An unusual endeavor omitted from the published version of “Find a Falling Star” was the “Natural History Trek” led by H.H. Nininger while he was teaching at McPherson College. Almost unheard of at the time, this class provided class credit for outside fieldwork. It also provided Nininger with an opportunity to “learn more about meteorites and to test further my own theories for their recovery.”
Thirteen students and the Nininger family of five (their children then being eight, five and two years old) set off on the trek in August of 1927. The trek spanned the entire school year of 1927-1928, and ultimately covered 19,000 miles and stretched from coast to coast.
One memorable stop was a tour of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, then only crudely developed, led by Jim White, the “discoverer” and first known explorer of the caverns. You will be able to read much more about this unique adventure in the expanded version of the book, “In Search of Falling Stars.”
