[meteorite-list] More on the Lorton... or Lorton hears a Who ?

From: Jeff Kuyken <info_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 30 Jan 2010 17:59:10 +1100
Message-ID: <3B27F81129AD43D4B76FC799CC3BAD1C_at_JeffPC>

If there is some on the nearby military base who owns those pieces? Does
this land fall under the same sort of regulations as other US federally
owned land?

Cheers,

Jeff


----- Original Message -----
From: "Linton Rohr" <lintonius at earthlink.net>
To: "Greg Stanley" <stanleygregr at hotmail.com>
Cc: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 30, 2010 1:15 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] More on the Lorton... or Lorton hears a Who ?


> Thank you, Greg!
> I've been thinking about poor Mrs. Hodges and her landlord all afternoon.
> I wondered when someone would bring up Sylacauga.
> Interesting that neither one of them ended up with the meteorite.
> It's looking like that might be the case with Lorton, as well.
> Hopefully other stones are found.
> Linton
>
> back to packing for Tucson now...
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Greg Stanley" <stanleygregr at hotmail.com>
> To: <magellon.ken at gmail.com>; <cdtucson at cox.net>
> Cc: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Friday, January 29, 2010 5:15 PM
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] More on the Lorton... or Lorton hears a Who
> ?
>
>
>>
>> Strangely familiar:
>>
>> I think if you get 'hit' by a meteorite, then it is yours, regardless of
>> where it falls.
>>
>> Greg S.
>>
>> http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1280
>>
>>
>> Hodges Meteorite Strike (Sylacauga Aerolite)
>>
>>
>>
>> On November 30, 1954, a meteorite crashed through the roof of a home in
>> Sylacauga, Talladega County, striking resident Ann E. Hodges (1923-1972).
>> She was the first person ever to have been injured by a meteorite, and
>> the event caused a nationwide media sensation and a year-long legal
>> battle. The meteorite, which weighs about eight and one-half pounds, is
>> on permanent display at the Alabama Museum of Natural History at the
>> University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
>>
>> Hodges was napping on her living-room couch at mid-day when the meteorite
>> came through the ceiling, hit a console radio, and smashed into her hip.
>> Awakened by the pain and noise, she thought the gas space heater had
>> exploded. When she noticed a grapefruit-sized rock lying on the floor and
>> a ragged hole in the roof, she assumed children were the culprits. Her
>> mother, Ida Franklin, rushed outside and saw only a black cloud in the
>> sky. Alabamians in and around the area saw the event from a different
>> perspective, with many reporting that they had seen a fireball in the sky
>> and heard a tremendous explosion that produced a white or brownish cloud.
>> Most assumed it involved an airplane accident.
>>
>> A meteorite crashed through the roof of the Hodges Meteorite
>> StrikeSylacauga Chief of Police W. D. Ashcraft and Sylacauga mayor Ed
>> Howard responded to the call from the Hodges's residence. They had Ann
>> Hodges examined by physician Moody Jacobs, who determined that although
>> her hip and hand were swollen and painful, there was no serious damage.
>> (He later checked her into the hospital for several days to spare her
>> from all the excitement.) Ashcraft and Howard showed the rock to
>> geologist George Swindel, who was conducting fieldwork in the area. He
>> tentatively identified the object as a meteorite. That evening they
>> turned the meteorite over to officers from Maxwell Field, Montgomery, who
>> took it to Air Force intelligence authorities for analysis. Air Force
>> specialists identified it as a meteorite and sent it to curators at the
>> Smithsonian Institution, who, delighted with their windfall, declined to
>> send it back to Alabama. Not until Alabama Congressman Kenneth Roberts
>> intervened
>> was the meteorite finally returned to the state, where it soon became
>> the focus of a highly public legal battle.
>>
>> By nightfall some 200 reporters and sightseers filled the Hodges's yard,
>> and Ann's husband, Hewlett, arriving home late, was upset by the crowd.
>> Television, radio and newspaper excitement lasted for weeks, highlighted
>> by a very public dispute between the Hodges and Birdie Guy, from whom the
>> Hodges rented their home. Facing repair expenses for the damaged house,
>> Guy was advised by her attorney that legal precedent had established that
>> meteorites were the property of the landowner, and she sued for
>> possession of the rock. The Hodges threatened to counter-sue for Ann's
>> injuries, and the outraged public sided with her. Before it went to
>> trial, cooler heads prevailed and after a modest private settlement, Guy
>> gave up her claim on the meteorite to the Hodges.
>>
>> Ann Hodges was barraged by publicity and appeared in Life magazine
>> displaying a sizable bruise on her hip. She was persuaded to go to New
>> York to appear on Gary Moore's TV quiz show I've Got a Secret. Her life
>> story appeared in the Sunday magazine supplement of many Rosa Hall of the
>> Alabama Museum of Natural Hodges Meteoritenewspapers and in national
>> magazines. Hewlett Hodges believed that the couple stood to make a
>> fortune from the incident. He refused what he considered an inadequate
>> offer for the meteorite from the Smithsonian Institution, claiming he had
>> received other offers as high as $5,500. In the end, Ann Hodges, not
>> knowing how to bargain with the media, earned at most only a few hundred
>> dollars from the incident that had made her famous. By 1956, the bad
>> publicity surrounding the lawsuit ended the monetary offers, and she
>> donated the meteorite to the Alabama Museum of Natural History.
>>
>> Ann Hodges's physical injuries healed, but she was never able to recover
>> emotionally from her brush with celebrity. She and Hewlett separated in
>> 1964. They both agreed that the emotional impact and disruption caused by
>> the meteorite were contributing factors and said they wished it had never
>> happened. Ann Hodges's health declined and in 1972, after some years as
>> an invalid, she died. She is buried in the cemetery behind Charity
>> Baptist Church in Hazel Green in Madison County.
>>
>> Probably the only major figure in the entire Sylacauga meteorite story to
>> claim a satisfactory ending was Julius K. McKinney, a farmer who lived
>> near the Hodges. On December 1, 1954, the day after Ann Hodges was
>> struck, he discovered a second fragment of the meteorite in the middle of
>> a dirt road. McKinney was able to sell his rock to the Smithsonian for
>> enough to purchase a small farm and a used car. This fragment is on
>> display at the Smithsonian Institution, but the label strangely does not
>> acknowledge its more famous Alabama sibling.
>>
>> John C. Hall
>> University of West Alabama
>>
>>
>> ----------------------------------------
>>> Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:03:29 -0500
>>> From: magellon.ken at gmail.com
>>> To: cdtucson at cox.net
>>> CC: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
>>> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] More on the Lorton... or Lorton hears a
>>> Who ?
>>>
>>> Do you think the landowners would be so anxious to claim it, had the
>>> meteorite struck a patient?
>>> Just thinking,
>>> Ken
>>>
>>> On Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 9:30 AM, wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Possession isn't nine-tenths of the law. It's nine-tenths of the
>>>> problem.
>>>> John Lennon
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Carl or Debbie Esparza
>>>> Meteoritemax
>>>>
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Received on Sat 30 Jan 2010 01:59:10 AM PST