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Mining for Meteorites - Part 7 of 12

KRAJICK KEVIN (1999) Mining for Meteorites (Smithsonian, March 1999, pp.
90 -100):

There are other international intrigues. Counterfeit meteorites are
surfacing, reputedly from Mexico. Forgers are said to dig a hole in the
ground, pour in molten metal and let it cool slowly so it doesn't
develop pits. Then they let the bogus specimen rust a little. The fakes
lack the proper nickel content and crystal structure. In 1997, Ronald E.
Farrell, a Bethany, Connecticut, dealer, was arrested in Brazil after he
allegedly visited the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro to trade, then
switched some of its specimens for worthless rocks. Police say that they
found three small meteorites in one of Farrell's shoes at the airport.
He pleaded no contest and was kicked out of the country after ten weeks
in jail; the president himself signed the expulsion order. Farrell
claims he was framed, perhaps by cutthroat competitors.
None of this compares, however, with what transpired in Portales. When
Nelda Wallace reached the spot where the object hit, she came upon a
rock crisped asphalt-black on the outside - this was a fusion crust,
formed on the fiery passage through the air - and veined with silvery
metal. Her brother-in-law touched it, but it burned his hand. Ten
minutes later they were able to haul it out of its modest crater and put
it on the bathroom scale: 37 pounds. Three miles away, Gale Newberry, a
peanut farmer, noticed a hole in his barn roof. He looked down and saw
an identical-size hole in the wall. Inside that hole was a fist-size
stone with a black crust.
By some wild cast of fate, a half-mile from Newberry is the house of
Skip Wilson. Wilson owns the local Video Vault - and is held by some to
be the world's greatest living meteorite hunter. Collectors describe him
as "legendary" and "like a god." Since the 1970s he has personally found
fragments of close to 200 different ancient falls - without hardly
crossing the county line. He just walks abandoned farm fields where Dust
Bowl winds have blown away the soil to expose rocks, and keeps the sun
at his back. He doesn't sell his finds but passes many around to
scientists, and as a result probably has coauthored more papers on
meteorites than most PhDs in planetary science. Even he had never seen a
fresh fall until Newberry phoned him. At a glance, Wilson identified the
stone as a genuine meteorite. "Gale, you better be careful," he said.
"These things are worth money. A whole lot of people are going to try
and get it off you for nothing."

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