| |
Nininger Moment #15
The Plainview, Texas Fall Part 1
 In 1915 a Texan sent a sample in to the Smithsonian Institution
which turn out to be a new find. Up until that time only 22
meteorites had been found in the whole United States that had not
been see to fall. The man was paid and asked to try to search the
area for more stones. In the course of two years of hunting about a
dozen stones were collected and sent into the Smithsonian with an
average of five pounds. It was then concluded the collecting job was
finished and a scientific paper was written up on the fall and the
books were closed on it.
In 1928 Nininger asked Dr. Merrill about this find in Plainview,
Texas which he had described about a decade ago. Dignified and
scholarly, he gave Nininger the facts, talking to Nininger as a
country school teacher might talk to a first grader. Nininger then
asked if any further searches of the area were going to be conducted
and he was told the job was finished and he judged it good and that
any further searches would most likely not yield further material.
Dr. Nininger then asked if he would care if he tried his hand at
searching the area and he was offer no encouragement but told to
help himself. Before going to the area, Nininger contacted some
people in the area including the county surveyor who assured him he
had been over ever square foot of the area and hadn't come across
any meteorites in some 40 years. Many of Nininger's trips were done
when two or more areas could be check out at once rather than making
expensive trips one at a time. Such was the case for the Plainview
area.
In December of 1933 Nininger and his brother John were returning
from a search in Mexico for a possible 50 ton meteorite which turned
out to be false as well as a dozen or other stories that turned out
poorly. They neared the Plainview, Texas town near sundown. He told
his brother that they would stay there that night but before
retiring he would go out into the country side and find a meteorite.
His brother looked at Harvey with real alarm after their thankless
journey into Mexico with terrible food and water, insects, snakes
and scorpions that had made their adventure into more of a
nightmare. Plus they were returning broke.
After acquiring a hotel, Nininger and his brother drove into the
country side and began knocking on farmers doors many times just as
the men were returning from the field that day. After talking to
some of the people at a couple of farm houses with no results but a
possibility that some rocks had been seen like that, they stopped at
a fourth farm house. The family were eating their evening meal by
lamp light. This group treated Nininger coolly and with puzzlement.
When Nininger felt the impatience was giving way to hostility he
manage to tell them he would pay for such a stone at a dollar a
pound. With the offer of money, the father jumped to his feet took
the lantern and went out into the court yard with his eight year old
daughter. They returned in a couple of minutes with an eight pound
meteorite asking Nininger if this is what he was after. Nininger
purchased the meteorite and asked if there might be more which the
man assured him there were but would have to be looked for in the
morning. Nininger then headed back to the car with the meteorite
laying it in his brothers lap and stated they should return to their
motel room.
Source: Find A Falling Star by H.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
|
