Franconia Meteorite Field

[Allen in MT]

Anybody still hunting Franconia with results? been a lot of years since I was there. Lots of 30 & 50 cal bullets.

[DolanDave]

Allen,

  Havent been to Franconia since the beginning of the year, but get out there at least 2-3 times a year. Fun place and always produces meteorites, along with .50 cal, .30 cal, bits of wire, ect. Still pretty warm there now, suppose to be about 114 this weekend there. A friend about a year ago got a multi pounder out there, so there still there, just not as many.

If you get out there hope you get some good ones.

Dave

[Allen in MT]

Hey Dave back in the day there was a guy from Kingman that passed away and I held a Memorial Hunt for him at Franconia and there was some funds raised to put up a memorial bench in Kingman. He had a lot to do with meteorite hunting. Do you remember his name. Since we sold our property at the end of 23rd st haven't been back. Found a lot of gold and meteorite's in Gold Basin. Threw alot of nice ones away as hot rocks before they were identified as meteorite's. Might have to make a trip back that way someday.

 

[DolanDave]

Allen,

  Was it Jim Smaller? He mapped out the original meteorite strewn field. Was a nice guy, talked to him a few times.

Dave

[mn90403]

13 hours ago, Allen in MT said:

Anybody still hunting Franconia with results? been a lot of years since I was there. Lots of 30 & 50 cal bullets.

There are still lots of little irons on the north side.  I've found gold but never a meteorite on the south side.

[Allen in MT]

When we had the outing for Jim Smaller a guy showed up with a MXT and didn't know how to use it so I showed him and later that day he found a base ball sized meteorite with it on the south side. We usually camped on the S. side about 3/4 mile off the highway.

[DolanDave]

The south side produced some large pieces, back in the day. Nowadays it's really hard to find any on the south side. The north side extends quite a ways up, and smaller pieces are still around, including small irons like Mitchel said. I am enclosing a picture of the meteorite strewn field extended from Jim Smallers original map, this map is a few years old, a lot more have been found since..

Dave