Editing Meteor Crater (section)

=== Daniel M. Barringer ===
[[File:Barringer-1001.jpg|left|thumb|Looking into the crater from the north rim: The rust-colored area on the far (south) rim is where the last drilling for the meteorite occurred, in 1929. This is where Daniel M. Barringer believed the bulk of the meteorite was buried. Rock around the south rim is visibly uplifted.]]

Mining engineer and businessman Daniel M. Barringer suspected that the crater had been produced by the impact of a large [[iron meteorite]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Barringer |first1=Daniel Moreau |title=Coon Mountain and its crater |journal=Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia |date=1905 |volume=57 |pages=861–886 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31822008963183&seq=877}}  From p. 885:  "That this great hole in the upper strata of the Aubrey formation was made at the instant of time when the meteor fell upon this exact spot.  Having proved these facts, the conclusion is unavoidable that this hole, which as we have seen cannot have been produced by a volcano or by a steam explosion, was produced by the impact of the meteor, […] "</ref> The theory that the crater was of meteoric origin had been met with skepticism. At the time, the craters visible on the Moon were thought to be [[Volcanism on the Moon|volcanic]], and no one had conclusively proved that impact craters existed.

Barringer had amassed a small fortune as an investor in the successful Commonwealth Mine in [[Pearce, Arizona|Pearce]], [[Cochise County, Arizona]]. Barringer believed that the bulk of the Meteor Crater impactor could still be found under the crater floor. Impact physics was poorly understood at the time, and Barringer was unaware that most of the meteorite had vaporized on impact. Barringer incorporated a company, the Standard Iron Company, and staked a mining claim on the land, hoping to mine the asteroid that had produced the crater.<ref name="ReferenceA">Southgate, Nancy; Barringer, Felicity (2002). ''A Grand Obsession: Daniel Moreau and His Crater''. Barringer Crater Co.</ref> He estimated from the size of the crater that the meteorite had a mass of 10 million tons.<ref name="barringercrater.com"/>

The metal content of the iron meteorites found around the crater was valued at the time at US$125/ton, so Barringer was searching for a [[lode]] he believed to be worth more than a billion 1903 dollars.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> "By 1928, Barringer had sunk the majority of his fortune into the crater&nbsp;– $500,000, or roughly $7 million in 2017 dollars."<ref>{{Cite web |date=October 25, 1917 |title=How Meteor Crater swallowed a fortune and strengthened a family |url=https://www.azcentral.com/story/travel/arizona/2017/10/25/meteor-crater-swallows-fortune-strengthens-family/633143001/|access-date=2020-02-02}}</ref>

Barringer spent 27 years trying to locate the nonexistent deposit of [[meteoric iron]], and drilled to a depth of {{convert|419|m|ft|abbr=on|order=flip}}, but no significant deposit was ever found.<ref>{{cite book |last= Smith|first= Dean|title= The Meteor Crater Story|year= 1964|publisher= Meteor Crater Enterprises, Inc.|pages= 17–25|bibcode= 1964mcs..book.....F}}</ref>{{self-published inline|date=April 2020}}

Barringer was politically well-connected. He received a [[land patent]] signed by [[Theodore Roosevelt]] for 640 acres (1 sq mi, 260 ha) around the center of the crater in 1903.<ref name=DRO-GS2002>{{cite book|editor-last=Oldroyd |editor-first=David Roger |title=The Earth Inside and Out: Some Major Contributions to Geology in the Twentieth Century |url=https://archive.org/details/earthinsideoutso0000unse/page/28/mode/2up|date=2002 |publisher=Geological Society |pages=28–32 |isbn=1862390967}}</ref><ref name=RJHowarth-GS2006>{{cite book |editor3-last=Howarth |editor3-first=R.J. |title=The History of Meteoritics and Key Meteorite Collections |date=2006 |publisher=Geological Society |page=61 |editor1-last=McCall |editor1-first=G.J.H. |editor2-last=Bowden |editor2-first=A.J. |isbn=978-1862391949}}</ref><ref name="bbarr1964" />  In 1906, at his request, President Roosevelt also authorized the establishment of a post office unconventionally named "Meteor", located at Sunshine, a stop on the [[Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway]], {{convert|6|mi|km}} north of the crater.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hoyt |first=William Graves |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SsV204s9A88C&pg=PA117 |title=Coon Mountain Controversies: Meteor Crater and the Development of Impact Theory |date=1987 |publisher=University of Arizona Press |isbn=978-0816509683 |language=en}}</ref>  The Meteor post office closed on April 15, 1912, due to disuse.

[[File:Meteorite fragment from the Cañon Diablo Meteorite.jpg|thumb|right|Fragment of the Canyon Diablo meteorite]]

In 1929, astronomer [[Forest Ray Moulton|F.R. Moulton]] was employed by the Barringer Crater Company to investigate the physics of the impact event.  Moulton concluded that the impactor likely weighed as little as 300,000 tonnes, and that the impact of such a body would have generated enough heat to vaporize the impactor instantly.<ref name=Meteor_Crater_Report_I>{{cite book|last=Moulton|first=F. R.|title=Report on the Meteor Crater – I|date=August 24, 1929|publisher=Barringer Crater Company|location=Philadelphia}}</ref><ref name=Meteor_Crater_Report_II>{{cite book|last=Moulton|first=F. R.|title=Report on the Meteor Crater – II|date=November 20, 1929|publisher=Barringer Crater Company|location=Philadelphia}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1= Crowson|first1= Henry L.|date= 1971|title=A method for determining the residual meteoritical mass in the Barringer Meteor Crater|journal= Pure and Applied Geophysics|volume= 85|issue= 1|pages= 38–68|doi= 10.1007/bf00875398|bibcode= 1971PApGe..85...38C|s2cid= 140725009}}</ref> Barringer died just ten days after the publication of Moulton's second report.

By this time, "the great weight of scientific opinion had swung around to the accuracy of the impact hypothesis&nbsp;... Apparently an idea, too radical and new for acceptance in 1905, no matter how logical, had gradually grown respectable during the intervening 20 years."<ref>{{cite journal|last1= Barringer|first1= Brandon|date= 1964|title=Daniel Moreau Barringer (1860–1929) and His Crater|journal= Meteoritics|volume= 2|issue= 3|pages= 183–200|doi= 10.1111/j.1945-5100.1964.tb01428.x|bibcode= 1964Metic...2..183B}}</ref>