Johnstown Meteorite

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This page is owned and maintained by Pauli Driver Smith (Hollyhockfarms.com). Please report any broken links or problems with this page to
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Weld County Coordinator. Be sure to include the URL of the page you are referring to!

This site was last updated on: August 26, 2008

On July 6, 1924 funeral goers, baseball fans and farmers witnessed this amazing sight as balls of fire and trailing tails of gray smoke fell from the northern sky.

The general fall path runs along a line from just northeast of the Johnstown Cemetery, southwest to the town of Mead. According to the Johnstown Breeze on October 7, 1999, "The Johnstown Meteorite might have been more accurately named the Mead Meteorite. [. . .} The heavier meteorite were found near Johnstown, while smaller, lighter pieces were found near Mead, indicating the meteor entered the atmosphere near Mead first and scattered towards Johnstown" (7)."

A book was written by Harvey Nininger called "Out of the Sky" published in 1952. His account is a little out of date as far as meteorite research is concerned, but it is a great read from the perspective of historical eyewitness accounts.

E. O Hovey described the event as follows:
 

"At 4:20 in the afternoon of a cloudless day, four terrific explosions were heard. Then came a series of minor bursts, like the crackling of a machine gun. Other accounts describe the noise as resembling 'shrill screeched," 'whistling' and 'the exhaust of an aeroplane.' Grayish blue "smoke" puffs are described as accompanying the explosions, and then the missiles struck with a 'thud' a 'thug,' or a 'thump;' . . . At least four of the largest fragments were seen to fall, and although they were separated considerable distances the course of each was marked by a trail of 'light gray smoke.'

"The first piece unearthed fell in the highway about thirty feet from the doors of a little church at Elwell. At the time, a funeral service was being held in the yard behind the church, and the fall was witnessed and heard by not fewer than two hundred persons. . ." (quoted in Nininger 17).

 

A number of small pieces were picked up in the fields between the cemetery west of Johnston and the town of Mead some 10 miles west. People in and around Mead were attracted by the sound of meteorites striking on roofs. May were recovered, ranging in size from that of a pea to that of a walnut. Sam Drieth recovered a stone from his field that weighed 5lbs. He took it home and placed it in a trunk until 1937 when he gave it to Harvey Nininger.

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