[Ron Baalke]

http://www.woi-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3349587

Big rock creates big mystery
Associated Press
May 16, 2005

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa There's a 15-thousand pound mystery in a Cedar Rapids
farm field.

Bob Taylor works for Bladerston Farms of Central City. He says he found
the rock this spring while doing field work.

Taylor says it may be a meteorite. But the rock is clean, not burned and
is sitting on the field, not in a crater.

Taylor says another possibility is that it rolled off a truck that was
hauling it to a nearby housing development.

For now, the plan is to farm around it until someone the owner comes to
claim it.


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A few more details here:


CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP)  A big rock has spouted in a farm field in Cedar
Rapids, creating a big mystery. It wasnt there last year.  We picked the
corn last fall and the field was fine. We came back this spring to do some
field work, and this big rock was here, said Bob Taylor, 51, a hired man
for Balderston Farms of Central City. That was four weeks ago.
    Taylor, who guesstimated the boulder at 15,000 pounds, said maybe it was
a meteorite. But the rock is clean, not burned. Its sitting on the field,
not in a crater.
    Taylor said the rock didnt rise out of the ground as stones tend to do
when a field is plowed because its too big for that. Taylor wondered if the
boulder rolled off a truck that was hauling it to a housing development
across the street. One fence post leans a little toward the rock, as if it
might have been grazed by the boulder as it rolled off a truck, down the
embankment and into the field. Still, the clues for that scenario dont seem
real evident, either.
    Why didnt it make some kind of indentation from the road to here?
Taylor asked. Thats the mystery.
    There are scratch marks on the boulder, as if it was lifted by a
machine. But its unlikely someone plopped the rock in the field with a
crane in preparation for another housing development. Randy Balderston has
been renting the ground to farm for 15 years, and nobody told him or Taylor
about it. Nobodys said anything about it, Taylor said. Nobodys claimed
it. Nobodys moved it.
    For now, Taylor said, theyll farm around it. I cant lift it, he
said. We figure, whoever owns it, a contractor or whatever, will come back
for it..

Sterling K. Webb