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Texas Day by Day

September 9, 1961


Meteorite hits Grayson County

On this day in 1961, at 10:08 P.M., a fireball was seen passing northward through the sky just east of the Fort Worth-Dallas region. It hit the ground near Bells, Grayson County. Some ten ounces of a very rare carbonaceous chondrite was retrieved from the meteorite over a six-month period. Only about twenty ounces of this substance had been known previously to fall in the world. Texas has had at least nine cases of "falls"--meteorites recovered from a witnessed fireball. By an unusual coincidence, the fall near Bells was the second to occur in Northeast Texas within approximately 100 miles of each other and within a period of a little over 100 days. An 18-pound chondrite had fallen in a backyard near Marshall shortly before 10:30 P.M. on May 30, 1961.

Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
GRAYSON COUNTY
BELLS, TX
METEORITES

Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
East Dallas incorporated (1882)
Terry's Texas Rangers mustered into Confederate service (1861)


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