[meteorite-list] Find spot-Fall spot-Google Earth-Mystery-Questions

From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Jun 28 01:31:23 2006
Message-ID: <003d01c69a74$1297cd20$4e704b44_at_ATARIENGINE>

Hi, Walter, List


    The Catalog gives the find location as "Apex Gulch."
It goes on, "A single, crusted mass weighing 6.1g was
found during the excavation of an ancient Indian camping
site in the foothills west of Denver, five miles N of Morrison.
This site subsequently became known as the Magic
Mountain site." Though found in September of 1938,
it was not noticed that it was a meteorite until 1983.
Sharp-eyed guys, those anthropolgists... It's in the
Denver Museum.
    There is definitely something spooky about visiting an
old one-stone fall site. I live very near (eight miles) from
Benld, Illinois, where on the nicely coincident date of
Sept. 29, 1938, the 1770.5 grams of the BENLD
(H6) meteorite smashed through a garage roof, a car
roof, its back seat, floorboards, and ended up, intact,
sitting on the cracked concrete floor of the garage.
    It was the first recorded meteorite to hit a car, even
if the rock from the heavens did have to chase it into
the garage and nail it there! Good way to "break into
the Biz," though; it's now a star resident of the Field
Museum.
    I been to the old town newspaper in Benld, read
the article on the now yellowed front page of the next
morning's newspaper, and tried to find the address of
the house where it fell. I was only able to laboriously
pin it down to a 2-3 block square, still...
    I stood there on a hot summer afternoon and looked
at all those small neat plots of grass surrounding the
little 1920-30's 4- or 5-room bungalow houses. With all
the fuss of having your car perforated by a meteorite --
it must have created a furor among the neighbors -- do
you suppose anybody thought to look any OTHER
stones?
    I thought about an H6 going fast enough to puncture
roofs (garage and car). Why, if it hit grass and dirt, it
would be a foot deep or more (depending on how wet
or dry the soil). I wondered how much these folks would
mind a sort of neighbor (only eight miles away) going over
their yards with a metal detector? Hmm...
    Reality always has its little tricks up its sleeve. When
I struck up a conversation with the oldest still cognitive
resident I could find, I discovered that the New South
Subdivision, as it was called, had been built on a gulch
filled with the bulldozed remains of a burned-out and
bankrupt IRONWORKS!
    "Why," he said, "you can't even put in a garden, your
spade hits so much iron and brick and glass! No, this dirt
is no good for anything but grass. And it's even hard to get
grass to grow..." So, if there are kilos more of the famous
BENLD, they have chosen a really good hiding spot to
rust away in.
    It's not clear from the Catalog whether the sneaky little
APEX was found in a "cultural context," or just discovered
in the course of the dig.


Sterling K. Webb
---------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Walter L. Newton" <newtonw2_at_comcast.net>
To: <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 27, 2006 11:41 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Find spot-Fall spot-Google Earth-Mystery-Questions


> Hi all
>
> Walter the Newbie here again.
>
> The other night, I was looking over the Meteoritical Bulletin Database for
> meteorites discovered in Colorado (I live in Golden, Co. which is west of
> Denver right in the foothills of the Rockies).
>
> I was looking over the Colorado list that I pulled up from the database
> and
> I saw a listing for the APEX find (6.1 grams, Type L6, found 1938). I had
> never heard of a place named APEX. I clicked on the "globe" which was part
> of the legend, and "wow," my Google Earth booted up, and a bookmark for
> APEX
> Colorado was placed in the Google Earth place list and then Google Earth
> took me to the location. I didn't know it could do that.
>
> My second surprise. The APEX location was about 5 miles from my apartment.
> It was just up my street, off a dirt road that meandered through the
> foothills just northwest of my place.
>
> A mystery. I Goggled the web to find out something about Apex Colorado.
> Apex
> Colorado was a town developed during the Colorado gold boom. It is now one
> of Colorado's surviving ghost towns. The mystery for me is this. The
> actual
> physical location of Apex is about 15 miles directly west of the find spot
> above my apartment location, into the Rocky Mountains.
>
> Why would the find be named after a town 15 miles away when the find is a
> (excuse the pun), a rocks throw from my town of Golden? And there are many
> other places nearby that could have been used to name the find.
>
> Another mystery. This Apex find behind my location was only one small 6.1
> gram stone. Why only one very small stone. Where are the others?
>
> Further investigation into this spot near my apartment was interesting.
> This
> spot was, at one time, a plains Indian encampment. Archeological studies
> have been done of this site. The Indians called this spot Magic Mountain
> (getting creepy now). The locals whites called it APEX GULCH. How come the
> name of the find is not Apex Gulch or Magic Mountain, instead of just
> plain
> Apex?
>
> I surmised that the meteorite found here probably came from the medicine
> bag
> of one of these Indians who lived at the site.
>
> Can a find spot only indicate that a meteorite was found at that spot,
> even
> though a fall never happened there?
>
> If I'm tramping around the foothills and my meteorite pocket piece falls
> out
> of my pocket and 50 years from now someone finds it, would it be possible
> that that piece could be give a name for the find?
>
> This find spot is now all private property, but I wonder. Just one stone,
> or
> is there more up there waiting to be found.
>
> And one afterthought. If you all go rushing up there, someone stop at my
> apartment and pick me up, I'd like to get to meet you all.
>
> Walter L. Newton
> 1400 Utah Street #101
> Golden, Co 80401
>
> Home 303-279-3046
> Cell 303-906-9653
>
>
>
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>
Received on Wed 28 Jun 2006 01:31:13 AM PDT