A part of a unbroken weekly collection on Alaska historical past by native historian David Reamer. Have a query about Anchorage or Alaska historical past or an thought for a future article? Go to the shape on the backside of this story.

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped onto the moon. Within the wake of these nationally televised steps, a proud nation leaped into celebration. Individuals had gained the area race. The second was particularly important for Alaskans, because the preparation, moon touchdown, and return of the Apollo 11 mission had been the primary stay satellite tv for pc broadcasts within the state.

The astronauts left a number of objects behind on the moon, together with the digicam that captured Armstrong’s first steps, an American flag, a plaque, instruments, baggage of human waste, and an Apollo 1 mission patch to honor the three astronauts who died in a 1967 launch rehearsal fireplace. The Apollo 11 crew wanted room to carry again the almost 50 kilos of lunar regolith, fragments, and core samples — moon rocks, in different phrases.

At a look, many of the moon rock samples are unassuming, if expensively obtained: tiny, grey flecks of stone. But, they’re priceless, each as scientific specimens and historic relics. Nonetheless, there was a time, within the optimistic excessive after Apollo 11, when some observers believed moon rocks would change into frequent. Nationwide columnist Don Oakley wrote, “If the current Apollo schedule of a moon touchdown each 4 months is adhered to, scientists worry they may quickly be inundated with lunar materials.” However glory fades, and the final crewed mission to the moon, Apollo 17. got here in 1972. The provision of moon rocks by no means approached, not to mention surpassed, demand.

In the USA, it’s unlawful for people to personal any of the rocks from the moon missions. Regardless of this barrier, many supposed moon rocks have been bought within the many years since 1969. There are a whole bunch of on-line gross sales listings for “moon rocks.” These merchandise are both lunar meteorite fragments, materials ejected from the moon that landed on Earth, or fakes, the latter being the commonest. Some moon rocks had been introduced to Walter Cronkite and the Apollo astronauts, however these samples stay the property of NASA and should be publicly displayed quite than personally stored.

Starting in 1969, President Richard Nixon distributed moon rock samples to each state and 135 international locations. In 1973, one other set of lunar pattern shows from the Apollo 17 mission had been distributed the identical approach. The Apollo 17 moon rock shows are collectively often known as the Goodwill Moon Rocks, as their fragments had been chipped from a chunk of lunar basalt known as the Goodwill Rock.

The Apollo 11 show featured a number of lunar fragments encased in acrylic on a stand with a small flag that additionally made the journey to the moon. Nixon introduced the Alaska show in late 1969 to Gov. Keith Miller. From there, the moon rocks traveled across the state as a featured show merchandise on the 1970 Alaska State Truthful, museums, the Chugiak Gem and Mineral Society, and even the occasional science truthful.

The Air Progress Museum opened in 1967, a part of the Alaska Buy centennial festivities. Positioned off Worldwide Airport Highway in Anchorage, it was taken over by the state in 1969 when it turned the Alaska Transportation Museum. The unique displays centered on aviation, together with a airplane flown by Robert “Bob” Reeve. With the rebranding, the museum’s scope expanded to incorporate transportation of every kind, together with bikes, sleds, snowmachines, railroad automobiles and kayaks. And by 1972, the gathering included the Apollo 11 moon rocks.

A go to to the Alaska Transportation Museum was not fairly like visiting a contemporary museum now. The presentation was much less polished and extra scattered. For instance, the moon rocks had been subsequent to airplane fashions assembled by youngsters. In 1973, Anchorage Every day Occasions author Cathy Allen described the museum as “A vacationer spot that appears extra like a car parking zone for aged planes and trains.” There have been additionally fewer anti-theft options. Museum director and curator Phil Redden, the one boss the museum ever had, informed the Every day Occasions in 1972, “We’ve tried to make the museum a private place. We haven’t roped off displays as a result of we wish individuals to get shut and recognize these items. We’d recognize it if individuals return the favor and never abuse the displays.”

