[meteorite-list] real men & meteorites

[Jose Campos]

Hi Bernd, Martin and Jerry - and List:

Many thanks for all the info and references on the Old Woman meteorite.
Anyone knows who were the 3 gold prospectors? And there was no reward for 
them??
Does it means that the Smithsonian Institute of Washington has full rights 
over any meteorite that falls, or is found on federal land all over the 
entire USA?
The info mentions that "...The nickel-iron mass lay wedged among boulders up 
a dry wash between two mountain slopes".
Could it be that it probably fell somwhere further up and that  it run 
downwards until it became wedged among boulders?
Was this the only mass found in the area?
José



----- Original Message ----- 
From: <bernd.pauli at paulinet.de>
To: <josecamposcomet at netcabo.pt>
Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2007 9:55 AM
Subject: Re-2: [meteorite-list] real men & meteorites


Hello José, Martin, List:


OLD WOMAN METEORITE (Sky & Telescope, Vol. 54-3, Sep 1997, p. 192):

A three-ton meteorite recently discovered in the Old Woman Mountains of 
California is the
second largest ever found in the United States, outranked only by the 16-ton 
Willamette,
Oregon, meteorite known since 1902. The Old Woman fall is a mass of 
nickel-iron weighing
6,080 pounds (2,758 kilograms) and measuring 4-by-3-by-21/2 feet 
(1.2-by-0.9-by-0.8 meters),
according to newspaper accounts. It fell, presumably several centuries ago, 
in an inaccessible
desert area 170 miles east of Los Angeles.  There it was spotted in March, 
1976, by three gold
prospectors. They sent chips to the Griffith Observatory and the University 
of California at Los
Angeles, where the meteoritic nature of the object was confirmed. Word of 
the discovery reached
Roy S. Clarke, curator of meteorites at the Smithsonian Institution in 
Washington, D.C. The U.S.
Bureau of Land Management determined that the find had been made on federal 
land, and gave
possession of the meteorite to the Smithsonian. The nickel-iron mass lay 
wedged among boulders
up a dry wash between two mountain slopes.  On June 17th, the meteorite was 
airlifted from this
spot by U.S. Marine Corps helicopter, which carried it seven miles to the 
nearest road. Until the
end of June, the Old Woman meteorite was on public display at Riverside, 
California, and then it
was sent to the Smithsonian Institution for scientific study.

FUTRELL D.S.(1998) My visit with the Old Woman (Meteorite!, Feb 98, Vol. 
4-1, pp. 34-35).
NORTON O.R. (1994) The Old Woman Meteorite (Rocks From Space I,  1994, 
pp.252-255).
NORTON O.R. (1998) The Old Woman Meteorite (Rocks From Space II, 1994, 
pp.252-255, 214).


Best regards,

Bernd

To: josecamposcomet at netcabo.pt
    altmann at meteorite-martin.de
    meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com