Julius McKinney
The Alabama farmer who found the second piece of the Sylacauga meteorite the day after it hit Ann Hodges, and was able to sell it.
Key facts
- Nationality
- American
- Field
- Farmer
Julius Kempis McKinney was a farmer who lived a few kilometres from the house where a meteorite struck Ann Hodges on 30 November 1954. The meteorite had broken apart in the air, and not all of it had come through her roof.
The day after the fall, McKinney was driving his mule-drawn wagon along a road when the mules shied at a dark stone lying in the way. He moved it aside, thinking it nothing special. When he heard the news of the meteorite, he realised what he might have found, went back and picked it up. It was a second fragment of the same stone, weighing about 1.6 kilograms.
Unlike Hodges, McKinney did not face a legal dispute over who owned his piece. With help from a lawyer, he sold it to the Smithsonian Institution, and the money was enough for him to buy a car and a small farm.
The two pieces of the Sylacauga meteorite tell very different stories, one of fame and disappointment, the other of quiet good luck. Together they show that a single fall can scatter pieces across a wide area, which is why searchers look along the whole path of a fireball.
On the timeline
- 30 November 1954Sylacauga: a meteorite hits a person