There is still some bad blood between the present owners of the crater and Nininger; although he is now mentioned in the guidebook, it is in, at best, neutral terms. There were some veiled accusations of Nininger 'poaching' Canyon Diablo meteorites after his agreement to search for them on Bar T Bar ranch land had expired, and some other disputes over the American Meteorite Museum vs. the gift shop and facility put up on the crater rim. He was not mentioned at all in any of the other presentations or staff talks, and I didn't bring up his name. The only spot in the 20 miles around Meteor Crater that seemed to have cell phone reception was the highest lookout on the rim, a great place when a lightning storm is approaching! I did go to the remnants of the American Meteorite Museum, which has a big handmade "No Trespassing: violators will be jailed" sign in front of the ruins; I decided they could spare 15 minutes and half a dozen photos anyway. Arizona hospitality at its finest, maybe provoked by the 2 burned out cars dumped on the vestiges of Route 66 in front of the ruins, though the ruins themselves did not seem to be vandalized beyond normal decay. People in search of a streak plate will be sad to know that remains of the famous Nininger crapper have apparently been completely removed; the tub, however, is still intact until someone smashes it. Although I think the old unmaintained and very potholed Route 66 is still public access, the area outside the right of way is heavily studded with No Trespassing signs.
The crater is still magnificent. Although tempted, I did not put rare-earth magnets in my shoes to try to pick up spheroids on the q.t. The gift shop sells baggies of the dirt from around the crater, pulverized quartz with a light sprinkling of ash from Sunset Crater and a few spheroids mixed in. Although the staff seems at least moderately knowledgeable about the mechanics of the crater, the gift shop was heavily commercial, with t-shirts and Native American trinkets made in China, without any more scholarly information than the crater guidebook. The facility is about what you might expect, a mix of older displays and some modern computer animation. They show a 20 minute film about the impact and related phenomena in a substantial auditorium that could easily hold 2-3 busloads of tourists.
We stayed overnight at La Posada, a landmark for anyone interested in the architecture styles of the Southwest, the history of the Fred Harvey company, and railroad history in general, returning to Vegas the following day after another brief stop at the crater. Although the trip was very damp, I wouldn't have missed it for anything.
If you have any interest in our pictures of this trip, including a few taken at Penn & Teller's magic show, feel free to go to jediknight.com/gallery and look at the Vegas Trip section.
Tracy Latimer
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