The Tucson Meteorites: Their History from Frontier Arizona to the Smithsonian

The Tucson Meteorites THEIR HISTORY FROM FRONTIER ARIZONA

TO THE SMITHSONIAN

Richard R. Willey

Smithsonian Institution Press WASHINGTON, D . C .

•

LONDON

© 1 9 8 7 by Smithsonian Institution All rights reserved

The paper used in this publication m e e t s the requirements of the American National S t a n d a r d for P e r m a n e n c e of P a p e r for Printed Library Materials Z 3 9 . 4 8 - 1 9 8 4 .

Library of C o n g r e s s Cataloging-in-Publication Data Willey, Richard R., 1 9 2 4 The Tucson meteorites. Bibliography; p. Includes index. 1. Meteorites, Iron—History. Arizona—Tucson—History. QB757.W55

1986

523.5'1

ISBN 0 - 8 7 4 7 4 - 9 8 3 - 2

Edited by Jane McAllister Designed by Alan C a r t e r

2. Meteorites— I. Title. 86-42742

Contents

Preface

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1 Anvils from Heaven

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2 Tucson: The Middle of a Nowhere 10 3 Don Ramon's Whalebone

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Lieutenant Irwin's Coup

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5 The Grand Deception 6 Missed Only by a Foot

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Appendix: Facts and Physical Characteristics of the Tucson Meteorites 40 Notes

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Index

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Preface

Writers of mystery stories often have to cast about for the key elements of an intriguing story: a setting or historic period to provide charm, color, and context; an object, person, document, or jewel around which to spin the plot; and suspense, treasure, or intrigue to trap one's interest in the storyteller's web. I did not go looking for these critical ingredients of the story of the Tucson Meteorite. They came to me. The setting that presented itself was the rugged Arizona frontier of the mid-nineteenth century; the object is unique in a half-dozen different ways, a special jewel in the Smithsonian Institution's showcase of cosmic wonders; the intrigue is provided by those whose lives more than a century ago were touched by a curious meteorite and by the strong scent of yetundiscovered scientific treasure. Moreover, all parts of the story rest on fact, or as much factual detail as the past offers to historical research. The story began shortly before the opening in late 1975 of the Grace H. Flandrau Planetarium at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Tucson, fondly known as the Old Pueblo, is frequently said to be the astronomy capital of the world, since there are more astronomical observatories, instruments, and astronomers within fifty miles of Tucson than there are anywhere else in the world. But long before the great domes were built on the mountaintops around the Old Pueblo, Tucson had its claim to astronomical fame. Its name was attached to two thousand pounds of meteorite so unique that it has now occupied for more than a century the center place of honor in the Smithsonian's distinguished Hall of Meteorites. That the great Tucson Meteorite might be returned to Tucson on the occasion of the opening of the new planetarium was the brainchild of Marjorie Meinel of the University of Arizona's Optical Sciences Center. There had even been some hope when university president John P. Schaefer made the formal request to then-Secretary of the Smithsonian, S. Dillon Ripley, for loan of the Meteorite,* that it might be

*The w o r d meteorite will hereafter be capitalized w h e n it refers to the Tucson s p e c i m e n a n d l o w e r c a s e d w h e n it refers to o t h e r meteorites.

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permitted to return permanently to its original home in southern Arizona. It seemed a reasonable hope, considering the distinction Tucson had achieved in the realm of celestial research, not to mention that one of the Smithsonian's own observatories was operated jointly with the University of Arizona on Mount Hopkins, thirty-six miles south of the city. But Smithsonian officials did not share the view that the remarkable ring-shaped Meteorite would be more suitably displayed permanently to the public in Tucson. They would loan it for the opening of the planetarium, but wanted it back eventually to sit atop its chrome column at the National Museum of Natural History. When the unique iron ring, carefully crated aboard a flatbed semitrailer, arrived at the Flandrau, I began to realize that this was more than an incidental museum object to be put on display for a few weeks to satisfy local astronomy buffs. I had seen passing allusions to the Meteorite in occasional writings on Tucson's colorful history, but little that hinted at the social, political, and military involvement that the Meteorite had enjoyed in the Southwest of yesteryear, nor of the mystery surrounding other, yetunfound "enormous m a s s e s " of the Meteorite. At the time, I simply wanted to make sure that the Flandrau had appropriate explanatory and caption material to accompany its display of the Tucson Meteorite. To this end I asked the Smithsonian's curator of meteorites, Roy S. Clarke, Jr., to be kind enough to send copies of the latest and best information he had as to the origin, analysis, and history of the Meteorite since its discovery near Tucson in the first half of the nineteenth century. Dr. Clarke obliged, but apologized for being able to provide only a twenty-one-page article on the Meteorite by Lazarus Fletcher from Mineralogical Magazine, dated 1890!' Clarke also provided a few later references but assured me that the 1890 article was the most comprehensive historical review that had been done to date. In 1890 in Arizona, the last of the Indian wars had just recently been settled, the railroad had reached Tucson barely ten years earlier, and people were still reflecting on the recent election of Ben-

jamin Harrison over Grover Cleveland as president. Mr. Fletcher, then keeper of minerals at the British Museum, had produced his summary of the history and characteristics of the Tucson Meteorite from London without even the benefit of having visited Arizona. The article, entitled " T h e Meteoric Iron of Tucson," is a commendable, detailed, and scholarly work. Its errors and omissions reflect only the state of knowledge of a century ago. It occurred to me, however, that there might be more to the story of the history of the Meteorite than was available to Mr. Fletcher in England in 1890. Since that time, for instance, the Arizona Historical Society has acquired and organized Spanish, Mexican, and American archives of the region, the University of Arizona has amassed thousands of volumes on the history of the Southwest, and the Center for Meteorite Studies has flourished at Arizona State University in nearby Tempe. Best of all, local descendants of the Mexican and Anglo pioneers of Arizona could still be interviewed. Might there not be more to be told? Indeed there was. And what better place to pursue the intricate tale of the colorful events and personalities associated with the curious ring from space than Tucson itself. As my research went on, the intrigue of the Meteorite grew, the questions multiplied, and many of the previously accepted " f a c t s " about it crumbled. A story emerged that I hope will leave the reader, as it has left me, with an enhanced appreciation of life on the early Arizona frontier and of the facts surrounding the fate of the Tucson Meteorite in that frontier setting.

I am indebted to many individuals and institutions for assistance in the research that has made possible the telling of this story, most of all to the tireless staff and librarians of the Arizona Historical Society in Tucson. Additional resource materials came from the University of Arizona Libraries, the Arizona Historical Foundation Collection at Arizona State University, the John Carter Brown Library of Brown University, and the Smithsonian Institution Archives. Other source materials were generously contributed by Robert Hutchison of the British Museum; Roy S. Clarke, Jr., of the Smithsonian Institution; William G. Hoyt of Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona; Elizabeth Brownell of Tubac, Arizona; Francis S. Ainsa of El Paso, Texas; and Gilbert J. Pederson and Thomas G. Bredlow of Tucson. I am particularly grateful to those who have shared their special expertise with me through discussions and thoughtful criticism of the manuscript: Fr. Kieran McCarty, historian of the San Xavier del Bac Mission, Tucson; James E. Officer, Laurel L. Wilkening, Daniel Matson, George and Pat Adams, John S. Sumner, Robert Scarborough, and Fr. Charles W. Polzer, all of the University of Arizona; Herbert E. Hawkes; Robert Lenon; and Carleton B. Moore of Arizona State University. I would also like to thank Jane McAllister, editor, and Alan Carter, designer, both of the Smithsonian Institution Press, for their substantial contribution to the successful completion of the project. Finally, a word of thanks to the then-vice-president of the University of Arizona, A. Richard Kassander, for his initial encouragement to pursue the treasure.

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Anvils from Heaven

Roll on, thou ball, roll on! Through pathless realms of Space Roll on!

swages and anvils of his trade with the sensitive compassion of an artist, he converses equally freely about philosophy, literature, or the history of blacksmithing on the western frontier. His judgment of the suitability of the Tucson Meteorite to have served the Mexican armorers of the 1840s and the smiths of the Butterfield Overland Mail of the 1850s was not a casual one. Meteorites are not usually studied by professional blacksmiths, nor for that matter by historians. The limited interest of professional historians in those celestial visitors to the earth lies in the cultural, economic, or religious impact that meteorites have occasionally had on those who have encountered them in one context or another. The science or history buff, on the other hand, may be pardoned if he is also caught up in the adventure and intrigue that have surrounded some meteorites between the time of their fall to earth from space and their dissection or display at a scientific laboratory or museum. 1

from To the Terrestrial Globe Sir WilliamS. Gilbert

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Tom Bredlow stepped back from the massive ring of iron standing upright in the ground, folded his arms across his chest, and pronounced: Anyone who ever worked iron, no matter how long ago, who went out into the desert and came across the Tucson Meteorite, would know in an instant that it was heaven sent to be an anvil!

It was April 15, 1976, on the lawn in front of the Flandrau Planetarium at the University of Arizona in Tucson. A few curious students and faculty had paused to watch the strange sight. The three besmudged blacksmiths seemed a bit incongruous on the palm-lined mall of an academic campus. But there they were, feeling, rubbing, tapping, and eyeing the proportions of a preeminent scientific objet d'art, the Tucson Meteorite. They had compared their individual judgments and then deferred to Bredlow to pronounce on the fitness of the four-footdiameter, fourteen-hundred-pound ring of cosmically forged iron to have served as an anvil on the Arizona frontier long before that frontier became U . S . territory. This was a meteorite that in its day had not only served frontier blacksmiths of the stagecoach era, but had also significantly touched the lives of many people—Mexican troops in the old Tucson presidio, a hot-tempered American Army surgeon, a dapper Confederate gentleman, and a Civil War general—as well as caused a major embarrassment to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Tom Bredlow isn't just any blacksmith. He does not shoe horses. He is an artist with iron. He does delicate fountains and fleurs-de-lis, candlesticks, and ornamental gates for Washington, D.C.'s National Cathedral. He loves the feel and ring of a well-hafted hammer and well-wrought iron. While fingering the

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The unique ring shape of the Tucson Meteorite is sufficient to arouse curiosity in almost anyone who sees it. How could a meteorite possibly get that way? In addition, the story of the Tucson Meteorite has the added charm of having unfolded on the western frontier during the period of Spanish forts, Indian wars, and "gold fever." To that, add the elusive but very real possibility that additional "enormous masses" of the Meteorite are yet to be found as scientific treasure in the mountains of southern Arizona. Before its encounter with earth, the Tucson Meteorite had an incomparably long history in space. It is man's scientific curiosity about the origins of such material in the Solar System that has given the formal study of meteorites (known as meteoritics, not meteorology) a rebirth and a new excitement in the recently dawning age of space exploration. The earthly human events we will shortly recount thus had their antecedents in cosmic events of several billion years ago. Perhaps a brief look at how meteorites are formed and how they arrive on the planet earth will provide a perspective not only on the modern scientific interest in meteorites, but also on why they have evoked the emotions of curiosity,

awe, and reverence in many different civilizations since prehistoric time.

The Origin of Meteorites* Our Solar System is believed to have evolved about four and a half billion years ago. Most of the matter that did not go into the formation of the sun ended up forming the major planets, such as Saturn, Jupiter, and Earth, and their satellites, such as our moon. A much smaller amount of material ended up by various processes in the form of relatively tiny bodies, ranging from about three hundred miles in diameter down to dust-size particles. The larger of those bodies are the asteroids, many of which follow known orbits around the sun between the planets Mars and Jupiter. Not much is known about the distribution in space of the smaller bits of material (referred to as meteoroids) since they cannot be seen directly with most astronomical instruments. But it is this leftover debris—perhaps a mix of broken bits of asteroids that have collided, the residue of comets, and any other random materials floating in from interstellar s p a c e that constitutes an exceedingly tenuous cloud of matter throughout the Solar System. Exceedingly little such material, on the average, occupies each cubic mile of space. But as the earth makes its 583,000,000-mile annual circuit about the sun, it inevitably encounters some of the ''space junk" each day, either by direct collision or by attracting passing debris into its gravitational field. Estimates are that the earth may gain somewhere between ten and one hundred tons of such material every day. The finest dust sifts silently down through the atmosphere unheralded and, until recent years, undetected. Slightly larger particles offer enough friction with the earth's atmosphere to become intensely heated and thus to put on their own brief but exquisite show as meteors, the shooting stars of the night sky. Larger chunks, perhaps inches in diameter, are likely to put on a more spectacular performance, leaving briefly a streaming trail of ionized gases, sometimes flaring up or exploding one or more times in colorful bursts. These are called bolides or fireballs, but their fate is the same: frictional slowing, incineration, and extinction high in the atmosphere, with only the resulting dust and gases remaining to be added to the earth's atmosphere. Still more rarely our planet intersects the path of a substantial mass perhaps ten feet or more in diameter and weighing a hundred tons or more. (The Tucson Meteorite may have been in this general size class as it originally approached the earth.) The show

it creates is a spectacular one. The greater mass has more momentum, creates more friction with the atmosphere, produces more heat, and causes more intense internal stress from the sudden deceleration. Its fiery path lights up the night sky, or may even be visible in daylight, and is often accompanied by a whistling or by the thunderous sounds of explosions and finally of impact with the ground. If it explodes during descent, many separate fragments may be recovered from the (often elliptical) area of the fall. Those pieces that reach the earth's surface intact are termed meteorites. Because many of the fragments of such a meteorite have been severely slowed toward the end of their flight by air resistance and by the effects of explosions en route, they virtually free fall to the ground (or into the sea, since three-fourths of the material arriving randomly on the earth from space doubtless falls into the oceans). Larger chunks with higher velocities may penetrate the ground by several feet. Every few years a newspaper account tells of a small meteorite crashing through someone's roof or into a farmer's field. Such a witnessed incident is referred to as a " f a l l , " in contrast to the " f i n d " of a meteorite already on the ground, which might have arrived a thousand—or a hundred thousand or more—years ago. The Tucson Meteorite was a " f i n d , " since the oxidation of its surface indicates that it had been on earth a long, long time before attracting the attention of the soldiers of New Spain. More rare still is when the earth encounters an even larger " m i s s i l e " of space debris. A meteorite of, say, ten thousand or more tons would have the appearance of an atomic bomb on impact, create a huge crater, probably eliminate most life for many miles around, and generate atmospheric dust that could well upset the earth's climatic balance for years. Such encounters were doubtless more numerous in the geological past, but the resulting craters have been slowly obliterated by weathering and erosion. These effects are less obvious on such "recent" falls, such as the Barringer Meteor Crater in northern Arizona. Almost a mile across and 570 feet deep, it is thought to be only about twenty-five to fifty thousand years old. 4

Depending upon their composition, meteorites are generally classed as stony, stony-iron, or iron. Although considerably more stony space debris than iron enters the earth's atmosphere, iron meteorites are more easily recognized, better withstand weathering, and have played a more prominent role in human history because of their exceptional weight, durability, and utility. Such was the case with the Tucson Meteorite. The renewal of scientific interest in meteorites since the 1960s is the result of a combination of circumstances: heightened interest in the origin and forma-

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tion of the Solar System and of our earth; recognition that meteorites arriving on the earth carry telltale signs of their origin, age, and "experiences" in space as they have survived the effects of extreme temperatures, various radiations, and physical impacts over millions or billions of years; the discovery of amino acids in some meteorites; the development of new and ever more refined scientific methods for extracting such information; the discovery since 1969 of an accumulation of literally thousands of meteorites that have been kept " o n i c e " through eons of time buried

in the Antarctic; new space missions throughout the Solar System; and the likelihood that meteorites can provide important clues about the raw materials that might be available in space for the efficient construction of space stations and laboratories. Techniques are now available for interpreting the circumstances of the original formation of meteorites, determining their age in space and on earth, and even estimating the size of the larger parent body from which they may have come. The science of meteoritics, not yet two hundred years old, is truly a

F I G . 1 T h e Ring fragment of the T u c s o n Meteorite. W h e n used as an anvil, the fourteen-hundred p o u n d Ring w a s turned upside d o w n and partially buried so that the m a s s i v e flat portion could serve as the blacksmith's w o r k i n g surface. A rough, knoblike protrusion, clearly s h o w n in Bartlett's sketch of 1852 (see fig. 6) and w e i g h i n g about thirty p o u n d s , w a s removed during the nineteenth c e n t u r y to p r o v i d e s a m p l e s for m u s e u m s t h r o u g h o u t the w o r l d . (Photo by Gilbert J. McLaughlin)

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blossoming field as it draws from, and contributes importantly to, geology, astronomy, cosmology, and a broad range of new earth and space sciences.

"Tucson" among Meteorites Approximately two thousand genuine meteorites— not counting the recent bonanza of those found in the Antarctic—were known as of 1980. Some meteorites are larger than the Tucson Meteorite; the largest known is estimated at sixty tons and lies where it fell, in Southwest Africa. Others, for one reason or another, have been subject to more intricate laboratory analyses. Still others have been worshiped, or used in healing rituals or as footwarmers, haystack weights, and doorstops. A few dubious meteorites are surrounded by exotic tales of discovery and subsequent loss. In contrast, the Tucson Meteorite had already graced a military outpost of New Spain when the serious study of rocks from the sky had just begun, before the California gold rush, and before any but the heartiest Americans had even pushed across the Mississippi River into the wilderness between the river and the Rocky Mountains.

as the Carleton Meteorite, after the Civil War general James H. Carleton. The two fragments together, weighing more than a ton, comprise the Tucson Meteorite. Similarly, the hundreds of iron fragments collected from the area around the Barringer Meteor Crater in northern Arizona comprise the Canyon Diablo meteorite. It is the numerous early accounts of many more and larger fragments of the Tucson that have kept treasure seekers on edge to this day.* Rumors and descriptions of first one and then the other of the Tucson fragments in the 1850s and 1860s led to recurring confusion in newspapers and official reports. After all, not many Americans had visited the little Mexican village of Tucson before the mid1850s. Even fewer had any kind words for the town that had once been the farthest outpost of an earlier Spanish empire in the New World and that even in 1850 was no more than a provision stop on the trail from the Rio Grande to the Pacific.

