[meteorite-list] Odessa Meteor Crater... - more info

From: Jerry A. Wallace <jwal2000_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:01:34 2004
Message-ID: <3D0E301B.34E0C093_at_swbell.net>

<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">
<html>
Folks,
<p>I'm sure sorry about the mess-up with that blasted link. I promise to
never
<br>let that happen again! I'll get it right the first time in the future.&nbsp;
jw
<br>&nbsp;
<p>Hi Tim,
<p>Sorry about that. Turns out that the link only worked in MS IE. I shoulda
<br>checked first before I linked it. We're evidently a bit quaint about
some of our
<br>internet stuff out here in the sticks.
<p>Here is the full text of that article:
<p>Thursday June 13, 2002
<p>By Ian Heald
<br>Odessa American
<p>The Odessa Meteor Crater Visitor Center is open for business.
<p>Construction on the $500,000 state-funded center began last summer.
The 5,000-square-foot
<br>building is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and
from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
<br>onSundays. It is closed Mondays.
<p>Tom Rodman, an Odessa attorney and meteor crater aficionado, said daily
attendance at the
<br>crater is expected to double from 15 to 30 people per day with the
addition of the visitor
<br>center.
<p>The center is located on Meteor Crater Road, southwest of West Loop
338 and Interstate 20.
<p>“It will increase attendance dramatically,” Rodman said. “Attendance
will also be helped
<br>by the new interchange where you can get directly off Interstate 20
to the Meteor Crater Road
<br>at exit 108.”
<p>Don Bonifay, county public works director, said the county plans to
have a grand opening
<br>of the center in the near future, maybe even later this month. The
county was waiting for access
<br>to Meteor Crater Road from Interstate 20. That access became available
this week. Before
<br>this week, I-20 travelers were prevented from accessing Meteor Crater
Road because there
<br>wasn’t a vehicle crossing over the tracks. On Monday, the Texas Department
of Transportation
<br>completed building an asphalt ramp over the Union Pacific Railroad
tracks. Now, any visitors
<br>passing through Odessa will have easy access to the center, Rodman
said.
<p>And after making the trip down Meteor Crater Road, visitors to the center
will have plenty
<br>to look at, Rodman said. In addition to the actual crater, which is
just south of the center, the
<br>center has on display numerous meteorites, desert glass, shattered
meteorites and tektites from
<br>around the world. The center also shows a video with information about
meteor craters.
<p>The visitor center was originally scheduled to open last August. Construction
was delayed
<br>early last summer because the county hadn’t submitted all the required
paperwork for a $500,000
<br>grant to Texas Parks and Wildlife, said Tim Hogsett, director of recreational
grants for TPW.
<p>“We waited for some time for the county to give us the information we
needed for the contract,”
<br>Hogsett said at the time. “We have since done that. Now, everything
is progressing satisfactorily.”
<br>Some of the paperwork that slowed down the project included copies
of the deed to prove that
<br>the county owned the land and written proof that construction of the
visitor center would not
<br>disrupt any utility lines.
<p>***********
<p>Not really much info there on the actual meteor crater in the newspaper
article, but if you
<br>have access to Richard Norton's book, "Rocks From Space", there's an
excellent article
<br>on the crater, pp. 133-7, 277-8.
<p>Or, there's also Harvey Nininger's fine book, "Find a Falling Star",
which provides some
<br>history on the Odessa Crater from Nininger's own unique experiences
with it in 1932 and
<br>'35: pp. 89-92, et al. Anyone that has never read Mr. Nininger's book
is missing a real
<br>treat. I would highly recommend it. He was truly the 'Father of Meteorite
Hunters.'
<p>If I may be forgiven for using so much e-space, let me just add the
first paragraph from
<br>the book's introduction written by Fred L. Whipple, Director (1972),
Smithsonian
<br>Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, Mass.
<p>"H. H. Nininger and Meteorites go together, like word pairs such as
bread and butter, at
<br>least for those who study these rare samples of cosmic debris. Meterorites
were, indeed,
<br>bread and butter for the Nininger family, the first ever to survive
by finding, collecting, trading,
<br>selling, and exhibiting meteorites. This book is a fascinating autobiographical
account that clearly
<br>delineates the single-minded purposeful persistence of a man who refused
to be diverted by
<br>seemingly overwhelming obstacles from pursuing an impossible dream.
Nininger's early prophetic
<br>vision of meteorites as scientific Rosetta Stones has grown to reality
in his later years, a
<br>development that he substantially furthered by his missionary effort."&nbsp;
...
<p>********
<p>Tim, let me know if there is anything I can further provide to you concerning
the Odessa
<br>meteorite. I will be linking some good photos (as soon as I take them)
of the current
<br>scene at the meteorite "crater complex" in the fairly near future.
<p>Good Luck,
<p>Jerry Wallace
<br>Odessa, Texas
<br>&nbsp;
<p>Tim Heitz wrote:
<p>> Hi Jerry,
<br>>
<br>> I'm very interested in getting as much information as possible about
<br>> Odessa Meteor Crater. The link below no longer works.
<br>>
<br>> Thank You,
<br>> Tim Heitz</html>
Received on Mon 17 Jun 2002 02:53:15 PM PDT


Help support this free mailing list:



StumbleUpon
del.icio.us
reddit
Yahoo MyWeb