[meteorite-list] NPA 07-05-1939 Washougal Meteorite Report

[MARK BOSTICK]

Paper: Syracuse Herald
City: Syracuse, New York
Date: Wednesday, July 5, 1939
Page: 12

PORTLAND METEOR

     A mighty explosion rocked Portland, Ore., Sunday morning, shaking 
buildings, rattling dishes and alarming thousands of people who were 
awakened when their beds went haywire or at least vibrated enough to make 
the occupants suspect that July 4 disturbers were setting off giant 
firecracker beneath them.
     Indeed, it seems probable that more superstitious people along the 
Pacific Coast may have concluded that the gods, anticipating the American 
Fourth, were tossing mammoth torpedoes.
     Subsequent investigations seems to have established that the early 
morning commotion was caused by a huge meteor that suddenly shot in from 
some heavenly fireworks factory and exploded in the desolate Wind River 
section about 40 miles northwest of Portland.
     The Associated Press says that "scores of persons" say they "looked 
skyward in time to see a vast burst of smoke and spurting flame," the earth 
shimmying simultaneously. A druggist at Eugene, Ore., 100 miles south of 
Portland, says he saw the meteor, which he describes as being "big as the 
moon."
     Although scientists have not had time to make a check on the stories 
and conduct investigations in the Wind River neighborhood, the exploding 
meteor theory of the reverberations that hit Portland seems to be 
substantiated by the fact that the seismograph at the University of 
Washington at Seattle did not register any earthquake or ground shock.
     Study may prove that the Portland affair was a small-scale repetition 
of the incident that occurred several thousand years ago in the Arizona 
desert when a large mass of meteorites or a comet plunged into the earth and 
exploded. The gaping hole left by that cataclysm can be observed ear Winslow 
today. It is know as the Meteor Crater and is three miles in circumference, 
nearly a mile across and 570 feet deep. There is an excellent photograph of 
this phenomenon in the July issue of the National Geographic Magazine.

(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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PDF copy of this article, and most I post (and about 1/2 of those on my 
website), is available upon e-mail request.

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.