WEST ODESSA, Texas — 63,000 years ago this piece of land was just another piece of land.
That is until it was hit by something out of this world.
"They estimated this happened 63,000 years ago which was at the end of the Ice Age," Odessa Meteor Crater Museum curator Douglas Neatherlin said. "It was about 100 feet deep at the time of impact. And then when the water and everything kind of swished back in it filled in quite a bit and then over the years, it's been slowly filling back up. We're approximately six to eight feet deep depending on where you're standing at the time."
Despite it landing that long ago, it wasn’t first discovered until 1892.
"This was part of the Henderson Ranch," Neatherlin explained. "And he [Julius Henderson] was out here working with cattle and found a meteorite. He wasn't sure what it was. So he took it to a friend I guess in Austin, is what they told me and they figured out that it wasn't just a standard rock. It was a meteorite."
Nothing happened with it for a while…
...until the Depression.
A work camp was created in the area because they wanted to see if they could find more pieces of the meteorite.
"They found the large crater," Neatherlin said. "And as they were working on that, the very first meteor detector was invented from what I was told, and it was large enough it had to be on a plane. They flew over it and they discovered a second crater, the third and the fourth. And our location we have the first and second craters."
During the Vietnam War, nothing could really get done with it, so it got shut down.
"Until about 1988," Neatherlin said. "It got declared a National Natural Landmark."
And from there the landmark took off.
"In 2002, the Commissioners and a nonprofit got together to create a museum, the walking path and everything."
Originally about 450 feet across and 100 feet deep, it’s the second-largest crater in the United States, and it’s right here in Odessa.
Despite this, few West Texans know about the unique landmark.
"I grew up in this area and I had no idea it even existed," Neatherlin, originally from McCamey, Texas, said. "I still get people come out today that's 90years old that didn't even know it was out here."
For those who do check it out, they get to take in a true marvel of science.
And once you've explored the crater, you can learn more about the meteorites that created it in the museum.
"For a small little museum that we have, we actually have a very large unique collection of meteorites compared to most places," Neatherlin said.
A crater that many people don’t know about, filled with history and science you can’t even imagine. You might call it a hidden gem.
So consider taking a trip just a few miles down the road.
To experience history made 63,000 years ago.