"Long before the Indians fought the white man on these plains, and even before the Spaniards coughed dust of the New World prairie, a fiery body from the heavens, leaving a tail of flame in its wake, struck near the present town of Odessa, at a speed of 40 times that of any bullet fired from a modern rifle."

from the Odessa News Times, 1939

A local rancher found the first meteorite in the 1890’s, 10 miles southwest of Odessa, but it was not until 1929 that J. M. Barringer, Jr. firmly stated that he believed the depression to be a meteorite crater.

Glen Evans was the geologist in charge of the exploration of the crater from 1939 until 1941, when the Bureau of Economic Geology took on the project as part of a joint venture involving Federal, State and County agencies.

The craters result from a meteorite shower which fell about 17,000 years ago in west Texas. Numerous specimens have been collected, some are badly weathered, but all appear to be nickel-iron meteorites. 

East to West Section through Crater #2

Investigations included study of the geological changes caused by the impact. Each different pattern on the diagram below represents a rock unit. The meteorites were found in the zone of solid black shapes at the base of the crater.