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three loud explosions. I thought it was 
an airship and it was dropping some 
bombs or something of that character. 
I jumped up and ran to the door, 
and the big light was disappearing 
in the south. The roaring itself was 
not so very loud, but the explosions 
were very loud indeed, and while I 
stood in the doorway watching the 
disappearing light, I distinctly heard 
a sound like fine singing.” 
Mrs. George Hall, 
Rose City, Michigan 
These three eyewitness accounts of 
meteorite falls have one thing in com- 
mon: they all describe meteorites that 
ended up in the collection of the Amer- 
ican Museum of Natural History. 
Along with hundreds of others — each 
with a fascinating story to tell — the 
three meteorite fragments will be on 
display in the Museum’s new Arthur 
Ross Hal! of Meteorites, scheduled 
to open April 30. 
The Museum’s meteorite collection, 
one of the finest in the world, includes 
pieces from half of all known mete- 
orites. The new permanent hall will 
exhibit a piece from the oldest doc- 
umented fall, a meteorite studded with 
tiny diamonds, microscopic meteor- 
ites, hundreds of strange little blobs 
of glass known as tektites, three moon 
rocks, and much more. 
The largest meteorite in captivity — 
the second largest known — dominates 
the center of the octagonal hall. Called 
the Ahnighito or the Tent, this 
62,085-pound chunk of nickel-iron 
rests on six massive steel pillars em- 
bedded in the bedrock beneath the 
Museum. Flanking the Ahnighito are 
two lesser companions, the Woman 
and the Dog. All three are fragments 
from a 200-ton fireball that exploded 
over Greenland about 10,000 years 
ago, scattering its remains across an 
ice sheet. 
The three chunks were discovered, 
possibly eight centuries ago, by Es- 
kimos, who hammered off pieces of 
iron to make knives and spears. In 
1894 Adm. Robert E. Peary, following 
up rumors of an “iron mountain,” lo- 
cated them with the help of an Eskimo 
guide. Peary managed to excavate the 
meteorites, move them from their rest- 
ing place near Cape York, Greenland, 
to his ship The Hope, and transport 
them to New York. While Peary was 
on his way to the North Pole in 1906, 
Mrs. Peary, acting as his agent, sold 
them to the Museum. She explained 
TH0? M9 L 
TRUCKMAN 
GENERAL Tt 
631- 633 
1 
A block-long team of horses hauled Ahnighito to the Museum in 1906. 
80 
