The Paragould Meteorite

In the pre-dawn hours of February 17, 1930, on a cold and sleepy Monday, a burning streak three times brighter than any full moon flashed across the sky. Seen across the central United States many residents, some as far away as St. Louis, and Topeka, Kansas believed the event to be that of an aircraft that had crashed. But in northeast Arkansas three separate sonic booms were heard and soon some of the oldest known matter in the universe would be uncovered from the sticky mud and clay of Greene County.

The Paragould Meteorite is among the most famous of meteorites discovered by amateur sleuths. When the meteorite fell to earth in 1930 it was then the largest one ever to have been witnessed and subsequently recovered. The story of the Paragould Meteorite after its recovery from a farm field in northeast Arkansas is one that has not yet been fully told until now.