sacred object long before European settlers made their way to the upper
Willamette Valley. More than a decade ago, the tribes, citing a new
federal law that returned important artifacts to Native Americans,
reached an agreement with the New York museum entitling them to an
annual ceremonial visit and other considerations.

Direct fund-raising will continue Sept. 18 at Tualatin River Nursery in
West Linn, where Fran Soder, the 87-year-old West Linn resident who is
credited with initiating the restoration project, will speak on the
meteorite's colorful and controversial history.

"I've spoken to large groups before, but that was 50 years ago," Soder
said, laughing. "I guess I'd better be dynamic."

Tickets for seats at the event, which includes dinner and a concert, are
selling for $100. An eight-person table is available for $700.

Also at the event will be Perry Gargano, the New York artist who has
been commissioned to create the replica. He plans to use a high-tech
computer to cut the model from a huge chunk of high-density foam.

Soder said no hard-and-fast deadline has been set for completing the
replica and the interpretive center. She added, however, that another
group member's recent prediction that completion could take five years
just won't cut the meteoric mustard.

"I don't expect to live a century," she said, laughing again. "I want
this thing done before I die."
Received on Tue 14 Sep 2004 04:35:52 PM PDT