Alabama's famous Hodges meteorite. |
Around the world, weird events happen every day. Most
of them probably don’t make the news, but some of them do, which is
how most of us hear about them. Like most places, Alabama has experienced its
fair share of unusual events, and arguably the most unusual thing to have ever
occurred in Alabama celebrated its 62nd anniversary Saturday.
At 2:46 p.m. on Nov. 30, 1954, Ann Elizabeth Hodges of
Sylacauga became the first person in modern history to be struck by a meteorite.
Hodges, age 31, was sleeping on a couch in the living room of an Oak Grove
rental house when an 8-1/2 pound meteorite crashed through the roof, bounced
off a large console radio and struck her in the left hip and hand. The incident
would be reported worldwide.
Hodges was not permanently injured in the incident. The
impact did leave her with a severe bruise on her hip and leg, but she was able
to walk after the incident. According to the Encyclopedia of Alabama, the pain
and noise of the meteorite crash woke her, and she initially thought that
the room’s gas space heater had exploded. When she saw the meteorite on the
floor, her next thought was that children had thrown the rock into the room.
The meteorite, which is now commonly referred to as the Hodges
Meteorite, was composed of sulfide and was seven inches long. It is often
described as grapefruit-sized and created a fireball that was visible in three
states, despite the fact that it fell in broad daylight. Many witnesses thought
they’d seen an airplane accident.
This meteorite broke into three pieces as it streaked through
the atmosphere. The other was found in the middle of a dirt road near the farm
of Julius K. McKinney, which was located near the Hodges’ residence. That
fragment can be seen today at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. The
other meteorite fragment is believed to have hit near Childersburg.
The military initially took possession of the meteorite that
struck Hodges, and later she and her husband, Hewlett, got into a court battle
with the landlord over who owned the meteorite. They thought they could sell it
for a lot of money, but the landlord wanted to sell it to cover the
damages to her house. The meteorite was eventually returned to the Hodges over
a year later, and when they couldn’t find a suitable buyer, they donated
it to the Alabama Museum of Natural History in Tuscaloosa.
Ann Elizabeth Hodges and her husband separated in 1964, and
she died in 1972. She is buried in the cemetery at Charity Baptist Church in
Hazel Green. If you go to the town of Oak Grove today, you can see a historic
marker that was erected there in 2010 to mark the site of the meteorite’s
impact.
In the end, I think you could make the argument that the
Hodges Meteorite incident is probably the most unusual incident to have
ever occurred within the state of Alabama. What do you think?
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