Just wanted to reply and say that I completely agree with Rubin. Americas Greatest Meteorite Hunter is Ivan Skip Wilson. As Ive been saying for years, now, He is the Man. And I think he will continue to keep that title for quite a while. But its not because of all the meteorites he has found. Skip Wilson is Americas Greatest for all that he has done AFTER finding those meteorites. If Skip Wilson had found all of those New Mexico meteorites, but then put them in a box and just kept them under his bed, would he still be Americas Greatest? Of course not. Its what Skip did with those meteorites, after he found them, starting back 30 years ago, that distinguishes him from the other meteorite hunters of his time. If you do a Google search on Skip Wilson or Wilson, I. E., you will find that he has been a coauthor of at least 6 scientific papers spanning a period of 20 years from 1973 to 1993. Since 1993, there have been at least 50 papers that have made reference to his Roosevelt County meteorites, not to mention the other papers that have been written about all the other New Mexico meteorites that he has found. Whenever there was a discussion about age-dating, or terrestrial weathering, or residence time, or rates of meteorite influx over time there would always be a mention of his Roosevelt County meteorites. The name Ivan Wilson has been well known to meteorite researchers for some time. But back in 1998, how many of the nouveau collectors at that time knew of him? It took the fall of the Portales Valley meteorite that year to finally make Skip Wilson a household name to the collecting community. And now that we are appreciating the fact that Skip has found 125 unique meteorite classifications out of his total of 211 New Mexico meteorite finds, it is only proper that we should considered some way in which to recognize all of his efforts. And in the case that Skip should receive that recognition, I would hope that he not be slighted by getting an award for all those meteorites he found. Yes, that would be a slight. Think about it. How would we know about his 125 unique meteorites, if Skip hadnt taken the extra effort to get each of his finds classified? We would be remiss, if we didnt give Ivan Skip Wilson an award for being the meteorite hunter that has contributed the most to the science of meteoritics. Bob V.
--------------------------------------------- [meteorite-list] Americas Greatest Meteorite Hunter Ruben Garcia meteoritemall at yahoo.com Sat Oct 14 10:21:56 EDT 2006 Americas Greatest Meteorite Hunter This has been a very interesting and rewarding year with respect to meteorite hunting. Not only did I have the opportunity to take part in the filming of a TV show for the travel channel called Cash and Treasure Ive also had some wonderful hunting excursions. These treks into the wilderness have yielded some beautiful pallasites, siderites and of course chondrites both classified and unclassified. While all of this has been great, I must admit that one experience stands out among the rest. This year I had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know, Americas Greatest Meteorite Hunter. This prolific hunter has found over one hundred and twenty five unique meteorite classifications. These include two urelites, one achondrite and a beautiful Portales Valley meteorite that nearly struck his house. (Portales Valley Meteorite that nearly struck his house.) http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/meteoritemall/album?.dir=72cdre2&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/meteoritemall/my_photos His name is Skip Wilson, and for nearly forty years he has been scouring remote areas of New Mexico for extra-terrestrial treasure. An amazing fact about Skip is that all two hundred and eleven of his finds were made in New Mexico. One meteorite came from De Baca County, three from Lea County, four from Curry County and the remaining two hundred and three coming from within Roosevelt County. How did Skip find so many unique meteorite classifications in such a small area? The answer may surprise you, as he did it by hunting mostly in areas called blow outs. (Here's Skip hunting a "blow out" area.) http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/meteoritemall/album?.dir=904are2&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/meteoritemall/my_photos A blow out is a bowl-shaped area that is virtually devoid of any sand. The constant wind in these particular areas formed the bowl by scooping out the sand, and exposing the hard clay-like surface below. In the process of removing the sand, the wind also uncovered hundreds of tiny stones. These stones that once rested upon the sand, now lay on the bottom of the blow out. Occasionally, hidden among these terrestrial stones are meteorites. Skip told me that he found his first meteorite in 1967 and that it took him two more years to find the second. This is partly because he didnt know how to go about finding meteorites in an area of the state covered by farm land and sand dunes. It wasnt until he realized that these blow out areas held meteorites, and that all he had to do was be able to recognize them in order to find them. Recognize them he did. Skip found nearly fifty meteorites on just one blow out that was about 40 acres in size. Incredibly, Skip didnt find them all in a single day. Inner-mixed with terrestrial stones the meteorites blended in so well it took him years to collect them all. Over the next four decades Skip simply went from blow out to blow out collecting meteorites. It seems strange that these areas could hold so many meteorites until one realizes that the ground upon which they rested is very old. Ground samples collected by Skip were studied and some scientists have estimated these blow out areas to be over one hundred thousand years old. This is important because if the ground has remained unchanged for tens of thousands of years, then it has had plenty of time to collect falling stars. Oddly enough all blow out areas did not produce meteorites. In fact Skip says that many more blow outs were completely void of meteorites than those that held them. This is something that no one has been quite able to explain. Skip Wilson and others like him have paved the way for meteorite hunters like me. It was a pleasure meeting him and getting to experience first hand what he does so well. I cant imagine what it would have been like to be a meteorite hunter forty years ago with such little information available on the subject. Somehow Skip made the quantum leap in logic between knowing meteorites exist and being able to find them. In fact he did it so well that it may be quite some time before another American meteorite hunter can even come close. Skip still hunts meteorites as time, and his knees permit and actually found yet another new unclassified stone earlier this year. Im sure that no matter how the meteorite market changes, Skip Wilson will still be out silently doing what he does best, proving that he is, Americas Greatest Meteorite Hunter. (Here we are hunting and hanging out with Skip and his wife Marian.) (Rob Reisener, Sonny Clary and Myself) http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/meteoritemall/album?.dir=3ba1re2&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/meteoritemall/my_photos Ruben Garcia ______________________________________________ Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
