[meteorite-list] Re: America’s Greatest Meteorite Hunter

From: Robert Verish <bolidechaser_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Nov 1 01:12:28 2006
Message-ID: <20061101061225.46474.qmail_at_web51710.mail.yahoo.com>

Just wanted to reply and say that I completely agree
with Rubin. America?s Greatest Meteorite Hunter is
Ivan ?Skip? Wilson.
As I?ve been saying for years, now, ?He is the Man?.
And I think he will continue to keep that title for
quite a while. But it?s not because of all the
meteorites he has found. Skip Wilson is ?America?s
Greatest? for all that he has done AFTER finding those
meteorites.
If Skip Wilson had found all of those New Mexico
meteorites, but then put them in a box and just kept
them under his bed, would he still be ?America?s
Greatest?? Of course not. It?s what Skip did with
those meteorites, after he found them, starting back
30 years ago, that distinguishes him from the other
meteorite hunters of his time.
If you do a Google search on ?Skip Wilson? or ?Wilson,
I. E.?, you will find that he has been a coauthor of
at least 6 scientific papers spanning a period of 20
years from 1973 to 1993. Since 1993, there have been
at least 50 papers that have made reference to his
Roosevelt County meteorites, not to mention the other
papers that have been written about all the other New
Mexico meteorites that he has found. Whenever there
was a discussion about age-dating, or terrestrial
weathering, or residence time, or ?rates of meteorite
influx over time? there would always be a mention of
his Roosevelt County meteorites.
The name ?Ivan Wilson? has been well known to
meteorite researchers for some time. But back in
1998, how many of the nouveau collectors at that time
knew of him? It took the fall of the Portales Valley
meteorite that year to finally make Skip Wilson a
household name to the collecting community.
And now that we are appreciating the fact that Skip
has ?found? 125 unique meteorite classifications out
of his total of 211 New Mexico meteorite finds, it is
only proper that we should considered some way in
which to recognize all of his efforts. And in the
case that Skip should receive that recognition, I
would hope that he not be slighted by getting an award
for ?all those meteorites he found?. Yes, that would
be a ?slight?. Think about it. How would we know
about his 125 unique meteorites, if Skip hadn?t taken
the extra effort to get each of his finds classified?
 We would be remiss, if we didn?t give Ivan ?Skip?
Wilson an award for ?being the meteorite hunter that
has contributed the most to the science of
meteoritics?.
Bob V.

---------------------------------------------
[meteorite-list] America?s Greatest Meteorite Hunter
Ruben Garcia meteoritemall at yahoo.com
Sat Oct 14 10:21:56 EDT 2006
 
America?s Greatest Meteorite Hunter

This has been a very interesting and rewarding year
with respect to meteorite hunting. Not only did I have

the opportunity to take part in the filming of a TV
show for the travel channel called ?Cash and
Treasure? I?ve also had some wonderful hunting
excursions. These treks into the wilderness have
yielded some beautiful pallasites, siderites and of
course chondrites both classified and unclassified.

While all of this has been great, I must admit that
one experience stands out among the rest. This year I
had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know,
America?s Greatest Meteorite Hunter.

This prolific hunter has found over one hundred and
twenty five unique meteorite classifications. These
include two urelites, one achondrite and a beautiful
Portales Valley meteorite that nearly struck his
house.

(Portales Valley Meteorite that nearly struck his
house.)
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/meteoritemall/album?.dir=72cdre2&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/meteoritemall/my_photos


His name is Skip Wilson, and for nearly forty years he

has been scouring remote areas of New Mexico for
extra-terrestrial treasure.

An amazing fact about Skip is that all two hundred and

eleven of his finds were made in New Mexico. One
meteorite came from De Baca County, three from Lea
County, four from Curry County and the remaining two
hundred and three coming from within Roosevelt County.


How did Skip find so many unique meteorite
classifications in such a small area? The answer may
surprise you, as he did it by hunting mostly in areas
called ?blow outs.?

(Here's Skip hunting a "blow out" area.)
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/meteoritemall/album?.dir=904are2&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/meteoritemall/my_photos


A blow out is a bowl-shaped area that is virtually
devoid of any sand. The constant wind in these
particular areas formed the bowl by scooping out the
sand, and exposing the hard clay-like surface below.
In the process of removing the sand, the wind also
uncovered hundreds of tiny stones. These stones that
once rested upon the sand, now lay on the bottom of
the blow out. Occasionally, hidden among these
terrestrial stones are meteorites.

Skip told me that he found his first meteorite in 1967

and that it took him two more years to find the
second. This is partly because he didn?t know how to
go about finding meteorites in an area of the state
covered by farm land and sand dunes.

It wasn?t until he realized that these blow out areas
held meteorites, and that all he had to do was be able

to recognize them in order to find them.

Recognize them he did. Skip found nearly fifty
meteorites on just one blow out that was about 40
acres in size. Incredibly, Skip didn?t find them all
in a single day. Inner-mixed with terrestrial stones
the meteorites blended in so well it took him years to

collect them all.

Over the next four decades Skip simply went from blow
out to blow out collecting meteorites. It seems
strange that these areas could hold so many meteorites

until one realizes that the ground upon which they
rested is very old. Ground samples collected by Skip
were studied and some scientists have estimated these
blow out areas to be over one hundred thousand years
old.

This is important because if the ground has remained
unchanged for tens of thousands of years, then it has
had plenty of time to collect falling stars. Oddly
enough all blow out areas did not produce meteorites.
In fact Skip says that many more blow outs were
completely void of meteorites than those that held
them. This is something that no one has been quite
able to explain.

Skip Wilson and others like him have paved the way for

meteorite hunters like me. It was a pleasure meeting
him and getting to experience first hand what he does
so well. I can?t imagine what it would have been like
to be a meteorite hunter forty years ago with such
little information available on the subject. Somehow
Skip made the quantum leap in logic between knowing
meteorites exist and being able to find them. In fact
he did it so well that it may be quite some time
before another American meteorite hunter can even come

close.

Skip still hunts meteorites as time, and his knees
permit and actually found yet another new unclassified

stone earlier this year. I?m sure that no matter how
the meteorite market changes, Skip Wilson will still
be out silently doing what he does best, proving that
he is, America?s Greatest Meteorite Hunter.


(Here we are hunting and hanging out with Skip and his

wife Marian.) (Rob Reisener, Sonny Clary and Myself)
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/meteoritemall/album?.dir=3ba1re2&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/meteoritemall/my_photos


Ruben Garcia
Received on Wed 01 Nov 2006 01:12:25 AM PST