The historical record of events of more than a century ago is seldom as complete as we would like, and the record of the Tucson Meteorite is no exception. But in the chapters that follow, the Meteorite's history will be recounted as it has been unearthed, with occasional quotes from original documents and newspaper accounts to convey the flavor of the times and of the people of the Arizona frontier whose fates were intermingled with that of the Meteorite. It will perhaps aid the reader to know at the outset that my references so far to the Tucson Meteorite have been slight misnomers. In fact, two known iron meteorite fragments make up the Tucson Meteorite (and many more are possibly awaiting discovery!). The two are chemically similar. They are accepted by scientists as having come from the same parent mass in space, and as having separated only during their fiery descent through the earth's atmosphere. The larger of the two (fig. 1) is a unique fourteenhundred-pound circular specimen. It is officially known as the Tucson, but is also known as the Ring, the Signet, the Ainsa, and the Irwin-Ainsa Meteorite. The second specimen (fig. 2) weighs 633 pounds, with a shape reminding one of a whalebone. It is known

F I G . 2 T h e Carleton fragment of the Tucson Meteorite. There is no evident ' ' f i t " b e t w e e n this fragment and the Ring, but the t w o are similar in chemical composition and structure, and are u n i q u e l y different from any other k n o w n meteorites. T h e Carleton w e i g h s 633 p o u n d s and w a s partially buried on its end to serve the n e e d s of blacksmith R a m o n P a c h e c o . (Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D . C . )

*Readers wishing m o r e detail on the physical characteristics of the Tucson Meteorite a r e referred to the A p p e n d i x .

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Tucson: The Middle of a Nowhere

Tucson had been founded as one of a line of northern military outposts of the New World Spanish empire that stretched from Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America through all of Central America and the Caribbean to the northern California coast. In 1775-76 a new Spanish presidio, or fort, was established on the present site of Tucson. The new location, in the Pimeria Alta, or Upper Pima, desert country, was deemed strategic in defending the new frontier and in securing the overland route to California that had just been opened by the intrepid explorer of New Spain, Juan Bautista de Anza. The presidio of Tucson in 1776 was merely a stockade of logs, probably of mesquite from the dense stands of the mesquite tree in the Santa Cruz River valley, or of pine brought from the heavily timbered Santa Rita Mountains to the south near Tubac. By 1790, however, a more durable presidio was erected with adobe walls three feet thick at the base and perhaps ten feet high surrounding a square of slightly more than seven hundred feet on a side (see fig. 3). Within these walls were the magazine, guardhouse, ramparts for two cannon, corrals, and several dwellings. There was also a simple church of adobe and wood beams, built against the inside of the east wall of the presidio. The Tucson garrison, under first Spanish and later Mexican control (Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821), varied in strength from forty to one hundred men, depending on the government's ability to fund the post and on how many men might be sick, injured, on temporary duty at other posts, or out chasing Apache bands. Garrison rosters for the period from 1779 to 1817 typically show the names of four or five officers, a chaplain, a drummer, several sergeants and corporals, and fifty to seventy-five men. In addition, an armorer whose diverse tasks included maintaining the presidial cannon and the soldiers' firearms and lances was always on hand. The armorer's essential skills included blacksmithing, and among his tools—which were often in long demand and short supply—would have been an allimportant anvil. By the late 1840s, reports variously placed the Tucson population between five hundred and one thou-

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sand inhabitants. A few dwellings and shops had sprung up outside the presidio walls, which were themselves falling into disrepair as the tiny settlement grew and the Apache threat lessened. The original church against the east wall had long since fallen into disrepair. It had been replaced by a small adobe chapel dedicated to Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, the patron saint of soldiers in the New World, and was located inside and to the south of the main gate in the west wall of the presidio.' From this particular location, as we shall see later, the little chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe also watched over the doings of the presidial armorer and his massive meteoritic anvil. Then came the discovery of gold in California and the rush of the '49ers hoping to make their fortunes there. One of the principal southwest routes to California from the eastern states went through Tucson, even though it was still Mexican territory. It would remain Mexican until its purchase by the United States in 1854 under the Gadsden Treaty. Tucson offered little of beauty or comfort to the 4 9 e r s . It was a "town of flat-roofed adobe houses smack in the middle of a nowhere that had become a somewhere to gold-fevered men. Tucson was a somewhere to get extra water, extra melons, and extra food of any kind. Tucson was somewhere to ask about the trail a h e a d . " 2

Velasco: Hie First Account of the Meteorite The first known description of a meteorite in Tucson was written about 1845. The account was destined to tease, confuse, and intrigue us to the present day. In Spanish, it was written by Jose Francisco Velasco, a reputable official of the government of the Mexican state of Sonora at that time. His three short sentences in a scholarly work of 350 pages on the characteristics and resources of Sonora set the stage for the discoveries, drama, and deceit that were to involve the Tucson Meteorite. In his Noticias Estadisticas del Estado de Sonora, Velasco included the following passage, shown here in translation:

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F I G . 3 T h e Tucson Presidio of about 1790, v i e w e d toward the northeast, as delineated from historical accounts. T h e early church against the far, east wall w a s later replaced by the chapel of Nuestra Seriora de G u a d a l u p e just inside the main w e s t gate. T h e area of the original presidio is approximately b o u n d e d in m o d e r n d o w n t o w n Tucson by W a s h i n g t o n and Pennington streets to the north and south, and by C h u r c h and Main a v e n u e s to the east and w e s t . ( A r i z o n a Historical Society, Tucson)

Mines of Iron, Lead, Copper and Quicksilver Between the presidio of Tucson and Tubac, there is a sierra [mountain range] called de la Madera [Timber] and puerto de los Muchachos [mountain pass of the Children]. In it are seen enormous masses of virgin iron, many of which have rolled to the foot of the said range. From these masses, a middle-sized one was taken to Tucson, where for many years it has remained in the plaza of said presidio. '

One might ask why we should think that Velasco's masses of virgin iron were in fact meteorites when he makes no reference to them as such. For this, we need to look for a moment at the history of our understanding of meteorites.

Stones from the Sky?

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The translation of Velasco's original Spanish raises some crucial problems, to which we will return later. For the moment, note that 1) a location of sorts is described where the masses were found; 2) the masses are described as being of "virgin iron" (virgin being defined in Velasquez' 1852 Spanish-English Dictionary as "anything in its pure and primitive state"; 3) the masses are " m a n y " and "enormous"! and 4) the one taken to the presidio at Tucson was only "middle-sized."

A curious irony exists in the history of the scientific study of meteorites. Stones believed to have fallen from the sky were revered, worshiped, and used in various cultures for centuries before the birth of Christ. Yet most people of science as late as 1800 vigorously denied the possibility of any such happening. There was no plausible source for such stones. None could be seen in the sky, so none could fall. But unsettling reports of objects falling to earth from space persisted, and finally a well-witnessed fall of meteorites near L' Aigle, France, in 1803 persuaded 4

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the Royal Academy of Science in Paris to soften its stand and accept the extraordinary possibility that the earlier widespread folk accounts of such events just might be true. The whole debate was principally an issue among scientists and scholars, and was a controversy that would linger on for years. News of the possibility of rocks falling from the sky might well have reached the few Sonorans educated in science by 1845, but at best it would hardly have been viewed as being of any significance to life in a desolate Mexican outpost such as Tucson. On the other hand, precious and useful minerals were well understood at the time, as were the intricacies of agriculture, livestock raising, and timbering on the rugged and hostile frontier. Sonora had been well prospected by miners in search of gold and silver. It was the promise of wealth—the fabled gold cities of Cibola and the solid silver Planchas de Plata—that had provided much of the drive to push the Spanish empire north into the Sonoran Desert. Spanish and Mexican prospectors were astute, for example, in recognizing the many mineral forms in which silver occurs, and they knew well the several chemical processes needed to extract it. Similarly, they noted deposits of other metals, especially those useful in purifying gold and silver, such as quicksilver and pyrite. 5

Various minerals of iron—such as ores of reddish oxides that color the eroded face of the desert in many areas—are found in the Sonoran Desert. More likely to attract attention are the numerous smooth, rounded, fist-sized chunks of gray magnetite ( F e , 0 ) that appear especially in the region of the Tucson Mountains west of the early presidio. Magnetite attracts a compass needle, a phenomenon that discloses its iron content. A sharp hammer blow to magnetite will shatter it, whereas the nickel-iron of iron meteorites offers the resilience of high-quality steel. The various natural compounds of iron were readily recognized on the frontier, as was iron in its supposedly native, or virgin, state. The extreme hardness, durability, and density of nickel-iron meteorites would hardly have gone unnoticed by the eager prospectors of New Spain. After all, those same qualities were recognized by ancient peoples as well as by Indians and Eskimos, all of whom had collected meteorite specimens for centuries without understanding their origin. 4

Though Mexican prospectors, garrison troops, and Velasco himself could hardly have suspected the cosmic origin of the "enormous masses of virgin iron," they clearly recognized the masses as something extremely unusual. The meteorites were sufficiently unusual and useful to be worth the immense difficulty of hauling one fourteen-hundred-pound mass *

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more than thirty miles to Tucson from the mountains to the south. That these ponderous masses of incredibly tough iron had come from a natural local source must have seemed an obvious and inescapable conclusion. Should we believe Velasco's account that "many," " e n o r m o u s " masses of meteoritic iron existed? His credentials are sound. Born in 1790 in Mexico, he had served a variety of public functions: as a representative to the First General Congress in 1882, and to the Constitutional Conventions of the state of Occidente in 1824 and of Sonora in 1831. He served as a judge in Hermosillo in 1845 and was state secretary of Sonora beginning in 1846. He was a Fellow of the Mexican Society of Geography and Statistics. In the preface of Noticias Estadisticas, which contains the earliest known reference to the virgin irons, Velasco deplored the lack of accurate and comprehensive data on the state of Sonora. Since most of the text deals with the geography, resources, and population of the largely undeveloped state of Sonora, it is difficult to imagine any reason for Velasco to have deliberately exaggerated or altered such information as he had on the curious mass of iron that had been taken to the presidio at Tucson. His information was, most likely, second- or third-hand, although the sentence structure of the original Spanish would not rule out the possibility of his having personally seen the strange object in the plaza in Tucson. 0

Velasco's finished manuscript of the Noticias Estadisticas was published in 1850 in Mexico City. It was apparently a small printing, since a decade later an American translator of the work, William F. Nye, observed that "there are but few copies in exist e n c e . " The scarcity of copies would vastly complicate the history of the Tucson Meteorite in years after Nye's translation was published. The task of pulling together the available factual and statistical information on the entire state of Sonora must have taken Velasco several years. From a close reading of the original text we can deduce that the section entitled "Mines of Iron, Lead, Copper and Quicksilver" was most likely written in 1845. Thus, by 1845 one fragment of the Tucson Meteorite stood in the presidio of Tucson, and indeed had already been there "for many years." We can only speculate as to when a band of soldiers chasing Apaches, or perhaps a group of settlers out hunting, prospecting, or logging in the Sierra de la Madera, encountered the Meteorite. We know that during the final period of Spanish rule in Mexico, from 1786 to 1821, a largely successful policy of pacifying the Apaches was followed: they were provided food and supplies in return for ceasing their raiding and combat. Even up to about 1830, Indian problems were only sporadic, and both soldiers and settlers probably felt relatively safe in exploring the nearby 7

countryside. The masses of native iron thus could well have been found during the latter part of that period. On the other hand, the 1830s saw a marked increase in hostilities and turmoil and, no doubt, a corresponding increase in demand for the services of the military blacksmith and his anvil. Original documents describing more precisely when and how the first virgin iron was brought to Tucson possibly lie undiscovered in the church or government archives of Hermosillo or Mexico City. Literally thousands of boxes of such uncatalogued historic materials are in Mexican archives awaiting future researchers.

Anvils in New Spain What could motivate a handful of Mexican soldiers at a dismal desert outpost to drag most of a ton of nickel-iron across thirty miles of dangerous frontier? Certainly not its monetary or scientific value. The answer was to be provided by one of the '49ers on his way to fame and fortune in the gold fields of California. The '4oers were a varied lot: shopkeepers, professionals, farmers, teachers, ne'er-do-wells, and thieves, all lured by the rumor of gold for the taking. Some went from the eastern United States by sea, others by the central land route through Utah. Some followed Philip St. George Cooke's trail of the Mormon Battalion through Tucson. The diaries kept by several of the more observant and literate '49ers provide picturesque images of Tucson and the Santa Cruz River valley. One '49er, A. B . Clarke, answers our question:

was he simply indisposed to shoeing another mulo for another gringo in the long string of mulos and gringos by now passing through the otherwise quiet village? But the Ring Meteorite is clearly identifiable in Clarke's description: native iron from a neighboring mountain, used as an anvil, three to four feet long, two large legs, and malleable. And it was the only anvil in what was referred to as " t h e " blacksmith shop in town. An anvil on the frontier was priceless. A garrison armorer, with whatever anvil and other tools he was provided or could improvise, was expected to create and maintain saddle trappings, stirrups, spurs, horseshoes, muskets, pistols, lances, tools, cutlery, axes, hinges, chains, padlocks, and sometimes even domestic articles of iron or other metals (see fig. 4). He often did not have many materials to work with. Iron of any sort was scarce, so scraps of iron were reused again and again. It must have been an exciting day indeed when a single fourteen-hundred-pound mass of native iron was found not only near enough to the presidio to be hauled in but also of a natural shape that was incredibly adaptable to the needs of a blacksmith. The presidial armorer could never have expected so handsome or massive a specimen had he relied on government issue from Mexico City, twelve hundred miles away. As Tom Bredlow was to say more than a century later, " A n y o n e who ever worked iron . . . 0

Mai/ 31st 1840 1 obtained four mule shoes from the blacksmith, at one dollar apiece. The smith did not know how to put them on, although he was considered the best mechanic in town. 1 saw at this smith's shop, a natural curiosity. It was a piece of native iron from a neighboring mountain, used for an anvil, and the only one in the shop. It was between three and four feet long, with two large legs, which were firmly set in the ground, and judged by our men to weigh two thousand pounds. I hammered it, and found it malleable. **

This smith with the two-legged anvil, presumably still located in the presidio, must have been the armorer for the garrison. Allowing for some 130 years of inflation, the amount Clarke paid was the equivalent of about forty dollars (in 1980 terms) for his four mule shoes! Was the blacksmith really so inept, or

* Malleable does not imply that the material is easy to form by pounding, but rather that it " c r e e p s " or "flows" u n d e r such stress rather than fracture.

F I G . 4 Typical h a n d i w o r k of a military armorer of the frontier d u r i n g the early nineteenth century. Blacksmiths of the time w e r e required to turn out a w i d e variety of iron products and repairs to service an entire military outpost. Left to right: chisel, spur, lance point, spike, strap h i n g e , and (top) lock plate. ( M u s e u m of N e w M e x i c o , Santa Fe. P h o t o by Marc S i m m o n s )

13

FIG. 5

14

Southern A r i z o n a and Sonora, M e x i c o

would know in an instant that it was heaven sent to be an anvil!"

Levers and Stoneboats We can only speculate about how the iron mass was moved to Tucson. Moving three-quarters of a ton of metal may not strike one today as terribly difficult. But until about 1847, the people of northern Sonora did not even have four-wheeled wagons, only twowheeled carretas and carros drawn by oxen or mules. To make matters worse, the Sierra de la Madera (now called the Santa Rita Mountains), where the Meteorite was found, are rugged and the surrounding flatland toward Tucson is scored by hundreds of arroyos, natural surface drainage channels several feet deep cut into the desert by the flash flooding of desert storms. To cross the arroyos with a team of mules or oxen dragging the Meteorite on the ground or on a wooden sled would have been almost impossible. Fortunately, from the northwest slopes of the Santa Ritas (see map, fig. 5), the arroyos drain in a northwesterly direction toward Tucson, so the tedious trip would at least have been parallel to, not cutting

10

across, most of those natural barriers. Using a sturdy two-wheeled cart would have required lifting the Meteorite to a considerable height and then balancing it during the long trek to Tucson, a precarious feat. A more likely vehicle would have been a "stoneboat," a low sled made of two timbers and cross-planking that is hauled by mules or oxen. Lifting the Meteorite onto even a sled would have required ingenuity, timbers as levers, or block and tackle. As we quickly learned at the Flandrau Planetarium when the Meteorite arrived there in 1975, it is not possible to get enough solid handholds on the big Ring to lift it by manpower alone. The Meteorite was nonetheless hauled or dragged toward the Santa Cruz River, along or across its usually dry bed, perhaps to the Camino Real, the primitive road that was the supply line connecting the outpost of Tucson to Tubac, Tumacacori, Arispe, and the remainder of Sonora to the south. The thirty or more miles to the presidio must have taken several days, during which the unpredictable Apaches would have been a constant threat.

"Dr. Bugs" In mid-December 1849, a visitor to the southwest, Benjamin Hayes, observed in his Pioneer Notes that "there are two blacksmith shops in Tucson."" It is possible that '49er Clarke might earlier in the year have missed what Hayes cited as a second blacksmith shop, but that event seems unlikely since

Clarke was actively seeking the help of a competent smith for a problem of some urgency on the trail. Did Clarke miss finding the second blacksmith shop in so small a pueblo as Tucson, or had another settler with the skills of a smith set up business between May and December as a result of the rising tide of gold seekers streaming through the village? In any case, the enlightenment of Western science, at least so far as meteorites were concerned, clearly reached Tucson in February 1851. It arrived in the person of "Dr. B u g s , " or more properly, John Lawrence LeConte, M.D. Medicine was not, in fact, LeConte's first love, but entomology was. His interest was in all kinds of bugs, especially beetles. LeConte also became highly versed in geology and in a broad range of the natural sciences other than entomology. At the age of twenty-four, he sailed for California via Panama, observing and collecting new species of beetles everywhere he went. Near San Diego he met Maj. Samuel Peter Heintzelman who later, as president of the Sonora Exploring and Mining Company, played a key role in the political, economic, and mining development of Arizona during the explosive growth of the territory in the 1850s. It was Heintzelman who dubbed LeConte "Dr. B u g s " to express his mixed respect and exasperation. As he traveled through the southwest, LeConte made scientific observations of everything: insects, birds, desert cacti, river sediments, geothermal springs, and new varieties of pine trees. By August 1851, however, he had returned to Albany, New York, to attend the sixth annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, where he described his find. * LeConte's account of his encounter with the Meteorite in Tucson was published in 1852 in the American journal of Science: 12

1

Notice of Meteoric Iron in the Mexican Province of Sonora; by John L. LeConte, M.D.—In February, 1851, while at Tucsan [sic] in Sonora, I saw two large masses of iron, evidently meteoric, which were used as anvils by the two blacksmiths of that tozvn. They were irregular in form, and although imbedded in the ground to make them steady enough for use, they were about three feet high. I endeavored to have some pieces cut off, and although a high price was offered, the characteristic Mexican indolence could not be overcome. The only answer I could obtain, was the metal was "muy duro." These pieces were brought from a valley in a small mountain chain, about forty miles southeast of Tucsan, east of the road leading to Tuvaca. In this valley, fragments similar to those seen, and of various sizes were said to be abundant. From the occurrence of this metal, the valley was called "Canada de Hierro, " or iron valley. Silver mines of great richness are very numerous in that vicinity: the metal occurs as sulphuret, with galena and blende, and also in the native form. 14

15

LeConte thus seemingly confirmed the presence of two blacksmiths, two meteorites, and a Valley of Iron!

