[meteorite-list] NPA 07-11-1933 Cherokee Springs Meteorite Fall

From: MARK BOSTICK <thebigcollector_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun Jul 17 11:24:52 2005
Message-ID: <BAY104-F136ED2B255256500FA29ECB3D20_at_phx.gbl>

Paper: The Landmark
City: Statesville, North Carolina
Date: Tuesday, July 11, 1933
Page: 6 (of 8)

METEORITE FROM SPACE
Falls Near Methodist Church at Cherokee Springs, Saturday.

     Spartanburg, S.C. - A meteorite weighing over 13 pounds and about four
by four by six inches in size came out of interstellar space, burned a path
through the foliage of trees and sank into the ground over two feet, within
40 feet of Cherokee Springs Methodist church, six miles north of
Spartanburg, Saturday morning at 9:42 o'clock.
     It was dug out of the ground by J. A. Swofford and Mr. Mayfield,
proprietor of the general store of the village, but was too hot to handle
for hours afterward. It cut off small limbs of trees where it fell and
carried them into the earth with it, and below the surface cut off cleanly a
tree root an inch in diameter.
     The arrival of the visitor from the ether was heard by everybody in
that section, and all described it as the sound of an airplane about to
land. A good description of the landing of the meteorite is that of Robert
Johnson who was cleaning off the graveyard at the church. The meteorite
missed hitting him about 300 feet, and he had a box seat to view it.
     "I heard the noise and thought it was an airplane speeding down to
land," he said. "I looked skyward and saw it about 200 feet in the air. A
faint stream of blue smoke streamed behind it. In the twinkling of an eye
it passed from my vision and in a second - it seemed - I heard it in the
trees at the rear of the church."
     C. B. Whitesides, tenant on the Will Morris farm in the Flatwoods
section, was on his way to the Mayfield store to market chickens, when the
meteorite struck.
     "I heard it - there were four cracks, which sounded like a blast, then
I heard the swish - I thought it was an airplane coming down - I looked up
and all around, but could see no airplane. I was about one and one-half
mils from the store at the time," he recounted.
     Mr. Mayfield and Mr. Swofford, who were close to the spot where the
meteorite struck when it landed, said they heard the whirr of what they
thought was a plane. They looked skyward, then there was a crash in the
church grove a shot distance away.
     "I heard the thump as it hit the ground,' said Mr. Hayfield.
     "We went at once to the spot where it landed, the leaves from the
fluttering down showed us the spot," said Mr. Swofford.
     "We found the rock in the ground and saw the hole," recounted Mr.
Mayfield.
     Since meteors generally travel in swarms, others fell in different
parts of Spartanburg county at the same time.
     One, reported over the week-end, hit the earth in the corner of the
barn-yard of Fletcher Cash, near the Buck Creek church, about four miles
from Cherokee Springs, at the same time that one fell in the Cherokee
Springs churchyard. This one was about half as large as the Cherokee
Springs one, weighs about six pounds and is about three by three by six
inches in size, and of similar appearance and composition to the first one
reported.
     Cash says the meteorite passed through the atmosphere with a hissing
and crackling noise and went only 15 feet over the head of Mrs. Cash who
thought it was an airplane.
     It hit the earth at a small angle and plowed a furrow in the ground a
foot deep, them seeming to bounce out, rolling several feet more, before it
stopped on the surface.

(end)

Clear Skies,
Mark Bostick
Wichita, Kansas
http://www.meteoritearticles.com
http://www.kansasmeteoritesociety.com
http://www.imca.cc

http://stores.ebay.com/meteoritearticles

PDF copy of this article, and most I post (and about 1/2 of those on my
website), is available upon e-mail request.

The NPA in the subject line, stands for Newspaper Article. The old list
server allowed us a search feature the current does not, so I guess this is
more for quick reference and shortening the subject line now.
Received on Sun 17 Jul 2005 11:24:49 AM PDT