If there is some on the nearby military base who owns those pieces? Does
this land fall under the same sort of regulations as other US federally
owned land?
Cheers,
Jeff
----- Original Message -----
From: "Linton Rohr" <linton...@earthlink.net>
To: "Greg Stanley" <stanleygr...@hotmail.com>
Cc: <meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 30, 2010 1:15 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] More on the Lorton... or Lorton hears a Who ?
Thank you, Greg!
I've been thinking about poor Mrs. Hodges and her landlord all afternoon.
I wondered when someone would bring up Sylacauga.
Interesting that neither one of them ended up with the meteorite.
It's looking like that might be the case with Lorton, as well.
Hopefully other stones are found.
Linton
back to packing for Tucson now...
----- Original Message -----
From: "Greg Stanley" <stanleygr...@hotmail.com>
To: <magellon....@gmail.com>; <cdtuc...@cox.net>
Cc: <meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Friday, January 29, 2010 5:15 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] More on the Lorton... or Lorton hears a Who
?
Strangely familiar:
I think if you get 'hit' by a meteorite, then it is yours, regardless of
where it falls.
Greg S.
http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1280
Hodges Meteorite Strike (Sylacauga Aerolite)
On November 30, 1954, a meteorite crashed through the roof of a home in
Sylacauga, Talladega County, striking resident Ann E. Hodges (1923-1972).
She was the first person ever to have been injured by a meteorite, and
the event caused a nationwide media sensation and a year-long legal
battle. The meteorite, which weighs about eight and one-half pounds, is
on permanent display at the Alabama Museum of Natural History at the
University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
Hodges was napping on her living-room couch at mid-day when the meteorite
came through the ceiling, hit a console radio, and smashed into her hip.
Awakened by the pain and noise, she thought the gas space heater had
exploded. When she noticed a grapefruit-sized rock lying on the floor and
a ragged hole in the roof, she assumed children were the culprits. Her
mother, Ida Franklin, rushed outside and saw only a black cloud in the
sky. Alabamians in and around the area saw the event from a different
perspective, with many reporting that they had seen a fireball in the sky
and heard a tremendous explosion that produced a white or brownish cloud.
Most assumed it involved an airplane accident.
A meteorite crashed through the roof of the Hodges Meteorite
StrikeSylacauga Chief of Police W. D. Ashcraft and Sylacauga mayor Ed
Howard responded to the call from the Hodges's residence. They had Ann
Hodges examined by physician Moody Jacobs, who determined that although
her hip and hand were swollen and painful, there was no serious damage.
(He later checked her into the hospital for several days to spare her
from all the excitement.) Ashcraft and Howard showed the rock to
geologist George Swindel, who was conducting fieldwork in the area. He
tentatively identified the object as a meteorite. That evening they
turned the meteorite over to officers from Maxwell Field, Montgomery, who
took it to Air Force intelligence authorities for analysis. Air Force
specialists identified it as a meteorite and sent it to curators at the
Smithsonian Institution, who, delighted with their windfall, declined to
send it back to Alabama. Not until Alabama Congressman Kenneth Roberts
intervened
was the meteorite finally returned to the state, where it soon became
the focus of a highly public legal battle.
By nightfall some 200 reporters and sightseers filled the Hodges's yard,
and Ann's husband, Hewlett, arriving home late, was upset by the crowd.
Television, radio and newspaper excitement lasted for weeks, highlighted
by a very public dispute between the Hodges and Birdie Guy, from whom the
Hodges rented their home. Facing repair expenses for the damaged house,
Guy was advised by her attorney that legal precedent had established that
meteorites were the property of the landowner, and she sued for
possession of the rock. The Hodges threatened to counter-sue for Ann's
injuries, and the outraged public sided with her. Before it went to
trial, cooler heads prevailed and after a modest private settlement, Guy
gave up her claim on the meteorite to the Hodges.
Ann Hodges was barraged by publicity and appeared in Life magazine
displaying a sizable bruise on her hip. She was persuaded to go to New
York to appear on Gary Moore's TV quiz show I've Got a Secret. Her life
story appeared in the Sunday magazine supplement of many Rosa Hall of the
Alabama Museum of Natural Hodges Meteoritenewspapers and in national
magazines. Hewlett Hodges believed that the couple stood to make a
fortune from the incident. He refused what he considered an inadequate
offer for the meteorite from the Smithsonian Institution, claiming he had
received other offers as high as $5,500. In the end, Ann Hodges, not
knowing how to bargain with the media, earned at most only a few hundred
dollars from the incident that had made her famous. By 1956, the bad
publicity surrounding the lawsuit ended the monetary offers, and she
donated the meteorite to the Alabama Museum of Natural History.
Ann Hodges's physical injuries healed, but she was never able to recover
emotionally from her brush with celebrity. She and Hewlett separated in
1964. They both agreed that the emotional impact and disruption caused by
the meteorite were contributing factors and said they wished it had never
happened. Ann Hodges's health declined and in 1972, after some years as
an invalid, she died. She is buried in the cemetery behind Charity
Baptist Church in Hazel Green in Madison County.
Probably the only major figure in the entire Sylacauga meteorite story to
claim a satisfactory ending was Julius K. McKinney, a farmer who lived
near the Hodges. On December 1, 1954, the day after Ann Hodges was
struck, he discovered a second fragment of the meteorite in the middle of
a dirt road. McKinney was able to sell his rock to the Smithsonian for
enough to purchase a small farm and a used car. This fragment is on
display at the Smithsonian Institution, but the label strangely does not
acknowledge its more famous Alabama sibling.
John C. Hall
University of West Alabama
----------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:03:29 -0500
From: magellon....@gmail.com
To: cdtuc...@cox.net
CC: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] More on the Lorton... or Lorton hears a
Who ?
Do you think the landowners would be so anxious to claim it, had the
meteorite struck a patient?
Just thinking,
Ken
On Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 9:30 AM, wrote:
Possession isn't nine-tenths of the law. It's nine-tenths of the
problem.
John Lennon
--
Carl or Debbie Esparza
Meteoritemax
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