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" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>; <[email protected]>
Cc: <[email protected]>
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: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
CC: [email protected]
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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