Franconia Hunt 2005
By Larry Atkins, April, 2005
During the first week of April 2005, I made my long awaited and twice postponed trip to Franconia Arizona to hunt for the H chondrites and tiny Irons that are found there. It would prove another humbling event in my life, as have most of my meteorite hunting trips!
All started fine, the plane out of Detroit didn't get hijacked, Budget Rental had my little Ford Escape ready for me, I arrived in Phoenix on time and the weather was beautiful. What could go wrong?
Off to the strewn field!
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| Base Camp |
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| Fortunately, only friendly rattlesnake encounters on this trip |
Before leaving home I had marked on my map the location of the strewn field, according to some coordinates I had received from several different sources. Unfortunately the coordinates on the map are not correct! They were off enough to put me a good 1/2 mile outside the perimeter of the meteorite field. I didn't even think to check the map against the GPS I had with me, I just assumed the map was accurate, yet another lesson in life.
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| Nice scenery, but where are the meteorites? |
If bullets were meteorites...
For 2 days I wasted my time digging up bullets and casings left over from WW II shooting practice. There were plenty of other dig holes around, indicating to me that I was in the right place. As it turns out these were gold hunters holes, not meteorite hunters. I had to do something quick, my time was slipping past fast, and soon it would be time to return to Mi. I wasn't about to get skunked!
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| You guys seen any meteorites? |
I called on two local fellows, Dennis Wells and Jim Smaller, to see if they could straighten me out. I didn't believe the field was completely hunted out, they never really are, but I knew something wasn't right. These two guys were a great help, I soon discovered my huge oversight in navigation and was finding stones and little irons in no time. Dennis came out and hunted with me one day and promptly showed me how to find Franconia meteorites, with a 210 gram half stone in the first 30 minutes or less!
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| Dennis Wells and closeup 210 gram find |
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Then he proceeded to follow it up with a 38 gram stone minutes later. I couldn't believe it, he found more in an hour than I had found in 3 days! Actually he was a bit surprised as well since he had already hunted the area dozens of times. I really had the fever now, in my mind I drifted back to Gold Basin, Park Forest...the feeling of finding a meteorite is wonderful!! Time to get searching! I found a few small irons but nothing substantial, this part of the field had been worked over good.
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| Time to get searching! |
The next day was great, I found 7 stones that day and several irons.
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| 29 grams and 34 grams |
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| 38 grams and a meteorite's view of being rescued |
Two of the stones were found in the dark with my metal detector sticking out in front of me as I walked as fast as I could back to the truck. They were several feet apart and fit together like a puzzle, weighing a total of 128 grams. I couldn't believe I found them in the manner that I did, what a great end to a perfect day!
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| Night find of 78 gram and 51 gram that fit together !!! |
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The next morning, my last day, I was up at 6:30 like each day before, hunting meteorites by 7:15. I managed to find 8 more before noon, a mixed bag of stones and irons. I hated to leave, I would have stayed all summer if I could. I found a total of 12 irons and 10 stones, despite wasting half my time in the wrong area. I'll be back soon!
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Meteorite hunting is my favorite way to spend time outdoors, an extension of my fishing and hunting predisposition. The pursuit of something tangible, valuable, elusive, it's satisfying for the heart and soul, a way to touch nature and really experience the gifts of this world and others. I say to all that have the desire to find a space rock; "Go on and git!"
Get out there and find a meteorite, live the dream!
Larry Atkins
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| Magnified iron meteorite with micro impact pit on an impact pit! For more photos click here. |
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| Three Stones! |
From the left, 20.46 grams, 42.88 grams and 21.86 grams. All three appear to be pieces of the "L" chondrite that has been found in the otherwise "H" chondrite strewn field. In fact, as many as 7 different falls may be represented in this one area! - Larry Atkins