About two months before the end of last century, an hunter scouting a heard of elk literally crawled up on a meteorite. How did he know it was a meteorite and not one of the other billions of rocks lying around? Well, he just did. He believed it was from space even though the finder had never seen a meteorite before.
No, the Twodot stone wasn’t smoking away while it melted the snow, nor was it a sphere full of holes like in the comic books. It wasn’t glowing green. And no it didn’t look like a freshly minted rock delivered recently to this planet. Instead it was just a rusty 47-pound stone with hints of orientation even to the untrained eye. No fresh crust on this weathering grade 3 rock. But there were enough characteristics that the finder retrieved the stone and kept it safe for years before someone in the know got a first-hand look. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Twodot is an H6 chondrite with a shock level of 2. About a third of the stone remained intact as far as I know and that would be considered the main mass. Two exceptionally large slices were removed from the center of the stone. The one pictured here that is in my collection is the largest surface area slice of Twodot, and highlights the cross-sectional orientation very well.
When I was young, I used to go deer hunting in the Twodot area so I am keenly aware of what it’s like wandering the opens spaces under that particular slice of the Big Sky. While my collecting preferences lean heavily on the older and less abundant witnessed falls with further prejudice for those with interesting cultural stories. Twodot is a special meteorite to me even though a weathered find. And until the Treasure State produces another stony meteorite, it wills remain very special to all of Montana as well.
Until next time….
