Homestead (meteorite)
Homestead is a L5 ordinary chondrite that fell in Iowa, United States, on February 12, 1875. It is part of the Amana meteorites, named after the Amana Colonies; Homestead got its name because Homestead, Iowa, was the nearest train station.
On that evening, a bright fireball lit up the sky and was followed by loud detonations that shook houses. About 100 fragments landed over an 18-square-mile area from Amana to Boltonville in Iowa County. The first fragment, about 3.5 kilograms, was found by Sarah Sherlock about 3 kilometers south of Homestead. Recovery was hard because the ground was snowy, and a heavy snowfall on February 10 delayed discoveries until spring. The main mass weighed about 34 kilograms and a 22-kilogram fragment was buried about 2 feet underground. The event made international news, and Gustavus Detlef Hinrichs, a University of Iowa scientist, described it in Popular Science Monthly in 1875. By 2011, roughly 230 kilograms of Homestead meteorites had been found. The meteorites brought a small fortune to the Amana area, with pieces sold for a day's wage per pound and added to collections in the United States and Europe.
The Amana meteorites also include a large fall in Estherville, Iowa, on May 10, 1879. Its largest piece weighed 437 pounds and was buried 14 feet deep in a farm field, making it the largest witnessed meteorite fall in North America. The largest Estherville piece is on display at the Estherville Meteorite Center. The Estherville meteorite is also an L5 ordinary chondrite, brecciated and veined.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 00:34 (CET).