On our journey home this year, we stopped for the night near Winslow, Arizona. Five miles down the road from the RV park was the Meteor Crater landmark. I don't know how many times we have passed this place, coming or going, during our many years of travel. We never stopped, probably because we were too focused on our end destination.
This trip, the timing was perfect. We got to Meteor Crater RV park in the afternoon and had enough
time to visit this one-of-a-kind, unique place. The meteorite that hit here is estimated to be 150 feet across and weighed several hundred thousand pounds. The explosion created a hole 700 feet deep and over 4000 feet across. Twenty football fields could be put on the crater floor and 2 million fans could watch from the walls. Think of how loud that would be with all the screaming going on!
In 1902 an engineer from Philadelphia, Daniel Barringer, bought the 2 square miles of land that encompasses the crater. He spent the next 26 years digging for the large mass of molten rock, never succeeding since it disintegrated upon impact. One other interesting fact that we found out during a discussion with a worker: in 1957 a small plane was flying inside and crashed. There is one small piece left of the plane on the floor, but the rest was pushed down the mine shaft created by Barringer. After that, no planes were allowed.
From 1963 through 1970, Apollo astronauts trained here because the surface was so similar to the moon. So, I guess you could consider this as the only link that Arizona has to NASA.
In the patio area of the visitor center is a large wall detailing the various missions by American Astronauts.
Oh, and don't forget to mind the speed limit.....there are special signs along the way:
