[meteorite-list] NPA 03-24-1877: Homestead Meteorite Lawsuit Judgement

[MARK BOSTICK]

Paper: Helena Independent
City: Helena, Montana
Date: March 24, 1877
Page: 1

A LAWSUIT over a meteor is an event undoubtedly without a parallel in the 
history of jurisprudence.  Two years ago this month a large meteor went 
splurging around over Iowa, and finally burst to pieces in Iowa county. A 
man named Maas found one of the pieces, weighing some seventy-five pounds, 
in a round that he was traveling over, and took it home, only to be soon 
notified that it didn't belong to him, but to a society who owned the lands 
through which the road ran. He refused to give it up and the society brought 
suit. Maas claimed it was his by right of discovery, but the society 
insisted that it had fallen on their land and belonged to the realty by 
accretion from natural causes, and the court sustained this view. The 
society will present this chunk to the Iowa State University, and it will go 
into history as the meteor that there was a lawsuit over.

(end)

Homestead Meteorite Article.