Stumbled over this piece in Eureka Springs. It weighs 74.5 g and appears to contain Farringtonite. A zoom shows an intricate composition. My recent Google meteorite education has went as far as it goes. Would love to get some experienced opinions.
Thanks Terry and Kray. I guess I could send it to the lab in Maine. For $25 they can tell me it isn't a meteorite. Lol. Kray mentioned slag, and indeed there were old foundries in Eureka Springs. The town was founded in 1850 and in 1890 Eureka Springs was Arkansas' 4th largest city with over 5,000 residents. We do have 2 colleges near me, Hendrix and UCA. Maybe I'll try to get in touch with the geology department and ask them to take a look.
After looking at iron slag online, I am now 99.9% sure that I have a chunk of 150 year old Eureka Springs, Arkansas iron slag. I Googled up some slag pics that I was able to zoom on, and a couple of pieces were a near exact match to my souvenir piece of civil war era foundry slag. My beautiful 74.5 gram near worthless chunk of slag has the minute pit holes and everything else that meteors do not possess. Still, a great nostalgic vacation piece for the mantle.
Thanks Kray for pointing me in the right direction. I'm fine knowing what it is...Not knowing was bugging me to no end.
By the way, Great Forum! I'm a treasure hunter of sorts in that I am a yard sale junkie and have been for years. My eye is always out for that thing I've never seen. I have gathered some cool pieces I'll post up along the way. I'll definitely stick around the forum. Obviously a good knowledge level here. Glad I found the forum!
ML, my dubious pleasure. My slag journey began a few years ago when I found my first meteorwrong with my metal detector. It was slag of course, but had me going for a bit. Good luck.