Our stories of the Ussuri and Norton meteorite falls show how hard scientists work themselves (and others!) to find meteorites. Therefore meteorites must be important. The two accounts given also make clear that investigators of meteorite falls are almost entirely dependent upon observations made by nonscientists.
Scientists investigating meteorite falls greatly appreciate the help given them by children and adults alike. Field parties are powerless without it, and we should like to encourage people of all ages to continue this type of valuable cooperation. In Chapter 7, we shall tell more about how the individual observer of a meteorite fall can make his report really count.
A close-up of the Furnas County stone, the largest stony meteorite ever recovered.
3. FOUND AND LOST GIANTS
All meteorites are important from the standpoint of science, but a few deserve special mention because of the human-interest stories connected with them.
First place among famous finds should no doubt go to the massive Cape York, Greenland, iron, the largest recovered meteorite actually to have been weighed. The Eskimos called this enormous object “Ahnighito,” which means “The Tent.” Robert E. Peary, the discoverer of the North Pole, brought it to New York City by ship in 1897. His party had great difficulty hoisting the 34-ton mass aboard. Later, when the ship had put to sea, she encountered a serious navigational hazard. To the amazement and alarm of the crew, the huge nickel-iron meteorite caused magnetic disturbances that severely affected the ship’s compass.
Another of the giant meteorites, the 14-ton Willamette, Oregon, iron, became the center of a long legal battle in the early 1900’s. The man who originally found the meteorite and recognized its true nature felt that because the iron was on the surface of the ground and not buried beneath it (as the ore of a metal would have been), there was no reason why he should not move the mass from the place of find to his own property, three-fourths of a mile away. He did this very laboriously by means of a log-timber car, a capstan with wire rope, and a small horse. On learning what the finder had done, the company that owned the land from which the meteorite had been removed put its attorneys on the job of recovering the “purloined” meteorite. The Oregon courts, bowing to decisions made in previous cases involving ownership of meteorites, brought in a verdict favoring the owners of the land. Although the finder of the Willamette meteorite lost the decision, he nevertheless won the distinction of being the only man to have successfully made off with a treasure weighing 14 tons!
COURTESY OF AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Peary’s photograph of the Cape York meteorite as it was being moved for loading aboard his ship.