Bartlett, Blanco, and the Boundary Under the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the United States and Mexico agreed to survey a boundary between the city of El Paso on the east and a point on the Pacific dividing upper and lower California. The border was to run along the Gila River well north of Tucson. How the line was to be drawn between El Paso and the Gila became a matter of dispute since the maps on which the treaty was based turned out to be inaccurate. In 1850, President Zachary Taylor appointed John Russell Bartlett as U.S. boundary commissioner to meet with a similar Mexican counterpart to work out and actually survey a boundary. Bartlett, from Rhode Island, was a scholar, bookseller, ethnologist, artist, and author of the 1848 Dictionary of Americanisms. (He was not, however, directly related to the John Bartlett who assembled Bartlett's Quotations.) He was a man looking for a political appointment, a change from his former lifestyle, and an opportunity to travel and to experience contact with the Indians of the West. He did not, unfortunately, have the qualities of a diplomatic leader or of a shrewd administrator of government funds. Worse still, he knew little of the field problems of surveying. He did, however, make several good choices of men to accompany him, such as John C. Cremony as interpreter, and Dr. Thomas H. Webb as surgeon and secretary. His military staff included Maj. William Emory, Lt. Ambrose Burnside (later a Civil War general), and surveyors Andrew B. Gray and Lt. Amiel Whipple. IS

Bartlett's next three years on the frontier were, to say the least, chaotic. He appears to have been well intentioned. Certainly his later two-volume Personal Narrative of Explorations and Incidents in Texas, New Mexico, California, Sonora, and Chihuahua, 1850-1852 is

among the most complete, detailed, and valuable works of the period. His tenure as boundary commissioner, however, was fraught with charges of mismanagement, diversion of funds and supplies, and a propensity by Bartlett to leave the frontier surveying party to pursue personal interests. 10

It was one such digression from the survey that brought Bartlett into Tucson from the north on July 16, 1852, and led to his curious encounter with the Meteorite. He had already stopped to visit and sketch the famous Casa Grande ruins (now Casa Grande National Monument) just south of the Gila River near present-day Coolidge, Arizona (see fig. 6 ) . Bartlett's party established camp near Tucson to pur-

16

chase supplies, rest their horses, repair their wagons, and exchange pleasantries with the Mexican officers there. Gen. Miguel Blanco de Estrada had recently arrived from skirmishing with Apaches to the south. On the night of July 17, 1852, Bartlett wrote in his personal diary: Called on General Blanco to take leave and while in the town examined at the blacksmith's shop a single mass of native iron used as an anvil. This mass weighs some 600 lbs and was found about 20 miles distant, where there is said to be more in larger masses. 17

In the printed version of his Personal Narrative published two years later, in 1854, Bartlett provides us with additional embellishing details and a peculiar contradiction: In the afternoon I called to take leave of General Blanco, and at the same time examine a remarkable meteorite, which is used for an anvil in the blacksmith's shop. This mass resembles native iron, and weighs about six hundred pounds. Its greatest length is five feet. Its exterior is ijuite smooth, while the lower part which projects from the larger leg is very jagged and rough. It was found about twenty miles distant towards Tubac, and about eight miles from the road, where we were told are many larger masses. The annexed drawing gives the appearance of this singular mass. There is another larger mass within the garrison grounds, of which I did not take a sketch. With much labor Dr. Webb broke off a fragment of this meteorite for the purpose of analysis. 18

In the published text, the mass is recognized as a meteorite; Bartlett might well have encountered LeConte's earlier description of the anvil after returning east in 1853 to write up his experiences. The dimensions and shape of the meteorite are given, and a point of origin eight miles from the TucsonTubac road. Bartlett's reference to "another larger mass" is curiously inaccurate since we now know that the fragment he sketched is the larger of the two. His estimate of six hundred pounds for the Ring fragment is grossly amiss from its actual fourteen hundred pounds but is a close approximation to the weight (633 pounds) of the other fragment, which he did not see. Many people today could easily underestimate the weight of the Ring, just as Bartlett and Webb did. It is difficult to appreciate that the weight of one cubic foot of meteoritic iron is typically more than 450 pounds and that the volume of the Ring exceeds three cubic feet. Bartlett's allusion to the other mass being "within the garrison grounds" no doubt refers to a building about one hundred feet outside the west gate of the presidio where troops were garrisoned at this time. Why a person of Bartlett's curiosity and scholarship did not walk the extra few hundred feet to see and sketch the allegedly larger mass, we do not know. Perhaps the conversation between the American and

F I G . 6 First k n o w n sketch of the Tucson Meteorite, m a d e by John Russell Bartlett in 1852. Bartlett had just c o m e from C a s a G r a n d e w h e r e he had also d r a w n the floor plan of this a b a n d o n e d Indian structure. T h i s p r e v i o u s l y u n k n o w n d r a w i n g w a s found in 1978 a m o n g the Bartlett Papers in the John Carter B r o w n Library of B r o w n University. (The John Carter B r o w n Library, Providence, Rhode Island)

the Mexican who presumably described the second mass lost something in the translation. Little more than a year after Bartlett returned to the east. President Franklin Pierce completed the Gadsden Purchase of 29,670 square miles of additional Mexican land. Mexican President Santa Anna needed U.S. dollars; the U . S . wanted and got a southern railroad route to the coast. The third successive national flag, after those of Spain and Mexico, would soon fly over Tucson as it became a part of the United States. Bartlett's survey was no longer needed. A new national boundary, the present U.S.-Mexican one, would be surveyed. Bartlett's lengthy Personal Narrative, his hundreds of meticulous drawings, plus the fourteen volumes of technical reports on the natural history of the Southwest that resulted from the sur-

vey, nonetheless stand as a historically invaluable produce of his labors. 10

Lieutenant Parke: Samples for Scientists Even in 1853 the U . S . government was already so confident of acquiring the land about to be embraced in the Gadsden Purchase that a survey team was dispatched, with Mexican permission, to reconnoiter the best railroad rights-of-way between El Paso and the Pima Villages on the Gila River near present-day Phoenix. Lt. John G. Parke was in charge of this expedition. While the route Parke finally recommended through southern Arizona did not pass through Tucson, his surveying party camped over-

17

night outside Tucson on February 20, 1854, to rest their animals. From that visit would come the first scientific studies of the Tucson Meteorite. Parke presented himself to Capt. Hilarion Garcia, who by this time was the commandante of the remaining Mexican garrison at Tucson. Parke's report provides the first detailed description of both fragments by a single observer. The commandant showed us two specimens of a meteorite found in a canon in Santa Rita mountain, about twentyfive or thirty miles to the south of Tuczon [sic]. They are both used as anvils, and were lying, one in the presidio or garrison, and the other in front of the alcalde's house. That in the garrison is of a very peculiar form, being annular and somewhat like a signet ring of large dimensions, its exterior diameter being about three and a half feet, and interior about two, and weighs near 1,200 pounds. The other piece weighs about 1,000 pounds, and has an elongated prismatic form, serving well the purposes of an anvil, it being partially buried, and standing nearly two feet above the surface of the ground. By permission of the authorities our blacksmith undertook to cut off some specimens for us, in which he almost entirely failed, the metal being so tough and hard; still, by dint of two hours' hard work and the use of a cold chisel of the best temper, and a most weighty sledge, we procured a few small chippings, sufficient for the purpose of analysis. The fracture is crystalline, resembling that of cast-iron. It yields to the hammer, and has a clear ring not unlike bell-metal. 20

The passage does not indicate from which of the two fragments Parke's blacksmith took his specimens. The samples were promptly sent east and led to laboratory analyses by three prominent scientists of the day. The first of these was Dr. Charles Upham Shepard, who had learned of the Meteorites from LeConte. Shepard wrote Parke on July 31, 1854, of his preliminary analysis of the Meteorite, and published a more detailed report in November in the American Journal of

[Shepard then presents the results of his study of the chemical composition of the iron bits. He concludes:] It remains only to state a few additional particulars concerning these iron-masses, derived from a later letter of Lieut. Parke, which he kindly lets me annex to this notice. "The three masses were found in a cahada of the Santa Rita Mountain, about 25 or 30 miles to the south of Tuczon. Two of them were shown to us by the Commandante; both being used as anvils. . . . The third piece I did not see; but was told that it was much smaller than either of the others. . . . "To obtain these specimens would be attended with no little difficulty, owing to the remoteness of the locality, and the broken-down condition of animals when reaching this point." The route of transportation recommended by Lieut. Parke, is that, via Fort Yuma, distant 275 miles from the locality, on the California side; and from thence by water, to the head of the Gulf of California. Measures are already on foot for the removal of one or more of the masses, to this part of the country, which it is greatly to be desired will be crowned with success. 21

The reference to three iron masses may be an error since no third fragment has ever subsequently been authenticated. Or could a third piece have been brought from the valley and later lost, or does it perhaps still ornament an unknown mantel somewhere in the Old Pueblo? The following spring of 1855, D - J. Lawrence Smith published his own chemical analysis of another of the chips that Parke had removed. He paraphrased Bartlett's published description of the Ring and concluded that "it is to be hoped that some of our enterprising U . S . topographical Engineers will yet be able to persuade the owners to part with it and bring it to this country." A third chemical analysis of one of the bits obtained by Parke was made by Dr. F. A. Genth, but his publication on the composition of the Meteorite contributes nothing to its historical background. 22

r

23

24

Science:

Notice of three ponderous masses of Meteoric Iron at Tuczon [sic], Sonora; by Charles Upham Shepard, M.D. [Shepard first quotes LeConte's account of his visit to Tucson and of his finding the two meteoritic irons being used as anvils by the blacksmiths of the town.] . . . I immediately set myself to the best examination of the [fragments Parke had sent], which the limited supply of materials and the facilities at hand, permitted. The fragments were small; the largest piece not weighing above one-quarter of an ounce, and that somewhat battered by the process employed after its separation. Still, it showed the natural outside of a meteor. It was destitute of a well marked crust, and much coated with oxyd of iron, evincing in common with the other fragments, that this iron is prone to undergo a rapid oxydation on exposure to the weather.

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Bell's Bells Parke's report confirms that the Ring specimen was in the presidio, just as Velasco had reported nine years earlier. But where exactly was it located? Could we today, for the first time, find the very spot and savor standing in the footprints of the presidial armorer? We can, but we will need more data. Where the reports of military officers and scientists fail us, a cattle drover provides our first clue and enlightenment. James G. Bell was a member of a cattle drive that passed Tucson on September 20, 1854. Bell's diary states: Did pay a visit to town [Tucson]. Adobe houses greet the eye upon enterence [sic]. The plan is very irregular; the

church is about ten by twenty feet, no attempt at ornament, except in the front plastering, immediately over the door and in the gable, is hung a small Bell; on the right hand of the door are two more, upon one is inscribed VUESTRA SENORA DE GUADALUPE ANO 1807. In the same court is the blacksmith shop, a place of importance in these Mexican townls]. The anvil used is quite a curiosity and came from a mountain of native Iron fifteen miles distant. This piece of iron is of the above shape [a primitive but unmistakable sketch of the Ring in the ground is attached here] as near as recollection can give it; one third is under ground. The circle is buried up to the dotted horizontal [groundl line. I suppose it would weigh three and a half tons. 15

By now the original church of the presidio of Tucson—the one inside the center of the east w a l l had been long abandoned. Taking its place was the little chapel that Bell described; some seventy-five feet inside the west gate of the presidio, it was to the right as one entered. This was the chapel of Nuestra Seriora de Guadalupe, patron saint of Mexico and of her soldiers. Its location is shown on the first map of Tucson made in 1862. By good fortune, it was also sketched by John W. Barber in June i860 (see fig. 7). The sketch of the chapel and Bell's description of it in his diary, which lay unpublished until 1932, agree remarkably well. 20

F I G . 7 C h u r c h at Tucson, i860. T h e Ring Meteorite w a s an integral part of the military blacksmith s h o p located on the s a m e court as this c h u r c h , s k e t c h e d on June 13, i860. From w h a t is k n o w n of the exact location of the Ring Meteorite anvil in the Tucson presidio, it is quite possible that this sketch w a s r e n d e r e d w h i l e the artist w a s sitting on the Ring. (From John W. Barber, The Loyal West, 1865. C o u r t e s y A r i z o n a Historical Society, Tucson)

27

malable [sic] Iron we have two pieces of the Iron at this place one of the heaviest will weigh at least 2000 pounds it is said to be abundant. 29

Micheler, Pinkston, and Others The new and final boundary between Mexico and the United States was surveyed westward from El Paso by Maj. William Emory during the first half of 1855. The line eastward from near Yuma was the responsibility of Lt. Nathaniel Micheler. For much of June 1855, Micheler's party was in Tucson repairing their wagon train and recruiting mules for further fieldwork. At this time, Captain Garcia's Mexican troops were still defending for the U . S . the residents of a town more than sixty miles inside the new U . S . boundary, and they would continue to do so until the following spring. During his stay in town, Micheler quite incidentally noted: A fine specimen of meteoric iron brought from the Santa Rica /sic/ is to be seen at Tucson, and is used as a blacksmith's anvil. It is massive, and quite malleable. 28

The same month of June, one of the few Anglo residents of Tucson, John M. Pinkston, wrote a lengthy letter to Major Emory in which he describes conflicts with the Indians, terrain, resources, and mines of the Santa Cruz valley. His letter, incidentally, repeats a then-prevalent rumor that the Indians were using bullets of pure silver from an unknown mine, but he also writes: There is an Iron mine 20 miles S.E. of this [town] of pure

Pinkston was a recent arrival in Tucson and had no doubt picked up the local lore of the "iron m i n e " from which the anvils had been extracted. New books appeared in the east describing in vivid and often exaggerated terms the allure of the desert southwest, the mineral wealth, the hazards of travel, the Indian battles, and the rigors of both southern Arizona summers and northern Arizona winters. The books were often a mixture of firsthand experience, rumor, legend, fantasy, and plagiarism. A few of these authors even mentioned the virgin irons of Tucson. Their accounts, however, were simply paraphrasings of Velasco's first report, often rather loosely translated.* One firsthand account was that by Sam Hughes, a Welsh immigrant to Tucson, who later recalled that there were "tow blacksmith shops but neather one could weld a Tyre + thar anviles was thos earu Light [aerolites*]." Later and more dubious accounts purported to identify the origin of the Meteorites at specific locations in the Santa Rita Mountains or in the nearby Rincon Mountains. 0

31

32

*In m o d e r n meteoritics, the term aerolite refers only to meteorites of stony composition, not to those that are p r e d o m i n a n t l y of iron. A c e n t u r y a g o , however, the term w a s c o m m o n l y used to refer to any meteorite.

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By the time the Mexican troops withdrew from Tucson in March 1856, Tucson had expanded outside the old presidial walls, mostly to the west and south. Indeed, the adobe walls that had provided protection from the Indians for eighty years were crumbling, aided by the elements and occasionally by residents who urgently needed additional adobes. To facilitate access, other openings were made in what remained of the wall. Many Mexicans, some of whom had been born and spent their entire lives in Tucson, opted to remain in Arizona and become U . S . citizens. Anglos began to pour in to search for land to farm or graze, and for wealth from the rumored lodes of gold and silver. Most were upstanding citizens; some were refugees

20

from justice elsewhere. Land claims both in and out of town needed to be settled, mining claims to be declared, merchandise to be brought in by pack train, travel to be made easier from the east and west coasts. Tucson began to thrive as it never had before. Its population was still less than a thousand inhabitants, but the number would double in less than ten years. The picturesque Mexican village that had been Tucson for eighty years, the town in the middle of a nowhere, had now become a somewhere for more than just the 4oers passing through. The Meteorites themselves, too heavy to be easily moved, remained where they had been: the Ring in the old presidio, the other fragment on the property of a blacksmith-storekeeper named Ramon Pacheco.

