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It is surprising that a hundred years ago, meteorite strikes received only a brief mention in newspapers. Today, one can imagine several local and national news media traveling to the site for live reports. After all, meteorites can be worth more than gold or platinum in the collector’s market. Although one might assume people went to these sites to collect the rare souvenirs, there were no follow-up articles for any of them, leaving one to wonder how extensive those searches were. Perhaps there are still some extra-terrestrial treasures waiting to be found.
The first of the three strikes occurred on February 24, 1897.
It seemed a normal, quiet evening at Ft. Whipple until, about 8:30 PM, a brilliant meteor suddenly appeared from the west. “It was accompanied by a roaring noise,” the Weekly Arizona Miner described. “It was very near the earth and lighted up the entire heavens.” Those who were outside, and fortunate enough to witness it, believed “that it [struck] just east of the garrison.” Nothing more of this incident was printed.
The second strike occurred just over a decade later in late October 1907. It fell in the Jerome mining district, and according to the sole report, it was a large one.
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| The blue box shows the general location of the Jerome mining district. |
The Arizona Silver Belt quoted the lost “Jerome Belt” newspaper: “The hole made in the earth by the impact…is something to be marveled at. The depression has a general resemblance to a crater, and a superficial glance conveys the impression that it is really the crater of a volcano which became extinct ages ago. [But] the rim [has no] volcanic outpourings. The [meteorite] penetrated from 40 to 80 feet of red sandstone, then from 250 to 350 feet of yellowish limestone, then a light gray sandstone, and finally a brownstone in which it terminates.”
“The weight of the Jerome meteor[ite] is largely problematical,” the article continued, “but 8000 tons would not be a wild guess. It is 47 feet long and half that wide, with an undeveloped depth.”
Over a century later, satellite images might give a clue to this crater’s exact location, but plant life and trees could disguise it. A LIDAR survey, however, should have no difficulty locating the 300 to 450-foot-deep crater, even if it has filled in somewhat.
The last of these three collisions occurred at 9 PM sharp on August 12, 1922, when a meteorite passed by Granite Mountain. “Residents of west Prescott…were thrilled by the sight of a large and brilliant meteor which traced a rapid orbit across the northwestern sky and fell somewhere in the region of Iron Springs,” the Weekly Journal-Miner reported.
When first noticed, it was thought to be “a rather brilliant shooting star. But [it] failed to disappear [and] whizzed toward the earth with increasing brightness,” the paper continued. “It appeared to [hit] somewhere south of Granite Mountain, at about the height of the Santa Fe line toward Iron Springs.” After striking the earth, witnesses stated that the meteorite “continued to cast up a bright reddish light,” offering an example of the extreme temperatures that can be produced by the friction of the air we breathe.
If one could locate these sites today and legally search them with a metal detector, some valuable artifacts might well be discovered!
True description of 2 meteor strikes that happened only 8 months apart in 1911-12 between Ash Fork and Holbrook, AZ on the same Santa Fe Railroad line.
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SOURCES:
Weekly Arizona Miner, 2/27/1897; Pg. 3, Col. 3.
Arizona Silver Belt, 11/3/1907; Pg. 4, Col. 3.
Weekly Journal-Miner, 8/16/1922; Pg. 5, Col. 2.
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