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Nininger Moment #14
Nininger Hunting Ideals
Harvey Nininger was one of the most successful meteorite hunters
of all times. Here are some of his ideas that have been taken out of his great
book "Find A Falling Star".
Meteorites are where you find them. Many people had suggested that
looking for meteorites in areas where rocks are abundant might be a
good idea but Harvey suggested that looking in areas where there are
no rocks or few rocks are best. He figured that a hunter would grow tired of looking at every rock
where they are plentiful. While he was searching for the Archie,
Missouri fall of August 10th, 1932 and driving back and forth
between there and Kansas City (some fifty miles) he noticed about
midway that there laid a group of farm houses and nicely cleared
fields with no rocks in sight.
One day when he had some spare time he decided to conduct a search
to show that meteorites fall in one area as well as the next
(something that wasn't know then, for sure). He interviewed a number
of farmers and showed them some of his meteorite finds and purchases and mentioned the likelihood that such stones
might also be on their farms. He also mentioned a fair price would
be offered for such stones found and brought to his attention. He
spent two or three hours with a dozen or more farmers that day.
A few days later the wife of the first farmer he had talked to came
to see Harvey and brought with her a meteorite from the farm. Harvey
had talked mostly to this wife while the farmer stood mostly silent
and he wasn't sure if he was resentful of him interrupting the chores or if he was thinking. After Harvey had
left the farmer had told his wife he was sure he had ploughed up
such a stone and was trying to remember the spot. He finally
remember he had ploughed it up in the potato patch and thrown it over by the hedge they had. As soon as the neighbors
heard of the payment received for the stone, many searched their own
properties and found more stones from the same fall. Nininger
figured they were probably related to the fireball witnessed in 1915 around that area. The stones became
known as the Harrisonville stones.
This experience reinforced Nininger's belief that meteorites were
present though not abundant, nearly everywhere and they can be found
in some quantity if people are shown what to look for. He later
found material from the Archie, Missouri fall while giving lecturing
to high schools in the area. One of which fell in a stream bed that
a local high school boy was at when he was squirrel hunting. Three
members of the same family had heard and witnessed this fall.
Source: Find a Falling Star by Harvey H. Nininger The Nininger
Moments are articles or books written originally by Harvey Nininger
and put into a consolidated form by Al Mitterling. Some of the items
written in the moments might be old out dated material and the
reader is advised to keep this in mind.
--AL Mitterling
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