Meteorite News

TUCSON 2002
by Michael Blood

For me, this year’s entire show, for the first time, was taken in from my motor home. The previous year my wife & I had come out for four days the first weekend in the MH & I returned, alone, to Share a motel room with Rob Elliot the following "BIG Weekend." for the auctions, etc. This year, however, I stayed the entire time in the MH and my wife joined me Saturday for the 2nd weekend. We stayed at a cozy little private "RV Resort" with Suguaro & Golden Barrel cacti and howling coyotes in the distance as we went to sleep and chirping birds when we awoke. Quite the change of pace and a very nice venue to "chill out" away from the hustle & bustle of the Show.

Tucson was, as usual, one wild and crazy place again this year, with dealers everywhere you turned, running into old friends, connecting with people you only know through "the list" and/or customers heretofore known only via the internet highway.

There were parties, auctions, meteorites, tektites, buyers, sellers, collector-dealers and dealer-collectors. It would be difficult, indeed, to highlight a single element of this year’s show, so, lets just hit several of them chronologically:

THE KRIEGH / MONRAD PARTY

The second weekend is THE weekend of the show & was kick started Thursday evening with a most pleasant party hosted by Jim Kriegh and Larry and Twink Monrad. They were very gracious hosts, indeed, serving everyone a fabulous buffet dinner concluding with the now famous "Gold Basin Birthday Cake."

We all got a chance to see Jim’s very impressive meteorite collection, which consists primarily of modest 5 to 20g sized specimens, but ever so many of them and very, very impressively displayed in a quite handsome wood and glass cabinet. When I say modest sized, this is, in many instances, a misnomer, since his lunar and other rare types tend to be the same size as his Hs, Ls, etc, making them HUGE for a private collection. Furthermore, Jim has custom made all his labels to create a presentation of his collection that would make any museum curator proud.

There was quite the diverse crowd & while Jim’s home is not small, it did require careful arrangement of extra tables to accommodate such numbers. Everyone was cheery & the whole scene was reminiscent of Christmas. Sincere thanks to Jim, Twink & Larry for such outstanding hospitality and such a fine evening.

THE TUCSON PEOPLE’S AUCTION

Friday evening was the third annual "People’s Auction" held at the Tucson Jr. Chamber of Commerce Hall on East Ft. Lowell. Attendance was, again, full. Some of the evening’s highlights were: O Richard Norton selling autographed copies of hard bound editions of Rocks From Space II at a marked discount and donating a copy of his newest book, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Meteorites to be auctioned off. This later text had made it around the Show a little and people were WOWed by it - so much so that Mike Farmer ended up paying over 5 times the market price to get this issue a couple of months before it became available to the public. (By the by - this book is now available for $50 and EVERYONE rants and raves about it. It seams this book will definitely supplant Rocks From Space II as THE must have book on meteorites).

The most memorable specimen auctioned May have been the etched iron slice which had been coated in lacquer, giving it a yellow hue. It somewhat surprisingly, sold at a rather substantial price - and provided the gathering with many a good belly laugh.

This year’s choicest piece was the 302g slice of Pena Blanca Spring which sold for the amazingly modest price of $4,750. This specimen is INCREDIBLE. Terrific piece. It was purchased by James Tobin and Paul Harris of The Meteorite Exchange and will, hopefully, be traded to a museum whole. If not, it will be cut into affordable pieces for private sale.

Another especially interesting item was a woodblock print made by Fred Olson (of the Ensisheim fall of 1492) out of hand made paper and colored with naturally made pigments. It really was an impressive piece. Fred donated the proceeds to the newly formed International Meteorite Collectors Association, IMCA (I threw in my 10% to make it a full benefit to this worthy cause - thanks to all who have made efforts in this regard, Rhett Bourland, Ron Hartman, Anne Black as well as many others). Andrew Abraham won the bidding war on this one and this piece will certainly be an exceptional addition to his already impressive collection. Additional prints can be had by contacting Anne Black.

Overall, it was an enjoyable evening, though Steve Arnold failed to meet his previous quota of beer, and we could only reminisce over last years, "I bid a dollar!" to start off the last few items of the evening.

The night concluded with new checkout procedures which greatly speeded up the process of buyers and sellers claiming their money and items in a far more timely manor following the conclusion of the bidding, leaving more time for everyone to enjoy a drink or two and/or a late night snack at one of the many fine Tucson restaurants in the area.

A special thanks to Dean Bessey for his assistance in the proceedings.

