[meteorite-list] NPA 12-07-1927 Homestead Meteorite Article

From: j.divelbiss_at_att.net <j.divelbiss_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat Sep 25 13:49:17 2004
Message-ID: <092520041749.18322.4155AF9A00005E530000479221603763169C9C070D040A90070BD206_at_att.net>

Mark,

thanx for your efforts with finding these articles.

That story and the conjured up images of the Homestead meteorite seems a lot like the experience I wish for every night when I'm out back with the dog. This conscious dream seems to always end up with me having to cover my head from the showering stones...preferably Martian fragments of dunite.

Until tonight,

JD



-------------- Original message from "MARK BOSTICK" : --------------

> Paper: Iowa Recorder
> City: Greene, Iowa
> Date: December 07, 1927
> Page: 2
>
> THE AMANA METEOR
>
> One night in the winter of 1875 a marvelous spectacle appeared in the
> heavens over Iowa. Those who witnessed the phenomenon have never forgotten
> it. The winter, coldest for many years, had been notable for its heavy
> snowfall, moonlight nights, and bracing atmosphere. Temperatures ranging to
> twenty-degrees below zero were not infrequent and frost has penetrated the
> ground to a depth of nearly five feet in some places.
> Between the hours of ten and eleven on the night of Friday, February
> 12, 1875, many people in southeastern Iowa were returning to their homes
> from social engagements and the highways were gay with sleighing parties.
> Suddenly without a moment's warning a bright light and a great ball of fire
> appeared in the southern sky. Shooting across the heavens in a northern
> direction it lighted up the whole earth like a flash of lightning except
> that a reddish and then a greenish tint was imparted to objects. To one
> observer it appeared that "the face of the moon had fallen off and was
> approaching the earth" obliquely. To many the ball of fire appeared pear
> shaped, the larger end foremost. A rumbling roar, like the passing of a
> train over a bridge, and several share detonations followed in the path of
> the ball of fire.
> The passing of the meteor came about so suddenly that even one seemed
> stunned by the spectacle. Those who were near to the line of flight were
> thoroughly frightened. Horses reared and plunged to escape, while dogs went
> howling and braking to places of safety.
> Five sudden explosions seemed to shake the earth to its foundations as
> the meteor burst into pieces a few miles northeast of Marengo. Buildings in
> the neighborhood rattled and the furniture they contained jarred about as if
> shaken by an earthquake. In fact, many believed that an earthquake was in
> progress.
> The meteor was visible as far away as Omaha and Chicago, and from St.
> Paul to St. Louis. The light of the meteor, from first to last, was
> exceedingly brilliant. The moon and stars, according to some observers were
> "blotted from the sky. and the surrounding landscape illuminated as if at
> noonday."
> At once interest centered upon location the spot where the meteor
> struck the earth and the discovery of fragments if possible. The first
> fragment was found by Sarah Sherlock about two miles west of Homestead.
> This meteorite weighed seven pounds and six ounces. Other fragments were
> located in the timber by observing broken twigs and scars where the flying
> particles had struck the trees. During the next spring, the two largest
> fragments recovered were unearthed in a field just south of High Amana. One
> piece weighed seventy-four pounds and the other forty-eight. Both had
> penetrated the frozen ground to a depth of about two feet.
> In the course of two years and half over eight hundred pound of
> meteorite had been observed and distributed all over the world by collectors
> and men of science. Some of the stones were sold to famous European
> museums, though two of the largest specimens and numerous smaller fragments
> are deposited by the Amana Society in the geological collection of the State
> University of Iowa.
> The story of the Amana meteor is told by Ben Hur Wilson in a recent
> number of "The Palimpsest" published by the State Historical Society of Iowa
> at Iowa City.
>
>
> (end)
>
> Mark note: The "Amana" meteorite above is known to us as the Homestead
> meteorite.
>
>
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Received on Sat 25 Sep 2004 01:49:15 PM PDT