(meteorobs) Search for a screamer (part one?)

[Bruce McCurdy]

    "METEORITES HIT NEAR REDWATER"

... the headline screamed. The Edmonton Sun story detailed:

"Hildebrand believes fragments of the meteor [sic] may
be around Redwater, 68 km northeast of Edmonton,
especially in the area of Township Road 574 and Range
Road 220."

    So when fellow RASCal John Cliff contacted me later on Tuesday morning 
about goin' a-meteorite-huntin' I thought "why not?" The coordinates seemed 
specific enough to give it a whirl ... nothing ventured and all that. It was 
only a 45-minute drive northeast of Edmonton. Unfortunately it was a spur of 
the moment decision for us to go, and my last-minute email to Martin Connors 
of Athabasca University was answered just minutes after we left. Unbeknownst 
to us, Martin had suggested we were probably wasting our time near Redwater 
and should go to the town of Legal instead .

    So off we went in search of a hole in the ground. Instead, we found 
Redwater.

    "Redwater 2, Bruderheim 38" said the sign coming into town, which seemed 
promising. If you believe in signs, that is. We probably had a better chance 
of entering a time warp into 1960 (when the Bruderheim meteorite fell) than 
we did of finding a new meteorite.

    I can't even confirm that there was no meteorite fall near Redwater. I 
CAN confirm as Martin's note rather baldly stated, that we were wasting our 
time. While that stung a bit after the fact, at the time we were blissfully 
unaware as we crisscrossed all Range and Township Roads within 3 miles of 
the coordinates mentioned by Dr. Hildebrand. The gently rolling terrain was 
mostly agricultural, dotted by sloughs (small ponds) and periodically 
interrupted by impenetrable wooded areas. We scanned with binoculars all 
open areas, drove to a couple of off-road locations, and got out and walked 
to a couple of spots that grabbed our attention but which turned out to be 
man-made or natural disturbances. I also talked with a couple folks at the 
local convenience store, but even though I pointed out that Sun headline it 
didn't seem like it was the talk of the town or anything.

    We neither of us really knew what the heck we were doing, but were both 
anxious to give it a try. And the mosquitoes were certainly anxious to give 
*us* a try.  We had fun anyways; the thrill of the chase and all that. Of 
course we're the two guys who went to Fort McMurray for the Venus transit 
... via Saskatoon.

    Tomorrow I will likely be heading out with Mark Zalcik (another Edmonton 
RASCal) to the community of Lily Lake, just east of Legal and the current 
"best guess". I don't hold out a great amount of hope, but it's not every 
day one gets the opportunity to chase the pot of gold at the end of the 
bolide.

    Bruce
    *****