The Winslow mail., 1921-02-18
METEOR MINE MOST
UNIQUE IN WORLD

The guest of William Daze, man
ager of Babbitt Brothers big store
the writer made a motor trip TO the
Meteor mine twenty-seven miles wes1
of Winslow and about four miles
southerly from Sunshine station or
the Santa Fe. 1t was an interesting
trips in more ways than one for II
proved to us that Coconino county
is improving the roads between here
and Flagstaff. Quite gang Of men
and teams were grading near the
county line and a few miles west
there was evidence of their having
done much grading, leveling and
other road improvements all along
as far as We travelled. Just south OF
the so-called crater, we turned from
the National Old Trails and drove to
and gradually ascended to near the
rim. A we'll built camp, comfortable
quarters for the men and most en-
ticing boarding house were discovered
all of which were shown us by Mr..
l.. S. F. Holland, the amiable gentle
man in charge of the work and whose
hospitality is hereby acknowledged
in a large degree Of sincere apprecia-
tiOn.
At distance the crater looks like
an ordinary foothill which has been
detached through some unknown
force from it's original location near
er to higher peak. The picture,
however, as one for the first time
looks down into this hole 500 feet
deep and approximately $500 feet in
diameter, nearly circular, inspires a
different theory. The local formation of
sand and limestone are apparent just
as they are across the more level
stretches OF, the adjacent country
or the crevice of Canyon Diablo
which passes short distance to the
west. The edges of the hole have
been uplifted and tilted and the lower
formation have been pulped and
thrown out upon the edges of the
rim reversing the stratas, placing the
older sedimentaTy upon the younger.
This great hole must have been much
deeper originally for there are
several hundreds of feet of broken,
mixed ground-fine terrestrial materials
below the present bed of the SO called
crater. When this strange nebulous
creation of the heavens submitted
to the laws of gravitation and wan
dered from its course to come in
contact with this earth there must
have been an impact that shook the
very peaks of the snowcapped San
Francisco MOUNTAINS; Who can
measure the speed or estimate the
size of this celestial visitor? Whence
came it? And whittier was it bound
when gravity drew it from its orbit ?
The aerOlite evidently struck at an
angle. The compact sandstones and
the solidified limestones were pene-
trated TO known depths of several
hundred feet, the succeeding stratas
pushed to every side, crushed to
powder and the edges of the great
hole uplifted for a hundred feet or
more. 1t might be likened to hole
that would be made by dropping a
large round rock into soft plastic
mud, only million times larger. We
don't realize the size until We are
informed that this heavenly visitor
displaced and moved more earth and
made bigger excavation than did
the French and United States govern
ments in the making of the Panama
canal And even after this apt COM
parison we fail of full comprehen-
sion.
Man discovered that the meteoric
rion found in that vicinity contained
nickel. Most meteoric iron does
Nickel is valuable. The United States,
Smelling, Refining and Mining Com
pany, one of the two largest COM
panies of it's kind in existence, has
optioned this property and with
drills are seeking to find sufficient
quantity of the meteoric substance
to make it profitable to work.
Heretofore much money has been
expended in drilling in the bed of
the crater. The deeper holes went