Meteorites In Your Back Yard?

My identical evil twin brother and I use to prospect for gold in Colorado. We became disillusioned after many years of digging, diving in spring melt, freezing our booties off, and finding zilch.

I started visiting Quartzsite, Arizona about ten years ago and one of the first things I did was buy an expensive metal detector called a nugget shooter. Just the name fueled fantasy's of golden riches! No diving in cold water, just find the nuggets underground, dig them up and cash them in...easy, right? Wrong! The ground in Quartzsite closely resembles concrete. Digging just a little bit takes the effort of a younger man. Worse yet is the abundance of rock called, Rare Earth Rocks. Did I tell you they set off the metal detector, along with bullet casings, beer tops, tin foil and multitudes of other debris?

A couple months ago, I started watching Meteorite Men on the Science Channel. Man, these guys find big time riches every freaking time they go out! Even though my evil twin lived too far away to be helpful, I called him and explained how I was going to light the meteorite world on fire. He got all excited and wished he didn’t live so far away. No problemo, now I don’t have to share the wealth.

I followed all the instructions of the Meteorite Men…Rare Earth Magnets on the end of my walking stick and digging tool. A loop to look closely at the meteorite, tote bag, high top boots to ward off snakes, large water holder, sun glasses, sun screen and metal detector.

Now to try all this stuff out before going to the rugged Quartzsite area. I donned all my equipment and headed for my back yard in Camp Verde, Arizona. I wasn’t out five minutes before the metal detector just about jumped out of my hands. "What the hell is this all about?" I reached down with the walking stick magnet and whammy, the palm size, crusty, dark, funny looking rock slammed into the magnet with gusto.

My heart skipped a few beats and my vision got a little blurry, and all the while I was thinking; "Can this be real? Please, Lord, don’t let me have a heart attack if it is." Well, to make a long story shorter…it is real and I found my first meteorite. Since that first encounter I have not been able to repeat the success, but looking is half the fun, right? NO, finding is what it’s all about and I want more, more…more!