May he rest in peace, my father used to mourn for the star-spangled nights of his Mississippi County boyhood. Fearful people had become electric fools, he said, and were turning the night into day.
Municipal electricity had illuminated some cities, but in general, the stars had little competition in that year. And so my 10-year-old dad surely noticed the big meteorite that streaked across the state in July 1916, landing below the fold on the front page of Little Rock's Arkansas Gazette.
"Search today failed to locate a huge meteorite which was seen last night by hundreds as it shot across the sky and fell somewhere in Garland county," the Gazette reported. "The shock of its collision with the earth is reported to have been felt by a score of persons.
"Autos loaded with newspaper men with cameras and curiosity seekers journeyed to various spots where the meteorite was reported to be smoldering, but their hunt was in vain. The search will be continued, however, as it is an undisputed fact that the flaming mass was seen and the shock of its fall felt."
As that steamy July unfolded, "undisputed" would look a bit like hyperbole. But in this first report, the Gazette certainly had suggestive evidence:
"The meteorite was first reported to have fallen near the home of Mrs. J.W. Stipes in Mountain Valley township northeast of Hot Springs, and that it was as large as a five-room house and still smoldering. This was denied by Mrs. Stipes this morning. She said she saw it, however, and felt the heat. She did not estimate its distance from the earth, but said that sparks followed in its wake. It made a noise like that of a fast train, she said."
The Gazette added, "The appearance of the meteorite is said to have caused almost a panic at a revival meeting in Union township."
ACCOUNTS DIFFER
On July 16, the Gazette carried another report from Hot Springs: "Declare Second Meteorite Fell, Is Believed to Have Fallen in Saline River -- No Traces of First." Diligent search in northern Garland County around Jessieville had turned up nothing.
"No less than a dozen automobile parties followed the trail of the meteorite last night and this morning, but none of them found it," the Gazette reported. Knowing that area today, I'm imagining some scary wheeling along gravel roads in heavily forested hills.
A woman living beyond Jessie- ville said she heard three distinct
explosions after the passage of the meteorite.
And one John Baldwin, who had traveled to Hot Springs from Marble township in Saline County, testified to seeing a second meteorite and that many residents of the township had, too. He reported a large number of dead fish floating in the Saline River. Also, people were saying the water was remarkably hot.
Page 3 of the July 17 paper copied an entry from the Encyclopedia Britannica explaining that "Meteorites Often Disappear as Dust."
On its Page 2 on July 18, the Gazette reported the "government Forest Bureau" had instructed rangers to search for the meteorite. Also, the Weather Bureau's section director H.S. Cole shared 12 of the citizen reports he'd received. Some of the accounts disagreed about the timing, appearance, direction of travel and sounds emitted by the marvel.
It was very brilliant but made no noise; the size of a baseball and with a tail about 2 feet long. It made no noise but gave a brilliant light like a skyrocket bright enough to cast a reflection on buildings. It gave off sparks. It resembled a large falling star, but made no noise ...
"According to W.S. Hann, 622 1-2 Main street, the meteorite was seen directly overhead in Little Rock and disappeared toward the southwest. It made no noise, but cast off sparks. At first it was about one-third the size of the moon, but soon broke into three parts, one going north, one southeast and one apparently straight down."
A man in Rison also saw it burst into fragments.
My favorite of the citizen reports is summed up thus: "Mrs. D.M. Livesay of DeVall's Bluff was automobiling about 9:30 o'clock and gives a vivid description of the appearance of the meteorite. She said it moved very slowly." That is all the Gazette reported that she reported.
Meanwhile, the editorial page attempted a quip: "You don't suppose, do you, that what was believed to be a meteorite in Garland county could have been a shell from the great offensive in Europe?"
SCIENCE
"Where is the meteorite which fell last Thursday night?" the paper asked July 20.
Cole was "on the trail of the meteorite." He had sent 30 letters or "blanks" out to weather observers around the state, "and others," requesting their descriptions of the visitor.
He had a state map on the wall of his office. Each time he received a reply, he placed an arrow on the originating town. "He points the arrow in the direction in which the meteorite disappeared," the paper reported.
On July 20, he had eight arrows "with reasonable accuracy," and all pointed to Perry County, not Garland County.
By July 21, "another clue to the mystery of the location of the meteorite which fell last Thursday night was received from Conway that the meteorite had disappeared toward the southwest. This practically confirms the belief of H.S. Cole, section director of the Little Rock Weather Bureau, that the meteorite will be found in Perry county if any portion of it reached the earth."
And yet -- "Mrs. J.T. Wilson of Alexander ... writes that she saw the meteorite going from east to west and thinks that it fell to the earth a few miles from her home. She describes the sound of the meteorite as like a boiler explosion, followed by a noise like the boiling of a large lake of water."
God bless, you, Missus Wilson, for not hearing trains in the sky.
Note that Alexander straddles Pulaski and Saline counties.
BELIEVE METEORITE FOUND
In August 1916, the paper reprinted an article from Alexander Winchell's book, World-Life: a Comparative Geology, asserting that meteorites were stones and that they had fallen for centuries before science believed in them, but now it did.
On Nov. 9, 1916, the Gazette finally had its quarry, as it were: A large stone had been found in Saline County by Elisha Deddridge and T.J. Woodall on Mr. Doddridge's [sic] land 2 1/2 miles west of Traskwood in the middle of an old road in a swamp.
"It is grayish in color and weighs about 90 pounds," the Gazette reported. "Mr. Woodall took it to his home and it is attracting crowds."
This simply must have been the July 1916 meteorite, because what else could it have been? Whatever Winchell and the encyclopedia thought, rocks just don't fall from the sky all the time.
Next week: James Whitcomb Riley Is Dead
ActiveStyle on 07/18/2016