[meteorite-list] Apex - Colorado - possible MB correction

From: Walter L. Newton <newtonw2_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat Jul 1 13:32:19 2006
Message-ID: <000501c69d34$410896e0$6ad70818_at_walter>

I have been looking at the Apex Colorado meteorite find in the MD databse
and I believe the coordinates, as listed, are wrong.


I sent the following information to Jeff Grossman. I thought the group
would be interested in this...


Jeff

I am investigating a Colorado meteorite find from 1938. According to the
Meteoritical Bulletin database, this find was named APEX and the 6.1 gram
rock was placed in the collection of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science
(this is the current name of the museum). It was not recognized as a
meteorite until 1983. I don't know if it was placed in the museum collection
before 1983 or after.

My problem is this. The Bulletin describes the find location as 39o,45' N
and 105o,12' W. The Google Earth application shows this location as being on
the a mesa top that runs along the north-northeast side of Golden, Colorado.

Yet the text in the Bulletin describes the location as " Found by Robert
Akerley during his investigation of an ancient Indian camping site in the
foothills west of Denver. This site subsequently became known as the Magic
Mountain site. The specimen is now in the Denver Museum of Natural History.
Source: J. Murphy, Denver Museum of Natural History, City Park, Denver,
Colorado 80205, USA."

This site as mentioned above was a Plains Indian archeological site on the
south side of Golden, Colorado, about 4-5 miles from the find site mentioned
in the MB database. Between 1957/59, the second theme park in the USA
(Disney being the first) was built on some of this site. The park was called
"Magic Mountain."

As the park was being built, research was being done on the site (1958/59)
in hopes of gaining as much information about the site before most of it
became unavailable. When the amusement park was finished, 2/3's of the site
laid beneath the upper parking lot of the amusement park. The remaining
accessible part of the site was named Apex Park and in 1997/98, a final
study was done of the site. After that the site was filled in for
preservation purposes.

Apex Park is part of the Jefferson County Open Space system. The park acts
as a trailhead for a number of hiking/biking trails into the foothills.

Magic Mountain was not a successful amusement park and closed in the early
60's. Currently the amusement park is called Heritage Square, and all that
remains of Magic Mountain are the Victorian styled buildings and a few
rides. The buildings are used as shops and it also houses a live theatre.

According to the text of the Bulletin, the find site should be somewhere
with in existing Apex Park.

I suggest that the coordinates for the find should be 39o 42' 56.37'' North
105o 12' 41.45''.

Even though we don't know the exact find spot, these coordinates would place
the find in the center of the current Apex Park site and not 4-5 miles north
of the find spot.

I hope this can be of help.

Walter L. Newton
1400 Utah Street #101
Golden, Co 80401

Home 303-279-3046
Cell 303-906-9653
 
Received on Sat 01 Jul 2006 01:31:57 PM PDT