The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1907-01-18
HUNTING FOR A BURIED METEOR
Suspicious That an Enormous One is
Hidden in Arizona.

1 ousplcions nat an Enormous One IS
Hidden in Arizona.
Out in Arizona there is a curious
conical uplift, not big enough for
/ mountain, but looking like one. 1t
is known as Coon Butte 1t has
height Of only 100 feet above the plain
but is much broader than it is high.
When a person reaches its top he finds
a huge cavity, resembling a crater
The hole goes down four hundred feet
| below the surrounding plain and about
five hundred and sixty feet below the
crest.
Biologists have long speculated in re-
gard to it's origin, and what looked
like possible clew to the mystery
was furnished when bits of meteoric
iron were found on its slopes and
few miles away. The fragment known
as the Canyon Diablo meteorite"
which contained microscopic diamonds,
was discovered near Coon Butte. At
a scientific meeting held in 1891, when
the region was described, Dr. Grove X.
| Gilbert, of Washington suggested
that the fall of the iron masses might
have been connected with the forma-
tion of the crater, and that the large
hole might have been caused by the
penetration OF the earth by an enor-
nous iron meteorite, perhaps 1900 feet
in diameter, large enough to be term
ed an asteroid. In such case the as
teroid is buried in or near the hole,
and probably at no great depth.
Dr. Gilbert was unable to visit the
place himself at the time, but he sent
an assistant to examine the butte and
it's surroundings The latter report
ed that there were indications that the
hole was caused by steam explo-
sion, and the material forming the ele-
walton had probably been forced up
from below Moreover, the presence OF
a large mass of iron it was thought
would be dimly indicated by it's intiu
euce on magnets, properly used for
test purposes, and no evidence OF this
sort was discovered. Hence for time
the meteoric theory was abandoned.
Recently, however, it has been revived.
The startling character Of the suggest
ton will be better appreciated when it
is remembered that the Peary meteor
ite brought from Greenland a few
years ago, and weighing about seventy
tons, measures only four Or five feet
each way. That is one of the biggest
meteorites known, too What, then,
must have been the weight Of one
measuring 1000 or 1900 feet across? Of
course it is not yet proved that me-
teor really did hit the earth and create
a ring around the spot where it went
down, but this subject has now ac-
! quired new importance.
1t seems that two men, D. NJ. Bar
ringer and B. G. Tilghman, became in
terested in DR.. Gilberts theory and
went out and studied the place for
themselves. They found possible ex-
/ PLANTATION of the absence of magnetic
testimony, and remarked that the
! small pieces of rock around the butte
1 we're hardly sufficient to fill up the
/ hole. Hence, they thought, the debris
/ could not have been scattered by
I steam explosion. SO convinced we're
/ they that big meteor was hidden
away there that in 1903 they located"
the mountain under the United States
mineral land laws, and at great ex-
! pcnse proceeded to sink shafts and
make bore holes with the hope Of find
ing the buried asteroid. The results Of
this work. so far as it has yet gone
were recently recorded in two papers
published in the proceedings of the
Academy of Natural Sciences Of Phil
adelphia December, 1905). One Of
them has been written from the point
Of view of the geologist (NIr Barrin-
ger), the other from those of the ply
sicist, chemist and mathematician Ont.
Tilghman). The former says: They
do not leave in my mind scintilla OF
doubt that this mountain and its crat-
er were produced by the impact of a
huge meteorite or small asteroid;" the
latter feels that he is justified, under
due reserve as to subsequently de-
veloped facts, in announcing that the
formation Of this locality is due to the
impact of a meteor of enormous and
unprecedented size"
Until more convincing facts are pre-
scented it will not do to accept views
unQualifiedly, but it is of interest to
know that the hunt is in progress,
/ whatever the result