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

From: sterling_k_webb_at_sbcglobal.net <sterling_k_webb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Jan 20 01:42:44 2006
Message-ID: <006001c61d8c$b4c45330$a17e4b44_at_ATARIENGINE>

Dave,

    I don't think anyone can be one of those
"Indiana Jones" types unless they have one
of those hats, and, oh yeah, a bullwhip...


Sterling
------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "dfreeman" <dfreeman_at_fascination.com>
To: "Michael Farmer" <meteoritehunter_at_comcast.net>
Cc: <Meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2006 9:06 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] article on search for a missing meteorite


> Dear Mike, List;
> Let's all be sure that we don't let any of those "indiana jones" types try
> and talk us our of our meteorites, after all, they belong to us!!!!!
> Dave F.
>
> Michael Farmer wrote:
>
>> This guy seems to have a 100 different scams, meteorite investments for
>> people to give him money to hunt meteorites.
>> Mike Farmer
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gary K. Foote" <gary_at_webbers.com>
>> To: <Meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
>> Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2006 6:54 PM
>> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] article on search for a missing meteorite
>>
>>
>> I got a copy of this in my private email this morning. Thought it odd and
>> deleted it.
>> Then this report that you got one too, and now one directly to the list.
>> Someone is
>> working hard to raise interest in a 'maybeorite' in hopes of what I can't
>> imagine.
>> Unless they already have found it and are trying to raise the legend
>> factor for more $$$.
>>
>> Gary
>> http://www.meteorite-dealers.com
>>
>> On 19 Jan 2006 at 20:44, Darren Garrison wrote:
>>
>>> 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.
>>>
>>> �?oWe 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:
>>>
>>> �?oThis 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 �?owhiter 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. �?oThey 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 �?oout 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.
>>>
>>> �?oIt'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 �?oIndiana 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. �?oThey 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.
>>> �?oDon't let anybody
>>> talk you out of it,�?� Welxenbach said.
>>> ______________________________________________
>>> Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com
>>> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
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Received on Fri 20 Jan 2006 01:42:38 AM PST