[meteorite-list] Canyon Diablo & nomenclature...was (Is AmgalaOfficial?/NewBulletin)

[Gerald Flaherty]

Cool Beans Doug! Always a great yarn spinner. This is what I've learned 
often from your contributions to the list!
It's kind of a shame though.
It reminds me of the moment, at about ten, when I learned how to read Comic 
Books. Soon after the text explained what was actually happening, I lost 
interest in them. My wild eyed imagination concocted wilder more compelling 
tales from the pictures, at least in my preadolescent mind, and IT WAS 
INTERACTIVE!
Again that wild eyed imagination had brought "Tail of the Devil" and 
"Devil's Canyon" together and echoes of aboriginal oral tradition whispered 
secrets of witnessed falls[or better, shaman reasoned conformities ie. a 
witnessed fall[can]=a crater ergo a mega crater = a mega fall, a place to 
AVOID.
Yes I'm aware that there is no chance of homo sapiens being present at 
Chixalub and even the "Canyon" stretches "know" facts.
But in a larger sense, What the hell do we KNOW? Mr. Barringer may not have 
been first to deduce an extraterrestrial origin to the Crater that sometimes 
bears his name. Excuse my momentary unscientific mind set. I realize as I 
sit at this infernal machine that I owe most everything to modern science.
But the mists of time beckon. Mind is mind, and reaching beyond facts if 
nothing else invigorates and revitalizes. You know "think" outside the box!
Thanks for your indulgence. And a special thank you to Doug for steering me 
in a sounder direction.
Jerry Flaherty
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <MexicoDoug at aol.com>
To: <markf at ssl.gb.com>
Cc: <jgrossman at usgs.gov>; <peregrineflier at npgcable.com>; 
<meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2005 12:51 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Canyon Diablo & nomenclature...was (Is 
AmgalaOfficial?/NewBulletin)


> _markf at ssl.gb.com_ (mailto:markf at ssl.gb.com)  escribe:
>
>>> Canyon Diablo, what was the reasoning for that  name
>>Tom,  Canyon Diablo = Valley of the devil
>
> Tom, Mark, Jeff, List: Canyon Diablo vs. Meteor Crater is an  interesting
> case in nomenclature.  It is sort of a chicken or egg first  story because 
> how
> could you name a meteorite after the crater it produced is you  want to 
> name it
> AFTER a topographical feature.  If a meteorite wiped out a  city, could 
> you
> could it Chicago Crater instead of just Chicago?  Well  maybe the chicken 
> and
> egg rules can be bent for finds (like Canyon Diablo) vs.  falls...someone 
> must
> have debated this a some time in the MetSoc:)
>
> Mark, "Valley of the Devil" may be where they grow your favorite wine, but
> Canyon Diablo's name would seem to have a different story (A canyon isn't 
> quite
> a valley)...here's the story I pieced together from several interesting
> websites  (I would say the translation is more true as "Sin City")
>
> The canyon had earlier been given its name by Lt. Whipple during an 1853
> army 35th parallel land survey after the Northamericans took the land from
> Mexico.  Due to the extensive detour to cross it, he first cristened the 
> canyon
> "Devil's Canyon".
>
> The railroad had an equally difficult time building a bridge to cross the
> canyon in 1880, and it became the de facto railroad terminal.  Originally 
> named
> for the devil of a canyon to cross, the new town borrowed the railroad's
> designation and earned its name and raised it one by translating the word 
> Devil
> into the Spanish word "Diablo" the latin-blooded naughtier counterpart of 
> the
> meat and potatos Devil.  Surpassing Flagstaff in size and somewhat like a
> modern day Las Vegas, Canyon Diablo was more dangerous than than the Earps 
> and
> Holidays could ever hope to control.  Many competing houses of 
> prostitution,
> gambling and drinking and other parlors and dance halls offering  similar
> opportunity lined the (only) street proudly named Hell Street, and 
> business was
> brisk around the clock in the town that never slept.  There  was no law in 
> the
> town.
>
> The blissful misery of the town got a cold shower and practically vanished
> when the bridge over the canyon was completed in 1890, when there were 
> other
> reasons to pass through and have the Army keep it safe...and Arizona was 
> on the
> way to becoming a State (which happened in 1912).
>
> Saudos, Doug
>
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