[meteorite-list] article on search for a missing meteorite

From: Darren Garrison <cynapse_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Jan 19 20:37:00 2006
Message-ID: <dtf0t19snkevem35itprnsqevrnvs9g99u_at_4ax.com>

Someone anonymous e-mailed me this link tonight through the "e-mail this story" link at the bottom.
I have no idea who it was, or if it has been passed along to other list members, but here it is:



http://www.mainstreetnewspapers.com/articles/2006/01/19/fincastle/news/news05.txt

Seen an unusual black rock lying on a stone wall lately?
By ANITA J. FIREBAUGH

 
 
Somewhere in Botetourt or Craig County there may be a really big meteorite lying on a rock wall-at
least that's where it was left according to the last documentation about its location 125 years ago.

Found in Botetourt County in 1850, this hunk of metal/rock from space is missing, and specimens of
the meteorite are difficult to locate.

 
Botetourt County is a large area to cover, and in 1850 it was even bigger, because at the time it
also encompassed what is now Craig County. So the meteorite could be anywhere in this area of
Southwest Virginia.

Wherever it is, at least one meteorite hunter wants to find it.

Rick Yarrow of Florida contacted The Fincastle Herald recently to ask if anyone knew the meteorite's
location. He said he was an amateur meteorite hunter and wanted to find what he called the Botetourt
County meteorite.

The meteorite is listed in a book, Catalogue of Meteorites, and noted in other official lists of
named and recorded meteorite finds. Very small specimens are supposed to be at Arizona State
University, the United States Natural Museum (USNM or the Smithsonian), and in Calcutta and Vienna,
but the Botetourt meteorite itself apparently was very large.

 
 
The USNM could not locate its specimen, and Linda Welxenbach, USNM collection manager for the
division of meteorites, was unsure if it ever was in the collection.

?We have pictures of the crystal structure of the meteorite but on the back it says the specimen is
in Vienna,? she said.

Her documentation on the meteorite shows the fragments were once part of a mineral collection
bequeathed to the Smithsonian by C. U. Shepard, a 19th century professor at Amherst College in
Massachusetts and noted mineral collector.

In his papers, Shepard lists the Botetourt County, Virginia meteorite. In 1866, he wrote:

?This iron was discovered more than fifteen years ago in a mass so ponderous that the finder, having
attempted to transport it on horseback a number of miles to his house, was obliged to abandon the
undertaking. He left it upon a stone wall by the road-side, after having (with the assistance of a
negro who happened at the time to be passing with a hammer) detached two or three small angular
fragments.?

Shepard wrote that the finder gave the fragments to N. S. Manross, another Amherst College
professor, who took them to Gottingen, Germany, for analysis. The fragments were determined to have
a very unusual presence of nickel. Manross eventually gave one of the fragments and the information
about its acquisition to Shepard. Shepard acquired all of the fragments after Manross died.

Shepard described the fragments as ?whiter than most irons ? fine granular like cast-steel.?

Welxenbach said upon further study it appears the Botetourt County meteorite is similar to a
20-pound meteorite called Babb's Mill, found in 1842 in Greene County, Tenn. and theorized the rocks
may be from the same meteor or could even be the same meteorite.

It is not unusual for meteorites to be found from the same fall, as such an event is called, said
John Goss, Botetourt County's master astronomer. Goss said a large meteor falling from the sky can
break apart. A matter of seconds can separate the rock masses over hundreds of miles. ?They do
spread out over the ground and could go over many miles,? Goss said.

Meteorite study was well under way in 1850, so a knowledgeable person could have realized the rock
was significant and sought out a scientist, Goss said. Mineral testing was available back then.

Yarrow, the meteor hunter, said the rock, if the size is as significant as suggested by the
notations of requiring a horse to move it, could bring a pretty penny if the owner is inclined to
sell it.

Goss said the documentation implies the meteorite weighed several hundred pounds. He said one
indication of a meteorite is an ?out of place rock. If you're in an area with primarily sandy soil
and then there's a 400-pound iron rock, how did it get there? It must have fallen from the sky,?
Goss said.

Yarrow said the meteorite's iron content makes it a unique meteorite. He believes the meteorite
would be black and pitted.

?It's going to be such an unusual stone, it'll stick out like a sore thumb,? Yarrow said.

Online, meteorite fragments range in price from less than $100 to $30,000 for a sliver, depending on
the meteorite and its characteristics.

Yarrow said he collects meteorites for fun, but others earn their living hunting for such stones.
Meteorite hunters have a varied reputation, depending on point of view. Goss called them ?Indiana
Jones? types who seek meteorites instead of treasure.

Welxenbach said meteor hunters can unwittingly impede the scientific process and noted that
meteorite finds should be named and classified by an international committee that makes meteoric
material available for research.

Museums and scientists often don't have the cash needed to buy a meteorite once a meteorite hunter
has acquired it, she said. ?They can go out and snatch this stuff up and then the price skyrockets,?
she added.

The Botetourt County meteorite has apparently been named and classified but the majority of the
meteorite has been lost. The Herald unearthed a report of a meteorite in private hands in the Nace
area of Botetourt, but it allegedly fell during the 20th century. The owner declined comment.

Goss and Welxenbach said meteorites on your property belong to you. ?Don't let anybody talk you out
of it,? Welxenbach said.
Received on Thu 19 Jan 2006 08:44:00 PM PST