Here S the Entire Story As Best As I Can Remember It

Hi Anne:

Thanks for the kind words. The original sample analyzed by NASA has or will be donated to the Smithsonian, and I am equally impressed that a portion will eventually end up at Harvard. I am really looking forward to getting my hands on the two slices you said you would provide, one being for me and the other for the landowner.

Here’s the entire story as best as I can remember it….

November 20, 2004: My best friend of 25 years, Mark, and I had camped out on his ranch in Karon, Texas as deer season was in full swing. We hit the deer blinds about 5:00 AM and after four hours had passed, Mark buzzed in on the walkie-talkie to call off the hunt and asked if I wanted to be picked up so we could have breakfast. I declined and elected to hike back instead approx. 1 to 1.5 miles to camp. The property is a mixture of open pastures and areas thick with mesquite and scrub brush on gently rolling hills. During the hike back I was crawling through a thicket of 6 foot sage brush and prickly pear cactus and was literally straddling a bayonet yucca plant trying my best not impale myself when my left foot landed almost on top of the meteorite. Once I got my right leg over the yucca plant I took about 3 steps or so, and it dawned on me that the “rock” I almost stepped on looked grossly out place as the property is littered with light gray and tan colored rocks. To this day I’m not sure what prompted me to, but, I laid down my rifle and dug up the rock (the triangular shaped face was the exposed surface). I called my buddy on the walkie talkie and told him I thought I had just found a meteorite, although I had never seen one before. He laughed and said, “Yeah right, hurry up…. Breakfast is almost ready”. I walked about ½ mile and called him back and said, ”If this is a meteorite we’re splitting the proceeds 50/50 or I’m throwing it back in the bushes”. He laughed again and said, “Fine”.

When I got back to the campsite I handed it to Mark and he said, “Nice rock Steve” and literally tossed it into the bed of his pick-up. I nearly flipped out, so I grabbed it, rinsed it off and put it in my duffle bag. Later that evening we checked into a hotel and had a few drinks and while I was having a closer look it rolled out of my hand and landed on my left foot and broke my big toe which was bare at the time. The next day we drove back to Houston and that is essentially when I started my quest to find out if the rock I had found had fallen from the heavens. I took several photos and began contacting those in the know. Ironically, Mark’s father is a geologist and he laughed when I sent him the photos and responded with his professional opinion that I had most likely found an iron ore sedimentary concretion.

When I offered to drive the rock to the Cosmic Mineralogist at NASA, he told me not to get too excited as only one in a thousand rocks ever submitted for testing turns out to be a meteorite. He asked that I knock a small piece off with a hammer and he’d let me know in a few weeks what I had found. I kept reading everything I could find then I got a phone call from NASA congratulating me with the words, “You have indeed found a meteorite”. He asked for directions to my house so he could see the entire specimen and a couple of days later he showed up in his Saturn, oddly enough. He said it was the first one he had seen in years that was found by a novice and he appeared more excited than I was. It was at that point that I decided it needed to be shared with meteorite enthusiasts rather than collecting dust on the mantle piece. But now I somewhat miss not having it as every time I walked past it I’d stop to have a closer look and ponder about its journey to Texas, my luck and gratitude for being inquisitive.

At the request of the landowner the exact location will not be identified as he doesn’t want the property turned into a haven for prospectors. As for identifying us, Steve (finder) and Mark (landowner) will be sufficient.

Best regards,