[meteorite-list] Meteorite Finding Dog in West Texas

From: Frank Cressy <fcressy_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2009 17:42:30 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <592799.4776.qm_at_web80204.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

Hi Rubin and all,

One hundred and fifty years ago, a stone fell in Bethlehem, New York on August 11 that also involved a meteorite finding dog, apparently not as well trained as the West, Texas dog. C.U. Shepard wrote:

     ?Mr. Vanderpool was at work near his house, and heard the explosion in common with other members of his family. About two minutes after, as it appeared to him, a stone, coming in an oblique course, struck the side
of a wagon house, glanced off, hit a log upon the ground, bounded again, and rolled into the grass. A dog lying in the doorway of the wagon house sprang up, darted out and seized it, but dropped it immediately, probably on account of its warmth and sulphurous small.?

And of course there's the story about the dog that found the Lost City meteorite in January, 1970. Must have been too heavy to carry so he just "marked it", probably so he could find it again. ;-)

Cheers,

Frank


--- On Sat, 2/21/09, Ruben Garcia <meteoritemall at yahoo.com> wrote:

From: Ruben Garcia <meteoritemall at yahoo.com>
Subject: [meteorite-list] Meteorite Finding Dog in West Texas
To: Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com, mexicodoug at aim.com, meteorobs at meteorobs.org, ensoramanda at ntlworld.com
Date: Saturday, February 21, 2009, 5:08 PM

There is indeed a meteorite finding dog!

Here's the story. On Friday Sonny, Steve Arnold and I drove into the strewn
field bright and early and immediately started knocking on doors to try to gain
permission to hunt. Upon walking up to a particular house Sonny spotted a
meteorite on the porch (about 70-90 grams) he picked it up, and laid it back
down. "Ruben, did you see that fully crusted meteorite on the porch?"
He Said. I couldn't believe it. He was right! Right there on the porch but
no one was home...what to do? Since Sonny assured me that he wasn't going to
buy meteorites when he could find them I decided to track down the owner and try
to buy the specimen.

I got the owners work phone number from a neighbor and called. After
introducing myself and explaining what I was in town for, I told the owner that
there was a meteorite on their porch. "What, you mean that black rock that
the dog brought up and dropped on the porch?" "Yes, that one" I
said.

Needless to say, I drove down and did a nice video interview with the owner
holding the space rock and recalling the tale.


Ruben Garcia
Phoenix, Arizona
Website: http://www.Mr-Meteorite.Net
Articles: http://www.meteorite.com/blog/
Videos: http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=meteorfright&p=v


--- On Sat, 2/21/09, ensoramanda at ntlworld.com <ensoramanda at ntlworld.com>
wrote:

> From: ensoramanda at ntlworld.com <ensoramanda at ntlworld.com>
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] West, Texas meteorite finds
> To: Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com, mexicodoug at aim.com,
meteorobs at meteorobs.org
> Date: Saturday, February 21, 2009, 4:18 AM
> Quick...make an offer for the dog!
>
> Thanks for the interesting update/report.
>
> Graham Ensor UK
>
> ---- mexicodoug at aim.com wrote:
> > Hello from Sunny Texas, under clear and starry-eyed
> skies at the moment,
> >
> > A few stones were found right at the time of the fall,
> however, they
> > were not definitively identified as meteorites -
> though that was the
> > suspicion and they were saved.
> >
> > We (Doug Dawn, Dmitry Sadilenko, Sergey Petukov) drove
> across the
> > country and estimated the location of the strewn field
> within 48 hours
> > of the event. With a bit of tenacity, scarcely four
> hours after the
> > second day, thanks to the help of some Texas-sized
> hospitality, we
> > arrived in the strewn field and found our first couple
> of stones and I
> > had the distinct pleasure of shaking the finders hand
> and removing any
> > lingering doubts in his mind that he had meteorites
> fresh from Heaven's
> > farm.
> >
> > After the initial success, my good friend and
> asteroidhunter, Rob
> > Matson of Los Angeles, joined up with the team. We
> have found some
> > stones, but more are being found by others, and we
> really expect larger
> > masses to be found, though hard work in the field
> definitely gets you
> > wondering if just because such a meteoritical
> spectacle drops one
> > stone, should it drop the thousands we keep expecting
> to see? The TKW
> > is rapidly evolving, but the area is being hit quite
> hard by hunters
> > already. This doesn't seem to be a dense fall, and
> some areas are very
> > easy to search, though bramble in other areas
> effectively keeps those
> > off limits. All land is private and most families keep
> their gun
> > collections well oiled. In our case, the big-hearts of
> the landowners
> > have humbled easily as much as the witness reports of
> the bolide's
> > fragmenting itself. This is at odds with some other
> reports, only
> > because residents of the area treasure their privacy
> and were
> > completely overwhelmed by the wave of treasure hunters
> that descended.
> > We almost lost our permission to hunt when they
> believed that we were
> > somehow responsible for several meteorite hunters
> showing up with a
> > news crews. Besides being quite busy, I promised to
> respect the
> > anonymity of our hosts as a condition of our search,
> and this evening
> > we reaped the benefits of a delicious home-cooked
> dinner prepared by
> > the caring hands of our hosts at their dinner table.
> There is a great
> > Texas steakhouse on I-35 which adds to the flavor for
> anyone wanting to
> > experience Texas culture, cowboys and pretty cowgirls
> from West, TX.
> >
> > It has been an incredible last few days, which started
> by being the
> > first to walk in a virgin strewn field, though my
> mother had some
> > problems (she seems better now) that have somewhat
> muted what will
> > undoubtedly be some of the most memorable moments of
> my life. It is way
> > past bedtime and I will post more tomorrow. The
> meteorite itself is
> > moderately to highly shocked and has a very bright,
> light, interior and
> > veins of troilite and nodules of metal, and the
> majority of stones
> > found are fully fusion crusted. More on the
> classification on Saturday.
> > We certainly were not in a mass-laden portion of the
> strewn field,
> > other hunters please take note; more likely just a
> place where a minor
> > fragmentation impacted. In any case, we are committed
> to getting the
> > science done so everyone else can rest assured that we
> have already
> > gladly provided the mass requirements necessary for
> this honor.
> >
> > All in all, a very humbling experience for many
> reasons. To pick up a
> > piece of a falling star and I thought, detect a faint
> sulfurous odor.
> > It seems a dog even caught the scent of a meteorite
> and laid it down on
> > the owners porch!
> >
> > Best wishes and clear skies
> > Doug
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Pat Branch <pat_branch at yahoo.com>
> > To: drtanuki at yahoo.com; Global Meteor Observing Forum
> > <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
> > Sent: Fri, 20 Feb 2009 9:28 am
> > Subject: Re: (meteorobs) West, Texas meteorite finds
> >
> >
> > The University of North Texas Astronomers have found 4
> so far. I saw a
> > video clip of them. The biggest is about 3 times the
> others...just
> > about palm sized.
> >
> > I think that is 4 for Farmer and 4 for UNT. I have not
> heard of other
> > teams finding anything.
> >
> >
> > --- In meteorobs at yahoogroups.com, drtanuki
> <drtanuki at ...> wrote:
> > >
> > > Dear List,
> > > Here are the latest reports from the West, Texas
> fall.
> > >
> > > http://lunarmeteoritehunters.blogspot.com/
> > >
> > > Best Regards, Dirk Ross...Tokyo
> > > _______________________________________________
> > ______________________________________________
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> >
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Received on Sat 21 Feb 2009 08:42:30 PM PST