AR HR1039

A meteorite impacted near Paragould, Arkansas on February 17, 1930, with the fireball visible across Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas, and three sonic booms heard at 4:08 AM.

The largest meteorite fragment weighed over 800 pounds and the second-largest weighed over 70 pounds; a third rock corresponding to a third sonic boom was never found.

The Paragould Meteorite was the largest meteorite ever seen falling and recovered at the time, and is a rare LL5 Chondrite type that ranks as the fourth-largest stony meteorite in the world.

Harvey H. Nininger purchased the larger stone and sold it to Stanley Field, president of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, which later displayed it; the sale proceeds enabled Nininger to become the century's most successful meteorite hunter.

The large meteorite is currently displayed at the University of Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Science in Fayetteville, while portions are held in collections at institutions including the Smithsonian Institution, Harvard University, and the American Museum of Natural History.