REDISCOVERING THE BREHHAM STREWNFIELD -   The Rediscovery Stone

Brenham Iron

Click to	Enlarge

After reading about Harvey H. Nininger's recoveries of Brenham pallasites in the 1920s and 1930s and H. L. Stockwell's recoveries of three additional large Brenham pallasites in the 1940s using a primitive metal-detecting device mounted on a wooden wheelbarrow manually pushed through fields, Steve Arnold, a professional meteorite hunter, wasted no time once he learned portions of the Brenham strewnfield, the term for a meteorite debris field, had not been thoroughly searched using such metal-detecting equipment.   Steve contacted his friend, a geologist - now oil and gas attorney and meteorite collector, Philip C. Mani, who agreed with Steve's assessment that some of the Brenham strewnfield area should be more thoroughly searched. Steve had selected a powerful, deep-sensing, metal detector to use together with an oversized loop to see deep into the Kansas soil. After several experiments with configurations and materials, Steve was able to develop a device with the loop which he could pull behind him while walking.  

Searching for meteorites was very difficult in the plowed fields as the land was very irregular and contained large dirt-clods.   Nevertheless, in less than 3 hours of hunting, Steve was able to locate his first "target" at depth. He called Phil and informed him he was beginning to dig. An hour or so later, Steve excitingly confirmed he had located his first Brenham meteorite, this  Brenham Rediscovery Stone before you, found lying on its side approximately 4 feet below the surface. After four more hours of digging the hole or pit by hand together with Mr. Alan Binford, the landowner and farmer from whose land it was recovered, Steve decided to quit digging. He called Phil reporting they stopped digging for the evening and the stone was still not fully uncovered and obviously too heavy to lift by hand. Phil suggested securing the services of a local excavator. The next morning, Dan Woods arrived with his back hoe and the meteorite was quickly removed, then cleaned and weighed.  

This fortunate event, rediscovering the Brenham strewnfield, was the start of several weeks of additional meteorite recoveries, ending with a sixth meteorite being found on the afternoon of October 16, a Sunday, on Alan Binford's land.  This was the day the 1,430-pound new Main Mass of the Brenham meteorite was found. The Main Mass is the term given to the largest intact specimen of a meteorite fall or find, whether the meteorite is a single stone or found as multiple stones.  

This impressive Rediscovery Stone is not the Main Mass, but it is the largest Brenham iron found. Brenham irons, are considered quite rare, making-up less than one-fifth of all recovered Brenham meteorites. This is certainly a distinguished and historic specimen.

The exotic texture of this specimen is a splendid and unusual example of the three-dimensional octahedral Kamacite and Taenite band intergrowths.   The texture resulted from oxidation of the nickel-iron alloys and the partial cleaning-away of a portion of such oxidation.  

276 lbs (125.4 Kg)