Don Ramon's Whalebone

Another Pioneer Gone Don Ramon Pacheco died at his residence on McCormick street last night at the age of about go years. He was born in Tucson and knew the place from its inception as a Mexican village to its present metropolitan conditions. The old gentleman was vigorous and hearty until a few days ago and was proud of the Americanized appearance of the city. He was an encyclopedia of local history and had a wide circle of friends. The funeral took place this afternoon at 3 o'clock. Pacheco was actually eighty when he died, not ninety. But it was pleasing that Tucson's Arizona Daily Citizen of February 10, 1900, accorded him the Spanish title of a don, a term denoting the status of a gentleman, a person of social stature who is held in respect by the community. Ramon Pacheco's father, Ignacio Antonio Pacheco, had been born, raised, and married in Tubac. Ignacio had applied for and obtained in 1818, under authority of the King of Spain, registration of the Diamond Bell brand for his livestock, the first such brand on record, and one still in use today in southern Arizona by Pacheco descendants. The same year, his wife, Rita Duran, presented him with a second son, Miguel, and two years later with a third, Ramon. Both sons would later pick up the skills of blacksmithing, very likely from the military armorer. 1

Ignacio was active in village affairs and was well regarded. He was designated in 1826 to become the second alcalde of Tucson, an official position akin to mayor and justice of the peace combined. Being alcalde of a small village such as Tucson, was, like soldiering on the frontier, a part-time job. By now he also had three sons to help in the fields. Ramon was twenty-nine years old when the '49ers began trickling through Tucson on their journey west, stopping for supplies, resting their pack animals, and frequently seeking out a blacksmith to repair broken wagons and equipment. Ramon and Miguel may well have been in the fields in May 1849 when A. B. Clarke sought out four shoes for his mules and found only one blacksmith in town, presumably the one in the presidio. In December of the same year, Hayes had noted two blacksmith shops. Perhaps it was the growing throng of gold seekers 2

needing services that prompted Ramon Pacheco to search among the iron masses in the valley of the Santa Rita Mountains for a larger and more versatile anvil than the kind he and his brother had been using. Certainly they would have known the site of the "enormous masses of virgin iron" from which the Ring had come; after all, the family by now had lived within sight of the Santa Ritas, at Tubac and at Tucson, for more than three-quarters of a century, and they would certainly have known all the lore of the area. The chunk of native iron that Ramon brought back to town resembled, some said, a whalebone. It was a slablike piece, weighing some 6 3 3 pounds. For men in their prime, aided perhaps by a few mules and a stoneboat sled, this fragment of the Meteorite would have been considerably less of a challenge to transport than was the earlier fourteen-hundred-pound Ring. Surprisingly enough, we can determine with considerable precision just where Pacheco set up his unique nickel-iron anvil to ply the trade of blacksmith. From early landownership records, we know that Ignacio Pacheco and his family had by now moved to property outside the presidio (see map, fig. 10). And we know that Ramon, at age thirty-two in 1852 had purchased for fifty dollars a small parcel of land about sixty yards north of the family homestead and about fifty yards south of the old Mexican garrison building, and adjacent to the home of Guadalupe Santa Cruz. It may have been a fortuitous choice of lot for the young blacksmith, since six years later the Santa Cruz house would become the first Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach stop in Tucson. No better location could be found for a blacksmith and storekeeper. 3

Although Ramon acquired his small lot—according to the deed it was only forty-six feet square—on the Calle del Correo in 1852, it is entirely possible that he had been using the land under a verbal agreement with Guadalupe Santa Cruz before he actually purchased it. Such arrangements were common. Since he brought his Meteorite into town before 1851, he could well have set it up as an anvil on either the family property of his father's, or possibly on the lot

21

he would purchase in 1852. The two sites were but a stone's throw apart, one in front of the other. In either location, the Meteorite would meet the description by Lieutenant Parke in 1855 that the two specimens "were lying, one in the presidio or garrison, and the other in front of the alcalde's h o u s e . " Following in his father's footsteps, brother Miguel had become alcalde (though the title had now become juez de paz, or justice of the peace) of Tucson in January 1951 and served in that capacity for two years. By 1855, however, the Mexican alcalde form of governance for small villages had just been displaced by the Americans. But with two generations of Pachecos having served in the office, Parke's reference was obviously to the Pacheco house. During the spring of 1856, the last of the Mexican troops still protecting Tucson under terms of the Gadsden Treaty withdrew into Mexico. The last military armorer, Antonio Comaduran, was the son of the distinguished Jose Antonio Comaduran who had commanded the Tucson garrison from 1830 to about 1850. The young Comaduran, just twenty years old, could not take with him the massive ring of meteoritic iron that had been the symbol of his trade in the presidio. Blacksmithing for the Mexican military in Tucson thus came to an end, and Ramon Pacheco and his brother Miguel were left to supply the growing civilian blacksmithing needs of the burgeoning 4

village. The Ring in the presidio was abandoned, although it would soon be rediscovered by an officer of the incoming U . S . Army. The Santa Cruz house next door to Ramon Pacheco's shop was somewhat hurriedly turned into a stage station. Before its conversion, the town had had no place to board and not much food to offer newly arriving stagecoach passengers. The house, about sixty feet square, was renamed the Buckley House (see fig. 8). Ramon's shop was at the center of activity, and the reassuring sound of his hammer against the meteorite anvil could no doubt be heard throughout the village. 5

Colonel Carleton's

Confiscation

As the Civil War began, both the Union and the Confederacy wanted the New Mexico Territory—which included all of what is now Arizona and New Mexico—for its gold and silver resources and as a route to California. Indeed, both sides claimed the area. On February 28, 1862, Capt. Sherod Hunter, a Confederate officer, rode into Tucson with a company of riflemen and quietly took possession of the town for the South. The Confederate Stars and Bars became the fourth national flag to fly over Tucson.

F I G . 8 The Buckley H o u s e , the h o l l o w square building in this m o d e r n d r a w i n g , served as the Tucson stop of the Butterfield O v e r l a n d Mail in the late 1850s. R a m o n Pacheco, blacksmith and storekeeper, o w n e d the lot to the left (south) of the Buckley H o u s e . It is probable that the C a r l e t o n Meteorite s e r v e d as his anvil beneath the s h e d adjacent to the stagecoach stop. T h e area of the Buckley H o u s e and P a c h e c o ' s s h o p is n o w the parking lot of the federal building in Tucson. (Arizona Historical Society, Tucson)

22

F I G . 9 G e n . James H. Carleton, c o m m a n d e r of the California C o l u m n during the Civil War. His troops recaptured Tucson for the Union in 1862. Carleton mistakenly thought that the meteorite he sent to S a n Francisco in 1862 w a s the Ring that Bartlett had described a d e c a d e earlier. ( M u s e u m of N e w Mexico, Santa Fe)

Tucson, however, remained Confederate for less than three months. The California Volunteers, some sixteen hundred men under Col. James H. Carleton (fig. 9), were to head east from Los Angeles to secure the New Mexico Territory for the Union. The only significant skirmish of the Civil War to take place in Arizona—the brief Battle of Picacho Peak—occurred on April 15, 1862, forty-five miles northwest of Tucson. The result was that the Confederates withdrew, first to Tucson, then eastward toward the Rio Grande. On May 20, Tucson was again occupied by advance Union troops, and on June 7, Colonel Carleton arrived, established himself as military governor, declared martial law, and began to deal severely with those who had collaborated with the Confederates. He would also deal firmly with Ramon Pacheco's meteorite anvil. Carleton remained in Tucson only from June 7 to 6

July 23, 1862. Apart from dealing with demanding military duties during that time, he took two civil actions of special interest to those of us pursuing the trail of the Meteorites. One was his commission of Maj. David Fergusson to supervise the making of the first survey and map of Tucson (see fig. 10). Fergusson's map provides the first graphic picture of the layout of the dusty streets and byways and of some 157 houses, shops, sheds, and other shelters that comprised the Old Pueblo. Carleton was not a man to overlook a potential accolade for himself or for the cause he represented. Before arriving in Tucson, he knew of a meteorite there, the Ring that Bartlett had so meticulously sketched a decade earlier for publication in his boundary-survey travelogue. Carleton's second civil action centered on the Meteorite. The busy colonel apparently gave orders to a subordinate officer that the meteorite anvil in Tucson was to be seized and sent to San Francisco as a memorial to the march of his California Column into Arizona. It was irrelevant whether the blacksmith, Ramon Pacheco—who had found his anvil in the mountains south of Tucson, brought the heavy mass to town, and owned and used it in his trade—was disposed to contribute his anvil to the people of San Francisco. Tucson was under Colonel Carleton's firm martial law, and Carleton was strict in all his dealings with both soldiers and civilians. Years later Pacheco volunteered the information that he had been offered a U . S . quartermaster anvil in exchange for the Meteorite. In any case, after Carleton's order, Pacheco's anvil was promptly loaded on the next wagon train headed west to Fort Yuma en route to California. 7

What Carleton did not know (and what will be described in the next chapter) was that the larger Ring fragment had long since been taken from the presidio, and was at that time on its way to San Francisco and ultimately to Washington, D.C., but by a different route altogether than the route Pacheco's anvil would follow. Confusion in accounts describing the two fragments of the Meteorite was abetted by Bartlett's gross underestimation of the weight of the Ring, which he claimed to be "about 600 pounds," approximately the weight of Pacheco's fragment. Carleton apparently never looked at the flattened slab that he had ordered to be shipped to the Bay City of California. His oversight is evident from the contrasting descriptions of it given by a San Francisco reporter who saw the Meteorite on its arrival there, and by Carleton himself, just promoted to brigadier general, in a letter to Gen. George Wright in San Francisco. Carleton's neglect to inspect his prize in person was no doubt occasioned by the urgent logistical problems faced by his troops in proceeding eastward. Five articles from the Daily Alta California between

23

F I G . io A d a p t e d from an original m a p of Tucson c o m p i l e d in 1862 u n d e r the direction of Maj. D. Fergusson, Californ Volunteers. (Courtesy A r i z o n a Historical Society, Tucson)

24

F I G . 11 T h e Carleton Meteorite p h o t o g r a p h e d in S a n Francisco by C. E. Watkins in late 1862 shortly after its arrival there. M e m b e r s of the California G e o l o g i c a l S u r v e y looking on are, left to right: W. H. Brewer, W. Ashburner, J. D. Whitney, W. M. G a b b , C. Averill, and C. F. Hoffmann. (Arizona Historical Society, Tucson)

November 1862 and March 1863 chronicle the civil debate in San Francisco over the most appropriate location for Carleton's gift to be displayed. While the debate went on, the California State Geologist, Josiah D. Whitney (see fig. 1 1 ) , obtained permission to saw off a small bit of the Meteorite for chemical analysis by a colleague in the east, and to provide samples to other museums. Eventually, in 1866, Ramon Pacheco's anvil was moved from the mayor's office to the Pioneers' Association. There it remained for seventy-five years, interrupted only by a temporary protective move after the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906 to the museum of the California State Mining Bureau. In later years, interest in the specimen waned and new exhibits displaced it to a museum storage area. When Dr. E. P. Henderson of the Smithsonian Institution visited San Francisco's Society of California Pioneers in 1939 on business unrelated to the Meteor8

u

10

ite, he arranged for purchase of the Carleton Iron, as it had by then become known." Two years later, it joined its more famous companion, the Ring, which had arrived at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History by a different, and considerably more complex, sequence of events. The loss of Pacheco's anvil to Colonel Carleton was quickly forgotten. In 1976, I had the privilege of interviewing the last living Pacheco descendant who had known Don Ramon: a grandson living in Benson, Arizona, named Ben Caballero. During the interview Mr. Caballero, then eighty-seven years old, was animated and talkative, and remembered his grandfather well. " H e used to tell me stories of when he was a freighter, and about the Indians, and about Tucson in the old days. . . . No, he never said anything about the Meteorite." Fate sometimes cheats the historian out of his finest moments. 12

25

In 1900, Don Ramon Pacheco was laid to rest east of the presidio in a cemetery that had served Tucson for most of the second half of the nineteenth century. Shortly thereafter, his remains, together with those of other old burials, were moved to Holy Hope Cemetery three miles north on what is now Oracle Road. Many other Pacheco relatives have since joined him there, some with dignified stone markers and flowers. But Don Ramon's grave lies unmarked and unknown, except for a small file card in the ceme-

26

tery's office that reads: "Section D, Row G, Grave 2.

One debt remains unpaid to this day by James Henry Carleton to Ramon Pacheco. But before we proceed to the story of Carleton's unkept promise, we must pick up the story of the Ring fragment where we left it, in 1856, abandoned in the presidio by the Mexican troops as they turned over responsibility for the land of the Gadsden Purchase to the United States military.

Lieutenant Irwin's Coup

The particular Irishman about whom it was written, "Many people accept danger when it is presented; the Irish seek danger for the love of it,"' was Brig. Gen. Bernard John Dowling Irwin (Ret.), U . S . Army. Irwin seems to have richly deserved the tribute. In addition to his other meritorious service, he was to determine the destiny of the Ring Meteorite, which from 1856 to i860 languished unused and abandoned within the presidio of Tucson. Born in Ireland in 1830, Irwin (see fig. 12) graduated from New York Medical College in 1852, and four years later joined the U . S . Army as an assistant surgeon. As a young lieutenant Irwin must have been a dashing young officer in appearance and demeanor. He was tall, with sandy-red hair, blue eyes, a brilliant intellect, and a hot temper. He was conversant in five languages and familiar with the natural sciences. After a brief assignment at Fort Defiance in northeast Arizona, Irwin arrived in late 1857 to join the Seventh Infantry at the barely completed Fort Buchanan, forty miles southeast of Tucson. His early reports as a medical officer in Arizona were scholarly and exhaustive, going into impressive detail concerning its geology and topography, wildlife, plants, fishes, reptiles, and insects, and giving picturesque and candid characterizations of the Indian and Mexican populations with which he came in contact. Evidence as to exactly when and where Irwin first saw the Ring Meteorite is curiously contradictory.* From his own later account of his "discovery," written in September 1863, we might infer that he sought it out almost immediately after his arrival in southern Arizona in December 1857: 2

/// 1837,1 found the large meteorite lying in one of the bystreets, half buried in the earth, having evidently been there a considerable time. No person claimed it, so I publicly announced that I would take possession of it in behalf of the Smithsonian, and forward it whenever the opportunity offered. Mr. Palatine Robinson, near whose house the iron was, assisted me in getting it sent to Humosilla. There was some exyense attending its hoisting into the truckwagon that took it down to Sonora, which I paid to Mr. R. Mr. Ainsa agreed to take it, or have it taken, to Guaymas, Sonora, for fifty dollars. 4

F I G . 12 Brig. G e n . Bernard John D o w l i n g Irwin, M . D . , from a painting. Irwin located the Ring in Tucson during his early a s s i g n m e n t to nearby Fort Buchanan, and later quarreled with the S m i t h s o n i a n Institution o v e r credit for contributing the s p e c i m e n to the national m u s e u m . (National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland)

The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., had just recently been established when Irwin was in medical school in New York. The national mission of the Smithsonian was not yet clearly delineated, but by the late 1850s it was eagerly accepting specimens of almost anything and everything from the western

27

frontier: preserved birds and bird eggs, plants, fish, reptiles, insects, mineral specimens, Indian artifacts, and the like. For those exploring, conquering, or developing the new territory, especially those dedicated to the natural sciences, what better way was there to contribute to science than to send newly discovered curiosities to the country's embryonic national museum? Beyond science was the pride of having one's name attached to the object of a Smithsonian display. In another letter of June 27, 1865, to the eminent physicist and Secretary of the Smithsonian, Joseph Henry (after whom the electrical unit, the henry, is named), Irwin again states that he arrived at Fort Buchanan in December 1857 and "shortly afterward" examined and took possession of the Meteorite that he found "hidden away amongst the rubbish of an obscure alley." In this letter he also stated, however, that "having devoted much of my leisure time, during the preceding three years, to collecting specimens of natural history for the Smithsonian, I determined to make an effort to secure such a fine specimen of meteoric iron for the national collection in Washington." But Irwin had only been sent to the West in November 1856, so one has to infer that the three years to which he refers must have been 1857 through 1859. I addition to his chronological oversight, we find compelling evidence that Irwin did not seek out the Meteorite until prompted to do so by Dr. Spencer F. Baird of the Smithsonian in one of a continuing series of letters between the two men concerning Irwin's collecting for the museum. Although much of the original tissue-thin copy of a letter dated March 3, i860, from Baird to Irwin is now illegible, references to antelope, bluejays, and red flycatchers can be deciphered. In a postscript to the letter, Baird asks: 5

n

If [four illegible words] ever [illegible] through Sonora, what would be the cost of getting the big Tuczon Meteorite [illegible] to Guaymas and what would the owner ask for the specimen. Are there any smaller ones to be had. 6

If Irwin had taken possession of the Meteorite before March i860, he would most certainly have told Baird of his find in the course of their frequent exchanges of correspondence about natural history specimens for the Smithsonian. Had Irwin told Baird that he already had possession of the Meteorite, Baird's letter of March 3 would not have been phrased as it was. Irwin, furthermore, would not likely have agreed to pay fifty dollars to the freighter, Mr. Ainsa, before having someone's approval to use government funds for that purpose. Much correspondence addressed to the Smithsonian during this period was destroyed by a fire in 1865, but it is evident from an extant letter

28

from Baird to Irwin that the latter had sought Baird's approval: May 20, i860:. . . . We will be most happy to have the meteorite and will gladly pay 40 or 50 dollars for its transport to Guaymas where our consul can probably readily find conveyance for it to the Atlantic. 7

Conclusive evidence—Irwin's recollections notwithstanding—that the Ring was still in its original location at least until late i860 comes from the diaries of two persons prominent in early Arizona mining ventures. Maj. Samuel P. Heintzelman was the president of the Sonora Exploring and Mining Company, which operated silver mines near Tubac. On Saturday, August 28, 1858, Heintzelman arrived in Tucson by stagecoach from Tubac. It was the start of a fiesta for the patron saint of Tucson, Saint Augustine. On that day Heintzelman wrote: / went this morning to see an anvil, made oftneteoric stone found in the mountains in sight of this place and close to the road to Tubac. it is described and figured in Bartletts [sic] book, i took some dimensions. . . . On one side where it has been hammered and rubbed it looks like copper and above on the edge whitish like soft and malleable. It is sufficiently hard to answer for an anvil, without [illegiblel much. The general appearance of it is like dull silver or pewter. It has the apipearance of having been moderately soft like clay kneaded in the hand and dropped on the stones. 6

Two years later, in i860, Raphael Pumpelly confirmed that the Ring still lay where it had been abandoned. Pumpelly was a geologist who came to Arizona in the autumn of i860 to work for the Santa Rita Mining Company south of Tucson. Although he actually wrote his " d i a r y " some years after his arrival, it is apparent that he saw both meteorite anvils in town. He did not mention that the Ring Meteorite had been moved: The most interesting objects of curiosity in the town were the two great masses of meteoric iron which have been mentioned by various travellers who have passed through this region. These had long lain in a blacksmith shop, serving as anvils, and nothing but the impossibility of cutting them had saved them from being manufactured into spurs, knives, etc. The largest mass, half buried in the ground, had the appearance of resting on two legs; but when removed, in 1860, it was found to be a ring of iron, varying from 38 to 40 inches in its external, and from 23 to z6 lz inches in its internal diameter, and iveighing about i,6oo pounds. l

9

Irwin's memory lapse as to the year he found the Ring, as well as the provocation for his doing so, could possibly have been aggravated by the emotional fervor that he was later to develop in the course of a running battle with the Smithsonian over

credit for the find. The pride of a strong-headed Irishman was at stake, and the Smithsonian would eventually bow to Irwin's demand for recognition and "justice." The journey of the Meteorite to Guaymas, a distance of 340 miles from Tucson, would take more than two years. Irwin recalled that the opportunities to send such freight to Guaymas were very rare, as [wagon] trains seldom went so far—apart from which an ordinary wagon was not deemed sufficiently strong for the purpose—so that I did not get the longsought chance of dispatching it until the winter of i860 or spring of 1861. Mr. Augustin Ainsa, who was engaged in the business of freighting, and lived at the Fort or in its vicinity during much of the three years while I was stationed there, entered into a contract with me to haul it to Guaymas, Sonora, for which ] gave him my written promise to pay, or see that he was paid, the sum of fifty dollars, as soon as it was delivered at Guaymas, from whence arrangcmetils were made for its shipmient to San Francisco, California. 10

On February 3, 1861, Irwin wrote Professor Baird at the Smithsonian that the giant Meteorite at Tucson had finally started on its journey to Guaymas. Baird's reply of March 3 enclosed a fine drill and blowpipe with instructions on how to empty birds' eggs being collected for the museum, and the comment "I was glad to learn that the meteorite was so well under way.""

