A large meteorite landed in a field in Oklahoma, 1912, and no one wanted it. The homeless meteorite was in the farmer’s way and needed to go.
Meteor Drops to Earth Near Grove
If there are any scientists, artists, or astronomy, ologists of any description who would like to take charge of a nice, large meteor, they should come to Grove.
There’s one here that can be had for the asking.
It’s a good big one and would probably have to be removed by sections.
The meteor fell a few days ago and has been witnessed by hundreds of local people since then.
Joe Prather, a local youth, saw the meteor when it fell. That is, he was quite close to it.
People for miles around were startled at the blazing light that accompanied the satellite on its journey to earth.
Prather tells the following story of the flight of the visitor from above:
“I was driving along on the road between here and Southwest City, Mo., about 11 p.m. The moon was hidden by the clouds and it was very dark. Suddenly a blinding light flashed out of the heaven and so startled the team I was driving that they made a lurch and ran away. I was scared so bad that I fainted, but not before I had glanced upward. I saw a large thing coming apparently toward me, and it seemed to be a huge ball of fire. I thought it was going to hit me, so I laid the whip on the runaway ponies. We traveled some fast. The thing hit in a field quite a ways from where I was. When it did so a million stars seemed to shoot up from it. Many of these small balls of fire went clear over the buggy and lit far beyond. I was scared and did not attempt to go toward the object in the field.”
The next day the spot where the meteor lit was visited by scores of people.
All they saw was an immense mass of rock, embedded twenty feet in the earth.
The old farmer on whose land the meteor landed is thinking of filling in the slope in order to make use of the land for farming purposes.
He is willing to donate the meteor to anyone who wants to remove it.
The meteor will weigh several hundred tons, probably.
No one here will believe that the “big rock” is worth any money.
So, if anybody cares to take charge of a full grown and perfectly harmless meteor, all they’ve got to do is come to Grove, with plenty of workmen, steam derricks, etc.
Source: The Guthrie daily leader. (Guthrie, Okla.), 20 Dec. 1912.
