[meteorite-list] NPA 07-05-1939 Washougal Meteorite Creates Interest

[MARK BOSTICK]

Paper: Reno Evening Gazette
City: Reno, Nevada
Date: Wednesday, July 5, 1939
Page: 4 (of 16)

PORTLAND'S METEOR

     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)

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

http://stores.ebay.com/meteoritearticles

PDF copy of this article, and most I post (and about 1/2 of those on my 
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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.