Brenham Meteorite

AN EXCEPTIONAL SPECIMEN FROM A FAMOUS KANSAS FIND

Brenham is in the running for the most storied American meteorite. In 1885, Frank and Eliza Kimberly claimed 160 acres of farmland in Kiowa, Kansas under the Homestead Act. Eliza noticed rocks on the farm that she believed were meteorites, and she piled them up for safekeeping. A few years later, she convinced a geologist from nearby Washburn College, F.W. Gragen, to come inspect the rocks, at which point he confirmed they were meteorites and offered to purchase five of the specimens.

Thus began a number of visits from geologists, including Robert Hay from the U.S. Geological Survey and Francis Snow, the chancellor of the University of Kansas. Eventually, some of the Brenham meteorites that Drs. Gragen and Snow bought were sold to G.F. Kunz, chief gemologist for Tiffany's and author of a theretofore comprehensive history of the Brenham meteorite on June 13, 1890 in the journal Science.

In 1923, Harvey Nininger, who would become the most famous meteorite dealer of all time but was then just a budding meteoriticist, bought some Brenham pieces from the Kimberlys, noting:

"These specimens from the 'meteorite farm' made a substantial addition to my young collection and were a substantial help to my thin bank roll when I made resales of parts of them. In 1927 I purchased a mass weighing 465 pounds, turned up by a plow boy. Ultimately I added a half ton of Brenham to my collection before the supply seemed to be exhausted."

The large, entirely iron piece of Brenham offered here has been painstakingly stabilized and restored over six months, undergoing hands-on rust removal with fine tools, followed by chemical preparation and three months of electrolytic stabilization, and finished with drying and heated oil treatments. The result is a true showstopper of a meteorite that will stand the test of time, with a gorgeous platinum patina and a magnificently three-dimensional Widmanstätten pattern covering the entire surface.

The Brenham meteorite created the Haviland Meteor Crater, one of only three authenticated meteor craters in the United States and the only one created by a pallasite. As pieces of Brenham have been found in the 1,500-year-old burial mounds of the Hopewell Indians in the Little Miami River Valley in southwestern Ohio, we can infer that Brenham meteorites and their metal were revered objects for Native Americans. Indeed, as meteorites were the main source of iron for ancient peoples, some pieces were used to make knives, jewelry, chisels, buttons, and beads.

REFERENCES:

Meteoritical Bulletin Entry for Brenham

Noda, Mitch. "Brenham, Kansas Meteorite Farm." Meteorite Times Magazine, May 1, 2024.