[meteorite-list] NPA 03-25-1933: Gigantic (Pasamonte) Meteor Falls Somewhere in America

[MARK BOSTICK]

Paper: Helena Independent
City: Helena, Montana
Date: Saturday, March 25, 1933
Page: 1 and continued on Page 2

GIGANTIC METEOR FALLS SOMEWHERE IN AMERICA

     Amarillo, Tex., March 24. - (AP) - A gigantic meteor lighted the skies 
with awesome brilliance in five southwestern states before dawn today and, 
with a thunderous rumble that rattled doors and windows, apparently 
disintegrated on its earthward plunge.
     Persons in various localities of the north Texas plains region, the 
Oklahoma Panhandle, southwestern Kansas, southern Colorado and New Mexico 
expressed the better that the meteor or fragments of it had fallen nearby, 
but no reports had been received tonight of the findings of parts.

Dazzling Glare

     "I thought it was coming straight for me," said Bill Coyle, who was 
flying east-bound at 9,500 feet over Adrian, Tex. "We were at the same 
altitude."
     A moment after the dazzling light flooded the sky, however, Coyle 
caught sight of the meteor's deep red and bluish tinted tail and saw it was 
going north of him.  He described the meteor as "shaped like a ball," with 
fiery fragments whirling away from it.

Great Blue Light

     Frank Williams was flying 50 miles west of Albuquerque when the whole 
sky was suddenly illuminated "as if someone had turned on a great blue 
electric light."
     He said an "enormous mass of blue light" without a tail, approached 
from a high altitude for eight to 10 seconds from a distance estimated of 
300 miles, and then separated into two clouds - one a very brilliant blue 
and the other yellow and flame colored.  The clouds then seemed to merge and 
remained in view for about half an hour.

Long Visible

     The display was visible at Albuquerque for nearly 30 minutes in the 
form of a huge cloud of fiery gas and at Colorado Springs, the illumination 
lasted for an hour and a half.
     The rattling of doors and windows at Liberal, Kas., caused residents 
there to believe the meteor had struck the earth in that vicinity.

-------------

FRAGMENT FOUND

     Stratford, Tex., March 24. - (AP) - A fragment of the meteor which 
early this morning swept through the southwestern skies in a brilliant 
pyrotechnic display was discovered in a wheat field about seven miles south 
of here today.
    Ed Hart, farmer, said green wheat sod grass was burned about the spot.  
The fragment, a molten metallic mass, was of flat shape, weighing about four 
pounds. It was not imbedded in the soil.

(end)


Clear Skies,
Mark Bostick
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