THE aUFFEY METEORITE 237 



THE GUFFEY, COLORADO, METEORITE. 



IX Xoveml)er, 1907, two cowboys, Robert L. Pope of Canyon City, 

 Colorado, and J. T. Witcher of Guflfey, Park Co., Colorado, dis- 

 covered an iron meteorite while they were riding after their cattle 

 along the head waters of the Freshwater River. The exact location 

 of the find is the N. E. \ of the N. E. \ of Section 16, Township 35, 

 Range 72, 6th Principal ^Meridian, W. in Freemont County, Colorado. 

 The nearest post office is (niffev. Park County, about three and one 

 half miles from the spot where the iron w^as found. The cowboys 

 secured help and at last succeeded in getting the mass out of the 

 mountains and to Cripple Creek. The American Museum purchased 

 it from the finders, and it is now on exhibition in the foyer. 



(iufi'ey, as it must be called from the name of the post office nearest 

 to the spot where it was found, is a "siderite," or wholly metallic mete- 

 orite 36^j inches long, 15 inches in maximum height and 8 inches wide. 

 Its weight is 682 pounds. The mass is roughly pear-shaped, but much 

 flattened. One edge is so straight and is so nearly rectangular with 

 reference to the adjoining sides that it seems like a definite fracture, 

 indicating the possibility of there being another fragment or other frag- 

 ments of the meteorite in the vicinity of the spot where this was found. 

 The surface of the iron is covered with an extremely thin film of black 

 iron oxide, which looks as if it might V)e the original skin formed by 

 the passage of the meteorite through the air. At any rate, the iron is 

 free from rusty scale and apparently had not lain long upon the moun- 

 tain before it was found. The statement is made that a vivid meteor 

 passed over the Freshwater River region in the fall of 1906, and the 

 supposition is that this mass is a part of it. The evidence, however, is 

 not strong in support of this theory. The cowboys who found the iron 

 were not searching for a meteorite, and in fact did not know that they 

 had found one. The brilliant white color disclosed on rubbing the sur- 

 face led them to suppose that they had found a mass of pure silver, and 

 they started to get it to town accordingly, after making an unsuccessful 

 effort to cut off the small end of the specimen. 



Two sides show in good development the "thumb marks" or "piezo- 

 glyphs" characteristic of meteoritic masses. These markings are par- 

 ticularly deep uj^on the fiat side sliown in Figure 2, and they are less 



