[meteorite-list] NPA 07-03-1939 Washougal Meteorite Jolts Portland

[MARK BOSTICK]

Paper: Reno Evening Gazette
City: Reno, Nevada
Date: Monday, July 3, 1939
Page: 1 (of 12)

Portland Jolted by Blast From Sky; Scientists Hunt For Fragments of Meteor
Large Area Rocked Early Yesterday by Huge Explosion Which Broke Windows, 
Cracked Wells; Flames Seen For Many Miles

     PORTLAND, Ore. July 3 (AP) - Portland, jolted and terrified by an 
apparent exploding meteor, joined science in a search for fragments of the 
celestial visitor today.

BLINDED BY FLAMES

     The Portland area and southwestern Washington were rocked at 7:58 a.m., 
yesterday by the mammoth explosion and blinded by flames flashing from the 
sky. Reports of the blast came in from as far away as Arlington, 126 miles 
up the Columbia river.
     J. Hugh Pruett, University of Oregon astronomer and Oregon 
representative of the American Meteorological Association, sifted reports of 
the object's trajectory as hundreds of amateurs took to the field in efforts 
to find meteorites - fragments of the heavenly body.
     Pruett said it probably would be two weeks before he could determine 
just where the explosion occurred.
     Portland residents, however, will swear it was right over the city. A 
stone wall toppled, windows were broken, a store wall cracked and a rural 
mail box knocked loose from its post by the force of the blast.

TAIL OF FIRE

     Witnesses said the object flashed across the sky from the southward, 
trailing a tail of fire, just before the explosion. Hundreds of persons 
verified that the burst of smoke and flame appeared to be over the northern 
section of the city or the Columbia river at a height of about 5000 feet.
     First person to sight the projectile was Ford Hand, Eugene druggist. He 
said it looked "big as a moon" as it passed over Eugene, 100 miles south of 
here. It made no noise there. Indicating to Pruett it was more than fifty 
miles high. Numerous others in the Willamette Valley saw it, trailing flame, 
before it exploded.
     The first blast was followed by a

     THE METEOR which burst in the air near Portland, Ore., has revived the 
public interest in this type of celestial visitor and has kept the 
scientists busy explaining that as far as the record goes no one has ever 
been killed or injured by meteorites, as the fragments of bursting meteors 
are called. Indeed, as compared with lightning, which is an earthly 
phenomenon, not a heavenly visitor, the element of danger is practically 
non-existent.
     One of the first recorded falls of meteorites took place in China about 
644 B.C., and other strange fragments which fell from the sky are recorded 
by Plutarch and Pliny as objects of worship. The stone referred to in the 
Acts as the image of Diana of the Ephesians, which "fell down from Jupiter," 
is believed to have been a meteoric stone, as is doubtless the sacred stone 
built into the Kaaba at Mecca.
     The largest meteorite on display is that brought back from Cape York, 
Greenland, by Commander Robert E. Peary, which weighs some thirty-six tons. 
A large crater-like depression near Canyon Diablo in Arizona, a mile across 
and some 550 feet deep, is believed to have been made by a meteor in some 
prehistoric day.
     The interest of science in meteorites particularly is that of 
determining the identity of rocks and minerals from the regions of outer 
space, but to date no new element has been found in them. On the other hand 
some common elements, including the strongly radioactive ones, have yet to 
be definitely detected. These visitors from outer space bombard the earth at 
fairly frequent intervals, many more than are recorded, since some of them 
burst about the sea or the uninhabited regions, but so far their mission 
seems to be a beneficent one. Nature seems to have arranged for dissipating 
their force before these "shrapnel: shells from outer space reach the 
earth's surface

(end)

Paper: Reno Evening Gazette
City: Reno, Nevada
Date: Monday, July 3, 1939
Page: 2 (of 12)

diminishing series of rumbles fasting approximately thirty seconds.
     Concussion of the explosion was felt within a forty-mile radius of 
motorist, Mr. and Mrs. C. P. Adkison of Eugene and Mr. and Mrs. O. S. 
Peterson of Sunnyside, Wash., said they saw the phenomenon and heard the 
explosion while traveling near Arlington, on the Columbia river highway.
     G. A. Wilkander, amateur astronomer here, estimated the smoke from the 
explosion was sixty degrees above the horizon and 15 to 20 degrees east of 
the North Pole.

SCIENTISTS COMMENT

     CAMBRIDGE, Mass. July 3 (AP) Harvard University scientists, reading 
reports of an exploding meteor heard over the Pacific northwest yesterday, 
said today it was "highly probably something fell to earth" but that a year 
might elapse before it was found.
     They doubted the celestial visitor bust at 5000 feet, as suggest by 
some witnesses, and said instead it more likely exploded fifteen or twenty 
miles up. The noise of other exploding meteors has been heard sixty to 
seventy kilometers away, they said, but the fact the Portland blast was 
heard 125 miles from the location given by witnesses, was unusual. That 
distance would be roughly equivalent to 200 kilometers.
     The Harvard experts explained that between 1000 and 10,000 solid 
particles weighing half a pound or more, hit the earth each year.
     One of the best known was a meteor that struck in north central Siberia 
on June 30, 1908 with a terrific blast, compressing air in front of it that 
blew down trees for fifteen or twenty miles around. Another, thousands of 
years ago, cut a crater three-quarters of a mile wide in Arizona.

AT HIGH ALTITUDE

     A meteor which did not strike the earth was heard over southern Vermont 
and central Massachusetts on May 26, 1935. It burst some 15 1/2 miles in the 
air and to the north of Ware, Mass., according to the best reports, and the 
sound was heard over a wide radius. Harvard collected 167 reports of the 
occurrence.
     The Harvard scientists said that when meteors burst with a thunderous 
noise they usually were at least fifteen to twenty miles above the earth. In 
one instance, however, a meteor was determined to have burst at a altitude 
of four miles above Iowa in the 1890's.
     The largest meteor ever picked up from the earth's surface is 
thirty-six and one-half tons, a chunk mostly of iron, approximately ten feet 
by six by five. It was found in Melville Bay, Greenland, and is in the 
American Museum of Natural History in New York.
     By the time the meteors or their fragments reach the earth's surface 
they are usually harmless. Several houses have been hit in various parts of 
the world without worse damage than holes in the roof. The meteors re not 
molten when they hit, and not usually more than warm. This is because the 
blaze of light is due to friction which melts only a thin later on the 
outside. Meanwhile the inside of the rock, or iron, does not have time to 
heat up much before the meteor strikes.
     A meteor like the one supposed to have struck in Arizona long ago could 
theoretically destroy much of a great city. There is a scientific dispute as 
to whether certain craters along the Carolina coasts represent the fragments 
in the heard of a comet that struck there apparently millions of years ago. 
Geologists who held the comet theory declared that such an event might 
spread death over an area of several states, although they did not claim 
everyone would be killed.

(end)

The “Portland Meteor” is the Washougal meteorite. This meteorite fell July 
2, 1939 in Clark County, Washington at 7:35 a.m. A single stone, 225 grams, 
is all that was recovered.



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.