For all those who celebrate, I'd like to acknowledge the 150th anniversary of the Kentucky Meat Shower. I hadn't heard of it, either, but a post about the weird event came across my X feed earlier Tuesday, and, with a name like that, I had to know more.
Here we go.
On an ordinary day way back in 1876, the skies over Olympia Springs, Kentucky, delivered something no one could have possibly expected and certainly something no one who saw it would ever forget. A farmer's wife by the name of Rebecca Crouch was outside making soap when, weirdly, bits of flesh began falling from the skies above.
It was a carnivorous rainstorm, apparently, except there were no dark clouds nor any kinds of warning that something ominous and mysterious was in the offing. The sky, according to later accounts, was clear. And yet meat fell over the Crouch property in what was described as a bizarre shower, with pieces drifting down “like large snowflakes.” Reports at the time said the chunks of the unidentified meat were scattered across an area that was roughly 100 by 50 yards. It stuck to fences and covered the fields of the Crouch family's farm.
Thus began a great American historical – or perhaps medical? – mystery.
Word of the spectacle began to spread and coverage from national newspapers like The New York Times helped it become a national curiosity. Neighbors wanted to seat the meat for themselves, and one witness reported that meat was hanging from fence rails and was strewn all over the ground. The size of the meat chunks was reported to be around 10 centimeters square.
By the time others were able to observe the aftermath of the meat shower, the smell on the Crouch farm was said to be rather foul. A few men quite curiously decided to taste the meat in order to help determine what might have happened. They apparently said it tasted like either venison or mutton.
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Locals tried desperately to find an explanation for what had happened, with some insistent is was a sign from God and others claiming the whole thing to be a hoax (although no one apparently could explain how the hoax could be carried out across acres and acres of farmland).
Scientists and amateur investigators – the 19th century version of true crime enthusiasts and cyber-sleuths – soon got in on the action, which probably only confused things. An early theory to emerge argued that the material was not actually meat at all, but some sort of gel-like substance called "star jell." That explanation apparently didn't hold up to further scientific scrutiny, so the search for answers continued.
When experts had a chance to examine "meat" preserved from the event, they concluded that it was, in fact, animal meat that had fallen from the sky that day. They were able to identify muscle, cartilage, and lung tissue, which pointed to the uneasy determination that Kentucky seemed to have actually experienced a shower of flesh.
So, how did the meat get into the sky in the first place?
One of the leading explanations, accepted back then and still today, is pretty gross, especially when you remember that some men actually sampled it. A physician by the name of L. D. Kastenbine suggested in 1876 that the “meat shower” was the result of vultures vomiting up the contents of their stomachs as they flew above the Crouch's farm. It's apparently common for both black and turkey vultures to barf up everything when they feel threatened or need to lighten their loads for flight.
This one definitely falls into the "truth is stranger than fiction" category. I don't know about you, but I'm leaning toward serving a meat-free dinner tonight.
Okay, we now take you back to your regular diet of news and politics.
