Kansas Pheasant season opened this past weekend ... Great fun with my friends the Hancock's, Brian, Jeff, Rick, Mike and Austin. Lots of birds, walking and shooting !!! Thanks Butch !!! What a great fall tradition. Here's a shot from our camp.
Did you know.... that the Ringed-necked Pheasant was imported to America from Asia in 1881, when Judge O.N. Denny released some 100 pairs of Chinese ring-necks in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. More were released in South Dakota in 1898.
Haviland, Kansas is also known for something else ...... Meteorites !!!... yes Brenham Meteorites.. these meteorites fell to earth an estimated 20,000 years ago near what is now Haviland. This created the Haviland Meteorite Crater, one of only three craters in the U.S. that is authenticated by the presence of meteorites, and the only one of the three that was created by a rare, stony-iron (pallasite) meteorite.
The crater and meteorite are known worldwide. All major museums of the world have Brenham specimens. The world's largest collection and display of Brenham meteorites lies right in the strewnfield at the Kansas Meteorite Museum. The 1,000 pound meteorite that was on display at the Big Well in Greensburg prior to the tornado that destroyed the town in 2007, was a Brenham meteorite. It is back on display at the Greensburg City Hall (open Monday-Friday 9 a.m.-5 p.m.). This meteorite is not just a Kansas treasure but a national and worldwide treasure, sent to us from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
In addition to the stony-iron meteorites, some of the Brenhams are entirely iron-nickel metal, the polished interior looking like a mirror. Their striking size, shapes and internal structures are like nothing else seen on earth, making them truly unique, not only to Kansas but to the world.
The meteorites were identified by Native Americans as being of great interest, though its not known whether they were aware of their celestial origin.They were evidently revered objects, since pieces of the Brenham meteorites were found in the burial mounds of the Hopewell Indians in Little Miami Valley, Ohio.
That must have been what I tripped on chasing down that pheasant.
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