74th OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY--2007 Regular Session
 
NOTE:  Matter within  { +  braces and plus signs + } in an
amended section is new. Matter within  { -  braces and minus
signs - } is existing law to be omitted. New sections are within
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 LC 1776
 
                    House Joint Resolution 30
 
Sponsored by Representative LIM
 
 
                             SUMMARY
 
The following summary is not prepared by the sponsors of the
measure and is not a part of the body thereof subject to
consideration by the Legislative Assembly. It is an editor's
brief statement of the essential features of the measure as
introduced.
 
  Demands that American Museum of Natural History return
Willamette Meteorite to Oregon.
 
                        JOINT RESOLUTION
  Whereas the Willamette Meteorite was formed with the solar
system 4.5 billion years ago, and thousands of years ago, the
meteorite hurtled to the Earth somewhere in Idaho; and
  Whereas at the end of the last ice age between 12,500 and
15,000 years ago the last Great Missoula Flood swept along a
channel and eventually carved rivers and deposited massive debris
in the Oregon country; and
  Whereas the Willamette Meteorite traveled from Idaho's Pend
Oreille region until it came to rest for thousands of years in an
Oregon forest near the falls of the Willamette River; and
  Whereas the Willamette Meteorite is made of nickel iron, has a
flattened semicircular shape and weighs 16 tons; and
  Whereas the local Native American people were aware of the
Willamette Meteorite's origins, naming the meteorite Tomonowos,
variously translated as 'Heavenly Visitor' or 'Visitor from the
Moon,' and attaching a spiritual meaning to the object fallen
from the sky; and
  Whereas in 1902 the Willamette Meteorite was discovered on land
owned by the Oregon Iron and Steel Company, and, after much
litigation, the Oregon Supreme Court ultimately awarded the
meteorite to the Oregon Iron and Steel Company; and
  Whereas the Oregon Iron and Steel Company displayed the
Willamette Meteorite at the Lewis and Clark Exposition in 1905
but, upon the closing of the exposition, sold the meteorite to a
woman who then gave it to the American Museum of Natural History;
and
  Whereas the Willamette Meteorite is now located on the first
floor of the American Museum of Natural History's Hayden
Planetarium in New York; and
  Whereas in the year 2000 the American Museum of Natural History
and the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of
Oregon reached an historic agreement ensuring access to the
Willamette Meteorite by the Grand Ronde for religious, historical
and cultural purposes but maintaining the continued presence of
the meteorite at the museum; and
 
 
  Whereas the Willamette Meteorite is of great historical and
spiritual significance to the people and the State of Oregon,
including the Native American community; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the Legislative Assembly of the State of
  Oregon:
  That we, the members of the Seventy-fourth Legislative
Assembly:
  (1) Believe that the presence of the Willamette Meteorite in
the State of Oregon will honor our state and its people and that
it should be returned with due haste; and
  (2) Join in demanding that the American Museum of Natural
History return the Willamette Meteorite to its home, the State of
Oregon.
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