The museum could have merely not been in a position to afford exhibit ropes. Funding was unsure and inadequate for the whole thing of its temporary existence. Sadly, cost-cutting meant the ability had fireplace extinguishers however no sprinkler system. On Sept. 6, 1973, an unknown arsonist set the constructing on fireplace. Workers first noticed the flames rising from an airplane cockpit, but it surely was too late for extinguishers. By the point firefighters arrived, many of the injury was already carried out. Redden stated, “An previous cloth-covered airplane needs to be probably the most flammable factor on Earth. As soon as one among them catches on fireplace she is going to nearly burn below water.” He estimated the injury at $500,000, roughly $3.3 million in 2023 {dollars}, although the precise price was incalculable.

The hearth was in depth and thought to have destroyed or broken almost each exhibit contained in the constructing. A glass case and a few engines had been among the many few surviving items. Amid the devastation and confusion, the moon rocks disappeared.

The hearth and native apathy for a rebuilt facility ended the museum’s run in Anchorage. Redden was fired in January 1974, and funding for the location was eradicated. Practically three years later, the salvaged displays had been transferred to the Palmer fairgrounds, finally forming the premise of a reborn museum, now the Museum of Alaska Transportation & Trade. The unrelated Alaska Aviation Museum in Anchorage opened in 1988.

Alaska was removed from the one place with issue holding onto its moon rocks. As a result of time period limits, New Mexico Gov. David Cargo didn’t run for reelection in 1970. On his approach out, he stripped his workplace and the governor’s mansion of many valuables, together with a grand piano and the Apollo 11 lunar samples. The piano was notably put in at his personal residence. Mentioned Cargo on the moon rocks, “I can do no matter I wish to with them. The president gave them to me.” Beneath strain, Cargo reluctantly donated them to the Museum of New Mexico. To the top, he claimed the rocks had been his, although a museum consultant famous the show acknowledged, “Offered to the individuals of the state of New Mexico by Richard Nixon.”

On Sept. 22, 1977, a person broke right into a case on the Delaware State Museum and ripped the acrylic ball holding that state’s Apollo 11 lunar fragments from its show. The police there didn’t interview witnesses or mud for fingerprints, and there have been no safety cameras. The crime has shockingly not been solved. The Apollo 11 moon rocks for New York have equally been lacking for many years.

In lots of different states, the moon rocks had been rediscovered solely after years of poor record-keeping, in forgotten cupboards (Hawaii), storage services (Minnesota), and desk drawers (North Carolina). In a couple of cases, state moon rocks entered personal possession by way of unknown means solely to be returned years later, as in Louisiana and West Virginia. The Colorado Apollo 17 moon rocks had been found in 2010, within the possession of former Gov. John Vanderhoof, who displayed them in his residence. Vanderhoof informed reporters, “It’s proper right here, simply sitting proper right here. It was put in with a bunch of stuff I had, I assume.” As of now, solely the Delaware and New York Apollo 11 shows are lacking from the state moon rocks.

The moon rocks given to leaders exterior the nation have been extra inclined to loss, theft, and black-market gross sales. Roughly two-thirds of the 270 Apollo 11 and 17 moon rocks given to international locations are unaccounted for. Rumors abound of underground exchanges involving hundreds of thousands of {dollars}. Most notoriously, the Honduran Goodwill Moon Rock went lacking within the Nineteen Nineties and was rediscovered in Florida because of a federal interagency sting and $5 million borrowed from Ross Perot.

A long time handed with none discover of the lacking Alaska Apollo 11 moon rocks. Quickly after being fired from the Alaska Transportation Museum, Phil Redden moved again to South Dakota, the place he was born and grew up. He died there in 1998. Practically everybody forgot in regards to the show till press protection in 2010 reawakened Alaskans to the thriller.

On Dec. 20, 2010, Arthur Coleman Anderson sued the state of Alaska and the state museums for the title to the moon rocks. The information protection had maybe woke up him to the moon rocks’ potential worth. In 1973, Anderson simply so occurred to be Redden’s stepson or foster son. Sources differ. Anderson was additionally a captain within the first season of the Alaska actuality present “Deadliest Catch,” which is one among many items of proof suggesting that Alaska is definitely one small city with connections in all places.