quickly sailed from the port of San Bias in Nayarit to San Francisco.' In i860, Augustin Ainsa sought the aid of the U.S. government in obtaining a pardon from Mexico. In early February 1861 he was finally granted permission by the Mexican government to reenter his homeland. Later that same month, the long-neglected Ring Meteorite began the journey from Tucson to Guaymas for which Dr. Irwin had promised to pay Ainsa the substantial sum of fifty dollars. Ainsa's principal motivation for reentering Mexico probably had little to do with the Meteorite. No evidence indicates that he had any interest in the history or scientific value of Irwin's unique " f i n d " in Tucson. Augustin had earlier married Emilia Ynigo, whose family lived at El Alamito near Hermosillo in Sonora. The meteorite thus arrived at El Alamito with Augustin on his first visit in almost five years to Hacienda Ynigo. His plans did not call for his going on to Guaymas, however, and the Meteorite remained at the Ynigo ranch three-fourths of the way to the port of Guaymas. Dr. Irwin, meanwhile, left Arizona and the abandoned Fort Buchanan for Civil War action in the East. He assumed that his Tucson prize was safely on its way to the Smithsonian as his special gift. Instead, it remained unattended, again on Mexican soil, for the next two years while other events were conspiring to snatch Irwin's prize from his hand and to create the Meteorite's unprecedented history. 4

IS

At last, on June 9, 1863, the Daily Alta California carried the following account on its front page:

The Ainsas: Personae Non Gratae The great Ring Meteorite was now in the hands of Augustin Ainsa, the freighter. Four years earlier several members of the large Ainsa family had embroiled themselves in the notorious and fateful Crabb Expedition of 1857—an invasion of Mexico by Americans—which had ended in disaster. As a result, the Ainsas—Augustin, brothers Jesus and Santiago, and other members of the family—were personae non gratae on both sides of the border. The Crabb incident had engendered international distrust and hatred in Mexicans and in the Mexican government for the invasion of their homeland by Americans; conversely, Americans and the American government were bitter over the unmerciful slaughter of American citizens on foreign soil. The Ainsas, natives of Sonora but naturalized citizens of the United States, were under suspicion from both sides: for being traitors to their native Mexico and for having created a grave international embarrassment to the U . S . government. As a result of their involvement, Augustin kept a low profile in southern Arizona from 1857 until early 1861. His brother Jesus, who had been jailed in Mexico, was released from Mexican custody at Mazatlan in February 1859 d 12

13

a n

ANOTHER MONSTER AEROLITE—Mr. I. [sic/ M. Ainsa, who returned in the steamer Oregon, from Mexico, has brought with him a large aerolite, which he had transported from the territory of Arizona, to Guaymas, with the view of sending it to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. This is the same aerolite mentioned in one of the Government reports, several years shice, and which has excited the curiosity and wonder of travellers for many years. It was mentioned by the Jesuit explorers of the last century in their reports to the Spanish (Government, as lying in a desert country among the mountains of Arizona, and was of such great weight that its removal by any means in those days was considered impossible. Its weight is about fourteen hundred pounds. It is in the form of an irregular ring, is copper colored, and when struck gives out a clear bell-like tone. Several wagons were broken down under its weight in the transportation to the sea coast. To geologists, and the scientific world generally, it will be of the greatest interest, as it is the largest yet found on the Pacific Coast. Capt. Waterman, of the Oregon, kindly gave Mr. Ainsa the freight free, in view of its importance to science. If the Collector will permit, it will be placed for a few weeks on the steps of the Custom House.

The careful reader of this passage will note the first reference that the Meteorite "was mentioned by the

29

Jesuit explorers of the last century in their reports to the Spanish Government," a fact that the enthusiastic reporter could have gleaned only through the courtesy of the Ainsas. About this same time, the eastern scientific community began to realize that there were two, not one, meteorite fragments that had been the source of the grossly conflicting reports on the size and shape of the "Tuczon object." Prof. George J. Brush of Yale University quickly realized that the samples of the Carleton iron he had received from Whitney in California "corresponded] very closely with another meteoric-iron from Tucson, discovered by Mr. Bartlett, and described by Prof. J. Lawrence S m i t h " from samples sent to him by Lieutenant Parke in 1855.'* The smaller Carleton piece now graced the office of the mayor in San Francisco, while the Ring waited on the steps of the customhouse for shipment to Washington. Members of the California State Geological Survey no doubt had a field day with both "monster aerolites" in the Bay City.

Enter Santiago Ainsa

Dear Sir—The aerolite, which had remained so long at Alamito, for want of a proper person to bring it here, was brought by one of my brothers, Jesus M. Ainsa, who visited Sonora lately. We have been induced to retain it here for a short time, to satisfy the curiosity of the San Francisco people. The State Geological Society asked to be allowed to have a small piece, which request was, of course, granted. With this exception, the aerolite has been preserved entirely in the same condition in which it was found in Arizona, and by the 13th of this month we will have the pleasure to ship it to New York, under the care of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. I take this opportunity to offer my services to the Institution. I remain, respectfully, Santiago Ainsa 10

When the disastrous Crabb Expedition occurred in 1857, Santiago Ainsa, a younger brother to Augustin and Jesus, was only sixteen years old. Following the tradition of his well-educated brothers, he went off to Saint John's College in New York, a school that in 1907 would be renamed Fordham University. After earning an A.B. degree in June i860 with a "classical major" he returned to San Francisco.' He would later become a lawyer. In 1861, a San Francisco publisher, H. H. Bancroft & Co., put into print a translation, or rather a synopsis, of Velasco's 1850 compilation of data and facts about Sonora. Copies of the Spanish-language original were scarce and had hardly met the needs of Americans interested in mineral exploration in Mexico. The translator of the new version was William F. Nye, who limited his efforts principally to the sections of Velasco's text that dealt with the mines and mineral resources of Sonora. In his translation, Nye unfortunately took liberties with the accuracy and eloquence of Velasco's original Spanish. 7

18

There is evidence, as we shall see, that Santiago Ainsa read Nye's book with more than casual interest in its subject. Sonora was not only the region in which he had been raised, but was also the site of his

30

two older brothers' recent adventures and imprisonment. He read the brief paragraph under "Mines of Iron, Lead, Copper and Quicksilver" in which Nye had translated the description of the curious mass of pure iron that had been transported from the nearby mountains to the plaza of the presidio of Tucson. An idea began to take shape in Santiago's mind. On July 2, 1863, Santiago Ainsa wrote to Dr. Joseph Henry at the Smithsonian Institution:

Promptly after receiving word from Santiago Ainsa that the Meteorite would soon be shipped to New York via steamship, Spencer Baird responded for Dr. Henry at the Smithsonian. Baird was profuse in his expressions of thanks to the Ainsas for all their efforts in behalf of a great scientific treasure. He added: "Will you now oblige us by gathering and forwarding to us all the information you can . . . respecting the exact locality and history of this meteorite in order that the account which we write up . . . may be as complete as possible." After all, the Ainsas were natives of Sonora and were likely, therefore, to be in a better position than anyone else whom the Smithsonian could contact to ascertain the locality and history of the iron masses. 20

The Smithsonian's invitation to Santiago Ainsa brought to a climax the idea that he had been brewing from a sketchy knowledge of Mexican history, his reading of the translation of Velasco, and communication with his older brothers. Santiago agreed that the Meteorite from "Tuczon, Sonora" needed a detailed and prestigious history, and he was more than eager to share that history with the equally prestigious Smithsonian Institution. The name of Ainsa would take its place in history!

The Grand Deception

On Wednesday, August 26, 1863, Santiago Ainsa drafted his response to the Smithsonian's request for available information on the exact locality and history of the remarkable meteoritic Ring from Tucson. It contained hitherto unknown details of how the Ring was found and how it got to Tucson, exciting details for any amateur or professional historian of science. It was a history worthy of acceptance in the annals of the Smithsonian; indeed, it proved to be recounted for more than a century. The Meteorite had been found by one of the most important personages of the eighteenth century in the New World. Moreover, the precise site of the find was named and, presumably, could be found. The handwritten original of Ainsa's letter was probably destroyed in the Smithsonian fire of 1865, but it had already been set in type as part of the Annual Report of the Smithsonian for 1863: August 26, 1863 Dear Sir: I have the pleasure to acknowledge your favor of ]uly 31, and I take pleasure in complying with your request. In fact I intended to do this before, but owing to many engagements on hand, I had been postponing it to this moment. I announced in my last that the meteorite would be sent by the following steamer from that date; but we were asked to retain it some time longer by some scientific men, who wished to examine it closely. The history of this aerolite we have from our grandmother, Dona Ana Anza de Islas, daughter of Don Juan Bautista Anza, our great grandfather. The Jesuit missionaries had the earliest knowledge of this curiosity. There were various theories entertained about it; but it was generally believed to proceed from some iron mine in the vicinity, which belief holds to this day in Sonora. In an expedition made by Don Juan Bautista Anza, then "Gran Capitan de las Provincias del Occidente, "about the year 1735, to the country about Tucson, he was induced to visit the aerolite, and he undertook the work of transporting it to Spain. The place where it was found is called "Sierra de la Madera," on a spot called Los Muchadios. Through the want of proper means and the bad state of the roads, (having to carry it to San Bias, then the nearest port of entry,) the work of transportation was given up, and they were satisfied to take it as far as Tucson. There it remained ever since, until my brother, Agustine Ainsa, undertook to transport it, in i860, and present it to the Institute. His intentions,

however, were never carried out until May last, when another of my brothers, Jesus M. Ainsa, visited Sonora and brought it with him on his return. By the time of the receipt of this the aerolite must be already in Washington, as we delivered it to the agent of the Institute about a month ago, to have it transported to you. Your agent spoke to us about expenses; but we wish not to deprive ourselves of the honor of having presented it to the Institute, and as such we desire that you should accept it. I would be thankful if you would send me a copy of the analysis, and of other information about the aerolite; and if you find it not too troublesome, to send the same, with my compliments, to St. John's College, Fordham, New York, where I was educated. I have the honor to remain, your obedient servant, SANTIAGO AINSA*

The startling revelation that the illustrious Juan Bautista de Anza had a role in bringing the Meteorite to the civilized world was intriguing. Even more intriguing to scientists and to meteorite enthusiasts was the possibility of locating the site where the Meteorites fell to see if there might be more of them. They had not forgotten John LeConte's scientific report of a canon where the masses of meteorites were so abundant as to have given the canon its name. Now that the history of the Ring had been published by a source as eminent as the Smithsonian Institution, it was reprinted and quoted with a measure of authority, even though the Smithsonian at no time vouched for its accuracy or authenticity. Ainsa's history was even misquoted with authority: a National Academy of Sciences catalogue stated that the meteorite had been found by "Juan Baptista Ainsa." 2

The information about the discovery of the Ring that Santiago Ainsa declared as fact bears close scrutiny for its plausibility. The Genealogy. Manuel Ainsa, father of Augustin,

Jesus, and Santiago, had in fact married Filomena de Anza Yslas, who was a great granddaughter of Juan Bautista de Anza the elder (II in the genealogy, fig. 13), and a grandniece of Juan Bautista de Anza the younger (III). The son and grandson of the first Juan

31

FIG. 13

A partial g e n e a l o g y of t h e A n z a - A i n s a family

Bautista de Anza in America were prominent Spanish military officers of the eighteenth century in the New World. Ana Anza de Yslas was indeed the grandmother of the Ainsa brothers, but she was not, as claimed by Santiago, the daughter of Juan Bautista de Anza (III); rather, she was his niece. So small a detail of ancestry could, of course, easily have been lost in the oral heritage of the family. That the Juan Bautista de Anza who was the Ainsas' great grandfather should have been on an expedition in 1735 is more startling, since he was born in 1735. His father, Anza the elder, commanded the presidio of Fronteras in 1735. So perhaps Ainsa intended to indicate that his great great grandfather was the lucky Anza. By coincidence, the elder Anza (II) is believed to have made a rather unusual expedition into the area a hundred miles southwest of Tucson in late 1736. A remarkable discovery of no less than four thousand pounds of almost pure silver had been reported by a Yaqui miner near the rancheria of Arizonac, just south of the present-day angle in Arizona's southern boundary. Anza hastened to the site to make an official investigation and to establish the portion of the discovery belonging to the king under Spanish law. The true nature of the reported slabs or balls of pure silver is still a matter of considerable conjecture, but the story of the Planchas de Plata, the slabs of silver, has lived on in Arizona and Sonora, embellished by generations of treasure seekers. Ainsa's account of Anza's taking possession of the iron Meteorite to send to the king of Spain is striking, and a bit suspicious. The Jesuits. The early Jesuits in New Spain have long been thought of by many as having operated fabulous mines of gold and silver, and thereby amassing great wealth. Serious scholars of the period have thrown doubt on that myth. None of my searches into Jesuit accounts has turned up information that the Jesuits ever encountered the massive Ring Meteorite. It is always possible—although unlikely—that a Jesuit account known to Santiago Ainsa in 1863 has since been lost. Anza's Title. According to Sidney B . Brinckerhoff of the Arizona Historical Society, "the title 'Gran Capitan de las Provincias del Occidente' is not an official title, and is probably a family invention. It could not really be applied to either of the A n z a s . " Nor was there in 1735 a territory in New Spain called "las Provincias del Occidente." At that time, Sonora and Sinaloa were two separate provinces. It was a half-century later before the name Provincias Internas Occidentales came into use, and only in 1824 that the Mexican government designated a State of Occidente. It is barely possible that mere lapses of memory by the Ainsas could have caused the contradictions 3

4

5

between Ainsa's account and fact. Transporting Iron to Spain. Until the early 1800s, as we have seen, iron meteorites were assumed to be of curious but earthly origin. Such meteorites were recognized as a rare form of the metal, extremely h a r d like good steel—and incapable of being melted in a blacksmith shop. They were, we recall, thought to be iron in a virginal, or pure, state, without any of the common iron oxides or sulfides of the metal. Spain has for centuries been noted for the production of armor, swords, and other objects of the finest steel. The best weapons, hardware, and anvils in the New World came from Spain. So why would the Gran Capitan wish to transport fourteen hundred pounds of iron across thousands of miles of land and sea to the source of the world's finest steel at that time? Silver slabs would certainly be prized; an iron ring would not. San Bias. Both San Bias and Guaymas were ports on the western coast of Mexico. But San Bias, which was indeed for many decades a control port, or port of entry, for Mexico's west coast, is almost six hundred miles farther than Guaymas is from Tucson. Certainly the Ring could more easily have been put aboard ship near Guaymas at that time, and later checked through the control port of San Bias . . . but for one detail. San Bias did not become a port of entry, nor did it even come into existence as a village, until 1767, some thirty-two years after Anza's alleged efforts to move the great iron Ring! We may recall incidentally, however, that Santiago Ainsa's brother Jesus had left Mexico for California via the port of San Bias after his release from prison in 1859. Tucson. In 1735 there was no priest or Spanish settlement at the area we know today as Tucson. Even the Indians at the nearby embryonic mission of San Xavier del Bac were visited by a priest only occasionally during the entire first half of the eighteenth century. Tucson would not be established as a Spanish military outpost until 1776. If the Meteorite had been found in the mountains south of Tucson around 1735, it would certainly not have been dragged north into the virtually unknown Indian country, but rather south toward the existing outposts of New Spain. No records are known of any unusual native iron at Tubac or other settlements in the region either before or after Velasco's account of the "middle-sized" specimen being taken to the presidio of Tucson. 0

7

If the six discrepancies so far described in Ainsa's history of the Meteorite are not sufficient to shake our faith in his veracity, one additional aspect of his account should do so. It also provides a critical clue leading to the source of parts of the fantasy that he created. The Spot Called Los Muchadios. First, we can be reasonably certain that the word muchadios is a typeset-

33

ter's error for the Spanish word muchachos, meaning " b o y s " or "children." Muchadios is not a word in the Spanish language, which was Ainsa's native tongue. When handwritten, the word muchachos could easily appear as muchadios; it is likely that it appeared that way to the typesetter of the Smithsonian's 1863 Annual Report, who transcribed " a spot called los Muchadios"—instead of los Muchachos—as the name Ainsa gave for the location where the Meteorite was found in the Sierra de la Madera. We should now recall that the first reference to the Meteorite written by Velasco in 1845, and the somewhat slipshod translation by Nye in 1861, both referred to a "puerto de los Muchachos," or "mountain pass of the children" (shown on later maps as Box Canyon). No other known publications before 1863 associate the meteoritic irons with this place name. A careful grammatical analysis of the language of both these versions shows that it is most unlikely that Santiago could have read the original Velasco text in Spanish and translated it as he did: " T h e place where it was found is called 'Sierra de la Madera,' on a spot called Los M u c h a c h o s . " But his interpretation could readily have been made from Nye's English. In addition, we know that copies of Velasco's original text were scarce, and that Nye's translation under the title Sonora: Its Extent, Popula8

tion, Natural Productions, Indian Tribes, Mines, Mineral Lands, Etc., Etc. was published in San Francisco in

1861, the year after Santiago returned there from college and the same year Augustin Ainsa started the Meteorite on its journey from Tucson to Guaymas! Santiago undoubtedly read Nye's translation and, as with the rest of his history of the Meteorite, took liberties with it. It is difficult to come to any other conclusion than that Ainsa fabricated his entire history of the Ring from bits and pieces of Sonoran history, legends, and readings. No evidence shows that he made any genuine effort to track down the true history of the object. His grand deception had understandably become the world's principal and most authoritative source "respecting the exact locality and history of this meteorite."

