Record-Breaking Meteorite Found Beneath Farm Field

Record-Breaking Meteorite Found Beneath Farm Field FARM HOME Novelty Items 30-1-20 Steve Arnold didn't have much time to hunt for meteorites on Allen Binford's farm near Haviland, Kan. "When I called him up, he said æYeah, but you need to hurry because I'm going to be planting wheat on that land in a couple of weeks,'" says the professional meteorite hunter, who knew meteorites had been found on the land in the past. Fortunately, after two weeks of hunting on the 320 acres of leased land, Arnold found a record-breaking 1,430-lb. oblong meteorite buried more than 7 ft. under a field. The meteorite is the largest of its kind ever found in the U.S. and the third largest in the world. What makes the meteor unique, aside from its size is that it's an "oriented pallasite". Oriented means it didn't tumble while entering the earth's atmosphere but kept its conical shape. Pallasites also have crystals inside. So he uses an ATV-mounted heavy-duty metal detector. On Binford's fields it picked up wrenches, horseshoes, broken plows, pitchforks, barbed wire and even two big wagon wheels. "I pulled about 100 lbs. of scrap iron out of those fields," he says, laughing. When Arnold searches farm fields, he can't use a hand-held metal detector because he knows any meteorites he finds are likely to be buried deep. If they were shallow, they would have already have been pulled up by plows or other tillage equipment. When he detected a strong signal, Arnold dug 7 1/2 ft. deep and at first didn't find anything. But the metal detector kept signaling something. His backhoe operator dug a trench around the unknown mass. By then, Arnold realized he had a big one but didn't know how big. Only when the meteorite was in a sling being pulled from the ground did both Arnold and business partner Phil Mani understand what they had. Now, Arnold and Mani are trying to sell the meteorite, nicknamed "King of the Pallasites." Determining its value is difficult because it's so rare. But they've got an idea. "We're pretty confident it'll be in the 7 figures," says Arnold. Other meteorites found in the same area are for sale on their website. "This is one of those things we'd like to see in a museum but we're open to all offers," says Arnold, adding that they're not in a hurry to sell it. "I suspect it'll eventually be sold at an auction." Now, Binford doesn't mind if Arnold destroys some of the crop. "He said, æYou know, Steve, I'm only going to make about $100 an acre on this wheat. You've got to do a lot of digging with a backhoe to destroy an entire acre of land. Go ahead and hunt as long as you want and don't worry about tearing up a little bit of the crop'. "The Binfords' have a nice new cash crop this year and they're having as much fun with this as I am," he says, noting that the farm family will receive a percentage of the profits after the sale of the meteorite. Arnold is continuing to hunt for meteorites on Binford's land and neighboring farms on which he has exclusive hunting leases. He hopes to find more pieces of the big meteorite. For now, the meteorite is in a secure lockup in San Antonio, Texas where visitors can view it by appointment. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Steve Arnold, P.O. Box 82, Kingston, Ark. 72742 (www.worldrecordmeteorite.com).

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