[meteorite-list] Minnesota Meteorite "Found" again after years in the Garage

From: E. L. Jones <jonee_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Mar 21 13:24:58 2005
Message-ID: <423A58A0.7040302_at_epix.net>

  Carpenter unearths meteorite on the job


*Rock is one of the largest found in Minnesota*

*BY BOB SHAW*

*Pioneer Press*

When Al Stegora first saw his piece of the sky, he wasn't sure what it was.

He was digging a sewer line at a home in Champlin in the 1970s and was
just finishing up the work with a backhoe. He noticed a corner of an odd
rock poking up from the dirt.

It turned out to be a meteorite of great value to researchers like
University of Minnesota physicist Bob Pepin.

Pepin said the tale of Stegora's meteorite, dubbed the Anoka II, is an
example of how sharp-eyed citizens can help understand outer space by
just paying attention to what drops in.

About 20 years after he found it, Stegora sold Anoka II for $38,000. A
consortium of museums and universities including the University of
Minnesota bought it, and a slice of the basketball-size rock now sits in
a case not far from Pepin's office.

Stegora was a carpenter in Champlin when he found the meteorite. It
seemed to him that his backhoe had unearthed a melted hunk of metal. It
was 129 pounds of iron, nickel and carbon.

He could barely lift it. "I couldn't imagine even an old engine block
buried that deep," said Stegora.

He broke four hacksaw blades cutting into the thing. He finally removed
a piece the size of a quarter and lugged the meteorite into the garage.
"Then I forgot about it for a while," he said.

Stegora had moved to Coon Rapids in 1998, when a friend suggested he ask
Pepin to drive to Anoka County to check out the chunk of metal. It
turned out to be one of the largest meteorites ever found in the state,
Pepin said.

Today Stegora has a piece of the Anoka II about the size of a small
pancake. He plans to make it into three rings for his children. "The
only problem with that is they will rust," he said.
Received on Thu 17 Mar 2005 11:27:12 PM PST