[meteorite-list] FW: West, Texas Hunt

[Pete Pete]

Apologies for the re-post...I sent the first without a proper Subject line and introduction.
 
Posted on behalf of Marc D. Fries...
 


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> From: marc.d.fries at jpl.nasa.gov
> To: rsvp321 at hotmail.com
> Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 08:17:50 -0800
> Subject: Post to list?
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> Howdy
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> I’ve just returned home from a one-day, solo scramble at West. I went with the goal of making a rough map of the strewn field to complete a project I’ve been working on, and hopefully to find some meteorites. I can claim victory on the first point, but not on the second. What I can do here is report on what the conditions are like at present.
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> The weather was beautiful while I was there – clear, somewhat windy, and chilly. I wore a fleece top, jeans and long, lightweight underwear and was good to go all day. I started with a short recon of the area on Saturday evening and spent all day Sunday searching and talking with the locals. The locals were marvelous – one couple gave me free reign to search their property and a guided tour around to see the households that reported sonic booms and even flickering lights, and to point out land where meteorites had been collected. A few landowners didn’t want anyone on their property, and a couple of those lay directly astride the fall line. That’s too bad, but from what I could make out the various meteorite hunters were doing a good job of respecting their privacy. All in all, the locals were marvelously helpful and friendly. I don’t know what Mike Farmer was talking about with his problems with them. I suspect that the real problem wasn’t how close they are to Waco as he said, but rather how close they were to Mike Farmer.
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> I also met the dog. You know which one I mean!
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> There were a few groups working “on contract” with the locals to search land. I didn’t join in, as I wanted to cover a lot of ground in other ways. I did search along the various roads that cross the strewn field, and received comments from passers-by several times to the tune of, “you should have been here yesterday – there were twenty people where you’re standing!”. Great. In the end, no meteorites for me. This time. ;-)
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> Oh, and the koloches were wonderful. Hadn’t had one in years!
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> So, good luck to those out there now – I’m jealous and seriously want to go put a boot in various yahoos here at work who won’t give me time and resources to join in. Apparently NASA doesn’t count finding meteorites as an especially important endeavor. Quite a comment there.
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> Best of luck to you all in West, but leave some for me! ;-)
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> Cheers,
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> Marc Fries
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