Lot 29
Willamette
The Robert Elliott Meteorite Collection
Auction: 18 August 2009 at 15:00 BST
Description
Fragment (shale)
Dimensions
90.8g, 6.6 x 4 x 2.2cm
Footnote
Willamette (Clackamas County, Oregon, USA) IIIA - found 1902
Ellis Hughes discovered a large bell shaped iron 'rock' in autumn 1902 as he cut wood in the forest near the town of Willamette, Oregon. Feeling certain that this odd rock was a large meteorite with a certain dollar value, he hatched a plan to secretly move it from where it rested on his neighbour's land onto his own land so that he could claim it as his own. It took 90 days of hard labour and improvised engineering to move the huge iron mass across Hughes' property boundary, but the move was discovered.
At that time, the land was owned by the Iron and Steel Company, and after a widely publicised lawsuit, the Oregon Supreme Court held that Oregon Iron and Steel Company was the legal owner.
In 1905 Mr. William E. Dodge purchased the meteorite for $26,000, and after being displayed at the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, it was donated to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City where it remains to this day.
The Willamette meteorite is an object honoured by the Native American Indian tribe inhabiting the area where it was found; they used the meteorite in an annual ceremony, and requested that it be returned. The tribes reached an agreement with the museum in 2000 that tribal members may conduct a private ceremony around the meteorite once a year, and that ownership will be transferred to them should the museum stop using it for display.
Provenance: Monnig Collection, Texas Christian University