[meteorite-list] NPA 02-29-1924 Lost (Canyon Diablo) Meteorite to Contain Platinum

[MARK BOSTICK]

Paper: The News
City: Frederick, Maryland
Date: Friday, February 29, 1924
Page: 8

Lost Meteorite Believed to Contain Platinum

     In the Arizona desert, midway between the Grand Canyon and the 
Petrified forest, the wise men of the Navajo tell a story that is 
generations old. Like many legends of once savage folks, it parallels with 
uncanny accuracy the scientific explanation of a weird phenomenon of nature.
     Ages ago, the Indians say, three of their gods, seeking eternal rest, 
rode to the earth on flaming blue thunderbolts that cleared for them a deep 
and wide-mouthed grave in which the gods still lie
     That is the Navajo version of the fall of what science calls the Canyon 
Diablo meteorite, a huge lump of celestial matter that is believed to lie 
imbedded in the solid rock, 1.400 feet below the desert sands, beneath the 
570-foot crater that it blasted out when it plunged from the sky.
     For 40 years the Navajos have been shaking their heads and prophesying 
evil as they have seen the white man's machinery set up at the crater's edge 
and his drill bite into the tomb where sleep their gods. For mining 
engineers believe that the buried meteorite is a giant treasure chest of 
iron, nickel, platinum, iridium and other valuable minerals. Its size has 
been estimated as between 300 and 1,000 feet in diameter and its weight as 
between a few thousand tons and many millions.
     Recently, the steel point of an oil drill, boring into the rock, was 
shattered against a substance harder than itself. Was it the meteorite? The 
engineers are assuming harder than it was and have sent for additional 
mining machinery to sink a shaft. What the drill struck is more than 1,400 
feet below the surface.
     The sinking of the proposed shaft will enable the engineers definitely 
to ascertain if the mysterious substance was a part of the long-sought 
treasure. But its sinking is likely to prove a difficult task.
     Natural conditions, climate and the presence in the neighborhood of 
thousands of rattlesnakes and rats impede the progress of the mining 
operations. But they are being carried out wherever possible with eagerness 
by both the scientific and industrial world. - Popular Science Monthly.

(end)

Clear Skies,
Mark Bostick
Wichita, Kansas
http://www.meteoritearticles.com
http://www.kansasmeteoritesociety.com
http://www.imca.cc

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The NPA in the subject line, stands for Newspaper Article. The old list 
server allowed us a search feature the current does not, so I guess this is 
more for quick reference and shortening the subject line now.