About Me: |
I've been collecting meteorites and impactites since December of 2007,
but my fascination and love of space and science has been with me for
far longer.
As with most children, I loved space. I have vivid memories of
the pride I felt when I memorized the 9 planets of our solar system
(Yes... back then it
was 9!) I can remember watching some of the early Apollo
missions on television and dreaming of being an astronaut. One of my
favorite Christmas gifts
was a little telescope. Even though it was barely good enough
to look at the moon, I spent many evenings outside staring up at the
night sky.
Though my collection of meteorites and tektites is relatively
new, I did find a wonderful "meteorwrong" when I was 11 years old. My
father travelled
for his business, and occasionally I was able to join him on
his trips up and down the eastern United States. During one rest stop in
Tennessee, I
decided to take a short hike in the woods to stretch my legs
(and wander about as kids do...) and came upon a large, overgrown,
circular depression
in the ground. In the center of the depression I found a pile
of shiny metallic stones. I was thoroughly convinced I had found a
visitor from outer
space and picked up one of the larger pieces to bring back and
show my father. The find fueled a series of visits to the library to
read about meteorites,
science and anything space-related. The rock was eventually
put away in a box of stones and fossils where it was forgotten for over
30 years. I recently found it in that old box of fossils and rocks and have
it proudly displayed on my desk. Even though it is a man-made
piece of silica metal, probably some old smelting cast off from decades
past, it will always
hold a special place in my collection.
Jump forward to November of 2007... I was watching a about show Libyan Desert Glass (LDG) called
"Ancient Asteroid" on the
National Geographic Channel
and
was fascinated about its meteoric origin and place in Egyptian
history. It was an amazing thing to consider... a natural event that
was so powerful that
it could literally melt the earth into glass. I watched the
show on my DVR several times over and decided that I would try to get a
piece of LDG. After
a little research, I found that the North Atlanta Trade
Center, Norcross, Georgia was hosting the
North Atlanta Gem, Mineral, Fossil, & Jewelry Show.
I decided that I would head over to the show and see if there
were any specimens of these glasses available from the the dealers.
When I arrived at the show, I was able to find one dealer with
some small samples of LDG, but was dissapointed with the price. Since I could
not justify the
purchase, I moved on and continued to look around the rest of
the tables. Walking by one dealer, I noticed a shiny, oddly shaped
metallic object in one
of the display cases. I asked the dealer what it was and she
told me it was an iron meteorite found in Russia in 1947 called
Sikhote-Alin. I was shocked.
I had no idea that you could own a meteorite. Up until that
moment I had only seen them in museums. I negotiated a price I could
live with, purchased the
rock, and headed back towards the entrance of the convention
center with my very first meteorite.
On the way out of the center, I noticed that there was a small table
near the entrance with a sign reading "Meteorite Association of Georgia
(MAG.)"
I thought to myself that this would be an opportunity to show
the meteorite to some of these folks and confirm if I had purchased the
real thing, and if
I had paid a reasonable price for the specimen. I produced the
rock for their inspection and to my surprise one of the members, a
collector named Dave
Gheesling, was able to tell me the type of meteorite it was as
soon as he saw it and given the weight and the aesthetics of the
specimen I'd gotten a very
good deal. Little did I know, but Dave had also taken a
picture of me when I came up to the table... so I have a photographic
record of my first
meteorite purchase and meeting with the MAG folks. You can
see the picture in my website. After a brief conversation, I
decided to join the group
and learn as much as I could about tektites and meteorites.
Since that time my involvement in the hobby has been meteoric -- in all senses of the word. I attended my first MAG meeting in January of 2008 and
created a Website for the group focusing on Georgia
meteorites and tektites. I joined the International Meteorite Collectors Association
(IMCA #3138) in February of 2008. I've had the opportunity to
be out in the field hunting meteorites in Georgia and Arizona, as well
as hunting tektites in
the North American Strewn field. I have even spoken to
elementary and middle school children about tektites and meteorites. My
meteorite collection has
grown to more than 800 specimens from over 225 locations, and
my impactite collection is even more extensive, covering all of the
major strewnfields and
impact sites. And recently, in April of 2011, I was elected to
the position of President of the Meteorite Association of Georgia,
following the term of the
founding President, Anita Westlake.
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