While exploring the woods of Oregon in 1902, farmer Ellis Hughes stumbled across a massive iron-nickel rock. Recognizing that it was valuable but realizing that it sat on property owned by the Oregon Iron and Steel Company, he and his son hauled the 15.5-ton mass nearly three-quarters of a mile to his property. It took them 90 days to move what turned out to be a meteorite. Once it was safely on his property, he built a shed around it and began charging visitors 25¢ a head to view it. The scheme fell apart when rumors reached the Oregon Iron and Steel Company. After Hughes rejected a nominal $50 reimbursement offer for his hauling troubles, the company sued him for the meteorite’s return. Hughes famously attempted to argue in court that the meteorite wasn’t “real estate” belonging to the land, but rather personal property that originally belonged to Native Americans. The legal battle went all the way to the Oregon Supreme Court, which ultimately ruled against Hughes and awarded legal ownership back to the steel company. Following the lawsuit, the steel company sold the meteorite in 1905. Today, it is prominently displayed at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
