Dec 4, 20193 min read

Kentucky’s Meat-eor Shower: Strangest Event in History When Kentucky Experienced Raining Meat

Kentucky Meat Shower is one of the strangest meteorological events ever recorded, which may sound hard to believe but have enough evidence to prove the event.

On the day of the Kentucky Meat Shower:

On 3rd March 1876, Olympian Springs, Kentucky, near a settlement of Rankin in Bath County, received rainfall of just 5 centimeters, which caused bewilderment in the minds of people as this wasn’t any " rainfall but was raining meat. The downpour wasn't last for several minutes, with the most significant piece being ten by 10 centimeters. Mrs. Crouch, a farm farmer, was at the porch not more than forty steps from the house making soap between 11 and 12 o’cloo'clock. She reported seeing meat pieces falling from the sky. It was a clear cold day, the light wind coming from the west, but the sky was clear, and the sun was shining brightly with no signs of possible rain.

She said that the pieces of meat looked like snowflakes from a distance. But according to her and her husband, Allen Crouch, the heart details looked disgusting, and they believed it was some kind of twisted sign from God.

For several minutes, Mrs. Crouch and her husband Allen watched as the unusual downpour fell around them before it finally ceased, leaving the sky as clear and sunny as it had been.

CroucCrouch'seved it to be a miracle or a horrible warning. Word spread around the town as quickly as wildfire, and several people visited the Crouch property, a plot of land 100 by 50 yards littered with meat. Chunks of flesh were found on the ground and the fences. Town officials at the scene watched people debating over what heart.

Investigation:

First, it was believed to be beef as the smell and color resembled the meat, yet hasn’averagehasn't been confirmed; according to Scientific American, the first two people who tasted it believed it to be lamb or deer—furthermore, B.F. Ellington, a local hunter, disagreed, claiming it as an “uncommonly greasy feel,” identifying it as bear meat.

To end the debate, a few locals skilled in hunting tasted it and said that the meat tasted like either fish or fowl. A local butcher, however, tasted it and concluded that it was neither flesh, fish, or fowl. Finally, town authorities collected samples and, after wrapping them up, sent them to chemists and universities.

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One chemist from Louisville College deducted and suggested to be mutton. Another disagreed, stating, it was meat but not mutton. One Scientist believed it to result from a meteor shower — or "meat-or" shower, if you will.

In the Sanitarian, Leopold Brandeis identified the substance as a bacterium that gives the effect of meat. He said that Nostoc, a kind of cyanobacteria, expands into a clear jelly-like meaning when water falls on it, which is perhaps what was misunderstood to be meat.

Brandeis passed the meat sample to the Newark Scientific Association for further analysis. Dr. Allan McLane Hamilton stated in The Medical Record that the meat was lung tissue from either a horse or an infant, both identical. It was backed by further analysis when two meat samples were identified as lung tissue, three as muscles, and two as cartilage.

Theories

"According to the present theory of astronomers, an enormous belt of meteoric stones constantly revolves around the sun, and when the earth comes in contact with this belt, she is soundly pelted," wrote William Livingston Alden, a New York Times writer.

"Similarly, we may suppose that there revolves around the sun, a belt of venison, mutton, and other meats, divided into small fragments, precipitating upon the earth whenever the latter crosses their path.

The vulture theory garnered the most traction, mentioning that whenever a vulture saw one of its companions disgorge themselves, the other vultures immediately followed suit. Dr. L.D. Katesbine presented this theory in the Lousiville Medical News as the best explanation for the mean's form. Moreover, vultures use vomit as a defense mechanism and a way to make a quick escape.

Conclusion:

This meat rainfall changed the definition of weird as it was unexplainable with several possible interpretations, each baffling people. While it has been universally accepted that the phenomenon was due to the flock of vultures vomiting simultaneously, the real reason may very well still be up for debate.

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