THE GREAT BIRTHDAY BASH

This year’s annual bash to celebrate the birthdays of Geoff Notkin and Steve Arnold was held at Las Fuentes, the restaurant just up the block from the Ramada Inn. By then my wife had arrived and we were in for a real treat. Everyone was at that party. I felt the highlight was the Harvey Awards, and have devoted an entire section (below) to that splendid event.

Steve Arnold and Geoff Notkin were dressed as gun slingers of the 1800s. Actually, they did not look all that different from some of the dudes I knew when I lived in Idaho - but then, those were some weird dudes. I believe Steve had a sheriff’s badge, but they both were clearly feeling too good to enforce anything but having a good time - with which everyone seamed to be in complete compliance.

This was a jovial event and, as always, the food at Las Fuentes was splendid and the marguerites were delightful.

THE HARVEY AWARDS

Out of reverence to Harvey H. Nininger, have arisen "The Harvey Awards." In the inaugural presentation, while the co-presenters, Geoff & Steve, inserted a healthy dose of humor, it was clear that these awards, carried a good deal of significance and acknowledged, in fact, meritorious contributions to the field of meteoritics. Of course, there were a couple of clear exceptions, wherein humor held a commanding presence, as the reader will undoubtedly note:

For outstanding contribution to the field through research and reporting, an award was given to Kevin Kachinka for his thoroughly researched two part article in METEORITE Magazine on Nakhla and its fall of June 28, 1911. (Of course, humorous commentary was included on the "Nakhla Dog" myth and his seemingly never ending debates with Ron Balke on said subject).

While humor abounded, this was clearly a clearly deserved meritorious award acknowledging Kevin’s outstanding work in representing the "amateur" community in providing a significant contribution to the science of meteoritics.

Blaine Reed was acknowledged as the most hospitable dealer of the Tucson Show. Year after year, Blaine has proven himself to embody graciousness and generosity, welcoming one and all in his room, allowing sales to be made among both dealers and collectors, while never even asking for a percentage of the sales - just accepting whatever pitifully small expression of gratitude or acknowledgment May or May not be given. He is the embodiment of gracious host and with absolutely no "air" of "politeness" or formality - just down to earth generosity and sincerity. It was this award, perhaps, that was most widely and enthusiastically "endorsed" by the entire gathering.

The next award was given with tongue in cheek as Dean Bessey was awarded the dealer most clearly apt to act as diplomatic representative to the Canadian Scientific Community.

(Dean’s outspoken contempt for and hostility toward Canadian protectionist policies have been well documented).

As dealer most active, appreciated and accomplished in truly representing the meteorite collecting community an award was given to Bob Haag. Of course, Bob was his usual light hearted, playful self in accepting this award, but his work speaks for itself.

Of course, awarded "ambassador to the world" in most diplomatically and accurately representing meteorite dealers in particular and amateur meteorite collectors in general was Mike Martinez. The picture says it all.

Last, but certainly not least, was a Harvey Award given to Art Jones, for outstanding contribution to the entire meteorite community through the establishment and his ongoing maintenance of "The Meteorite List." His work has resulted in a huge flow of information sharing and in the connecting of collectors, dealers, field searchers and the scientific community throughout the world. A truly outstanding accomplishment.

Congratulations to each and every recipient.

THE MACOVICH COLLECTION AUCTION

Darryl Pitt’s auction began bright and early Sunday morning at 10:30 AM - an amazing time of day for a night owl such as myself. (It never ceases to amaze me that people are up and active before noon).

This was the second year of this auction, held "Poolside" at InnSuites. This year a female auctioneer from New York presided over the auction and the difference between last year and this year could not have been greater. While her calling style is more the "Northeast-artworld" talking rather than the southern "auction chant," her demeanor was exceptionally engaging and she had a very charming presentation that kept her interacting with the audience and resulted in active bidding and prices far higher than those of the first year of this auction. That is not to say that excellent "buys" were not to be had, for they certainly were.

While "The People’s Auction" is wide open, down home and informal good fun, this auction was very polished, well organized and, while it had a just a touch of "tea party" formality, it was active, engaging & quite pleasant. Furthermore, Darryl, as he always does, had some of the very finest material to be seen at the show - which means, of course, some of the best specimens in the world.

Well, that’s about it for this year’s show. It was, as always, an amazing experience & great to connect with people in "the real world" rather than just cyber space. Unfortunately, this year I failed to tote about my camera as diligently as I should,

but next year........