Irwin's History Exactly ten days after Santiago Ainsa dispatched his newly created history of the Ring Meteorite to the Smithsonian, Dr. Irwin took up his pen to respond to a similar request from Professor Baird for any available history of the Meteorite that he might contribute. Irwin was now a major on duty in a Memphis, Tennessee, army hospital in the middle of the Civil

34

War and hence knew nothing of Ainsa's letter. Even in 1857 / as we have shown to be more likely, in i860, when Irwin might first have inquired around Tucson about the origin of the presidial anvil, the Mexican garrison was gone, together with any firsthand information they might have had about it. But Mexican civilians, including Ramon Pacheco, were still there. The accounts given earlier by LeConte, Bartlett, Parke, and others had the advantage of having come from the Mexican commandante or soldiers, some of whom might have personally recalled the bringing of the virgin iron anvils to the Old Pueblo. Irwin's account of the Meteorite's history was admittedly sketchy and doubtless second- or third-hand. With any of the Anglo reports, it was always possible that some important details may have been lost or distorted in the translation from Spanish to English. Irwin dutifully reported to Professor Baird that o r

the only history I can give you is a vague one, as there is no written record of its advent in Tucson. The old inhabitants of that place all agree that it was brought there from the Santa Catarina mountains, which lie to the north of Tucson, about midway between the Rio San Pedro and that town. It was brought in by the military stationed at the old presidio, where it remained until after the withdrawal of the Spanish garrison. It was then taken into town, set up on end, and used as a kind of public anvil, for the use of the inhabitants. The smaller one was used in a blacksmith's forge, for similar purposes. . . . The people of Tucson all agree that a shower of these meteorites fell in the Santa Catarina mountains some two hundred years ago, and I have been told that there were plenty of them remaining in the mountains. I )iever was in the immediate portion of the mountain range where they report the specimens are to be found, so I cannot vouch for the correctness of their reports. 0

Several details of Irwin's statement warrant comment. First, this is the only historical reference to the Meteorite having come from the Santa Catarina (now the Santa Catalina) Mountains to the north of Tucson. Second, Irwin would seem to be in error regarding the moving of the Ring from the old presidio into town after the "withdrawal of the Spanish [he no doubt meant Mexican] garrison." The Ring was still in the presidio grounds when he took possession of it. Since the walls defining the presidio had largely disappeared by i860, it is likely that Irwin simply did not realize that the by-street where he found the abandoned anvil was within the old walls (see map, fig. 10). Third, the nearby shower of meteorites " s o m e two hundred years a g o " is at least apochryphal. Up to the middle of the seventeenth century, less than a half-dozen brief exploratory expeditions by Europeans had entered the area surrounding Tucson. "Virgin iron" was not at all thought to have come from

the sky until the beginning of the nineteenth century Its association with any meteor shower must, then, have been a relatively recent idea. Surely if a fall of meteorites to the earth had been seen in the area, it would have given rise to local Indian legend to that effect, but none appear to exist. It seems most likely that the two anvils had landed from space at some much more remote time. Fourth, Irwin, too, had heard that many more iron masses were remaining in the mountains. His was clearly a widely held view, seemingly confirmed by Pacheco's having found a fragment suitable to his blacksmithing needs in the late 1840s. In fairness to all, it must be noted that a Smithsonian typesetter inadvertantly contributed further to the assorted misinformation about the origin of the Meteorite by printing Los Muchachos also as Los Muchaches and by altering Sierra de la Madera to Sierra Madre.

What's in a Name? During the autumn of 1863, the Ring finally made the last leg of its journey to the east coast. Santiago Ainsa delivered the Ring to the care of A. B. Forbes of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company for transit to Panama. The unusual cargo was unloaded in Panama, transported across the isthmus on the Panama Railroad to Aspinwall (the original name of the city of Colon), and reloaded aboard ship. That steamer arrived in Washington, D.C., in early November. With the safe arrival of the Ring at the Smithsonian, all might have been well. It was not. The Meteorite would of course have to be named. Today meteorites are named for the locale in which they are found, such as the Odessa (Texas) meteorite, for example, and the Canyon Diablo (Arizona) meteorite. In the last century, however, a noteworthy meteorite was sometimes named for the individual who found or owned it, or contributed it to a prominent museum. It was in this way that names were given to the Carleton Meteorite, the mate to the Ring, and to the Couch meteorite from Coahuila, Mexico, after a Lieutenant Couch. 10

Unbeknownst to Professor Baird, two proud family names were at stake over the Ring: Irwin and Ainsa. Irwin had proved himself an able officer, surgeon, and volunteer naturalist; he was self-assured and, as his military record proved, prepared to do battle whenever duty or his Irish temperament were threatened. The Ainsas were proud of their Spanish heritage and their Anza ancestry; although the Crabb Expedition had temporarily sullied the Ainsa name, Santiago had made his play by creating a distinguished history for the unique specimen of meteoritic iron from Tucson. It was as if the Ainsa-Anza

family had always owned it. Neither Ainsa nor Irwin realized what the other felt he had at stake. Professor Baird probably thought the choice for naming the new acquisition was easy. In getting it to Washington, the Ainsas had clearly devoted substantial time, effort, and travel over a period of two and a half years. While Irwin had been the first to find the Ring for the Smithsonian, his involvement had been, after all, limited to making arrangements for its shipment out of Tucson. Thus on November 9, 1863, Professor Baird wrote to Santiago Ainsa conveying profuse thanks for the brothers' efforts, and indicating that small samples of the Meteorite would be distributed to the principal museums of the United States and abroad under the newly announced name for the specimen, the "Ainsa meteorite."" The following day, Baird wrote to Irwin in Memphis a polite brief thank-you for his efforts, and nothing more. Santiago Ainsa doubtless felt that he had assured the family name a place in scientific history. So did Irwin. The Ring rested peacefully in its new home on the Mall in Washington, D.C., until the Smithsonian's Annual Report for 1863 was issued (somewhat tardily in 1865) and a copy sent to Irwin at his request. There, on page 56, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution graciously reported: 12

As the aerolite was first brought from the mountains north of Tucson by the great grandfather of the gentleman to whose exertions in transporting it to Washington the Institution owes so much, it is proposed to call it the "Ainsa meteorite. " , 3

Bernard John Dowling Irwin was appalled . . . and inflamed. Irwin's view of matters is best provided in his own words addressed no longer to Professor Baird, his long-time contact at the Smithsonian, but to Baird's superior, Secretary Joseph Henry. Irwin's eloquence was matched only by his sarcasm and vitriol: June 27, 1865 Sir: In tendering my obligation for a copy of the Smithsonian Report for 1863,1 have the honor to call your attention to a very palpable and gross injustice done me in regard to the "Tuczon Meteorite" presented and donated by me to the institution. . . . . . . I must be pardoned for saying that I have read with profound surprise and indignation the letter of Santiago Ainsa contained in the Annual Report, page 86~7wherein, in the coolest manner and with the most unblushing effrontery, he takes upon himself, after disclaiming to receive the freight for its transportation, the unwarrantable liberty of tendering it as the gift of himself and brother to the Institute!!! This conduct may be in keeping with the romantic history given by Mr. Ainsa's "Grandmother" in regard to the exploits of the "Great Captain of the Western Prov-

35

tnces —which doubtless is as pertinent to the true history of the matter as is the attempted imposition of Mr. Ainsa, vel Anza—aut Anser, is to an honest transaction; so I must be pardoned for doubting the correctness of both. In any negotiations with Mr. A. for the transportation of the aerolite, he never evinced any knowledge of its history or interest in it beyond the pecuniary amount which he was to receive for carrying it to Guaymas. When it arrived in San Francisco it attracted public attention and his brother took upon himself the responsibility for detaining it to satisfy the public curiosity and generously permitted the State Geological Society to help themselves to a portion of it! Then it flashed upon the minds of Messrs. Ainsa that the crude mass of metal was an object of value and interest to scientific persons, so they liberally declined to receive the amount of their freight and with that magnanimous generosity so peculiar to their countrymen, politely requested its acceptance by the Institute as a donation from themselves!! This was a gross breach of trust and faith on tinpart of those public carriers, consequent upon which I respectfully enter my emphatic protest against the meteorite being received by or known in the institution as coming from them or bearing the name of the "Ainsa Meteorite. " I presented it and it is my donation. As the officers of the Institute have failed toTecognize my services by bestowing my name upon it, it should be known as it was until I brought it within the reach of the scientific world—i.e. the "Tuczon" or "Arizona" Meteorite. The fact that Mr. Ainsa had it carried for me a certain distance is no valid reason why it should bear his name. Messrs. "Flint and Haliday" would have better claims to endow it with the names of their very liberal business firm, as they transported it gratuitously a greater distance. . . . Truly I am surprised and disappointed at the apparent ease with which this fraudulent claim to proprietorship has been received and allowed by the Institute, and, in justice to myself, I respectfully request that this communication be placed before the officers of the institution at their next meeting with a view to their taking such action in the case as truth, justice and science demand. I have the honor to be, Very Respectfu Ily, Your Obt. Servt. B. ). D. Irwin

July

,s

17,1865 Dear Sir: . . . Nothing was farther from our intention in our account of this specimen than to do you an injustice, and we greatly regret that there should be even the appearance of the kind in regard to one to whom we are under so many obligations as yourself. We should in all probability not have used the name "Ainsa" in connection with the meteorite had it not been given to it and announced to the scientific world by Prof. Whitney of the California Geological Survey by idiom the specimen was first examined in California, on its way to this Institution. It is exceedingly difficult to change the first name given to a specimen of natural history however erroneously it

36

may have been applied. As, however, we are desirous of doing justice to yourself in this matter, we propose to attempt to alter the denomination of the specimen to that of the IRWIN-AINSA METEORITE The statements in reference to the meteorite given in our Report, were derived from Ainsa's letters and a newspaper account in a San Francisco journal, and at the time we had no reason to consider them otherwise than strictly correct. The proposed change in the name has been put on the specimen as it is now exhibited as one of the most interesting objects in the Smithsonian museum. I am, very respectfully your obed't serv't Joseph Henry 16

14

Henry hastened to placate the incensed Irwin:

F I G . 14 T h e Ring Meteorite at the Flandrau Planetarium, Tucson, April 15, 1976. In the absence of an engine hoist or e v e n four-wheeled w a g o n s , m o v i n g this fourteen-hundred p o u n d iron from the Santa Rita M o u n t a i n s to Tucson during the first half of the nineteenth century required ingenuity, brute strength, high motivation, and c o u r a g e .

Irwin was not one to accept even such an apology. Within four weeks he had prepared at his own expense an eight-page booklet entitled "History of the Great 'Tuczon Meteorite,' donated by B. J. D. Irwin, Surgeon U . S . A . , to the Smithsonian Institution."' The booklet reprinted (with minor typographical errors) five of the letters exchanged between Irwin, Baird, Ainsa, and Henry, which we have already noted, in addition to the Smithsonian's own consolidated history taken from the accounts originally provided by both Irwin and Ainsa. 7

Irwin would have his day in court by distributing the little booklet to whomsoever he wished. He promptly sent a copy off to the Secretary of the Smithsonian with an accompanying letter acknowledging Henry's "disavowal of the pretentions of the person Ainsa in regard to the Meteorite. . . . If you knew the person as well as I do you would not won-

a new and unexpected quarter. In 1876 an editorial writer for the Tucson Arizona Citizen wrote a lengthy summary of the history of the Meteorite that "had fallen like Lucifer from the scenes of its birth, childhood, first boots and maturer life, and, choosing Tucson among all the favored cities of the earth, had taken this for its resting place." ' The style of the article was lighthearted and somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but its author completely confused the histories of the two Meteorite fragments and of the roles of General Carleton and Colonel Irwin. It especially pointed out the failure of the military to make good its promise of 1862 to Ramon Pacheco for a new quartermaster anvil in exchange for his meteorite specimen. To make matters worse, this callous neglect was attributed to Irwin rather than to Carleton. Irwin was once again aroused. With eloquence and pique he addressed the editor to set the record straight. Professor Henry also entered the fray in behalf of the Smithsonian. The newspaper finally conceded its errors and corrected them. Irwin rested at last. But Ramon Pacheco, it appears, never saw his quartermaster anvil. 2

F I G . 15 Working surface of the Ring Meteorite as used by frontier blacksmiths. This anvil w a s capable of p r o d u c i n g a n y t h i n g that the skills a real m e t a l w o r k e r might h o p e to effect u p o n its u p t o w n cousins, later commercial anvils. The m o u n t i n g hole near the center w a s drilled after the Ring reached the Smithsonian.

der at the dishonest presumption displayed in this attempt to arrogate credit when there was none in reality due. . . . His attempted imposition is so glaring that I have no hesitancy in stigmatizing it as it deserves in the very strongest language."' The whole matter then lay dormant for a decade, at which time Irwin's indignation was aroused again after he paid a personal visit to the Smithsonian. The Ring still bore the name "Irwin-Ainsa Meteorite"! Once again Irwin wrote to Henry, this time with reference to the need for "measures to rebuke the transparent imposture perpetrated by a person named Ainsa," the "deceit practiced on Professor Whitney," and the urgent need to remove the name of Ainsa from the specimen. "To continue my name linked to such an arrant impostor, I consider a disgrace. . . . The interests of truth and justice as well as your own world-wide reputation and that of the Institution over which you so honorably preside demand redress." 8

10

22

23

And so the great "Tuczon Meteorites" have rested for more than a century on public display in the Smithsonian's distinguished Hall of Meteorites. The Ring is clearly one of the most unusual of all meteorites in both shape and composition. On only special, rare occasions has the Ring been loaned for temporary display elsewhere. The first of those times was, appropriately enough, at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, celebrating one hundred years of American independence. The Ring was a major exhibit in the United States Government Building, together with several other large meteorite specimens from around the world. A century later it would again be on loan for several months for the opening of the University of Arizona's Grace H. Flandrau Planetarium in Tucson. The latter date marked not only the bicentennial of the United States but also the two hundredth anniversary of the founding of the frontier presidio of Tucson itself by Spanish explorers of the New World! 24

Professor Henry's responses to Irwin, previously gracious and patient, became progressively more brief and direct. After several more exchanges of correspondence, the Smithsonian acceded to Irwin's demand that his name and Ainsa's be dropped from his prize, and that it henceforth be known as the Tucson Meteorite. Exactly twelve years after the arrival of the Ring at the national museum in Washington, the convictions voiced by Irwin—who by this time had become a brevet colonel—had prevailed. Perhaps there is something to be said for naming meteorite specimens after the locale from which they come. 20

Yet another threat to Irwin's pride soon came from

37

Missed Only by a Foot

A trace of the treasure seeker lives in each of us. For some it is not the treasure itself that holds a lure, but rather the solving of an intricate or baffling puzzle, or a riddle that no one else has solved, or temporarily becoming a Sherlock Holmes. The detective in us wants to know: Was Velasco correct in describing an area containing " m a n y , " " e n o r m o u s " masses of virgin iron, of which only two modest specimens are known? Where is LeConte's Valley of Iron from which the Meteorites were taken? Where did Ramon Pacheco get his anvil? Careful study of all the known historical records pertaining to the Meteorites, as well as original geochemical research, field surveys, and other studies of the area southeast of Tucson, have not settled the question of exactly where the Tucson Meteorites were found, or whether additional fragments are yet to be found. Believers, romantics, and those who are prone to respect the basic integrity of the records of their predecessors have by now become convinced that more large masses of the Tucson Meteorite are just waiting to be found. They are scientific treasures well documented and worthy of the search. At the same time, doubters, pragmatists, and skeptics of casual literary allusions of the past may have concluded by now that two anvils from heaven were all that the Old Pueblo was to be allotted, and they are willing to let well enough alone. 1

Most readers though, I trust, still have room for question, an intrigue with the lingering uncertainty, a place for curiosity, and perhaps even the exhilaration of hope. The story of the two remarkable meteoritic anvils of the southwestern frontier is not yet finished, and will not be until the truth or falsity of the accounts of Velasco, LeConte, and the others is established beyond reasonable doubt.

Pro and Con Before looking at how such clarification might come about, let us review the most basic arguments for and against there being more Tucson Meteorites yet to be found.

38

The evidence in favor takes three forms: a) The apparent overall credibility of the numerous frontier witnesses who reported the events surrounding the Meteorites. b) The general consistency of the several accounts that describe additional large fragments. c) The likelihood that a large meteoroid that apparently exploded in the air to form two fragments, would form more than two fragments. The two pieces we know almost certainly came from the same parent body because they are chemically similar to each other but unique among meteorites. They most likely entered the atmosphere as a single object that created what must have been a spectacular fireball as it exploded into two or more pieces and fell to the earth. The evidence against there being additional fragments reduces to the following: a) If more of these unique nickel-iron fragments existed, why were they not found and brought to town during the last century for their utility or curiosity value? b) The historical accounts appear inconsistent about the exact location where the fragments were found, or about the supposed Valley of Iron. c) All of the historical accounts of Meteorite specimens in addition to the Ring and the Carleton irons could have originated from the whimsy of a single individual, then innocently been repeated and embellished by others over time. After all, many other tall tales of the southwestern frontier are, upon close scrutiny, unsupported by facts. As A. E. Douglass, an eminent scientist, noted in 1894 while searching for information about the Tucson Meteorites: 2

One thing must be remembered about Arizona. It is full of old prospectors for the precious metals and they are the most sanguine of men. If you suggest that meteoric iron exists in some out-of-the-way place they not only will assure you that it is so but will provide horses and camping outfit to visit the place on condition that they share the profits. 2,

A variety of sources remain from which additional facts might come to light to solve our puzzle. Some of

them require highly specialized knowledge or credentials, but others are open to anyone with patience and curiosity. • Without doubt there must be additional allusions to the curious Tucson anvils—in files and library documents of the nineteenth century, in books, diaries, unpublished manuscripts, maps, mining records, and the like, in both English and Spanish, in the United States, Mexico, or Europe. Some of these might describe a place name or an event that provides a critical clue. • Family records and attic archives of the descendants of the Comadurans, the Garcias, the Pachecos, the LeContes, the Ainsas, and others may some day yield up new materials, especially in the form of personal letters and diaries, photographs, maps, or newspaper clippings. Also the possibility exists that one or more fragments of the Meteorite even today may grace a ranchhouse mantel or act as a doorstop or garden ornament somewhere in southern Arizona, its origin unrecognized or perhaps held as a family secret. • Copies of Sonoran newspapers of the mid-nineteenth century are rare, although such papers clearly existed. They might well have carried incidental accounts of the Valley of Iron and the Tucson anvils, or of the individuals involved with them. • The officials of New Spain, and later of the newly independent Mexico, had their bureaucratic needs. Official questionnaires, reports, requests, approvals, complaints, and directives flowed freely even then. There is little doubt that somewhere in the government archives of Hermosillo, Mexico City, or Spain, the virgin iron anvils are mentioned in official documents. These could include a report of a scouting party finding and retrieving the Ring, an inventory of military equipment from the Tucson presidio, a report on the armorer's needs, or an allusion to a local source of native iron. Vast warehouses of uncatalogued documents of historic interest exist in the archives of Mexico. Most of them are as yet inaccessible except to scholars approved by the Mexican government. Time, money, and the skill to evaluate such materials are always in short supply. References to the Meteorites are likely to be found only incidentally in the course of other researches. • Various southwestern Indian groups were frequent collectors of unusual mineral specimens, which were valued for their aesthetic, functional, or ritualistic properties. Throughout much of the world, specimens of meteorites both large and small have been found in ancient burial sites or in association with objects of religious reverence. Fragments from Meteor Crater in northern

Arizona have turned up in archaeological sites in that region. Curiously, no meteorite fragments have been found in association with early Indian sites in the vicinity of Tucson. This could be because there are no fragments beyond the two known anvils. Or, as one of the curators of the Arizona State Museum pointed out, it could be that no one has yet looked specifically for meteorites in the course of studying the vast quantities of early Indian artifacts that lie boxed in the museum's collections. The finding of a nickel-iron fragment that matched the composition of the Tucson Meteorite in association with any archaeological site would be an exciting breakthrough in confirming the existence of additional pieces. • New or more refined techniques in geophysics or geochemistry could presumably produce a more effective method for detecting iron meteorites in the field. A technique useful in the rather ambiguous circumstances of the Tucson Meteorite seems unlikely, however. • Finally, one possibility of finding another fragment of the virgin irons of Tucson might be through the oldest and most time-honored means of all: luck. The Santa Rita Mountains make for delightful hiking during most of the year—good therapy for both the heart and the soul. After all, the three-ton " O l d W o m a n " meteorite in the Mohave Desert was found in 1976 by three prospectors who simply had the eyes to recognize what those before them had failed to see. If you're inclined, go forth and do likewise! 4

Do I think more nickel-iron masses of the Tucson Meteorite are to be found? Having deliberately created the reader's present quandary, I confess to sharing the dilemma. There is too much evidence to dismiss lightly the probability of more virgin irons of Tucson, but too little to provide certainty. More evidence is bound to surface in time, perhaps in an old diary or letter, an official report from the old presidio of Tucson, a bit of iron in an Indian burial site. In the meantime the challenge remains, waiting to be pursued among library shelves, in a forgotten attic, or on a trail in the Santa Rita Mountains. Joseph Conrad expressed the intrigue well: There is something in a treasure that fastens upon a man's mind. He will pray and blaspheme and still persevere, and will curse the day he ever heard of it, and will let his last hour come upon him unawares, still believing that he missed it only by a foot.

