Sutter’s Mill
Sutter’s Mill, California United States
Here’s an excerpt from the write up in the Meteoritcal Bulletin
Sutter’s Mill 38°48’14″N, 120°54’29″W
California, United States
Fell: 22 Apr 2012
Classification: Carbonaceous chondrite (C)
History: (P. Jenniskens, SETI): A bright daytime east-to-west moving fireball was seen on April 22, 2012, from locations over California and Nevada between 7:51:10 and 7:51:30 am local daylight time (UT-7). The meteoroid fragmented towards the end of its trajectory. A loud sonic boom was heard in a wide region around Lake Tahoe. Wind gusts were felt and houses shook. At least a kiloton of kinetic energy was released, based on the infrasound signal detected at two stations. Eye witnesses in the townships of Coloma and Lotus, El Dorado County, reported hearing whistling sounds and some smelled a “welding” odor. U.S. National Climatic Data Center’s “NEXRAD” Doppler weather radar sweeps detected the falling meteorites. In data analyzed by Marc Fries, PSI, and Robert Matson, SAIC, the radar-defined strewn field is centered on the Sutter’s Mill historic site. On April 24, Robert Ward searched under the radar footprint and collected the first 5.5 g meteorite in Henningsen-Lotus Park. Later that day, Peter Jenniskens recovered a crushed 4 g fragment in the parking lot of that same park. A third find was made by Brien Cook, before heavy rain descended on the area in the following two days. After the rains more fragments were found including at the Sutter’s Mill site in the James W. Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park.
Link to the write up; http://tinyurl.com/os6nput
Some of us meteorite hunters have a superstition that basically says, “If your name isn’t on it, you’re not going to find it”. Implying a bit of destiny. Well the meteorite below is a great example of this. I had been hunting for something like 12 or 13 days without a find. Mike Hankey and I were looking over some ground that he had been interested in, it was along the banks of the river and encompassed some large fields. Walking down the river bank I encountered a fellow named Keith who stopped me to ask questions. In a nut shell, he told me that he had witnessed the fall from a boat on a lake while fishing. A few days later he heard that stones were being found. Some more days passed and he decided to make the couple hour drive to Coloma. Now here he is, about 45 minutes into the first meteorite hunt of his life. Mike comes along and after a brief introduction and some more question and answer, we decide to invite him (Keith) along. As we left the river bank, I was in the lead, Keith behind me and Mike following. As I came up onto the grassy field I saw other peoples foot prints so I veered to the right a couple steps. Then, Keith says, “Is this one?” I looked to my left and 3 feet from me sets a carbonaceous chondrite! Keith’s name certainly was on this stone! Less than an hour and he finds a very valuable, rare meteorite. Mike started recording the event and later created a short bio of the hunt. I’ll see about linking to it.
17.7 gram Sutter’s Mill
Rolled it over for another view.
Close up. I think the orange colored stuff turned out to be clay minerals.
Mike Hankey, Keith Mueller, Larry Atkins
Jim Baxter scores!
One of the great things about meteorite hunting is the people! Sutter's Mill was no exception.
Scott Johnson, Peter Jenniskens, (NASA), Larry Atkins, Karl Aston, Bev Girten, (NASA), Edwin Thompson
Mike Hankey, Larry Atkins, Scott Johnson, Keith Jenkerson.
Top, Mike, Josh, Bev, Dana and Keith, Bottom – Me, Scott
Bob and Moni
Moni’s cat, Cool!
Disturbing livestock is not tolerated.
Ruben Garcia, Moni, then___ then Jim Wooddell then…sorry, don’t know the other names!
Mike Hankey, Robert Ward, Keith Jenkerson, Josh Adkins, Jonathan Dongell
As a trout fisherman, I had to stop and talk to this complete stranger fishing in the American River. He didn’t quite know what to think of me asking if I could take his picture with his fish, just look at his face!
Meteorite Zombies. These 3 images show the length of the park and the local hunters there at the time. It was quite a sight, people crawling around and doing all sorts of strange things for days and days.
This park was full of people looking for meteorites for days.
One of the challenges of hunting the Sutter’s Mill meteorite was Poison Oak. It was everywhere in the woods.
Native American acorn grinder along the American River. This was on a landowners property who told us he peeled back some moss off the bedrock and several of these were there with the grindstones in place.
