[meteorite-list] Bill Dale's Grave Found, Willamette Meteorite Co-Discoverer

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2007 17:20:42 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <200710270020.RAA12771_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.bakercityherald.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=5456

Scientist's hunch strikes gold
By LISA BRITTON
Baker City Herald (Oregon)
October 25, 2007

Dick Pugh was just passing time as he thumbed through the annual
"Memorial Tribute" that lists Baker City's deceased back to 1887, and is
published every Memorial Day.

He looked for his own last name, but no long-lost relatives were listed.

Then he scanned for another name.

"I got to thinking about Bill Dale. And there he was," Pugh said.

Pugh is a field scientist with the Cascadia Meteorite Laboratory at
Portland State University, and he was in Baker City on Memorial Day for
a speaking tour about meteorites at county libraries.

Pugh's interest in Bill Dale is this: Dale was in on Ellis Hughes'
discovery of the Willamette meteorite in 1902. At 15fi tons, the iron
meteorite is the largest in the United States.

But no one knew, until Pugh picked up that memorial tribute, where Dale
went after the discovery.

"Nobody's known where Bill Dale's been since 1903," Pugh said. "The only
clue we had was he was a miner. Baker's mining country."

After he found Dale's name, Pugh headed to the Baker City Herald office,
which had published the tribute. From there he was sent to Gray's West &
Co. Pioneer Chapel, where the staff gave him a copy of Dale's obituary.
Then Pugh headed to Mount Hope Cemetery and staff there helped him
locate Dale's grave. There is no headstone.

"To find Bill Dale after 104 years, at least for the Willamette
meteorite nuts, is pretty important," Pugh said. "It was just serendipity."

Now, about that meteorite.

Hughes and Dale discovered it on land owned by the Oregon Iron and Steel
Company in what is now West Linn.

The two decided they should buy the land where the meteorite sat, so
Dale allegedly took off to sell his property in Baker County.

He never returned.

Apparently, he came to Baker County. According to a 1932 newspaper
clipping about his death, Dale had discovered $32,000 worth of gold on
the Virtue property. He owned several mining claims in Washington Gulch,
which is where he died Aug. 3, 1932.

Dale also, the news story notes, owned farm property in Oregon City.

But back to West Linn in 1902. The steel company wouldn't sell, so
Hughes stole the meteorite using "horse, windlass and steel cable," Pugh
said.

In 1905 Oregon Iron and Steel filed a suit for the return of the
meteorite and won. The massive hunk of iron was later sold and has been
at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City since 1906.
(A 30-pound chunk of the meteorite will be auctioned Sunday by Bonham's
auction house in New York. Its estimated value is around $1.3 million.)

Now that Dale's whereabouts are known, Pugh is hoping to gather enough
funds between Clackamas and Baker counties to purchase a headstone for
Dale's grave.

Pugh will be in Baker City on Friday to speak during "A Starry Night
with LEO," a gathering for those associated with Libraries of Eastern
Oregon. Lawson Fusao Inada, Oregon Poet Laureate 2006-08, will also speak.

The event starts at 5:30 p.m. at Mad Matilda's, 1917 Main St. Seating is
limited, but there is still time to RSVP by calling Susan Brown at
541-442-5123, or e-mailing gsbrown at saw.net.
Received on Fri 26 Oct 2007 08:20:42 PM PDT