[meteorite-list] New Mexico U. Gets Norton Meteorite - Part 1 of 2

From: bernd.pauli_at_paulinet.de <bernd.pauli_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:25:41 2004
Message-ID: <DIIE.0000005600000A7D_at_paulinet.de>

> New Mexico Gets Huge Aerolite Transferred Safely From Nebraska Farm

.. or how to bridge the gap between two quarrelers :-)
No, for heaven's sake, I won't mention any names!

Please, enjoy U.B. Marvin's article on the Nininger and LaPaz feud:

(Meteoritics 28-3, 1993, pp. 271-273):

MARVIN U.B.: The Norton County-Furnas County Meteorite Fall, February 18, 1948

A spectacular fireball accompanied by violent explosions streaked northward over Kansas at 5:00 p.m. on February 18, 1948. One hour later, LaPaz was informed of the event by the Civil Air Patrol, who thought at first that a plane had crashed. LaPaz followed up sightings through Civil Air Patrol channels, concluded that a meteorite had fallen, and within two weeks, calculated a probable shower ellipse near the Kansas-Nebraska line.
Meanwhile, the Niningers heard the news, went to the scene, and talked with many people, but a mid-winter blizzard forced them to leave before completing a search for meteorites. A farmer living in Norton County, Kansas, found the first stone late in the following spring, and after that many more were found in the same general area. In August, a farmer working his fields in Furnas County, Nebraska, a few miles north of the Kansas-Nebraska line, felt his tractor tilt steeply and found it perched at the edge of a hole 10 ft. deep with a huge stone at the bottom. The stone proved to be a magnificent flight-oriented cone weighing nearly one ton. This piece holds the record as the largest stony meteorite specimen in North America.
Nininger asserted later that he had alerted the farmer to look for large stones on his property, and so the farmer had called him to report his discovery. Nininger traveled to the farm as soon as possible and climbed down into the hole to collect small chips that lay on the bottom and to prepare to collect the huge stone. But this stone lay within the strewnfield predicted by LaPaz who felt that his map together with his own lines of communication constituted a valid claim. Presently, Nininger heard voices and looked up to see LaPaz and Leonard peering over the edge of the hole. LaPaz' party of five soon was joined by a party of four from the Nebraska State and University Museums. LaPaz claimed prior rights to the stone, based on his calculations of the find site and the notice that had been sent to him. Nininger claimed finders' rights as well as what amounted to squatters' rights. As neither man would yield, permission was obtained from the absentee landlord to hold an
 auction in the farmhouse at night. Together, the Institute of Meteoritics and the University of Nebraska outbid Nininger, who left the scene. The stone was securely wrapped in burlap, coated with plaster of Paris, and lifted out of the hole by a crane. It then was loaded on a truck for a slow 550-mile drive to the Institute of Meteoritics in Albuquerque.

To: thebigcollector_at_msn.com
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Received on Sun 18 May 2003 03:43:51 PM PDT