[meteorite-list] Re: America's Greatest Meteorite Hunter

From: Matson, Robert <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Nov 2 18:32:51 2006
Message-ID: <A8044CCD89B24B458AE36254DCA2BD0701DFBBC9_at_0005-its-exmp01.us.saic.com>

Hi Ruben,

I think you make very good points about the comparison between
Skip and Harvey being one of "apples and oranges". Both men
made (and in Skip's case continue to make) significant contributions
to meteoritics in their own ways. But Skip personally found every
one of the meteorites credited to him; I don't happen to know how
many of the 222 unique finds directly or indirectly credited to
Nininger were actually *found* by him as cold finds, versus
recognized by him when shown to him by a farmer, etc. But I
would guess that Skip is the ~finder~ of more unique meteorites
than Nininger.

> In my mind, it is possible that Rob Matson, Sonny Clary,
> Bob Verish or another great un-named American meteorite
> hunter could one day find more than 222 unique meteorites
> in America.

I appreciate being named in the same sentence with Bob and
Sonny, but unless I retire some time soon and spend a lot
more time out in the desert, I'm a very long way from having
as many unique meteorite finds as Skip, let alone as Bob,
Nick Gessler and probably Sonny by now! (My count is
somewhere from 35-40 depending on pairings, and excluding
finds like Franconia, Primm and Holbrook.)

Given the international scope of this list, we should reiterate
that these comparisons are strictly among American meteorite
hunters. There are obviously many well-known European
meteorite hunters who surpass all of us (not to mention
all the unknown NWA desert nomads and any multi-season
ANSMET team members).

Cheers,
Rob
Received on Thu 02 Nov 2006 06:32:35 PM PST