Paper: The Indianapolis Star
City: Indianapolis, In
Date: Sunday, October 06, 1912
Page: 3
Syndicate of Mining Men Sink Shaft in Search for Diamond Half Mile Thick
Several years ago a syndicate of mining men commenced sinking a shaft in
Arizona to reach the largest diamond in the world, believed to be no less
than half a mile thick. This shaft is now 1,500 feet deep. There or four
hundred feet more, it is expected will reveal the great prize.
The scene of this most wonderful mining operation is Meteor Mountain,
Arizona. The mountain is such in name only, as it is little more than a
butte, rising 200 or 300 feet above the desert, about 10 miles from Canyon
Diablo station, on the Santa Fe railway.
Viewed from a distance Meteor Mountain looks little different from the
countless other buttes that rear their heads above the Southwestern desert.
But as soon as one begins to climb its sides, strewn with meteor fragments,
he realizes that he is on the threshold of one of the world's greatest
scientific mysteries.
From the top of the "mountain" one (can look into the deep) depression
in the earth 600 feet deep and a mile across. It is in appearance like a
volcanic crater.
Scientists agree that this crater marks the place where a giant
meteorite, as large as the circumference of the bowl would indicate, struck
the earth in ages past, perhaps a million of years ago, and buried itself
deep into the bowels of the earth - just how deep it is the purpose of the
mining syndicate to find out.
But the most remarkable thing about this meteorit, apart from its
prodigious size, is that fact that in all probability it consists of one
huge diamond. This is inferred from the fact that numerous large fragments
of the meteorite found in the crater, and which are unusually heavy, were
found, upon investigation to contain, besides meteoric iron, large hard,
black diamonds of great value.
Even if the meteor consists only of black diamonds its value would be
quite inconceivable, for a good black diamond, though worthless as a gem, is
worth even more than the white one for mechanical purposes. It is quite
probable, however, that the bulk of the meteor consists of white diamond, in
which event there would not be enough wealth in the world to pay for it at
the current price of the precious stone.
The largest diamonds in the world, including the Kehinoor, the
Cullinan, the Great Mogal of Russia, the Orloff , the Great Premier diamond,
the Tiffany diamond, the Etoile Polaire and a dozen others of the same
standard, worth in the aggregate hundreds of millions of dollars, might all
be placed in an ordinary derby hat and not reach the top. This meteoric
diamond, scientists believe, must be at least half a mile thick! The
significance of the comparison is apparent.
Weighing possibly a million tons and fallings hundreds of thousands of
miles, the giant mass must have been travelling at an inconceivable rate of
speed when it struck the earth, yet the engineer's who have been directing
the mining operation believe that it could not have penetrated more than
2,500 feet at the utmost.
If this estimate provescorrectm the recovery of the mammoth diamond
should be a matter of only a few months now, for there is less than a
thousand feet further to dig before that depth is reached.
The earth in the vicinity of Meteorite Mountain us strewn with
fragments, evidently loosened from the main body by the terrific impact as
the heavenly messenger struck the earth. The herder picked up a large
fragment was about to toss it aside when the great weight appealed to him as
something pecullar. He took it to camp and turned it over to a collector,
who in turn took it to an English scientist.
News of the discovery of Meteor Mountain soon leaked out, in spite of
strenuous efforts to keep it quiet, and a syndicate was formed to ascertain
the position of the great meteorite if possible. Mining operations were
begun at the bottom of the crater and a shaft was soon being sunk.
There are about forty acres in the bottom of this so-called crater. On
all sides a sloping wall rises to a height of from 500 to 600 feet. The
wall is sandy, and climbing to the top is difficult. The bottom of the
depression is covered with huge rocks, some of which weigh many tons, and
which are evidently portions of rock strata deisplaced by the falling
meteorite.
The nearest settlement is at Volz's trading post, a few miles from the
mountain. In the heart of the desert. Mr. Volz, the trader at Canyon
Diablo, has living in the vicinity of Meteor Mountain for years and has been
interested in the work of mining for the meteorite. All the settlers in
that part of the Southwest believe that the main body of the meteorite will
be discovered at some distant day, and that science will be measurably
enriched, even if the investigators do not find as lare a proporion of
valuable carbon as fragments have indicated.
If the main body of the meteorite is located at all other discoveries
along this line will be dwarfer. Since is always on the alert for meteorite
discoveries and of the most valuable things brought in by Commander Peary
from his recent polar discovery was a large meteorite which was sold for
several thousand dollars/ Fragments of varying size and weight are picked
up from the ????????. It being a theory generally believed that the average
meteorite ?????????? strikes the belt of dense ???????????? surrounding the
earth.
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