he Omaha
1
The Hunt
tor a
Meteor Which Hit
Our Earth Ages Ago
and Is Believed
to Be One Huge Gem
Worth Untold Billions of
SEVEI
of
Bin
iEVERAL years ago a syndicate
mining men commenced
sinking a shaft in Arizona to
reach the largest diamond in the
world, believed to be no less than
half a mile thick. This shaft la now
fifteen hundred feet deep. Three or
four hundred feet more, it is ex
pected, will reveal the great prize.
The scene of this most wonderful
mining operation Is Meteor Moun
tain, Arizona. The mountalti'is such
in name only, as it is little more
than a butte, rlslns two hundred or
three hundred feet above the desert,
about ten miles from Canyon Dlabolo
(Station, on the Santa Fe Railroad.
Viewed from a distance Meteor
Mouutalu looks little different from
the countless other buttes that rear
1 heir heads above the Southwestern
desert. But as soon as one begins
!.o climb its sides, strewn with
meteoric fragments, he realizes that
he is on the threshold of one of the
world's greatest scientific mysteries.
From the top of the "mountain"
one gazes into a bowl-like depression
in the earth six hundred feet deep
and a mile across. It is in appear
ance like a volcanic crater. .
Scientists agree that this crater
marks the place where a giant
meteorite, as large as the circum
ference of the bowl would indicate,
struck the earth in ages past, per
haps a million of years ago, and
burled Itself deep iuto the bowels
of the earth Just how deep it is
the purpose of the mining syndicate
to find out.
When this giant mass struck the
earth there was no butte there; the
butte was created when the meteorite
struck, its tremendous weight dis
placing strata of rock, sending huge
clouds of dust into the air and form
ing the "mountain" as it exists to
day. . ' " "
After the meteorite sank into the
earth the sand and dust settled into
the depression. The drift of ages
sifted over the edges of the huge
bowl and assisted in the work of
covering the meteorite.
But the most remarkable thing
about this meteorite, apart from its
prodigious size, is the fact that in
all probability it consists of one
huge diamond! This is inferred from
the fact that numerous large frag
ments of the meteorite fouud in the
crater, and which are unusually
heavy, were found, upon investiga
tion, to contain, . besides meteorio
iron, large, hard, black diamonds ct
great value.
Even if the meteor itself consists
only of black daimonds its value
would be. quite inconceivable,, for a
good black diamond, though worth
less as a gem, is worth even more
than1 a white one for mechanical
purposes. It is quite probable, how
ever, that the bulk of the meteor
consists of white diamond, in which-
i. a! ... I J i. i
; event mere wuuiu uui ue enuugu
wealth in the world to pay for it at
the current price of the precious
The largest diamonds In the world,
including the Koh-l-noor, the Culll
nan, the Great Mogul of Russia, the
orlon. the Great Premier diamond,
the Tiffany diamond, the Etolle Po
laire, and a dozen others of the tame
standard, worth in the aggregate
hundreds - of millions . of dollars,
might all be placed together In an
ordinary . derby hat and not reach
the top. - This meteoric diamond,
scientists believe, must be at least
half a mile thick! The significance
of this comparison Is apparent
It baa long been supposed that all
hi
t4
diamonds might be of meteoric ori-
gin, the scientists being unable to .
.agree whether the bottomless bores in
which they are found and which are
known as "diamond pipes" are the
result of ancient volcanic action ex
plosions of subterranean laboratories
which are nature's diamond factories,
or of meteors which are themselves
the crucibles from celestial regions in
which the diamonds are produced.
The latter theory has many dis
tinguished supporters, of whom the
most eminent .perhaps, is Sir Will
lam Crookes, the great English sci
entist. Sir William examined one of
the fragments of the great Arizona
meteor and found it to contain dia
mond crystals. Speaking of the
"pipes" in which diamonds are
found at Klmberley, Sir William
said :
"They are irregularly shaped
round or oval pipes extending ver
tically downward to unknown depths, ,
retaining about the same diameter ;
throughout.
"How these great pipes were orig
inally formed It is hard to say. They
were certainly not burst through in
the ordinary manner of volcanic
eruption, -Blnce the surrounding and
enclosing walls show no signs of
igneous action."
It Is well known that meteors are
In an Incandescent state when they
reach the surface of the earth,
brought to white heat by friction
with our atmospheres It has been
suggested that the meteor thus be
comes a crucible which furnishes
both the intense heat and the tre
mendous pressure necessary to
liquify and then to crystallize car
bon. .
. Scientifically, therefore, there is
every reason to believe that the Ari
zona meteor Is well worth the years
of effort and the hundreds of thou
sands of dollars that have been spent
in trying to locate it; the only ques
tlon being whether it is imbedded so
deeply that all human efforts to dis
lodge It will prove fruitless.
Weighing possibly a million tons
and falling hundreds of thousands
I fa mm f
liin iVw. tfl 1 WW
Lufi v- v v 1
The Cullinan Diamond Exact Size When Found. The Largest
Diamond in the World and Worth $1,500,000,
Sunday Bee Magazine
Copyright, 1912, by
1 v,,
Dollars
4
4-
American-Examiner. Great Britain
s
.
