Wisconsin farmer’s surprising discovery: meteorite unearthed while preparing field for planting

Scientists confirm farmer’s find while picking rocks from his field is a rare, large, very old meteorite

A Wisconsin farmer made a surprising discovery while picking rocks from a field in preparation for spring planting. Jim Koch found a meteorite.

Yes, the Town of Vienna man found a meteorite. I don’t know about you, but as a farmer’s daughter, I helped pick rocks out of fields many times, and never found anything close to being this amazing.

So, this discovery is very rare, but it gets even more interesting. Scientists from the University of Wisconsin confirm it’s the largest iron meteorite to be classified in the United States since 1981. The chunk of iron weighs in at close to 110 pounds. It is also only the 15th classified meteorite in Wisconsin and the first ever recorded in Dane County.

Koch is now sharing his find with the public after agreeing to sell the meteorite at a price significantly below its market value to the University of Wisconsin Geology Museum. It is currently on display there.

“I just think about all the stones in those fields I’ve picked up before this, and to come across this one is just mind-blowing,” Koch says. “I’m just so happy to see it at UW.”

There are still some questions about the age of the meteorite. It’s believed it may have been created in the solar system more than four billion years ago, and has been hiding under the earth’s soil for a few hundred years.

According to the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey, a few meteorites have been found in other parts of the state. Here are a few notes from the survey:

Algoma: A meteorite nearly 9 pounds was found during plowing about 4 miles west of Algoma in Kewaunee County. It contained 88.6% iron and 10.6% nickel.

Angelica: Three miles north of Angelica in Shawano County, a 33-pound iron meteorite was found by a farmer in 1916.

Belmont: A stony meteorite weighing 58.28 pounds was found in 1958 near Belmont in Lafayette County.

Colby: Two stony meteorites with a combined weight of more than 200 pounds were spotted falling from the sky outside Colby in Clark County. The eyewitnesses found the meteorites a short time later. It happened on July 4, 1917.

Oshkosh: A 4-ounce fragment of a stony meteorite was found on a gravel road just outside of Oshkosh in Winnebago County.

Trenton: A number of large pieces from an iron meteorite have been found in Trenton township, east of West Bend, in Washington County. Fragments were first found in 1858, with more turning up in 1873. A detailed search of the area with a metal detector revealed more fragments in 1952 and 1964. The heaviest chunk weighs 527 pounds.

Vernon County: The Claywater Meteorite was seen as a rotating fireball and exploded near ground level in March of 1865.

Waushara County: An iron meteorite, nicknamed the Pine River Meteorite, was found in 1894 near Saxeville. Its weighed 8 pounds. Scientists at the time considered this an unusual meteorite due to the number of chemicals, along with iron nickel metal it carried with it.