This painting was made in 1941 by artist John Hilton, from a distance of 150 miles. “Had he been within ten miles,” writes Dr. Nininger, “the sight and sound would have been terrifying.” A survey by Nininger showed that the meteorite landed in the vicinity of the Colorado River delta with no one there.
“How many such incidents,” asks Nininger, “have there been in 70 million years? In 700 million? In two billion years? We cannot know. The importance of the study of meteorites,” he says, “is that it helps us understand that we live in the midst of a process of incidents too vastly separated in time and space to allow adequate observation and description, and that by careful evaluation of those incidents that HAVE been recorded, man may yet build a reliable concept of Nature, the Universe and himself — placing all in true perspective.”
From the book jacket of “Find a Falling Star,” 1972