This feature is devoted
each month to one of the personalities within the meteorite community.
This month we are delighted to share an interview we had with Rob Wesel
of Nakhla
Dog Meteorites.My name is
Rob....and I'm a meteorite addict
It all started about twelve years ago when I
was in a science museum gift shop. There it was, a piece of another
world. The meteorite was Gibeon, the price was high, but that which I
thought could only be seen behind glass now had the potential to be on
my shelf to see, to touch. The whole notion was amazing. I had been a
collector of natural history and cultural artifacts for some time but I
had never imagined this. I put it on my Christmas list and a few short
months later it was mine. Though small, it was displayed with great care
and every day I would look it over having no idea what those etched
lines were and certainly no idea there were more to be had.
Fast forward three years. Perhaps I was
bored, perhaps my Father's enthusiasm for fish (and incessantly
observing and talking about them) had instilled a desire to listen to
those who were enthusiastic about anything. Either way I was compelled
by a billboard at the local fairgrounds advertising antique glass to
turn in and see what it was all about. That was the first of many, I
went to every show from poodles to guns to plants, Bigfoot,
quilts...just to listen. One week it was gems. I figured "cool, we'll
see some diamonds and rubies and such.". I found diamonds and rubies and
such but what I didn't anticipate seeing was meteorites. There they
were, a whole booth, manned by a guy named Patrick Thompson, the son of
Edwin Thompson of ET Meteorites who I would later come to know very
well.
Three thousand dollars later I had four new
meteorites and a collection was born, an addiction was born. I had four
new meteorites and...a fifteen page price list. I had four new
meteorites, a fifteen page price list...and a furious wife. That was the
end of big buying for a few years, but the price list stayed close and
occasionally I would save up enough for another piece.
Then the internet came to my home, then I
started to learn, then I started to shop, then the addiction grew worse.
I soon learned that the only way to collect was by doing some selling.
Those early times were important to the development of my collection but
I do not recall them fondly. The notion was great but the act of
breaking up pieces was difficult. Through persistence and natural
evolution I came to know names of suppliers and buyers. I focused and
refocused my collecting habits. At first it was volume, as is the case
with many new collectors, but I soon found I had a very lopsided
collection with a hundred micros and the five big pieces that were my
first purchases so I bought less and bought bigger.
March 26, 2003 changed all that. Park
Forest, Illinois. That fall did me in. I had no money, I took it all out
on credit, I went, I had to go. It was amazing, electric. A detailed
account can be found here
http://www.meteorite-times.com/Back_Links/2003/May/park_forest_wonderland.htm .
Around the time of the fall, a metlist member named Harlan Trammel spoke
of risk and reward with the simple phrase "Go big or go home". While I am
sure he was not the first to utter such words, they rang loudly in my
mind upon my return home. I had gone big, but I could go bigger. Credit
still extended I spoke with a Steger, Illinois resident named Cramer who
had accumulated a kilo of fresh meteorites. I leveraged my whole
collection and went big, I wrote a check that made my hands shake.
The initial investment was made before the meteorites arrived in my
mailbox, even to my surprise. I went big, it worked. It's the same thing
I had been doing but I didn't have to smash perfectly good meteorites up
to do it. The wife agreed to a separate account for doing this sort of
thing.
Three years after that fall gets us to
present day. The premise is still the same, collect like hell, go as big
as I can. I now run Nakhla Dog Meteorites
www.nakhladogmeteorites.com and
it all goes to allow me to collect. I have a full time job specializing
in vascular access at the local hospital. I work three days a week there
to support my family (my wife Colleen, Logan who is four, and Christina
who is one year old) and the other four days are for playing meteorites.
That sense of awe I had many moons ago in
the science museum gift shop has never left. The awe is what it's all
about and, as such, I try to collect meteorites with stories attached to
them. Historic specimens are a close second as they have stories but
meteorites like:
Mbale
That were eaten by the village locals
believing they were a divine cure for AIDS
Elbogen
That was believed to possess the spirit of
an oppressive ruler
or Valera
That killed a cow are what I am talking
about.
The list goes on. Ensisheim, Peekskill, Park
Forest, the Barringer story, now Brenham. If they sent people running or
got them acting weird or doing the uncommon I'm all over it.
I like fresh stones and beautiful pieces
like
Thuathe
Gujba
And even unclassified NWA's
I keep them now in a custom built case. It
was Christmas about five years ago and the meteorites were still in the
living room. Only a small pile as this was pre Park Forest but a modest
collection and aside from my wife (no kids yet) my pride and joy. I came
home from work to find the entire lot piled into a mound covered with
that fake snow stuff making a Christmas scene. I knew something had to
be done. After a couple years of searching I couldn't find the right
thing so I set out to build it. There is an account of this here
http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/meteorite-list/2003-September/137220.html
and
http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/meteorite-list/2003-September/135434.html
and that account perfectly describes it as:
Airtight, dehumidified, heated, corrosion inhibited ,air circulated,
halogen lit, remote controlled, UV protected, wall mounted ,thin and
big. A HEPA filter was installed for style points and later removed as
it cut airflow too much. A RH of 31% is maintained. The other thing I
employ is artwork in riker frames to fill in the space otherwise
occupied by white cotton batting. I have found they add appeal and are
easy to do. I have some available on my website for others to use
http://www.nakhladogmeteorites.com/rikers.htm
So why the dog?
Great story!
Many thanks to Paul and Jim for all their
work at Meteorite Times and for allowing me the chance to better
introduce myself.
