Plainview, H5

Plainview is one of the larger American meteorites ever found, by weight.  At least a tonne of individuals and fragments have been found in the fields near the town of Plainview, Texas.  Here’s a link to George Merrill’s paper describing the first stones, shortly after they were found in 1917: A new find of meteoric stones near Plainview, Hale County, Texas.

This 248 gram complete stone bears Nininger collection number 92.696, and came from an older collection in the Midwest.  The label of this stone is a little unusual; it is an American Meteorite Laboratory (AML) label that bears an older Nininger collection number, not a Huss number.  I believe this corresponds to the period when Nininger worked for the Denver Museum of Natural History, and the AML was located in Palmer, Colorado, or on 635 Fillmore Street in Denver, between ~1929 and ~1940.

While this specimen isn’t mentioned by number in the Nininger Collection of Meteorites, the sequential 92.695 and 92.697 are mentioned, and have similar weights.  It seems that Nininger sold this specimen prior to publishing the collection catalog in 1950.