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Lot Essay
While there is uncertainty regarding whether any Native Americans witnessed the Brenham meteorite shower, petroglyphs have been found nearby depicting what could have been the Brenham event. The presence of Brenham meteorites in numerous burial mounds as far away as Ohio — including jewelry fashioned out of Brenham meteorites — indicates that Native Americans, like modern collectors, were transfixed by the beautiful extraterrestrial stones.
It was in the late 19th Century that wide attention first came to these curious-looking stones. Eliza Kimberly, a homesteader, believed the rocks scattered across her property were meteorites and she collected them. Her suspicions were confirmed in 1890 when scientists affirmed the meteoritic origin of several masses, and the area was dubbed “The Kansas Meteorite Farm.”
Forensic sleuthing was required to locate this matchless specimen. In 1929, after having recovered multiple specimens, the "Father of Meteoritics," Dr. H. H. Nininger plotted what he believed to be the Brenham meteorite strew field (the elliptical area in which the pieces of the Brenham meteorite are strewn across Earth’s surface).
It was in the late 19th Century that wide attention first came to these curious-looking stones. Eliza Kimberly, a homesteader, believed the rocks scattered across her property were meteorites and she collected them. Her suspicions were confirmed in 1890 when scientists affirmed the meteoritic origin of several masses, and the area was dubbed “The Kansas Meteorite Farm.”
Forensic sleuthing was required to locate this matchless specimen. In 1929, after having recovered multiple specimens, the "Father of Meteoritics," Dr. H. H. Nininger plotted what he believed to be the Brenham meteorite strew field (the elliptical area in which the pieces of the Brenham meteorite are strewn across Earth’s surface).