Hunt is on high, low for moon rock state got from Apollo 17

LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas has lost what’s likely the most expensive pebble in the state and today historians don’t know where to begin looking for it.

More than 30 years ago, a sliver of rock collected during the last manned moon mission was presented to the state.

Deemed the “Goodwill Moon Rock,” and potentially worth as much as $5 million, the 1.142-gram stone was encased in a Lucite ball and presented to Arkansas in the 1970s. The rock was attached to a plaque along with a small Arkansas flag that traveled to the moon on Apollo 17 in 1972.

What happened after the plaque made it to Arkansas has been up in the air for decades.

Conflicting newspaper articles point out an additional unknown: Was it given to Gov. Dale Bumpers in 1973 orto Gov. David Pryor in 1976?

While each article points out that a plaque was given to the state by a NASA astronaut, the articles describe the plaque differently. A February 1973 article makes no mention of the plaque presented to Bumpers containing a moon rock, just a state flag and mission insignia from Apollo 17. But a February 1976 story clearly states that the plaque presented to the state during a Boy Scout event in Little Rock held a moon rock and state flag.

The governors and their staffs said they don’t remember even receiving the plaque. Calls to the NASA specialist who could verify the date were not returned.

Several state museums contacted this week said they don’t have the plaque.

Whichever governor received it “did not pass it along to the state archives,” said Russell Baker, 67, the for-mer director of archival management for the state History Commission. “These types of things kind of get lost in the woodwork. When governors leave office, they usually take things with them that are souvenirs.”

Baker said the History Commission has searched for the plaque at least twice.

In the 1990s, a search indicated that a moon rock was in the state treasurer’s vault, but it wasn’t transferred to the History Commission, he said. A subsequent search within the past 10 years never found the plaque.

Deputy Treasurer Wes Goodner said the plaque is not in the treasurer’s vault and never has been.

“We have scoured the vault, and we know what’s in there,” Goodner said. “Nobody remembers anything about it. That certainly would have had my attention.”

President Richard Nixon gave all 50 states, U.S. territories, 135 countries and the United Nations a rock collected from the moon’s Taurus Littrow valley during the 1972 Apollo 17 mission - the last trip the United States made to the moon.

Former NASA Special Investigator Joseph Gutheinz began searching for the rocks after participating in a NASA sting operation to stop the sale of a moon rock given to Honduras.

“This is something that’s near and dear to my heart,” Gutheinz said. “It’s become more than a hobby to me, it’s more of a cause.”

Since 2002, Gutheinz, now an instructor at the University of Phoenix in Arizona, has used his graduate students to hunt down missing moon rocks.

“I wondered, gee, if I had my students look for these, how many would they find were missing?” he said. “We’ve had a lot of success with the states finding them in weird places.”

Ten states and dozens of countries have lost track of their Apollo 17 moon rocks, according to collectspace.com, the website Gutheinz’ students use to track their progress. He called that number sad and shocking because some states didn’t take care of the moon rocks they received.

His students have looked for Arkansas’ rock as many as four times in the past eight years.

In the past year, Gutheinz’s students have located moon rocks given to Colorado, Missouri and West Virginia - all of which were kept by former governors.

Earlier this month, Missouri’s moon rock was found in U.S. Sen. Kit Bond’s archives. Bond was Missouri’s governor when the rock was given to the state in 1973.

“A lot of governors kept them in their office for a period of time,” Gutheinz said. “Nobody had an appreciation of the extreme value of the moon rocks.”

He estimated that Goodwill Moon Rocks could be worth as much as $5 million each on the black market. It is illegal to possess, sell or acquire a moon rock because it is state property.

While the location of Arkansas’ rock is unknown, Gutheinz said, it is likely in the possession of a former governor.

“My gut is [a governor] either has it or it’s been locked away in storage,” Gutheinz said. “If someone stole it, someone stole $5 million worth of state property.”

Gutheinz said his research shows that the Goodwill plaques were distributed in 1973 and 1974. He said 1976 would be “an odd timing for the presentation of the rocks. NASA was very quick about putting those plaques together.”

Bumpers and Pryor have donated their papers to state universities, leaving some state historians wondering whether the plaque could bein either collection.

Papers from Bumpers’ terms as governor are at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He was governor from 1971-75.

Special Collections Director Linda Pine, who has cataloged the governor’s papers since the early 1980s, said she has not seen the stone or plaque in the collection.

“Either it may have gone home with him or actually it may have gone to D.C. with him,” Pine said.

The collection contains three references to when the moon rock will be delivered, but none about the plaque actually being received.

The papers from Bumpers’ 24-year career in the U.S. Senate were given to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.

Tim Nutt, the assistant head of the University of Arkansas Special Collections, said he could not locate any information about the moon rock in the Senate papers, which are still being reviewed.

Archie Schaeffer III, who worked as Bumpers’ chief of staff, said a plaque from astronauts was displayed in the governor’s office until Bumpers became a U.S. senator, but he could not remember what it looked like.

He said it was likely left in the governor’s office when Bumpers went to Washington, but he is not sure.

Attempts to contact Bumpers, who now works for a Washington law firm, were unsuccessful.

Pryor, who was governor after Bumpers from 1975-79, said he does not remember the moon rock.

“I have absolutely, absolutely no recall of this. I cannot recall ever even seeing it,” Pryor said.

“About once every three days, somebody gave us a plaque for something.”

Pryor’s gubernatorial papers are at the University of Arkansas Special Collections Department, which has been closed all week for the winter holidays.

Gov. Mike Beebe’s office spokesman Stacey Hall said the plaque is no longer in the governor’s office.

The Butler Center for Arkansas Studies in Little Rock houses the collected papers of four of the past six governors. Butler Center Manager Francis Morgan said the plaque is not in its collection.

Several museums and state agencies also said the plaque is not in their possession. Those include the state Geology Commission, the Governor’s Mansion, the Old State House, the Mid-America Science Museum in Hot Springs and the Arkansas History Commission.

Within the next two weeks, a different rock from the first manned moon landing will go on display at the Museum of Discovery in Little Rock.

The Arkansas Museum of Discovery houses the moon rock received by the state from the 1969 Apollo 11 mission.

Exhibits specialist Brad Jordan was cataloging the museum’s collection when he found the Apollo 11 moon rock this summer.

“That was one of my goals when I got here as a grad assistant,” Jordan said. “Miraculously, I found it.”

Seventeen states have misplaced their Apollo 11 moon rocks.

Jordan said there is no documentation that the Apollo 17 “Goodwill Moon Rock” was ever at the museum, but he continues to look for it.

“The Apollo 17 [rock] for Arkansas is mysteriously missing,” Jordan said. “It might be on someone’s mantel right now or in someone’s attic right now. ... Who knows where it is ?”