[meteorite-list] Twice Blessed Yankee Lobsterman

From: David Gunning <davidgunning_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 1 Oct 2010 16:48:54 -0400 (EDT)
Message-ID: <1540.69.50.53.154.1285966134.squirrel_at_webmail.fairpoint.net>

Hi Martin,

Nice hearing from you.

Thanks for the link to Herb Adams piece. I wonder if he is the same Herb
Adams who is also a political player here in Maine. And, yes, I was
aware of Herb Adams' writing, but as I only became aware of it recently,
for the first time, it's simply not possible that it was the original
source of my possible mis-information source on the Round Pond
meteorites. No, I still think it was a Maine Geological Survey web site
that originally turned me on to the possible mis-information, if that's
what it was.

One possibility is that the particular website was taken down by the
Maine Geological Survey. Here's one possibility why:

This past summer I did some preliminary field work on the issue by taking
a drive over to Round Pond for a look see and talking to some of the
locals. Visiting the scene of the crime, so to speak, and asking some of
the locals their collective albeit dim recollections of the incidents, if
any were to be had. One local fisherman couldn't say, as he indicated he
was only four years old at the time in 1953, and, hence, may have been
too young at the time to remember. And, then, in 1969 he was off
fighting a war in Vietnam, and not in the area.

People were generally forthwith with their recollections.

One gal, the owner of a campground a few miles to the east, recalled
quite vividly seeing a "shooting star" come soaring low across the
skyline in the 1953 time frame. She thought, also, that maybe there had
been a similar kind of event in 1969.

But, then, this is America, you must bear in mind, the land where people
can and will say any darn thing.

The campground lady made an interesting comment, however, when she
indicated that such an event, if indeed a meteorite did actually come
crashing down in Round Pond, Maine could not have happened without
someone witnessing the event.

Good point, I agreed, and generally as true and accurate an observation
as might be garnered, considering the circumstance.

There is a hidden fallacy, however, in such reasoning. Would it not be
possible, I wondered, that if a meteorite had dropped out of the sky
during a raging nor'easter, or some other such extreme weather event,
that it might have boomed and descended from the heavens unnoticed and
not observed?

Remote possibility, I suppose, but stranger things may have happened.

Anyways, back at the Round Pond public boat ramp, I gathered-up a few
magnetic specimens, scattered on the shore, which I eventually sent down
to Russell Kempton at New England Meteoritical Services for his
professional examination and opinion.

Interesting rock material, according to NEM, but, alas, not of celestial
origins.

Oh, well, I tried.

An interesting aside to this notion of meteorites being found on the
coast of Maine might be that the area between low and high tide, in
Maine, the so-called intertidal zone, is, in fact, perhaps the only
quasa-public land in Maine where a meteorite might be found and legally
retained by the finder.

Maine was once part of Massachusetts, until 1820, and the Baystates "Blue
Laws" decreed that private ownership of property, so called proprietary
rights, end at the high tide line. Everything from there to the low tide
line is considered public domain, to varying degrees.

So, if your ever gonna find a meteorite in Maine, unless it's in your own
backyard, the intertidal zone may be the next best place to do so.

There, the grubby fingers of government must be observant of the rights
of us little guys, and should be better utilized, perhaps, in picking
their noses, instead.

Finally, it may be that the Maine Geological Survey fielded a few phone
calls from locals asking questions about the fabled Round Pond meteorites
and decided that shutting down their web site with references to an
unsubstantiated meteorlogical event was a sensible thing to do. Not
worth the hassle. Who knows for sure?

That's my best guess.

Glad tidings,

Dave Gunning
Received on Fri 01 Oct 2010 04:48:54 PM PDT