Meteorites from Missouri

Map of Missouri meteorite finds and falls. (Courtesy of the Meteoritical Bulletin Database and Google Earth) Meteorites are named after the place that they fell or were found. Most of the meteorite names below correspond to small towns in Missouri.
Twenty-four meteorites have been found in Missouri. The first, Little Piney, was a fall from 1839; the most recent, Licking, was found in 2015. Nine have been iron meteorites, eleven stony meteorites, three (Conception Junction, Milton, and Mincy) stony-irons. Seven are falls – they were found shortly after they fell. The other 16, including all the irons, are finds – they fell at an unknown time and were found later. The Warrenton meteorite is an unusual type, a CO chondrite, and Milton is a unique pallasite. The following information was taken mainly from the Catalogue of Meteorites (2000) edited by Monica Grady and published by The Natural History Museum of London and the Meteoritical Bulletin Database of the Meteoritical Society.
meteorite name |
mass (kg) |
fall or find |
type | class | group | fall or find location |
year | anecdote |
Archie | 5.07 | fall | stone | ordinary chondrite | H6 | Cass Co. | 1932 | Seven stones were found. One narrowly missed a man’s head. A shower of minute fragments over an area six miles long was reported but none of this material was preserved. |
Baxter | 0.611 | fall | stone | ordinary chondrite | L6 | Stone Co. | 1916 | One stone. Fell through the roof of a house. |
Billings | 24.5 | find | iron | medium octahedrite | IIIAB | Christian Co. | 1903 | A mass of about 54 lb resembling an axe was found about 4 miles east of Billings. |
Butler | 41 | find | iron | plessitic octahedrite | ungrouped | Bates Co. | 1874 | A mass of about 90 lb was plowed up 8 miles SW of Butler. |
Cape Girardeau | 2.3 | fall | stone | ordinary chondrite | H6 | Cape Girardeau Co. | 1846 | Fell with a loud report 7.5 miles south of Cape Girardeau. |
Conception Junction | 17 | find | stony-iron | pallasite | PMG-an | Nodaway Co. | 2010 | A single mass was discovered protruding from a hillside near Conception Junction, Missouri |
De Kalb | 0.566 | find | stone | ordinary chondrite | H? | Buchanan Co. | 1969 | One stone, found after plowing. Although the discovery site is only 3 miles west of the known area of the Faucett meteorites, it is thought to represent a distinct fall. |
Faucett | 100 | find | stone | ordinary chondrite | H4 | Buchanan Co. | 1966 | Following the discovery of the first 12 lb stone in 1966, at least seven others have been found, totaling over 100 kg in weight. They are internally fresh and may have fallen in the summer of 1907. photo |
Harrisonville | 46.5 | find | stone | ordinary chondrite | L6 | Cass Co. | 1933 | 14 stones. photo |
Independence | 0.88 | fall | stone | ordinary chondrite | L6 | Jackson Co. | 1917 or 1918 | Observer heard a hissing/buzzing sound, and then observed a dark object falling to the ground on the side of a dirt road. |
Jenkins | 55.4 | find | iron | coarse octahedrite | IAB | Barry Co. | 1946 | One mass was found 8 km northwest of Jenkins. |
Kansas City (1903) | 36 | find | stone | ordinary chondrite | H5 | Kansas City | 1903 | A much oxidized stone was found in Kansas City, some 6 feet below the surface. |
Lanton | 13.78 | find | iron | medium octahedrite | IIIAB | Howell Co. | 1932 | Four rusted fragments were found. |
Licking | 8.07 | find | iron | fine octahedrite | IVA | Texas Co. | 2015 | Found with a metal detector just below the surface in a bank beside an old road. photos |
Little Piney | 0.491 | fall | stone | ordinary chondrite | L5 | Pulaski Co. | 1839 | After the appearance of a fireball, followed by detonations, a stone of about 50 lb, which had struck an oak tree, was found 2 miles from Pine Bluff and 10 miles from Little Piney. |
Milton | 2.04 | find | stony-iron | pallasite | unique | Atchison Co. | 2000 | A single mass was found in a bean field. abstract |
Mincy | 89.4 | find | stony-iron | mesosiderite | MES | Taney Co. | 1857 | A mass of about 197 lb is stated to have fallen in 1857, 11 miles SE of Forsyth, whence it was taken to a farm in Newton County, Arkansas. |
Palmyra | 0.135 | fall | stone | ordinary chondrite | L3 | Marion Co. | 1926 | A single specimen of unrecorded weight is reported to have fallen two miles E of Palmyra. Only 135 g now known. |
Perryville | 17.5 | find | iron | plessitic octahedrite | IIC | Perry Co. | 1906 | A mass of 17.5 kg was found. |
St. Francois County | 3.6 | find | iron | coarse octahedrite | IC | St. Francois Co. | 1863 | A specimen weighing about 0.5 lb was found in 1863 by B.F. Shumard in the museum of the St. Louis Acad. of Sci. labeled ‘S.E. Missouri’ , C.U. Shepard (1869). Later a mass of over 2.5 kg was found and became known as St. Francois County. |
St. Genevieve County | 244.5 | find | iron | medium octahedrite | IIIF | St. Genevieve Co. | 1888 | A mass of 539 lb was found in the extreme western portion of St. Genevieve County. |
St. Louis | 1 | fall | stone | ordinary chondrite | H4 | “St. Louis Co.” may have been city |
1950 | A mass of 1 kg hit a car on West Florissant Ave. in St. Louis. |
Seymour | 25.9 | find | iron | coarse octahedrite | IIICD | Webster Co. | 1940 | A mass of 57lb was found 6 miles NNW of Seymour (and SE of Marshfield). |
Warrenton | 1.6 | fall | stone | carbonaceous chondrite | CO3 | Warren Co. | 1877 | With a whistling noise a stone of about 100 lb was seen to strike a tree and break into pieces. |
The following objects are listed in the Catalogue because they have been mentioned in the literature, but they are probably not real meteorites. | ||||||||
Fair Play | 91 | find | Polk Co. | 1928 | This supposed mesosiderite has been shown to be white cast iron. | |||
Kansas City (1876) | ?? | fall | stone | Kansas City | 1876 | Doubtful. A small fragment, 1.75 inches in diameter by 0.33 inches thick, is said to have fallen on and partially pierced a tin roof. |