The Parker post., 1912-08-24
MINING FOR A
HUGE METEOR
TO BE AN IMME NSE
DIAMOND A HALF MILE IN
THICKNESS - FELL IN ARI.
IONA AGES AGO.

| SulttlI hl AH1ZODd TO reach tine Largest
diamond i'm the world, believed to be
no less than half a miLe thick This
shaft lis now fifteen hundred feet i'm
depth. Three or four hundred feet
more, it is expected, will reveal the
great prize.
The scene of this most wonderful
mining operation is Meteor mountain,
this state. The mountain is such in
name only, as lit is little more than
a butte, rising two hundred or three
hundred feet above the desert, about
ten miles from Canyon Diabolo sta
tion, ON the Santa F'e railroad
Viewed from a distance Meteor
mountain looks little different from
the countless other buttes that rear
their heads above the southwestern
desert. But as soon as one begins
ito climb its sides, strewn with me-
teoric fragments, he realizes that he
lis ON the threshold of ONE of the
From the top of the mountain
one gazes into bowl-like depression
in the earth six hundred feet deep
and a mile across. 1t lis in appear
ance like a Volcanic CRATER
| Scientists agree that this crater
marks the place where a giant
meteorite, as large as the circlmnfer-
ence of the bowl would Indicate,
struck THE earth in ages past, per-
ilaps a million OF years ago, and
buried itself deep into the bowels of
the earth-just how deep lit lis the
purpose of the mining syndicate to
ascertain.
When this giant mass struck the
earth there was no hutto thera;- the
butte was created when the meteor
lite struck, it's tremendous weight dis
placing strata of rock, sending huge
clouds of dust into the air and form
ing the miniature mountain as it ex-
lists today.
After the meteorite sank into the
earth the sand and dust settled into
the depression. The drift of ages
sifted over the edges of the huge
bowl and assisted i'm the work of
covering the meteorite.
But the most remarkable timing
about this meteorite APART from its
value would be quite income eivable,
for a good black diamond, though
worthless as a gem, is worth even
more than a white one for mechani-
cal purposes. 1t is quite probable,
however that the bulk of the meteor
consists of white diamonds, i'm which
event there would not be enough
wealth in the world ito p ay for it at
the current price of theprecious stone
The largest diamonds i'm the world
inclLding the Koh1i+noOr, the Culh-
nan, the Great Mogul of Russia, the
Orloff, the Great Premier diamond,
The Tiffany diamond, the Etoile Po
laire, and dozen others of the same
standard, worth i'm the aggregate hum
dreds of million of dollars, might all
be placed together in an ordinary
derby hat and not reach the top.
This meteoric diamond, scientists be-
lieve, must be at Least half a mile
thick The significance of this com
palison is apparent.
1t has long been supposed that all
diamonds might be of meteoric ori
gin, the scientists begin unable to
agree whether the bottomless bores
are known as diamond pipes" are
the result OF ancient volcanic action
expulsion of subterranean labora-
tories which are natures diamond
factories, or OF meteors which are
themselves the cruicibles from celeS-
tial regions i'm which the diamonds
are produced.
Scientifically, therefore, there is
every reason to believe that the Ari-
zona meteor is we'll worth the years
of effort and the hundreds of thou
sands of dollars that have been spent
in trying to locate it; the only ques-
tion being whether it is imbedded
so deeply that all human efforts to
dislodee it will prove fruitless.
Weighing possibly million tons
and falling hundreds of thousands
of miles, the giant mass must have
been travelling at AN uncomfortable
rate of speed when lit struck the
earth, yet the engineers who have
been directing the mining operation
believe that it could not have pene