A Grand Rapids Meteorite

By Nan Schichtel, GRHS Secretary/Trustee

Recently, I serendipitously discovered a scholarly article about the Grand Rapids Meteorite – and while it was from 1884, it was news to me! The iron-rich meteorite was dug up during a construction project in Walker Township, west of the then Grand Rapids city limits, and weighed almost 114 pounds. Ever curious, I started digging (pun intended) and was surprised where the research took me. Let’s start with a definition: the Dictionary of Astronomy defines a meteorite as a “natural object from space that hits the surface of the Earth or other planetary body.” (Ridpath)

The Kent Scientific Museum, predecessor to the Grand Rapids Public Museum, created a Lantern Slide of an 11-inch chunk of the Grand Rapids Meteorite, as part of an astronomy slideshow. Identifier: 2021.6.15.26

Photo courtesy of the Grand Rapids Public Museum.

During a September 1883 trip through Grand Rapids, and after reading a Daily Morning Democrat article (Mystic Stone) about a “strange, heavy, metallic mass” on display in C.G. Pulcher’s store, prominent astronomer Dr. John Robie Eastman, USN, was able to obtain a very small portion of the find for further study. In 1884, Eastman provided the first scientific notice of the Grand Rapids Meteorite. (Eastman)

The land upon which the “mystic stone” was found was owned by the recently-established Roman Catholic Diocese of Grand Rapids, for the benefit of St. James parish. St. James, which served a predominantly Irish population living on the West Side, was located at 225 W. Bridge at West Broadway, now numbered 733 Bridge NW at the renamed National Avenue. Before I spotted a copy of the Mystic Stone article on C.G. Pulcher’s Find-a-Grave (Cronk), I surmised, rightly, that the Pulcher connection was through St. James’ founding pastor, Fr. James C. Pulcher; the priest and Celestian G. Pulcher, whose wine, liquor, and cigar store was on Canal Street, were brothers.

The location of the find has interested many through the years, and has been disputed. The Meteoritical Society website provided a compilation of those locations and research relating to the meteorite, including that of Dr. Clarence Menninga, Professor Emeritus at Calvin University. Menninga identified the geographic coordinates of 42° 57' 32"N, 85° 41' 55"W the most likely general location of the meteorite, using Kent County records. That puts the center of the Fitzpatrick parcel described below near 242 Valley Avenue SW, east of John Ball Park, as noted by the asterisk on the map, based on the following:

“A search of the records in the office of the Register of Deeds of Kent County uncovered a deed whereby ownership of a parcel of 18 acres along Butterworth Avenue was transferred from the owner listed on the 1876 map, Agnes and Michael Fitzpatrick, to the Roman Catholic Church, Detroit Diocese, on February 12, 1877. The description of the property is “the East half of the Southeast quarter of the Southwest quarter of Section 26, Township 7 North, Range 12 West, (Baseline 1815, Michigan Meridian, U.S. Government Land Survey System), excepting 2 acres lying south of Butterworth Avenue. (Kent County, Michigan, Register of Deeds, Liber 82, Page 490)

Grand Rapids Meteorite Map, noting different locations believed to be where the meteorite was uncovered. Identifier: ME1102. The asterisk denotes Professor Menninga’s research.

Map courtesy of the Grand Rapids Public Museum.

That same property was transferred from the Detroit Diocese to the newly formed Grand Rapids Diocese by quit-claim deed on May 4, 1883 (Kent County, Michigan, Register of Deeds, Book 151, Page 83), shortly before the discovery of the meteorite. A portion of that parcel remained in the possession of the Grand Rapids Diocese at least until 1907, as listed on the 1907 map of that section of the city of Grand Rapids. Today the entire parcel has been developed for residential use.” (Meteoritical)

A year after the first meteorite news, the meteorite is reported to have been acquired by the “National Museum” - the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution – and Robert Riggs of the US Geological Survey conducted a more in-depth analysis. (Riggs)

Since its discovery, the Grand Rapids Meteorite has been studied at museums and scientific institutions worldwide. Portions of the mass were distributed to institutions including: Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History (11.2 kg), New York (8,375 g), Smithsonian Institution, Washington (3526 g), Arizona State University’s Center for Meteorite Studies in Tempe (1538 g), London (1442 g), Amherst (1246 g), Harvard’s American Museum of Natural History (1008 g), New York City College (965 g), Vienna (706 g), Yale University (679 g), Budapest (339 g), Calcutta (235 g), Vatican Collection (198 g), Sydney (194 g), Stockholm (141 g), Bally (140 g), Rome (121 g), Prague (102 g), St. Louis (102 g) (Buchwald), and closer to home, Grand Rapids Public Museum and Michigan State University, among others. (Buchwald, 606) Articles, museum catalogs, and inventories exist that refer to acquisition of portions of the Grand Rapids Meteorite for and from these collections. The masses indicated are not necessarily those still owned by the institutions, as specimens were frequently sliced off and used in exchanges for other desirable meteoric specimens.

Today a large specimen from the Grand Rapids Meteorite, the first scientifically authenticated meteorite discovered in Michigan, can be viewed at the Grand Rapids Public Museum where it is on display outside the Planetarium entrance. Owned by the Field Museum, this large specimen is on loan to Grand Rapids. A smaller piece, shown in the photo, is owned by the Grand Rapids Public Museum, which is collaborating with Calvin University on a forthcoming exhibit that will include the locally-owned specimen.

Grand Rapids Meteorite specimen owned by the Grand Rapids Public Museum. 2021

photo courtesy of the Grand Rapids Public Museum, Science Curator Cory Redman.

Enquiring minds still want to know:

• Was the original meteorite sold or donated outside of the area, and, if sold, did St. James parish benefit?

• Why was Michael Clancy excavating the former Fitzpatrick property on which the meteorite was found? It seemed too far away from St. James church to be much use, except as a potential source of real estate income to benefit the parish. The Catholic parish closest to that location is Sacred Heart of Jesus. The first Sacred Heart building was a combined school-convent-church which went under construction in 1904. The current church for this historically Polish parish is located at Garfield Avenue and Park Street SW and construction started in 1920.

• The newspaper article refers to a potential early lawsuit involving Clancy and ownership of the find. Is there anything more to find about that?

• Why was Dr. Eastman, a prominent astronomer based at the Washington D.C. Naval Observatory, travelling through Grand Rapids? Is it possible there is a tie to the Eastman family of Eastmanville?

—Riggs, Robert Baird. (April 1885) Article XLI: The Grand Rapids meteorite. American Journal of Science and Arts. (3rd Series, v. 30, p. 312) —Buchwald, Vagn F. Handbook of Iron Meteorites, Volume 2 (Goose Lake - Grant) p. 606-607. —Chamberlain, Von Del. (1968) Meteorites of Michigan. Geological Survey Bulletin 5. —Cronk, Michael. Celestian G. Pulcher. Memorial # 64214540. Find a Grave. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/64214540/ celestian-g.-pulcher —Mystic Stone. Daily Morning Democrat. Grand Rapids, Michigan (16 Sept. 1883, p. 3, col. 5) —Eastman, John Robie. (October 1884) Article XXXVIII: A new meteorite. American Journal of Science and Arts. (3rd Series, v. 28, p. 299-300.) —Farrington, Oliver Cummings. (1915) Grand Rapids. In Catalogue of the meteorites of North America to January 1, 1909. (p. 215-216) Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences. —Grand Rapids Public Museum. Identifier: ME1102 and Identifier: 2021.6.15.26 meteorite. In Ridpath, I. (Ed.), A Dictionary of Astronomy. Oxford University Press. Meteoritical Society. https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.php?code=10955