The Coconino sun., 1924-11-21

elbow out" or volcanic crater similar
to the hundreds of craters inmorthern
Arizona is. that absolutely no molten
rock or lava is found for a great
many miles of Meteor mountain, and
the bottom of the crater is hundreds
of feet below the surface of the sur
rounding country. The north side of
the crater is somewhat lower than the
south, indicating that the aerolite en-
tered from that direction.
1t is said by students of Indian life
that traditions that the Indians in
this part of the country have legend
concerning the visit of a god from
heaven, who came in a great chariot
of fire which Illuminated the heavens
of the entire country and rocked the
whole country. The legend adds that
the god disappeared into the ground.
1t is possible that not great many
generations ago this phenomenon oc-
Cured, and that the Indians still re-
peat the story of the visitation of the
shooting star. The formations sur
rounding the great pit have every ap-
pearance' 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 water supply for their opera
tions, and Sunday began filling three
tanks on the rim of the crater
1t 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 it would 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 its 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 it made, it
must have been from a quarter to
three quarters of a mile in diameter,
and the weight is estimated into the
millions of tons. The weight of the
fragments are enormous, piece the
size of hens egg weighing about six
pounds.
No chapter in the history of Ari-
Zona is more intensely interesting
than the exploration for the meteor in
Meteor mountain. Years ago the era
ter 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
ories to be.
The first was that the crater was
caused by the impact of a 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 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
dilu SpcClllcIlLS Ol LHCIIl dIG NOW Ill
every museum in the world.
1t was the belief that these frag-
ments constituted the "tail" of the
great meteor that was supposed to
have excavated the crater.
Next, the rock strata was up
heaved and broken in such manner
that nothing but meteoric fall could
account for the fractures and bend
ings; at least that was the theory
of geologists.
Directly opposed to this meteor"