The Winslow mail., 1924-11-14
STILL ANOTHER
PLAN TO FIND
THE METEOR IN
METEOR NTH.
Continued from Page u

searance of being of recent geologi-
cal age.
The new company, which will be-
gin work the first of the year, or as
soon as possible thereafter, has al
ready built dams in Canyon Diablo
to insure a water supply for their
operations, and Sunday began filing
three tanks on the rim of the crater.
It is said that the new lease hold
ers of the property have been offered
a contract of $12 pound for the
metal composing the meteor, If the
meteor itself is found. To handle the
metal, special and new methods will
have to be devised, new type Of mills
erected, new smelling process en-
ployed, and that unless the main
meteor is found itswould be impracti-
cable. to- attempt extracting the valu-
able portions from the fragments,
many hundreds Of which have been
found, however.
Analysis of the pieces found indi-
cate that it's platinum content is very
high, and diamonds have been found
In profusion in some pieces.
Estimates of the bulk Of the meteor
are of course wholly guess work, but
from the size of the hole 1t made, it
must have been from quarter to
&hree-quarters of mile in diameter,
and the weight is estimated into the
millions of tons. The weight of the
fragments are enormous, a piece the
size of a hens egg weighing about
six pounds.
No chapter in the history of ART
iona is more intensely interesting
than the exploration for the meteor in
Meteor mountain. Years ago the GRAFT
er was observed by explorers and it
became the subject of general discus
sion in scientific circles. There were
two theories-and they were as wide
ly different as it is possible for the
cries to be.
The first was that the crater was
caused by the impact of monster
meteorite which, ages ago, fell from
the skies.
The adherents of this theory had
many things to substantiate their idea.
First of all, Canyon Diablo, which ex-
tends a long distance north of the
crater, was literally carpeted with
small meteoric stones consisting OF
iron, nickel, small quantities of plati-
mum and microscopic diamonds. There
never was the slightest doubt about
these being true meteOrs or aerolites
and specimens of them are now in
every museum in the world.
1t was the belief that these frag
xnents constituted the tail" of the
great meteor that was supposed to
have eXcavated the crater.
Next. the rock strata were up
heaved and broken in such manner
that nothing but a meteoric fall could
account for the fractures and bend
ings; at least that was the theory
of geoligists.
Directly opposed to this meteor"
idea was that of the scientists who
claimed that every indication could
be accounted for by the ordinary
theory of blow-outs. They said that
the occurrences at Meteor mountain
could be duplicated in hundred
other places in the state and that
there was nothing at all out of the
ordinary.
The first attempt at a practical
solution of the mystery-and there
could be but one, to dig in the path
of the observation-disclosures the sinking
of a shaft in the center of the era
Tex ana LQ6 running Ol UIIAt W TIC
point where more or less doubtful
mathematical computations showed
that the chief mass might be expect
ed to lie.
Such a shaft was actually begun
by the old company and the shaft
was sunk some 800 or $50 feet Funds
gave out before the drift could be
we'll started, and the project came to
a standstill.
1t probably would never have been
revived but for the discovery that the
little meteorites scattered all along
Canyon Diablo had considerable
platinum content
Fred Volz had a little trading post
at the canyon and he and his boys
turned an extra penny by gathering
these aerolites and selling them to
tourists. The story goes-and there
is every reason to believe it-that
couple of Hebrew peddlers bought
handful Of the meteorites as curioSi-
ties and that they came back few
weeks later and cleaned out the stock
that Volz had on hand. They also
told him that they would buy all he
could find, and Fred thought he had
developed a miniature gold mine, un-
til it was discovered that the stones"