Kentucky Meat Shower: A real and scary event that is stranger than fiction
If you are a foodie, then you, at some point of time, may have fantasized your favourite foods being showered from the sky. Well, 19th century Kentucky was witness to a meat shower, that surprised all, though not pleasantly. Let’s find dig a little deep to find out what exactly happened in the infamous Kentucky Meat Shower.
Kentucky Meat Shower: A bird’s eye view
Meat falling from the sky may feel like a scene out of a sci-fi movie. But it actually happened in Kentucky. On 3rd March 1876, a woman named Mary Crouch at Olympia Springs, Kentucky, was right outside her house making soap. And all of a sudden, chunks of meat about the size of snowflakes started dropping from the sky and within minutes filled up her entire farm. In fact, the largest meat chunk that was found was as long as 10 centimetres.
As you can imagine, the news of this bizarre event spread like a wildfire. Many locals dropped by Crouch’s farm to figure out what had exactly occurred. One hunter analysed the meat and announced that it came from a bear, while there were others who decided to consume the meat and then only shared their verdict. After an initial round of tasting, they declared that the meat was most certainly mutton! Okay, but what did the scientists say? Now, here comes the most fascinating part!
Meat? Bacteria? Or vulture’s vomit?
After locals failed to determine what caused the unusual meat shower, they sent the meat samples to laboratories for expert opinion. Initially, one researcher named Leopold Brandeis revealed that the substance was not really meat, but a bacterium named Nostoc. But after several rounds of analysis, it was proved that it was definitely flesh of some animal. Another expert, Dr. Allan McLane Hamilton, further tested the cartilage and realised that the meat remains were a set of lung tissues. Soon, he went on to conclude that the chunks were either of a horse or a human child. Both are equally alarming!
Okay, but why did they drop from the sky all of a sudden? Well, according to a scientist, Dr. L.D. Kastenbine, the meat shower was the result of vulture’s vomit. Wait what? No, we aren’t joking. In fact, this hypothesis is still the most accepted explanation till date. Are you still puzzled? Well, of course you are. After all who has ever heard of vulture’s vomit, let alone falling from the sky!
But here’s what may have happened. As most of you know, vultures are scavengers who feed on decaying carcasses. According to scientists, they often vomit for strategic reasons like warding off predators. At times, they even vomit to let out the extra food before flying away. Experts say, it’s almost customary for vultures to throw up a part of their last meal to lighten their load before soaring high up in the sky.
Now, whether or not the Kentucky Meat Shower was caused by vulture’s vomit is still a mystery. But most people tend to prefer this theory, both inside and outside the scientific community.