High Island Creek

Iron, IIIAB
Find: April 2011

The High Island Creek is a rare U.S. iron (IIIAB) found by a couple, Bruce and Nelva Lilienthal, in 2011. The meteorite had been picked up by Bruce from one of his fields and set aside, with other unusual rocks, for Nelva’s garden. It was Nelva who suspected it might be a meteorite, having seen articles about them, and who made the calls and sent letters and to try and get it identified and classified. In 2013, the Lilienthals sought the help of Calvin Alexander, curator of meteorites at the University of Minnesota, who would eventually classify the iron.

High Island Creek is notable not only for being a U.S. iron, but also for its gold (Au) and iridium (Ir) content. The only other IIIAB iron that resembles its composition is the al-Ghanim iron that fell in Saudi Arabia.