The Coconino sun., 1924-11-21
Thirty Years Digging for Meteor
-Nes0 Company will Try 1t

Work will soon be resumed at
Meteor mountain, 20 miles west of
Winslow, along different lines from
any employed in the past to locate
the gigantic meteor which is supposed
to lie somewhere beneath the enorm-
Gus pit in the earth's surface which
constitutes the crater of Meteor noun
tain. Last Saturday morning crew
of nine men began dismantling the
rig and drilling engines which, while
idle for the past few months had
made extensive explorations for the
valuable aerolite. Engines, drills,
tanks and casing belonging to the
United States Smeltering and Refin-
ing company are being removed and
prepared for shipment to Salt Lake
City.
The lease of the United States
Smeltering and Refining company is
said to have expired and that another
big concern now holds a lease, and
expects to do regular mining eXplora-
ton by the running of tunnels and
drifts into the region where the me-
teor is supposed to rest. Information
gained by the drilling of the hole into
the south side of the crater is said
to be of such an encouraging nature
that the new company has every ex-
pectation of locating the prize. The
u. S. company sank hole about 1900
feet deep and a few months ago it
was reported that they had struck the
meteor, at least some incredibly hard
substance that neither regular nor
diamond drills would penetrate.
Twelve hundred feet of casing was
sunk into the hole which, when the
hard matter was encountered, be-
came so warped or twisted that it's
removal was impossible, and the cas-
ing imbedded is being abandoned, to-
gether with the rig, which will be left
as monument to as romantic an en-
deavor as the mind of man ever con-
ceived.
A drift of 300 feet, begun 500 feet
down the side of the crater had been
run into the drill hole in an endeavor
to extricate the casing, but without
avail. It is the Supposition of engi-
neers who were connected with the
work at that stage, that the drill
struck the extreme north edge of the
meteor, and because of its exceeding
hardness, drills and casing were de-
Elected in a curve instead of pene-
trating the mass.
The new lease holders will tunnel
into the area Immediately south of
the crater, beginning at a point some
where from a half to a mile south of
the rim, and work northward Indi-
cations are that the meteor, if one
exists, fell to the earth from the
heavens of the north striking at a
tangent, caused the miie-wide, 1000
feet deep pit, imbedding itself and
coming to a halt many hundreds OF
feet beneath the surface and con-
siderable distance south of the awful
hole it left in the ground. At least
that is the supposition, of the men on
the ground, and the belief is enhanced
by evidence of the twisted drill and
casing, and that shaft sunk in the
very middle of the pit many years ago
found indications of the crumbling OIL
the earth formation by, some unex-
planned force, but did not strike the
meteor. This shaft, of the double
compartment type, is still open, sur
rounded by the wrecked building and
machinery of the first big effort to
find the meteor.
The fact that meteorites or broken
fragments of the strange metal of
which the meteor is thought to be
composed are found only on the north
side of the mountain is another indi-
cation that the aerial visitor ap-
preached from the north, and that
these little meteors are portions of the
tail which scattered and fell to earth
separate from the main body.
Another indication pointing to the
premise that the crater is the work
of gigantic meteor, and is not a