Nostromo Ft. 3, ch. g

39

Appendix: Facts and Physical Characteristics ofthe Tucson Meteorites

Date of Fall

1

Dimensions Ring:

M a x i m u m exterior diameter M i n i m u m exterior diameter M a x i m u m w i d t h of opening M i n i m u m w i d t h of opening Width at thickest part of ring M a x i m u m thickness at right angle to plane of ring M i n i m u m circumference of thin part of ring

48 in.

123 c m .

37

95

U n k n o w n . T h e statement b y Irwin (1863) that " t h e people of Tucson all agree that a s h o w e r of these meteorites fell . . . some t w o h u n d r e d years a g o " can be dismissed, since the state of corrosion indicates a m u c h higher terrestrial a g e . Its approximate terrestrial a g e could presumably be determined by modern radioactive dating m e t h o d s . 3

26

66

22

57

Composition^ 17

43

10

25

8

20

O n e m o u n t i n g hole w a s drilled t h r o u g h anvil surface; date of drilling u n k n o w n . As e v i d e n c e d by a d e e p chisel scar, an unsuccessful attempt w a s m a d e to divide the Ring at a thin point; date u n k n o w n . 48 in. 123 c m . Length 15-19 38-48 Width Thickness 2-5 5-i3 T w o holes in a projecting e d g e ; date of drilling u n k n o w n

Carleton:

Taxonomic classification: a n o m a l o u s ataxite, polycrystalline with flow pattern of silicate inclusions. T h e Meteorites consist of a metallic phase (matrix) in w h i c h are i m b e d d e d various silicate minerals. T h e metallic matrix comprises about 92% of the total v o l u m e and consists of approximately 88.3% iron, 9.6% nickel, 0.9% silicon, 0.4% cobalt, and minor a m o u n t s of c h r o m i u m , phosphorus, and copper. T h e silicate inclusions are estimated to comprise about 8% of the total v o l u m e and to consist of olivine, enstatite, a l u m i n o u s diopside, anorthite, glass, brezinaite, and other minerals. T h e Carleton fragment s h o w s e v i d e n c e of having been artificially reheated at s o m e time, probably in an early attempt to melt it. T h e Tucson Meteorites h a v e no close relatives, either in structure or in composition, a m o n g other meteorites. s

2

Weights Ring:

Estimated original weight Estimated w e i g h t of sections r e m o v e d for analysis and display Present w e i g h t

1400 lbs

30 1370

635 k g

14 621

A large, irregular, knoblike protrusion into the o p e n i n g of the Ring s h o w s in Bartlett's sketch of 1852. This w a s r e m o v e d at an u n k n o w n date to provide s a m p l e s for c h e m ical analysis and for display in v a r i o u s m u s e u m s . Carleton:

40

Estimated original weight Estimated w e i g h t of sections r e m o v e d for analysis and display Present w e i g h t

633 lbs

11

622

Cooling Rate The Tucson Meteorites do not display the Widmanstatten pattern characteristic of most iron meteorites w h e n a polished surface is etched. This suggests that the original mass, of w h i c h the Tucson Meteorites were a part, cooled at a more rapid rate than did most iron meteorites. This * rate has been calculated for the Ring to be of the order of i ° C per o n e thousand y e a r s . 0

287 k g .

Size of Parent Mass

5 282

From the rate of cooling and other data, it has been estimated that the Ring fragment could h a v e c o m e from 15 km (9.3 miles) b e l o w the surface of a parent b o d y of 30 km. (18.6 miles) or more in diameter. 7

Origin of Ring Shape Buchwald notes that the Ring and the Carleton masses are so different in their exterior shape that they cannot fit together in am/ way. One is inclined to believe that somewhere in the Tucson area there still remain specimens which, together with the two known specimens, could produce a reasonable parent mass. It is interesting to note that there exists another meteorite, Kokstad-Matatiele, which—although totally different with respect to composition and inclusions— also produced an asymmetrical ring-shaped mass when exposed to the violent deceleration in the atmosphere.*

In 1870, Haidinger s u g g e s t e d as an explanation for the formation of the ring shape the "perforation of a flat iron mass rotating in the direction of its greater breadth by the action of atmospheric resistance. T h r o u g h stability of rotation, he thought a ring w o u l d f o r m . " In 1074, Miyake and Goldstein described and diagramed how the

Vienna, Austria L o n d o n , England Calcutta, India New Haven, Conn. (Yale University) Philadelphia, Pa. Oxford, England (Oxford University) Paris, France A n n Arbor, M i c h . Strasbourg, France Bonn, W. G e r m a n y Rome, Italy Stockholm, S w e d e n Berlin, W. G e r m a n y G o t t i n g e n , W. G e r m a n y

539 411 350 280 193 150 g m s . 103 70 52 40 39 38 36

0

shapes of the Tucson irons appear to be the result of a solidification process. One way in which such shapes can be explained is by assuming a vein origin for Tucson. A collision, for example, involving the parent body of Tucson could have produced a fissure into which shock-melted metal was injected. This process would imply a region of silicate material within the parent body. If the collision occurred early in the parent body's history, the silicate material may have still been quite hot (> iooo°C). . . . liquid metal could have entered a cavity, and solidified by taking the shape of the internal void. . . . The Ring and Carleton irons were probably an originally continuous metallic mass, and the fact that two sections presently exist may be the result of a fracture which occurred at the junction of the rin^-shaped and slab-like components of the mass.

10

Replicas On several occasions, replicas of the Ring Meteorite h a v e been m a d e (by, or with the approval of, the Smithsonian Institution) for display p u r p o s e s : Status as of 1983 1905

Papier-mache, for temporary exhibition at the L e w i s and Clark Exposition in Portland, Oreg. 12

1906

Iron casting, for permanent exhibition at the A m e r i c a n M u s e u m of Natural History, N e w York C i t y ' 2

Sites of Exhibition Outside of the Smithsonian Institution, the Ring is k n o w n to have been exhibited on only three occasions: 1876 Centennial Exposition Philadelphia, Pa. Tucson G e m and Mineral S h o w 1972 Tucson, A r i z . 1075-76 Flandrau Planetarium (University of Arizona) Tucson, A r i z .

Unknown

O n display

1907

Plaster of paris, for permanent exhibition at the University of Arizona * 1

Unknown

date u n k n o w n The British M u s e u m reports that it acquired a replica, apparently m a d e by the Smithsonian, from W a r d ' s [Natural Science Establishment, Inc.] in 1927 14

O n display

1976

Collections Containing Specimens Small sections of either the Ring or the Carleton fragment are reported to be in meteorite collections in the following locations:" Washington, D . C . (1) 737 g m s (2) 160 (Smithsonian Institution) 1,482 Chicago, Illinois Cambridge, Mass. 1,141 (Harvard University) Tempe, A r i z . ( 0 932 (Center for Meteorite Studies) (2) 361

Four fiberglass reinforced polyester resin replicas w e r e m a d e at the University of A r i z o n a for display at: Flandrau Planetarium, Tucson, A r i z . Center for Meteorite Studies, Tempe, A r i z . Griffith Planetarium, L . A . , Calif.

On display On display On display

Technical References T h e following references, together with their a p p e n d e d bibliographies, provide an o v e r v i e w of the n u m e r o u s labo ratory studies of the Tucson Meteorites.

41

Before 1909

1975

Farrington, O. C. C a t a l o g u e of the Meteorites of North America to January 1, 1909. Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences. W a s h i n g t o n , D . C . , 1915, p p . 460-67.

B u c h w a l d , V. F. Handbook of Iron Meteorites, vol. 3. Berkeley Published for Center for Meteorite Studies, Arizona State University, by University of California Press, 1975, p p . 1235-44. (The best overall modern reference.)

1974

M i y a k e , G. T., and J. I. G o l d s t e i n , ' T h e Tucson Meteori t e , " Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 38 (1974): 1201-12.

42

Notes

A dagger ( t ) next to a note indicates that a m o r e c o m p l e t e treatment of the referenced topic is contained in the a u t h o r ' s m a n u script, "The Virgin Irons of Tucson," 1984, from which this booklet

t3. Translation by Willey of excerpt from Jose Francisco Velasco, Noticias Estadisticas del Estado de Sonora (Mexico City, 1850), p. 221.

4. J. K. Bjorkman, Meteors and Meteorites in the Ancient Near East

is condensed. Copies of the full manuscript are on deposit at the

(Tempe, Ariz.: C e n t e r for Meteorite Studies, J u n e 30, 1973); G. F.

Arizona Historical Society and at the University of Arizona Special

Zimmer, " T h e Use of Meteoric Iron by Primitive M a n , " Journal of

Collections Library, both in Tucson, and in the Smithsonian Insti-

the Iron and Steel Institute 94 (1916): 306-56; L. Fletcher, Introduction to

tution Archives, Washington, D.C.

the Study of Meteorites ( L o n d o n : British M u s e u m , 1914), pp. 17-25; H. H. Nininger, Find a Falling Star (New York: Paul S. Erickson, 1972), pp. 1-10.

Preface

5. Ron W e s t r u m , " S c i e n c e and Social Intelligence about A n o m a lies: The C a s e of M e t e o r i t e s , " Social Studies of Science 8 (1978):

1.

L. Fletcher, " T h e Tucson M e t e o r i t e , " Mitteralogical Magazine q

(1890) no. 4 1 : 1 - 2 1 .

461-93. 6. Francisco R. A l m a d a , Diccionario de Historia, Geografia y Biografia Sonorenses ( C h i h u a h u a (Mexico), 1952), pp. 822-23.

7. William F. Nye, Sonora: Its Extent, Population, Natural Productions, Indian Tribes, Mines, Mineral Lands, Etc., Etc. (San Francisco:

Chapter 1

H. H. Bancroft, 1861), preface. 8. A. B. Clarke, Travels in Mexico and California (Boston: Wright &

1. Linda Platts, "Artistry in Iron Is from the S o u l , " Arizona Daily Star, 21 Nov. 1982, p. Ki; T h o m a s G. Bredlow, "Anvils and Coal S m o k e , " Old West 3 (i960) no. 2:38-40. t2.

For a detailed analysis by T h o m a s Bredlow of the Ring Mete-

Hasty, 1852), p p . iq.

86-87.

A professional blacksmith's critique of the Ring Meteorite is

contained in Willey, "Virgin I r o n s , " c h a p t e r 12. 10.

Marc S i m m o n s and Frank Turley, Southwestern Colonial Iron-

orite as a blacksmith's anvil, see Willey, "Virgin I r o n s , " chapter

work: The Spanish Blacksmithing Tradition from Texas to California

12.

(Santa Fe: M u s e u m of N e w Mexico Press, 1980), pp. 26, 9 1 - 9 5 . T h e

3. Nontechnical accounts of the origin of m e t e o r s and meteorites can be found in the following publications: G. J. H. McCall, Meteorites and Their Origins ( N e w York: Wiley & Sons, 1973); Peter L. Brown, Comets, Meteors and Men ( L o n d o n : Robert Hale, 1973); C. B. G o m e s and Klaus Keil, Brazilian Stone Meteorites (Albuquer-

use of four-wheeled w a g o n s in the Tucson area a p p e a r s to h a v e begun only with the arrival of Anglos in the region. 11.

Benjamin H a y e s , Pioneer Notes from the Diaries of judge Ben-

jamin Hayes, 1840-1875 (Los Angeles: Private printing

1020), p. 44.

12. E d w a r d J. Pettid, " J o h n L a w r e n c e L e C o n t e , M . D . , " Arizona

que: University of New Mexico Press, 1980), pp. 1-27; Lincoln

Medicine 33 (Oct. 1976) no. 10:843-45 <md ( N o v . 1976) no. 11:956-59.

LaPaz and Jean L a P a z , Space Nomads: Meteorites in Sky, Field, and

See also Diane M. T. N o r t h , Samuel Peter Heintzelman and the Sonora

Laboratory ( N e w York: Holiday H o u s e , 1961).

Exploring and Mining Company (Tucson: University of Arizona

4. H. H. Nininger, Arizona's Meteorite Crater: Past, Present, Future (Sedona, Ariz.: American Meteorite M u s e u m , 1056); D. J. Briley

Press, 1980), p. 13. ti3.

Charles U p h a m S h e p h a r d \sic\, " N o t e " in Proceedings of the

and Carleton Moore, A Cheeklist of Published References to Barringer

American Association for the Advancement of Science,

Meteor Crater, Arizona,

August 1851 ( W a s h i n g t o n , D . C , 1852), p p . 188-80.

1801-1970 (Tempe, Ariz.: C e n t e r for Meteor-

ite Studies, 1976); E. M. Shoemaker, " I m p a c t Mechanics at Meteor

Sixth Meeting,

14. John L. L e C o n t e , "Notice of Meteoric Iron in the Mexican

Crater, Arizona" in The Solar System, vol. 4, The Moon, Meteorites

Province of S o n o r a , " American journal of Science, 2d ser., 13 (1852):

and Comets, ed. B. Middlehurst and G. P. Kuiper (Chicago: Univer-

289-90.

sity of Chicago Press, 1963), pp. 301-36; William G. Hoyt, Contro-

15. O. B. Faulk, " J o h n Russell Bartlett and the Southwest: An

versy at Coon Butte (Tucson: University of Arizona Press,

Introduction" in John Russell Bartlett, Personal Narrative of Explora-

forthcoming).

tions and Incidents in Texas, New Mexico, California, Sonora and Chihuahua, 1850-1853, vol. 1. Reprint. (Chicago: Rio G r a n d e Press, 1965), introduction.

Chapter 2

ti6.

John Russell Bartlett, Personal Narrative of Explorations and

Incidents in Texas, New Mexico, California, Sonora and Chihuahua, 1850-1853, 2 vols. ( N e w York: Appleton, 1854).

ti.

George W. C h a m b e r s and C. L. Sonnichsen, San Agustin,

First Cathedral Church in Arizona (Tucson: Arizona Historical Soci-

17. B o u n d a r y C o m m i s s i o n papers, 12 reels (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT, n.d.), reel 8, p. 321.

ety, 1074), pp. 5-6. See also O. B. Faulk, ed., John Baptist Salpointe:

18. Bartlett, Personal Narrative, vol. 2, p p . 297-98.

Soldier of the Cross (Tucson: Diocese of Tucson, 1066), pp. 57-50.

19. William H. Emory, Report on the United States and Mexican

2. Ferol Egan, The El Dorado Trail ( N e w York: McGraw-Hill, 1970)/ P- 156.

Boundary Surwy, 14 vols., 34th C o n g . , 1st sess., 1857. 20. John G. Parke, Reports of Explorations and Surveys . . . from the

43

Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, 1853-4, 33d C o n g . , 2d sess., 1855,

9. Josiah D. Whitney, "Notes on the Meteoric Iron of T u c s o n , "

Proceedings of California Academy of Natural Sciences, 1868, vol. 3:

S. Doc. 78, vol. 2, p. 7. 21. Charles U p h a m S h e p a r d , "Notice of three p o n d e r o u s m a s s e s of Meteoric Iron at Tuczon, S o n o r a , " American journal of Science, 2d ser., 18 (1854): 369-72.

meeting of 4 May 1863, pp. 30-35; meeting of 20 July 1863, pp. 48-40, meeting of 19 Feb. 1866, pp. 240-41. 10. Hunt, Major General Carleton, p. 332.

22. Unverified and a m b i g u o u s references to a third fragment, the C a n a d a de Hierro, are m a d e in O. C. Farrington, C a t a l o g u e of the Meteorites of N o r t h A m e r i c a to J a n u a r y 1, 1909, Memoirs of the

1 1 . Personal communication to the author from Roy S. Clarke, Jr., 1 Oct. 1982. t i 2 . Ben Caballero, interview with the author, 26 Sept. 1976.

National Academy of Sciences, vol. 13 (Washington, D . C . , 1915), p. 464. 23. J. L a w r e n c e Smith, "Meteoric Iron from Tucson, M e x i c o , " American Journal of Science, 2d ser., 19(1855): 1 6 1 - 6 3 .

Chapter 4

24. F. A. G e n t h , "Analyses of the Meteoric Iron from Tuczon, Province of Sonora, M e x i c o , " American journal of Science, 2d ser., 20

1. M. L. C r i m m i n s , "Recollections of the Old Medical Officers: Brigadier General B. J. D. Irwin," Military Surgeon (March 1028):

(1855): 119-20.

25. J a m e s G. Bell, "A Log of the Texas-California Cattle Trail, 1854," ed. J. Evetts Haley, Southwestern Historical Quarterly 35 (1032):

361. 2. William M. T h o m p s o n , " T h e Fighting Doctor: Brigadier Gen-

315. 26. C h a m b e r s and S o n n i c h s e n , San Agustin, p p . 1-9; A. S. Rey-

eral B. J. D. I r w i n , " TS dated 1935, Arizona Historical Society, Tuc-

nolds, "Description of the Old Walled Pueblo of Tucson as related

H a r v e y E. Brown (Washington, D . C . : S u r g e o n General's Office,

by L e a n d e r Spofford," MS dated 1926, Arizona Historical Society,

1873), p.294; F r a n c e s E. Q u e b b e m a n , Medicine in Territorial Arizona

Tucson; Hilario Gallego, " R e m i n i s c e n c e s of an Arizona Pioneer,"

(Phoenix: Arizona Historical Foundation, i960), p. 350; C o n s t a n c e

Arizona Historical Review 6 (Jan. 1935) no. 1: 76.

