Barringer’s Meteor Crater Still Solving Mysteries Today
Published July 26, 2022, for State 48 A2Z
About 50,000 years ago in what is now known as northwestern Arizona, a meteorite traveling at roughly 26,000 miles per hour lit up the sky as it entered the Earth’s atmosphere. In mere seconds the massive space rock called Canyon Diablo Meteorite would pass through the atmosphere with nearly no loss of mass or speed. By all scientific estimates, this meteor was about 160 feet wide and weighed 300,000 tons when it made an impact in a matter of seconds, creating shock waves that devastated anything in its path for several miles. The resulting crater has a circumference of 2.4 miles. The force of the impact was roughly equivalent to 20-million tons of TNT exploding.
Barringer Meteor Crater is a meteoric impact site located about 60 miles east of Flagstaff, about one-and-a-half miles south of Interstate 10 west of Winslow. The elevation of the crater is 5,640-feet above sea level and measures roughly 3,900 feet wide by 560-feet deep. Meteor Crater was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1967 but, as it remains a privately held company by the Barringer Family still today, is not protected federally as a National Landmark which would require it to be federally owned.
While there is some evidence of the crater being referenced by Native Americans in the area, the first written reference to the crater was in 1871 by a man named Franklin who had served as a scout for General George Custer. Known initially as Franklin’s Hole, it was later called Coon’s Butte by local settlers who believed the crater was merely a distinct volcano.
In 1886, a sheepherder in the area found some iron-nickel meteorites that he initially believed to be silver. As a result, he did not report his fining until 1891. In that same year, US Geological Survey chief geologist, G.K. Gilbert visited the crater. He, however, interpreted the field evidence and concluded that it had a volcanic origin.
This belief was accepted as general fact until 1902 when Philadelphia mining engineer Daniel Barringer became interested in the crater as a potential source for mining iron. Barringer would be the one to eventually conclude that the crater was not only formed by a meteorite impact but that the meteorite was buried beneath the crater floor. Barringer formed the Standard Iron Company and filed mining claims with the federal government. Through these steps, he was able to obtain the patents and ownership of the two square miles that contained the crater.
Barringer would spend 26 years digging for the giant iron meteorite that he touted to be underground, never realizing that the entire space rock was vaporized during the impact. Nearly 40-years after filing his initial claims to the crater, the Barringer family entered into an agreement with the Bar T Ranch Company, a cattle operation that also owned adjacent land to the crater. The new partnership would go on to form Meteor Crater Enterprises, Inc., and entered a long-term lease of the land from Barringer.
A few interesting notes on the Space Museum’s recent history show that in the 1960s and 1970s, Nasa used the location to train astronauts for missions to the Moon. Then on August 8, 1964, two commercial pilots flying a Cessna low over the crater, were unable to maintain a level flight and attempted to circle the crater and climb over the rim. They were unsuccessful and the small plane stalled and crashed. Both pilots survived the crash.
Today the Barringers still own the land, and both the family and the enterprise regard the property as a public trust. The Barringer Space Museum offers self-tours as well as guided rim tours of the crater, in addition to several lookout points to view the crater from, the Apollo 11 Space Capsule, Discovery Center & Space Museum, in addition to a 4D theater and regular theater.
Yes, it is a big hole in the ground, but it is still so much more. It has been and will continue to be, a very important part of our understanding of our Solar System’s past and future. In fact, impact craters such as Barringer, give scientists a unique look into the past, present, and future of collisions throughout our dynamic Solar System. Be sure to stop by on your way through the area, especially if you have never been. It is a great family attraction destination.
While Barringer Space Museum and Meteor Crater are technically listed as being in Winslow, they are actually about 30-minutes west of Winslow and approximately six miles south of Interstate 40.
That’ll wrap things up for this week. As always, thanks for reading, stay safe, and happy travels. Be sure to like and follow us on social media (links below), share our blog posts, and feel free to give us your feedback. And, if you go somewhere in Arizona that you think others should know about, please let us know so we can add it to our travel list. We’d love to hear from you. Peace!
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