Monthly Favourite Meteorite (Park Forest)

Park Forest

The Park Forest meteorite fell around 11:50pm on the 26th March, 2003. Stones rained down over the towns of Park Forest, Olympia Fields, Steger and Matteson in Cook County, Illinois, USA. It is possibly now the most famous meteorite fall of modern times because of its occurrence over such a heavily populated area and the wide media attention it received. Many stones hit various man-made objects including houses and cars. Even the roof of the Park Forest fire station was hit.

It is a visually unique meteorite with its unusual range of varying material. Park Forest is made up of two lithologies; one white and the other black, with some specimens showing both while others only the light or dark. Officially, it was classified as an Ordinary Chondrite L5 and has a Total Known Weight somewhere around 20kg. It has a shock rating of 5 and weathering levels actually vary depending on when they were found as there was heavy rainfall in the following days after the fall. Also occurring in those days was the absurd rise in price for this meteorite which local finders were asking. It got to the stage where some dealers plain refused to even buy pieces.

I was lucky enough to get my first piece early on from Mike Farmer which was from the 77 Winslow Street specimen. The others I was able to get from Steve Arnold (Brenham Meteorite Company) who found these pieces himself. A couple of the pieces have unique histories which have been documented and written by Steve below. All of the pieces below are part of the Meteorites Australia Collection.

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Police videos of the Park Forest (L5) Meteor.

Park Forest (L5) - 0.92g Partslice. (From The 77 Winslow St. Specimen)

Park Forest (L5) - 2.60g Half Stone. (Winslow St. Specimen)

Park Forest (L5) - 2.90g Complete Slice.

"This came from a larger fragment that I bought from the finder found hours after the fall at the Winslow Street location. This technically is a full slice from a fragment. One long edge has crust on it, and this small slice shows great differentiation between the light and the dark matrixes represented with a couple of tiny veins as well." - Steve Arnold (Meteorite Men)

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Park Forest (L5) - 5.60g Endcut.

"While on the face of this end cut, it looks kind of boring, one can see an interesting inclusion along one edge that helps the aesthetics a little. However, when you turn the specimen over, you get to see a large part of the edge marked in bold white marks. This is the end piece of the fragment I bought from the finder at the Winslow location, and this piece, as light weight as it is, graphically shows the force that this specific end smashed into the street making the impact pit that for the first week or so made Winslow the bulls eye for all the people hunting in the area. The lack of light matrix in the face would normally drop this from a "A+" quality down to an "A" but with the distinct markings on it, this makes this end slice historic in it's own special way. "A+" quality." - Steve Arnold (Meteorite Men)

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