Don is a class guy. I'm glad he got it. :) Congratulations Don.
On 4/13/09, Darren Garrison <[email protected]> wrote: > Hope they don't drop a car on it: > > http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/story/1136629.html > > > Hill County residents find largest rock yet from local meteorite shower > > http://www.wacotrib.com/news/content/news/stories/2009/04/12/04122009wacmeteorite.html > > By Ken SuryTribune-Herald staff writer > > Sunday, April 12, 2009 > > MENLOW – The biggest piece discovered from the Feb. 15 meteor that broke > apart > near West now sits in a meteorite museum in Kansas, its owner happy to have > acquired the space rock as well as the trust of the Hill County couple who > found > it and sold it to him. > > L.B. and Polly Etter were in church the Sunday morning when the fireball cut > across the Texas skies. They didn’t hear the accompanying sonic boom that > rattled houses around West. It was 11 days after the fall that L.B. Etter > was > driving his tractor along his farmland in Menlow, just west of Interstate 35 > and > Abbott, when he spotted something out of the ordinary. > > “I’ve cut and bailed this patch of hay for years, so I knew that was > something > that wasn’t supposed to be there,” the 77-year-old farmer and rancher said. > > Etter had followed the news reports about the meteorite finds near West, but > that was about seven to eight miles southeast “as the crow flies” from his > place. Still, he kept the nearly 4-pound stony meteorite, dumping it in the > back > of his pickup to go on a fertilizer run to West. > > Women working at the fertilizer plant remarked that it was indeed a > meteorite, > and when L.B. returned home, his wife, Polly, wrapped it up in a towel for > safekeeping. > > L.B. Etter then called some of the meteorite hunters and collectors who had > advertisements in the West News seeking to buy pieces. > > Etter’s find — at 1,700 grams — is about 200 grams heavier than the > next-largest > rock that was purchased by meteorite hunter Mike Farmer of Tucson, Ariz. > Farmer > was among about 10 people initially interested in the chondrite. But it > wasn’t > until last week when L.B. and Polly Etter agreed to sell it to Kansas > meteorite > museum owner Don Stimpson for an undisclosed price. > > Farmer earlier had purchased his slightly smaller meteorite — he was told it > was > found near Aquilla — for more than $10,000, though he also declined to > provide > an exact figure. Stimpson said he knows of one other large piece from the > “main > mass” that another meteorite hunter has purchased. > > While all of the meteorite hunters were pleasant to deal with, Stimpson just > stood out, L.B. Etter said. > > “He just seemed to be more down-to-Earth to me,” he said. > > Stimpson and his wife, Sheila Knepper, own the Kansas Meteorite Museum and > Nature Center in southern Kansas. The museum’s claim to fame is that it > houses > the largest display of meteorites from a prehistoric fall near the > now-defunct > town of Brenham, Kan. The Brenham fall has the rarest of meteorites, a > stony-iron mix called a pallasite. > > Even though the West meteorite, as it is being called, is a chondrite, which > is > the most common type of stony meteorite, Stimpson said he is thrilled to > have it > because it’s something new for his museum. > > “It’s a nice, pristine sample,” said Stimpson, adding that though it was > found > 11 days after the fall, no rain had fallen on it and it had not weathered. > The > pallasite fragments of the Brenham meteorite were dug out of the ground and > often have significant rust, he noted. > > “A few months ago this rock was thousands of miles in space, farther away > than > the moon, and now here it is, just as it was found on the ground, with a > surface > of black, melted rock and sculpted dimples forged in a fireball,” said > Stimpson, > who was a biophysicist in Chicago before his interest in meteorites became a > full-blown passion and second career. > > The largest pieces, like the Etters’ find in Menlow, will be west of I-35, > Stimpson said. When a meteorite breaks up and scatters pieces across an > oval-shaped “strewn field,” the smallest pieces land first. The bigger > fragments > with greater mass are at the end of the field. Birome appears to be the > front > end of the fall with pea- and pecan-sized fragments, Stimpson said, with > Menlow > at the back of the strewn field. > > Large pieces like the Etters’ rock could be acres apart from each other, > Stimpson said. For now, the Etters’ chondrite has the distinction of being > the > largest from the West fall. It is on display in the Kansas museum, but > Stimpson > said he hopes to bring it back to West for an exhibition with other West > meteorite fragments at a future date. > > He’s been in initial talks, but nothing is finalized. > > Stimpson expects there will be more discoveries, but the Etters haven’t > heard of > anyone else in their area finding meteorites. Stimpson admitted that to most > people, it just looks like a black rock. > > “Some large pieces may be found, but with the vegetation starting to grow, > searching will be difficult, and rusting will begin, but the material is > still > valuable and worth collecting,” Stimpson said. “More specimens will probably > be > found during fall planting.” > > L.B. Etter said he’ll be scanning his property a little more closely in the > days > to come. > > “If I see a black rock now, I’ll stop and look at it,” he said. > ______________________________________________ > http://www.meteoritecentral.com > Meteorite-list mailing list > [email protected] > http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list > -- ......................................................... Michael Gilmer (Louisiana, USA) Member of the Meteoritical Society. Member of the Bayou Region Stargazers Network. 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