Per Anderson’s lawsuit, he was trying by way of the stays of the museum when he “found the Plaque, which was coated by a thick layer of melted supplies. Plaintiff thought it was ‘cool’ and that he would possibly have the ability to clear it up and switch it right into a neat memento.” His lawyer argued that the state had deserted possession by permitting rubbish removing crews to get rid of the museum particles. Anderson then supplied to promote the moon rocks again to Alaska as soon as the title was cleared.

Anderson’s model of occasions was unconvincing. As assistant U.S. lawyer James Barkeley stated on the time, “Coleman informed a yarn about how he had picked up these moon rocks in items, and so they had been horribly disfigured. The flag of Alaska that was flown to the moon and again had been shriveled up. The bottom was indifferent from the remainder of the plaque. There had been some melting and another bodily injury. He was type sufficient … to have polished it with a toothbrush and to have in any other case taken superb care of it, restoring it to, apparently, nearly intact situation.”

Compelled by a court docket order, Anderson turned over the moon rocks for testing. Reasonably than remade or restored, the show regarded exactly because it had 40 years prior. Barkeley stated the outcomes “conclusively confirmed what Coleman Anderson had testified below oath at his deposition was doubtful, at greatest. To say that the plaque, taken aside or rendered into items, the flag partially melted, and the opposite injury as described was then, someway, so exactly reassembled that none of that bodily injury was obvious and that the relative positioning of all of the objects that made the plaque had been equivalent, defied logic.”

The state additionally produced testimony from witnesses who, after the 1973 fireplace, noticed the moon rocks in an undamaged case, one of many only a few displays to flee hurt. Alaska State Museum chief curator Bob Banghart stated, “We expect they had been eliminated undamaged by Redden and put in a locked cupboard in his workplace after which taken to his home below the auspices of safekeeping. We don’t know the way Mr. Anderson acquired them and thru what course of.”

Anderson’s case crumbled, and he agreed at hand over the show to the state with all current or potential authorized points dismissed. The moon rocks are actually proudly displayed within the Alaska State Museum in Juneau. From the moon to Neil Armstrong to Richard Nixon to Alaska to a actuality present skipper, and eventually residence in Juneau, historical past in Alaska typically leaves the craziest paths.

Key sources:

Allen, Cathy. “Museum could Lose Spot, Money.” Anchorage Every day Occasions, August 30, 1973, 2.

Arthur C. Anderson v. the State of Alaska et al. 3AN-10-1298 (Superior Court docket, 2010).

Dunham, Mike. “Lengthy-missing Apollo Moon Rocks Return to Alaska.” Anchorage Every day Information, December 7, 2012, A-3.

Hayden, Chip. “Airport Museum Gutted by Fireplace.” Anchorage Every day Information, September 7, 1973, 1, 2.

“Key to Piano Downside Now Sought by Cargo.” Albuquerque Journal, February 7, 1971, A-1, A-2.

“Moon Rocks Offered to Museum by Cargo.” Albuquerque Tribune, February 10, 1971, A-1.

“Museum Official Fires Curator.” Anchorage Every day Occasions, January 23, 1974, 2.

Oakley, Don. “Too Many Moon Rocks.” Anchorage Every day Occasions, October 24, 1969, 4.

O’Malley, Julia. “Moon Rocks: From Area to Heart Stage in Court docket.” Anchorage Every day Information, July 3, 2011, A-1, A-5.

Pearlman, Robert Z. “Alaska Reclaims Its Lacking Moon Rocks.” Area, December 13, 2012.

“Phil L. Redden obituary.” Anchorage Every day Information, August 3, 1998, B-5.

Stein, Patricia. “Distinctive Reveals Inform Historical past of Journey.” Anchorage Every day Occasions, September 14, 1972, 15.

Wyatt, Kristen. “Moon Rubble Discovered with Ex-governor.” Durango Herald, June 2, 2010.