Astrotourists flock to Arizona’s meteor crater

One of the true “natural wonders of the world” in the eyes of David J. Eicher, editor-in-chief of Astronomy magazine, is the Barringer Meteor Crater in Coconino County, Ariz. 

There’s a North Carolina connection…. 

Some 50,000 years ago, a meteorite from outer space crashed into Earth here. No one saw it coming. The collision left an enormous divot. 

The circumference of the hole that was gouged into the ground is 2.4 miles. Eicher stated: “Barringer Meteor Crater is unlike any other spot on the entire planet. It’s the best preserved of all Earth impact craters.”

The dry Arizona climate has allowed this crater to remain almost unchanged since its formation. 

The crater is perched at an elevation of 5,710 feet. The crater floor is 560 feet deep, and the crater’s rim rises 148 feet above the surrounding desert plain. 

The crater is named in memory of Daniel Moreau Barringer Jr., who was the first to accurately determine that it was produced by meteorite impact and not a volcanic event. 

Barringer, who lived from 1860-1929, was a North Carolinian. He was born in Raleigh, the son of North Carolina Congressman Daniel Moreau Barringer Sr. and Elizabeth Wethered Barringer. (U.S. Rep. Barringer served three terms, beginning in 1843, and then became U.S. Ambassador to Spain.) 

Daniel Barringer Jr. earned a law degree, but lawyering was not his cup of tea. He moved on to study things that interested him – economic geology at Harvard University and mineralogy at the University of Virginia. 

His coursework “prepared him” for a career in mining and prospecting. He struck an “immensely rich silver deposit in Arizona” and become a very rich man.

Daniel Barringer Jr. formed Standard Iron Company in 1903 and secured mining patents for the meteor crater and the land around it. 

Eicher wrote: “Barringer attempted to mine in the crater’s center, hoping to recover the main mass of the asteroid, consisting of valuable iron and nickel.” 

Daniel Barringer Jr., unaware that most of the meteorite vaporized on impact, spent 27 years trying to locate a large deposit of meteoric iron; he drilled to a depth of 1,375 feet but no significant deposit was ever found. 

The Barringer family has retained ownership of the site and established the Barringer Crater Company to preserve the crater and to further “the understanding of the science of meteoritics.” 

Descendants of Daniel Barringer Jr. operate the company as a privately held business. Each of the eight branches of his family – most now in the fourth generation – is represented on the board of directors. 

Drew Barringer, a grandson of the founder, has served as CEO since 1992. He is the liaison with organizations that have scientific interests in impact craters, and he helps the company in maintaining relationships with individual scientists, universities and research institutions around the world. 

A principal scientific advisor is Dr. David A. Kring, who earned his doctorate in earth and space sciences from Harvard University. He has trained NASA astronauts at the crater in preparation for expeditions to the moon and Mars. 

The crater, museum and discovery center are open to the public. Admission fees apply.

From the crater, it’s only a hop, skip and jump over to Winslow, Ariz., where you can be photographed in “Standin’ on the Corner” Park on old U.S. Route 66 in the center of town.

 

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