Willamette Meteor

Greetings! Nelson Olmsted here. Today I have the history of some real estate from outer state. First, let's listen to Tic-Guber, our spokesman for Pacific Power. Welcome once again to Stories of Pacific Power Land, the presentation of Pacific Power and Light, the company that has been serving the electric needs of the regions, homes, farms,

and industries through more than half a century of progress and growth. Now, let's join Pacific Power Land Storyteller Extraordinary, Nelson Olmsted. A fine October mist fell along the banks of Oregon's Willamette River the day in 1902 that Ellis Hughes treged homeward after a day's work splitting firewood.

He was scarcely prepared for what he was about to find in the end of rush. At first glance it was just another large rock. But something about his appearance brought Ellis Hughes up short. He stopped, began to probe about the moss covered boulder with his fingers, and said, hmm, Many, funny looking rock, never seen one like it hereabouts, all pitted and hollowed out

like that. Now where did Dickens could it have come from? Well, Alice Hughes was an intelligent man. There was only one explanation for the presence of the huge stone. It must be an object alien to the earth, a falling star, a meteorite.

And as such, Alice reasoned wisely, it must have great value. the months that followed Ellis Hughes, his 15-year-old son, and a patient-old workhorse, accomplished an engineering feat which might confound a modern-day heavy equipment expert.

They unearthed that 15-ton stone and moved it yard by yard more than three-quarters of a mile to a resting place beside the Hughes home. Ellis built a shed over his treasure and charged 25 cents to view the gigantic visitor from outer space.