[meteorite-list] Meteorites Mark Fields of Dreams

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu May 11 12:18:16 2006
Message-ID: <200605111539.IAA04197_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2006-05-10-meteorites-kansas_x.htm

Meteorites mark fields of dreams
By Judy Keen
USA TODAY
May 11, 2006

HAVILAND, Kan. - Don Stimpson peers into a 3-foot-deep hole on his farm
as friends help dig up a 150-pound meteorite. "Interesting shape," he
says. The new find will join the collection of meteorites sitting on
foil-covered chairs in his garage.

Stimpson hopes that his trove will soon be housed somewhere more
suitable. He envisions a museum here that would lure people off U.S.
Highway 54 and make this town of 590 the "meteorite capital of the USA."
He'd like to give tours of his excavation sites, where small plastic
swimming pools cover the impressions made when the meteorites, which are
fragments of asteroids, plunged from space about 20,000 years ago and
fell across a 6-mile-long "strewn field."

"If you look at small towns in rural America, a lot of them are
struggling," Stimpson says. "We'd like to see the community benefit from
the meteorites found here." Mayor Jeff Christensen agrees, and Haviland
will hold its first meteorite festival on July 8. "I'd like to see an
educational center located here," Christensen says. "I see busloads of
children coming for field trips."

Haviland has competition just down the highway. Greensburg, 10 miles
west of here, has a head start when it comes to turning meteorites into
tourist draws: It's home to the "world's largest hand-dug well" and a
1,000-pound meteorite found nearby in 1949. A big arrow on the town's
water tower points to the attractions.

Greensburg's well, 109 feet deep and 32 feet wide, was completed in 1888
and opened as a tourist site in 1937. For $2, visitors can walk to the
bottom. Inside the gift shop, past the T-shirts, the half-ton meteorite
can be seen for free.

Last year, about 28,000 people stopped to see Greensburg's Big Well and
meteorite, manager Richard Stephenson says. Greensburg Mayor Lonnie
McCollum wants to create an educational center with a mural and
explanatory video to highlight "the space wanderer."

Hefty rocks, hefty prices

Until last year, Greensburg's 1,000-pound rock was the largest meteorite
found in the area and one of the biggest pallasites in the world.
Pallasites are rare meteorites that contain green olivine crystals as
well as nickel and iron. But last October, Steve Arnold, a professional
meteorite hunter, found a 1,430-pound specimen 1? miles from Stimpson's
property.

Arnold's discovery dented Greensburg's bragging rights. His rock will be
displayed at Haviland's festival in July. But Arnold is a businessman,
not a tourism booster, and his find is for sale. He says the meteorite
is worth at least $1 million because of its size and rarity.

Arnold leases exploration rights from area farmers and pays them
royalties on meteorites he sells to museums and collectors. "The price
is now well over $1 a gram," he says.

Stimpson, 53, a biophysicist who moved here with his wife, Sheila, in
1994 from Gurnee, Ill., hasn't sold any of the dozens of meteorites he
has found. He grew up wanting to be a test pilot and is fascinated with
space. He bought 1,000 acres because of the meteorites first discovered
here in the 1880s by Eliza Kimberly, a farmer's wife.

"We assign a different value to these meteorites than monetary,"
Stimpson says. To finance his quest, he leases part of his property for
cattle grazing. He has taken temporary jobs in other states so he has
enough money to continue searching for meteorites.

There are enough meteorites buried in the flat fields to satisfy both
Stimpson and Arnold, but it's uncertain whether both Haviland and
Greensburg can turn meteorites into profitable tourist attractions.

Stimpson thinks the competition between the towns stems in part from
their high school teams, the Greensburg Rangers and the Haviland
Dragons. Christensen says the rivalry has existed "since long before I
was even born." However, he plans to invite Greensburg to take part in
the meteorite festival. "I really hope we pack their hotels and
restaurants," Christensen says.

Haviland is home to Barclay College, a small religious school, but has
little to offer tourists. There's a farm co-op, hardware store, bank and
rehabilitation center in town, but no hotels or chain restaurants.
Christensen plans meteorite displays, lectures by scientists and food
vendors at this summer's festival. He says he'll invite VIPs, including
former Kansas senator Bob Dole and President Bush.

Greensburg has 1,486 residents and a thriving business district with a
Pizza Hut, hardware and grocery stores and the Kiowa County courthouse.
Besides its well and meteorite, the town has Hunter Drugstore, a 1917
store with a lunch counter where drinks are still mixed by a soda jerk.
Still, the population is declining. "That's just a fact of life out in
this part of the country," says McCollum, Greensburg's mayor.

Solid competition

McCollum thinks a bigger, more sophisticated meteorite display can help
his town's economy. "We can make something out of this," he says. Asked
about Haviland's competing plans, he says, "We don't care." Because the
two towns are in the same county and separated by so few miles, he says,
anything that helps Haviland also benefits Greensburg.

Stephenson, who manages the Big Well tourist site in Greensburg,
dismisses Haviland's plans. Greensburg, he says, simply has more to
offer. "They do not have the Big Well, and there's no way they're going
to get it. It doesn't move."

Stimpson is less interested in battling over tourist dollars than in
sharing the pleasure of holding the heavy orange and brown meteorites.

"It is just a rock, but what's unique about it is how far it's traveled
and the knowledge we've gained from it. It's billions of years old. It
came from the asteroid belt," he says. "Just holding it - that's the value."

Arnold shares Stimpson's fascination with meteorites, which still fall
to Earth but are rarely seen making impact.

"It's a buried treasure story," Arnold says. "If you own an acre of
property, you've got as good a shot at finding a meteorite as anyone."
Received on Thu 11 May 2006 11:39:55 AM PDT