W. Altshuler, Chains of Command (Tucson: Arizona Historical Soci-

127. John W. Barber, The Loyal West (Cincinnati: H o w e , 1865),

son; The Medical Department of the U.S. Army from 1775-1873, c o m p .

ety, 1981), p. 252; Obituary for B. J. D. Irwin, Journal of the American

p. 723. 28. N. Micheler, " R e p o r t , " c h a p t e r 7 in E m o r y , Report of the

Medical Association 69 (1017): 2136.

Boundary Survey, vol. 1, p. 118.

the m o d e r n Tucson City I lall, ninety feet south of the present-day

29. John M. Pinkston to Major W. H. E m o r y , 4 J u n e 1855, Sacks Collection no. 12025, Arizona Historical F o u n d a t i o n , T e m p e . 30. Nye, Sonora: Its Extent, Etc., p. 146; Robert A . Wilson,

Mexico:

t 3 . The Ring meteorite anvil w a s located at a spot just west of Kino Memorial. It is possible to identify this location with a high degree of confidence from analysis of historical d o c u m e n t s and land records, together with astronomical tests c o n d u c t e d with a

Its Peasants and Its Priests ( N e w York: H a r p e r Brothers, 1856), p. 409;

planetarium instrument. For details of the methodology

Richard J. Hinton, Hand-Book to Arizona (San Francisco: P a y o t ,

e m p l o y e d , see Willey, "Virgin I r o n s , " c h a p t e r 5.

U p h a m , 1878), pp. 73-74, 100. 31. Samuel H u g h e s , M S , n.d., " N o t e b o o k N o . 2 , " p. 38, Arizona Historical Society, Tucson. 132. A. E. Douglass, e n t r y of 15 March 1894 in "Journal No. 1 , "

t4. B. J. D. Irwin to Prof. S p e n c e r F. Baird, 5 Sept. 1863, in Irwin's pamphlet, "History of the Great 'Tuczon Meteorite,' (Memphis, 1865), p. 1. 5. Irwin to Prof. Joseph Henry, 27 June 1865, Smithsonian Institu-

Lowell O b s e r v a t o r y Archives, Flagstaff, Arizona; ibid, to L.

tion Archives, W a s h i n g t o n , D.C. Also reprinted in Irwin, "Tuczon

Fletcher, 1 May 1894, archives of The British M u s e u m (Natural His-

M e t e o r i t e , " p. 5.

tory), L o n d o n ; Fletcher to Douglass, 19 Sept. 1804, Douglass Collection, University of Arizona, Tucson; J. G e o r g e Hilzinger, Treasure Land (Tucson: Arizona A d v a n c e m e n t , 1807), p. 7 1 .

6. Baird to Irwin, 3 Mar. i860, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Washington, D . C . 7. Ibid., 20 M a y i860. 8. N o r t h , Samuel Peter Heintzelman, p p . 64-65. 9. Raphael Pumpelly, Across America and Asia ( N e w York: Leypoldt and Hold, 1870), p. 6. T h e portion dealing with Arizona has been reprinted as Pumpelly's Arizona, ed. A n d r e w Wallace (Tucson:

Chapter 3

Palo Verde Press, 1965). T h e several footnotes by Wallace on pp. 3 1 32 dealing with the Meteorites, the Santa Rita Mountains, and

1. Ignacio P a c h e c o , d o c u m e n t s pertaining to D i a m o n d Bell brand, H a y d e n File, Arizona Historical Society, Tucson. t 2 . Ibid., " D o c u m e n t o Historico: Un R e c u e r d o de Tucson de 1 8 2 6 , " [Tucson) El Fronterizo, 21 April 1894, p. 1:7; John L. Kessell, Friars, Soldiers, and Reformers (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1076), p. 268.

t3. Deed from G u a d a l u p e Santa C r u z to R a m o n P a c h e c o , 19

A n z a contain n u m e r o u s e r r o r s . 10. Irwin to Henry, 27 June 1865, Smithsonian Institution Archives, W a s h i n g t o n , D . C . Also reprinted in Irwin, "Tuczon Meteorite," p. 5. 11. Baird to Irwin, 3 March 1801, Smithsonian Institution Archives, W a s h i n g t o n , D . C . t i 2 . Historical a c c o u n t s of the Ainsas and of their role in the

Aug. 1852, in Tucson Property Records, 1862, p. 22, Arizona Historical

Crabb Expedition differ in m a n y details, depending upon the

Society, Tucson.

viewpoint of the particular author. A review of the various

4. "Roster of Troops at Tucson, Sept. 1, 1855," file M M - 3 8 1 , 3d ser., no. 153, Bancroft Library, Berkeley, California. 5. Phocian R. Way, " O v e r l a n d Via 'Jackass Mail' in 1858,"

a c c o u n t s c o n c e r n i n g the political machinations between the U . S . and Mexico in the 1850s is instructive yet often contradictory. 13. Augustin Ainsa is reported in Tubac, sick, on August 20, 1858,

Arizona and the West 2 (i960): 35-53; T h o m a s H. Peterson, " T h e

and in Tucson t w o days later; see North, Samuel Peter Heintzelman,

Buckley H o u s e : Tucson Station for the Butterfield O v e r l a n d Mail,"

pp. 63, 65. See also A. F. P r a d e a u , "Filibustering Expeditions, Cali-

Journal of Arizona History 7 (1966): 153-67.

fornia, Arizona and S o n o r a , 1846-1867," MS dated J a n u a r y 1074.

6. Aurora H u n t , Major General James Henry Carleton (Glendale, Calif.: A r t h u r H. Clark, 1958).

114. "Sufferings of an American in the Prisons of S o n o r a " in [Tubac] Weekly Arizonian, 10 March 1859, p. 1:2. See also [Tucson|

t7. Daily Alta California, 26 Nov. 1862, p. 1 : 1 .

Arizona Citizen, 29 O c t . 1870, p. 4 : 1 - 3 ; N o r t h , Samuel Peter Heint-

t 8 . Ibid., 13 Nov. 1862, p. 1:1; 26 Nov. 1862, p. 1:1; 6 J a n . 1863, p.

zelman, p. 63.

2:1; 10 Feb. 1863, p. 1:1; 31 Mar. 1863, p. 1:1.

44

15. [Tucson] Arizonian, o Feb. 1801, p. 2:3.

1 6 . G e o r g e J. Brush to J. D. Whitney, 30 March 1863, Proceedings of California Academy of Natural Sciences 3 (1868): 30-32. 17. Personal communication to the author from John P. Clohessy, Registrar, Ford ham University, N e w York, 22 May 1979.

1876, p p . 1 : 7 a n d 2:4. See also " M e t e o r i t e s " in Washington [ D . C . ) Chronicle, 7 Nov. 1875, p. 4 : 5 - 6 and 28 Nov. 1875, p. 6 : 4 - 6 . t22.

" T h e Tucson Irwin M e t e o r i t e " in [Tucson] Arizona Citizen, 8

Apr. 1876, p. 1:3.

18. Nye, Sonora: Its Extent, Etc., p. 146. 19. Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution,

fai. " T h e Tucson M e t e o r i t e " in (TucsonJ Arizona Citizen, 15 Jan.

1863 (Washington,

D.C.: G o v e r n m e n t Printing Office, 1863), p. 86. 20. Baird to Santiago Ainsa, 31 July 1863, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Washington, D . C .

t23. " T h e Tucson M e t e o r i t e s " in [TucsonJ Arizona Citizen, 1 Apr. 1876, p. 4:3.

24.

Frank Leslie's Illustrated Historical Register of the Centennial

Exposition, 1876, facsimile edition by Paddington Press, 1974, pp. 114, 279-80. Also "Meteorites at the E x p o s i t i o n , " Scientific American

Supplement, 21 O c t . 1876, p. 671.

Chapter 5 1. Santiago Ainsa to Henry, 26 August 1863, reprinted in Annual

Report, Smithsonian, 1863, p. 86.

Chapter 6

2. Farrington, Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, pp. 460-67.

3. H. H. Bancroft, History of Arizona and Nezv Mexico, 1530-1888 (San Francisco: History, 1880), pp. 400, 497.

t i . See Willey, "Virgin I r o n s , " c h a p t e r s 9 - 1 1 . 2. Two articles by P. J. M c G o u g h in 1943-44, which are frequently cited and which p u r p o r t to reprint t w e n t y - t h r e e original docu-

4. Sidney B. Brinckerhoff to author, 24 May 1982.

ments on the Tucson Meteorite, contain n u m e r o u s major and

5. Stuart F. Voss, On the Periphery of Nineteenth Century Mexico

minor discrepancies from the originals: "References on the Early

(Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1982), p. 36. Also personal

History of the Tucson, Arizona, Meteorites: The Trwin-Ainsa' and

communication to the author from Fr. Kieran McCarty, Historian

'Carleton' I r o n s , " Popular Astronomy 51 (1943): 5 1 1 - 1 8 ; and 52 (1944):

of San Xavier del Bac Mission, Tucson.

243-47. M a n y twentieth-century casual references to the Meteorites

6. Michael E. T h u r m a n , The Naval Department of San Bias: New

Spain's Bastion for Alta California and Nootka, / / 6 7 - i 7 0 # ( G l e n d a l e , Calif.: Arthur H. Clark, 1967), pp. 1, 23-25, 54. 7. Bernard L. F o n t a n a , " T h e Story of Mission San Xavier del Bac,"

are inaccurate or garbled. t 3 . Douglass to Fletcher, 1 May 1804, in archives of The British M u s e u m (Natural History), L o n d o n . 4. Nininger, Arizona's Meteorite Crater, p p . 1 8 - 1 9 .

Smoke Signal 3 (Spring 1961): Tucson Corral of W e s t e r n e r s ,

PP- 3-7t8. Details of this analysis are c o n t a i n e d in Willey, "Virgin Irons," chapter 7. 9. Irwin to Baird, 5 Sept. 1863, reprinted in Annual Report,

Appendix

Smithsonian, 1863, pp. 85-86. Also reprinted, with minor t y p o g r a p h ical changes, in Irwin, "Tuczon M e t e o r i t e , " p. 1.

1. V F. Buchwald, Handbook of Iron Meteorites, vol. 3 (Berkeley,

10. Annual Report, Smithsonian, 1863, p. 56.

Calif.: Published for C e n t e r for Meteorite Studies, Arizona State

1 1 . Baird to Santiago Ainsa, 9 Nov. 1863, Smithsonian Institu-

University, by University of California Press, 1975), p. 1241.

tion Archives, W a s h i n g t o n , D . C . 12. Baird to Irwin, 10 Nov. 1863, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Washington, D . C .

2. Ibid., pp. 1235, 1241. 3. Ibid., p. 1239. 4. Ibid. p p . 1240, 1242. See also G. T. Miyake, and J. I. Goldstein,

13. Annual Report, Smithsonian, 1863, p. 56.

" T h e Tucson M e t e o r i t e , " Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 38 (1974):

14. Irwin to Henry, 27 J u n e 1865, Smithsonian Institution

1204.

Archives, Washington, D . C . Also reprinted in Irwin, "Tuczon

5. B u c h w a l d , Handbook, p. 1244.

Meteorite," pp. 5-7.

6. Miyake and Goldstein, " T h e Tucson M e t e o r i t e , " p p . 1202,

15. Annual Report, Smithsonian, 1865, p. 67. 16. Henry to Irwin, 17 July 1865, Smithsonian Institution

1208.

7. Ibid., p. 1209.

Archives, Washington, D.C. Also reprinted in Irwin, "Tuczon

8. Buchwald, Handbook, p. 1241.

Meteorite," p. 8.

9. Farrington, Memoirs of the National Academy, p. 463.

17. Irwin, "Tuczon M e t e o r i t e . "

10. Miyake and Goldstein, " T h e Tucson M e t e o r i t e , " p. 1211.

18. Irwin to Henry, 14 A u g . 1865), (and H e n r y to Irwin r e s p o n s e

1 1 . Buchwald, Handbook, p p . 1240, 1244.

of 17 Aug. 1865), Smithsonian Institution Archives, W a s h i n g t o n , D.C. 19. Irwin to Henry, 9 Oct. 1875, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Washington, D . C . t 2 o . H e n r y to Irwin, 24 Oct. 1875; Irwin to Henry, 2 Nov. 1875; and Henry to Irwin, 10 Nov. 1875, Smithsonian Institution Archives, Washington, D.C. N a m e c h a n g e is also mentioned in

Annual Report, Smithsonian, 1875, p. 5 1 .

12. R. Rathbun (Assistant Secretary, Smithsonian Institution) to H. C. B u m p u s (Director, A m e r i c a n M u s e u m of Natural History, N . Y . ) , 20 Jan. 1906; and B u m p u s to Rathbun, 10 May 1006, Smithsonian Institution Archives, W a s h i n g t o n , D . C . 13. F. N. Guild, " T h e Tucson M e t e o r i t e , " University of Arizona Monthly 9 (1908) no. 4 ( F e b . ) : 4. 14. Robert Hutchison ( D e p a r t m e n t of Minerology, The British M u s e u m , L o n d o n ) to the author, 9 Mar. 1978.

45

Index

Ainsa family geneaology, 3 1 - 3 3 , fig. 13 (p. 32) Ainsa, Augustin, 2 7 - 3 1 , 34, 36 Ainsa, Jesus M., 2 9 - 3 1 , 33

Fergusson, Maj. David, 23; also fig. 10 (p. 24) Fireballs, 7 '49ers, 10, 13, 21

Ainsa, Santiago, 29; and the Tucson Meteorite history, 3 0 - 3 7 , 39 Anvils, importance of on frontier, 13 Anza, Juan Bautista de (father and son), 10, 3 1 - 3 3 ; family genealogy, 3 1 - 3 3 , fig. 13 (p. 32)

Garcia, C a p t . Hilarion, 1 8 - 1 9 , 3 9 Genth, F. A., 18 G u a y m a s (Sonora, Mexico), 2 7 - 2 9 , 3 3 - 3 4 , 36

Asteroids, 7 Hayes, Benjamin, re Tucson blacksmiths,

P a c h e c o , Ignacio Antonio, 21 P a c h e c o , Miguel, 2 1 - 2 2 P a c h e c o , R a m o n , and the Tucson Meteorite, 2 0 - 2 3 , 2 5 - 2 6 , 3 4 - 3 5 , 3 7 - 3 9 Parke, Lt. John G., described the Tucson Meteorite, 1 7 - 1 8 , 22, 3 4 Pinkston, John W., described the Tucson Meteorite, 19 Planchas de Plata, 12, 33 Puerto de los M u c h a c h o s (and spelling variations), 11, 3 1 , 3 3 - 3 5 Pumpelly, Raphael, described the Tucson Meteorite, 28

15, 21 Baird, Spencer F., 2 8 - 3 0 , 3 4 - 3 6 Barber, John W., 19 Barringer Meteor Crater, 7, 9, 39 Bartlett, John Russell, 1 6 - 1 7 ; described the Tucson Meteorite, 16, 2 3 , 34, fig. 6 (p. 17) Bell, J a m e s G., described the Tucson Meteorite, 1 8 - 1 9 Bolides, 7 Bredlow, Tom (blacksmith), 6, 13 Brush, G e o r g e J . , 3 0 Buckley H o u s e . See Butterfield O v e r l a n d Mail station Butterfield Overland Mail station, 2 1 - 2 2 , fig. 8 (p. 22)

Caballero, Ben, 25 Camino Real, 15 Canada de Hierro. See Valley of Iron Carleton, Col. J a m e s H., 2 2 - 2 3 , fig. 9 (p. 23); and the Carleton fragment, 2 2 - 2 3 , 2 5 - 2 6 , 37, fig. 11 (p. 25) Casa G r a n d e ruin, 16, fig. 6 (p. 17) Church (chapel) of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, 10, 19, fig. 7 (p. 19) Clarke, A. B . , described the Tucson Meteorite, 13, 21 C o m a d u r a n , Antonio, 22, 3 9 Crabb Expedition, 2 9 - 3 0 , 35

Heintzelman, Maj. Samuel R, described the Tucson Meteorite, 15, 28 Henderson, E. R, 25 Henry, Joseph, 28, 30, 3 5 - 3 7 \ lughes, S a m , and the Tucson Meteorite, 19 Hunter, Capt. S h e r o d , 22

Robinson, Palatine, 27

San Bias (Nayarit, Mexico), 29, 3 1 , 33 Santa Catalina (Catarina) Mountains, 34 Santa Rita Mountains (Sierra de la M a d e r a ) , 1 1 - 1 2 , 15, 1 8 - 1 9 , 21, 31,

Irwin, Dr. B. J. D., 27, fig. 12 (p. 2 7 ) ; and the Tucson Meteorite, 2 7 - 2 9 , 3 4 - 3 7

34-35, 39 S h e p a r d , Charles U p h a m , analysis of the Tucson Meteorite, 18 Sierra de la M a d e r a . See Santa Rita Mountains

Jesuit explorers, alleged r e p o r t s from, 29-31, 33

Smith, J. L a w r e n c e , 18 Stoneboat, 15

L e C o n t e , John J. ("Dr. B u g s " ) , 15; described the Tucson Meteorite, 1 5 - 1 6 , 31, 34, 3 8 - 3 9 Los Muchadios ( M u c h a c h o s ) . See P u e r t o de los M u c h a c h o s

Tucson, description of early, 10, 20, 3 3 , fig.

Magnetite, 12 Meteorites: composition of, 7 - 8 ; falls vs. finds, 7; history of u n d e r s t a n d i n g of, 1 1 - 1 2 ; n u m b e r known, 9; origin of, 7 - 9

3 (p. 11) Tucson Meteorites: collection specimens, 41; naming of, 3 5 - 3 7 ; physical characteristics of two fragments, 9, 38, 4 0 - 4 1 ; replicas of, 4 1 ; sites of exhibition, 37, 4 1 ; transport of, 15, 2 1 , 33; also figs. I (p. 8 ) , 2 (p. 9 ) , 6 (p. 17), 11 (p. 2 5 ) , 14 (p. 3 6 ) , 15 (p. 3 7 )

Meteoroids, 7 Meteors, 7

Valley of Iron ( C a n a d a de Hierro), 15, 38-39

Micheler, Lt. Nathaniel, described the Tucson Meteorite, 19

Velasco, Jose Francisco, 10, 12; first account of the Tucson Meteorite, 1 0 - 1 2 , 30, 3 4 , 38 Virgin iron (meteorites), 1 1 - 1 2 , 34

Douglass, A. E . , 38 Nye, William, F., 12, 30, 34

El Alamito (Sonora, Mexico), 29

47

Old W o m a n meteorite, 39

Whitney, Josiah D. (geologist), 2 5 , 3 6 - 3 7 , see fig. 11 (p. 25)