NORTHWEST ARKANSAS — If a moon rock can be misplaced, it makes you wonder what other gems of historic value are getting away from us.
To our great relief, the Arkansas moon rock - collected during America’s last manned trip to the moon in 1972 and presented to the state in 1976 - was found two weeks ago by an archival assistant who was examining the contents of a box at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies in Little Rock.
Thus concluded the great moon rock mystery. A newspaper article from 1976 reported that a Navy official presented the rock to a representative ofthen-Gov. David Pryor. Apparently no one paid it much attention, however, because when asked about it this year, neither Pryor nor his staff members at the time could recall receiving the rock.
Lo and behold, the rock - all 0.0025 pounds of it, encased in a Lucite ball - was found in a box of material from Bill Clinton’s time as governor, along with other random material such as file folders, a picture of ostriches and a drawing of a fish.
It’s disconcerting that something so precious could get mixed up with your run-of-the-mill clutter.
Yes, it’s small, but by golly, this is no ordinary rock;
it represents one of mankind’s finest achievements - putting a man on the moon. Rocks just like it were given to each of the 49 other states as well as 135 countries. But they are getting rarer by the year; former NASA Special Investigator Joseph Gutheinz, who uses his graduate students at the University of Phoenix to hunt down missing moon rocks, said that hundreds of Apollo-era moon rocks have disappeared.
Moon rocks are priceless. They’re also just plain fascinating. There’s a reason why the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., put a touchable moon rock on display. Getting to see an object from outside our planet is cool, but getting to touch it? Super cool.
Arkansas’ moon rock deserves to be displayed prominently in a museum, not hidden in a box in someone’s basement.
What other items of incalculable value, linked to our state’s or nation’s heritage, have been lost because of carelessness? What treasures are going out with the trash?
We shudder to think of it.
Who knows - you might even stumble across a special item. If you happen to be cleaning out a closet or attic or basement some time, stay alert. Every once in a while, someone finds something remarkable.
In August, an employee at a Goodwill center in Tennessee spotted, among the donations, a Civil War photograph of Robert E. Lee. When put up for auction, the photo sold for $23,000.
You never know what you might find - or how much someone would be willing to pay for it.
Opinion, Pages 5 on 10/04/2011