Stars Fell On...Wetumpka

Stars fell on Alabama some 80+ million years ago...well, not exactly "stars"...but "cosmic debris" just doesn't have the same ring to it...it's not on my license tag...and as far as I know, no one from Alabama's ever written a love ballad about cosmic debris...probably not even a ditty. Nonetheless, a meteor slammed into the ground right in my backyard and I've been talking about it for ages...and it seems not many people are really giving it the attention I think it deserves.

Where are the billboards that say "Welcome to Wetumpka...Home of an Honest to Goodness Meteor Crater Impact Site"...or those cutesy signs with the elaborate iron scrollwork on top that designate a "historical event". If this isn't considered a historical event, I don't know what is...and I think it's long overdue.

A little back-history about myself...I loved dinosaurs when dinosaurs weren't "cool"...way before "Jurassic Park" came about, I also loved space stuff, like the moon landing...and was glued to the television set when Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" series came on PBS, so you can say I'm a little surprised this area isn't touting a meteorite landing zone, something they didn't have to spend any money on to create...and capitalizing off of it in some small way.

Where are the walking tours...where are the reporters...where are the documentaries on The Discovery Channel showing the geologist with the pick-axe pointing to the shocked quartz explaining shocked quartz's relevance as it pertains to impact craters, where is that perimeter fence cordoning off the area so no one pilfers souvenirs? When I first heard about them sending in scientists to verify the geologic evidence a few years back I was extremely excited...when they left with more proof to support their earlier findings, I was telling everyone who would listen. Most people I spoke with here didn't even know they came and left...most people didn't seem to care. Oh, I know there's a lot more going on in the world to concentrate on than some 6.5 km hole left in the Earth by some wayward asteroid that now is slowly being etched away and obscured by Super Walmarts, Rite-Aids and houses anyway.

But I can step outside...and step onto the rock steps that lead down to my patio...the very same rocks that were violently heaved from the depths all those eons ago...which used to be on the side of Route 231 before we lugged them home...years before I found out about the impact crater that hardly anyone cares about. But at least now they are getting some attention...if only by us.