The Crater Hollowed Out by
dreds
of miles, the giant mass must have
been travelling at an inconceivable
rate of speed when it struck the
earth, yet the engineers who have
been directing the mining operation
believe that it .could not have pene
trated more than twenty-five hun
dred feet at the utmost
If this estimate proves correct, the
recovery of the mammoth diamond
should be a matter of only a few
months now, for there is less than
a thousand feet further to dig before
that depth Is reached.
For many years Meteor Mountain
has been the subject of Indian tra
dition. The Mokls have a tradition of a
blazing star which fell ages ago,
when Old Man Coyote was a talking
animal and when the oldest of the
abandoned cliff houses in the South
west was new. The legend tells how
the Mokis had offended the Great
Spirit, and finally a warning was
sent in the shape of a blazing star
Rights Reserved.
v
the "Diamond Meteor" Which
of Feet Under Its Floor..
which lighted up the earth for hun
dreds of miles around and -whose
shock was so terrific that several
Moki villages were all but ruined.
The Mokis heeded the warning, and
since the falling of the blazing star
they have so walked in the paths
of rectitude that they are among the
favored peoples of Manitou.
. Aside from mere curiosity and
speculation, the spot where the great
meteor fell was of little interest to
humanity until a wandering sheep
herder, who had been grazing his
flocks in the vicinity of Meteorite
Mountain, picked up a fragment of
meteorite which, besides meteoric
iron, proved to contain hard, black
diamonds of great value for mechan
ical purposes.
The earth in the vicinity of Mete
orite Mountain la strewn with frag
menvs, evidently loosened from the
main body by the terrific impact as
the heavenly messenger struck the
earth. The herder picked up a large
1
Mff
&a
:;MSx.av. V'.:'.:
4
fragment and
was about to
toss it aside
when its great
weight appealed
to him as some
thing peculiar.
He took it "to
camp and turn
ed it over to a
collector, who in
turn took it to
an eminent Eng
lish scientist.
Search was
made for more
fragments of
meteorite in the
vicinity of Me
teor Mountain
in the hope that
other discover
ies of gems
would result.
The sides of the
mountain ' and
the desert for
miles on all
sides were thor
oughly prospect
Now Lies Hun-
ed and enough
gem carrying specimens were found
to indicate that the main body of the
meteorite must have been heavily
laden with the valuable carbon.
News of the discovery on Meteor
Mountaiu soon leaked out, in spite of
strenuous efforts to keep it quiet,
and a syndicate was formed to ascer
tain the position of the great meteor
ite, if possible. Mining operations
were begun at the bottom of the
crater, and a shaft was soon being
sunk.
There are about forty acres in the
bottom of this so-called crater. On
all sides a sloping wall rises to a
height of from five to six hundred
feet The wall is sandy, and climb
ing to the top is difficult The bot
tom of the depression is covered with
huge rocks, some of which weigh
many tons, and which are evidently
portions of rock strata displaced by
the falling meteorite.
The nearest settlement is at Volz's
trading post, a few miles from the
Page
X
If a Meteor Diamond as Big as That
Which Struck Arizona Should Fall
on New York This Is Probably
How It Would Appear to Per
- sons in Safe Positions.
mountain, in the heart of the desert
Mr. Volz, the trader at Canyon Diab
olo, has lived in the vicinity of
Meteor Mountain for years, and has
been interested in the work of min
ing tor the meteorite. All the set
tlers in that part of the Southwest
believe that the main body of the
meteorite will be discovered at some
not distant day, and that science will
be immeasurably enriched, even if
the investigators do not find as
large a proportion of valuable car
bon as fragments have indicated.
If the main body of the meteorite
is located all other discoveries along
that line will be dwarfed. Science i3
always on the alert for meteoric dis
coveries. One of the most valuable
things brought back by Commander
Peary from his last trip of polar
discovery was a large meteorite,
which was sold for several thou
sand dollars. Fragments o varying
size and weight are picked up from
time to time, it being a theory gen
erally accepted that the average
meteorite bursts when it strikes the
belt of dense atmosphere surround
ing the earth. Generally this burst
ing is so thorough that the meteorite
i3 scattered into dust and sifts to
earth in that form. Only occasion
ally do larger fragments survive
In the case of the Arizona meteor
ite however, it would seem that the
falling body was so large that the
usual process of disintegration did
not take place when the dense at
mosphere of earth was struck. The
giant meteorite kept on falling in a
solid, blazing mass, until it was ex
tmguished in-the sands of the des
ert, hundreds of feet below the sur
face of the earth.
The largest showers of meteors
occur in August and November, and
exhibit their greatest brilliancy
every thirty-three years. Most of
these recorded showers are of the
smaller variety of meteorites. Noth-
ing
fiuatnmg me Arizona mo.
Ir!tea,8 eve" been corded, and
an traditions regarding these noriai
messengers may be upset when the
secret of Meteor Mountain is finally
penetrated. '