Hello List, The following is a brief account of a story about a Murchison meteorite, an adventure, and a mission to promote world peace.
It is also an ad to sell some Murchison part slices with a unique history and documented provenance. http://meteoriteusa.com/murchison.htm *************** DeVere Baker was an explorer and adventurer born in 1915 to Mormon parents in Utah. He developed a love for the water and built a shipyard in California that did work for the US Navy during WWII. He had the goal of sailing the ocean currents on a raft to prove that writings in the Book of Mormons were true about possible voyages over long distances on rafts. Over the years he built a series of 5 rafts each named Lehi (after the prophet) with the idea of sailing from California to Hawaii. "The Lehi IV set sail July 5th, 1958 from Redondo Beach with four crew plus Tangaroa (the dog). Despite storms, heavy winds and shark encounters the raft stayed on track, easily demonstrating, as others have done, that one can live at sea off rainwater and fish for long periods. After a total of 69 days of sailing some 2100 miles across the northern Pacific, Baker and his small crew made landfall in Maui in the Hawaiian islands." Baker became a celebrity after the successful raft journey. He started touring and giving lectures on world peace and his spiritual beliefs. In 1970 he visited the area around Victoria, Australia to promote a film he made about sailing on his rafts and he heard about the Murchison meteorite that fell there a year earlier. Baker’s grandson, Greg Ballard was with him in Australia and when they stopped at a rest stop / park area near Murchison. Greg decided to look for pieces of the meteorite. Greg said it didn't take long for him to stumble across a softball sized rock that appeared to be what his grandfather was looking for. His grandfather immediately recognized it for what it was and took the meteorite from him to use to further his cause in promoting world peace. During this trip, Captain Baker was given another piece of Murchison by a young Australian girl named Ellen Castle to also help his cause for world peace. Later, Captain Baker cut a piece off of the meteorite that Greg found, bringing its weight to 569 grams. In 1972 he donated a piece to Brigham Young University. This piece was either the slice from Greg's find or the fragment from Miss Castle. The remainder of the meteorite was given back to Greg from his grandfather's estate in 1990. DeVere Baker wrote several books including “The Raft Dog”, about his experience drifting to Hawaii, “The Intruder”, about his Murchison meteorite, and “Quetara” a book about a beautiful alien female. These three books were combined to create another book called "The Raft, The Meteorite and a Dog!" In March of 2014, I got a call from Greg Ballard in California and he told me he had a Murchison meteorite that he had found in Australia and would I be interested in buying it. When he said it was “larger than a softball”, I told him that indeed if it was Murchison, it was quite valuable. Over the next several months Greg and I worked out an agreement where I arranged for the purchase of part of the meteorite, with him giving the balance of it to a public non-profit foundation for donation to two Museums in North Carolina. I was recently able to take some slices from the meteorite for resale to offset some of the costs of the purchase. Since the meteorite had been cut before I received it, I was comfortable with taking some additional slices from it. Cutting and polishing the rough side where it was originally cut, improved its appearance greatly. Greg gave me permission to use his grandfather’s writings and pictures in displaying and telling the story of the Murchison. Included with each slice purchased are copies of pictures and descriptions of the Murchison and its history since found in 1970. Plus copies of two letters sent to Captain Baker in 1958 and 1961. Taking into consideration the cost of the meteorite, the cost of cutting, the cut loss, the history, the provenance and that most of the meteorite is going to museums, consider the value of owning a slice of this meteorite. I'm limited in the amount of this meteorite that I can offer to collectors. Thank you for taking time to visit my webpage about this Murchison and the related information and pictures. http://meteoriteusa.com/murchison.htm John MeteoriteUSA.com ______________________________________________ Visit the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
