Beneath the surface: Dixon man finds possible meteorite in river

GRAND DETOUR – A Dixon man may have found a piece of the sky buried in the bottom of the river.

Brandon Wyatt was fishing in Grand Detour last week, but instead of using a pole, line and hook, he had a high-powered neodymium magnet with a 380-pound pull.

The 41-year-old Sterling native was looking for the old ferry crossing, searching, to no avail, for antique horseshoes. He did find an abundance of "nails and junk."

Another pull of the magnet produced a 16.6-gram black stone split in three pieces and covered in mud,

"I got ready to skip the rock across the water, but then I kind of thought about it," he said. "I know what iron and slag looks like, and this wasn't that."

The avid history and science buff thinks it could be a meteorite. Two were reported to have crashed in the area in either 1966 and 1968,

Many residents told the Lee County Sheriff's Department they "spotted a flaming object in the sky falling rapidly toward the earth," according to the Sept. 19, 1966, edition of the Telegraph, and then-Sheriff Jack Van Meter received a request from the Smithsonian Institute to conduct a search for pieces following a meteor spotting in February 1968. (Wyatt intends to dig up those search logs.)

A meteorite was found a couple months later north of Amboy. Arthur Blocher unearthed the rock while preparing a field for planting.

Wyatt contacted Josh Schwartz, lab manager for geology and environmental geosciences at Northern Illinois University, and had part of the rock tested July 19, the day after the find.

The rock did not contain magnetite, the main mineral found in iron ore, but more complex tests to verify its celestial origin would be "very expensive," he was told.

There need to be more citizen scientists to stumble upon mysteries and go to experts that can help with the answers, Wyatt said.

"I'm so blown away at how open they are at NIU, and I think a lot of people don't realize the resources we have in the area," he said.

Meteorites are worth more than gold because of their rarity and scientific value, but it's the thrill of the pursuit that Wyatt's after.

"For me, it’s not about what it is; it's discovering things about our universe that's worth more than gold," he said. "The discovery belongs to all of us."

Wyatt plans to continue his search once the river reopens and recedes to safe levels.

“I’m on the verge of finding something out there, and I know it."

MORE INFO

Email Brandon Wyatt at brandonwyatt857@gmail.com for more information on the possible meteorite he found in the Rock River.