The Kentucky Meat Shower Of 1876 Is Still Puzzling Scientists Over A Century Later
On March 3, 1876, a woman in Olympia Springs in northeastern Kentucky was outside making soap. Shortly before noon, an unexpected shower fell from the sunny, cloudless sky. What fell from the sky was not rain or snow but large chunks of flesh. Some of them were as long as a human hand.
The day after the meat landed in the area, many people came out to investigate. The meat was scattered across the ground and sticking out of bloodstained fences.
Soon enough, news of the mystery meat spread across the nation. The event became known as the Kentucky Meat Shower.
Reporters went around town gathering details from residents like the Crouch family. Mrs. Crouch guessed that at least four gallons of flesh had fallen.
She had run inside when the shower started. On the family farm, their hogs, chickens, dog, and cat had all been eating the meat without concern, enjoying the free snack.
Mr. Crouch collected a few samples and gave some to Olympian Springs proprietor Harrison Gill. He preserved them in alcohol. Other people decided to take the risk and taste the meat chunks for themselves.
One local, a 27-year-old butcher named L.C. “Friz” Frisbe, tried the meat but had to spit it out after chewing it for a bit because it had started to ooze a milky, watery fluid.
The meat looked like mutton, and the texture was similar to veal or lamb. However, he was unable to place the taste or odor.
A merchant named Joe Jordan also spat out his mouthful. It smelled like a dead body and leaked brown mucus. Others claimed it looked like “pounded beefsteak” or bear meat.
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According to one rumor, it was said that Mrs. Crouch had staged the whole thing to scare her husband into selling the farm.
But when this theory was posed to the Crouches, they simply laughed because Mr. Crouch had already wanted to sell the farm, so he didn’t need any convincing.
Other theories about the meat rain’s origin included falling out of a lunch basket belonging to someone in a hot air balloon and dried frog spawn being carried from ponds and swamps by the wind.
At one point, it was suggested that the substance was Nostoc, which is a type of cyanobacteria that swells up into snotty, gelatinous clumps when the ground is super moist. The wind may have carried some to rural Kentucky.
But the most plausible theory has to be that the meat was dropped by vultures flying overhead. Turkey vultures and black vultures are both native to Kentucky. Sometimes, they vomit when they feel threatened.
Their projectile vomiting can act as a defense mechanism of sorts, and an empty stomach can help them escape from danger more quickly.
Black vultures are known to fly in flocks of dozens or even hundreds at a 20,000-foot altitude, so they may not have been visible in the sky during the meat shower. They can also consume pounds of flesh in just a matter of minutes.
The vultures would’ve had different meals in their stomachs, soaked in their acidic digestive fluids, which would explain why everyone’s descriptions of the meat were different.
There is still no definitive answer as to the cause of the Kentucky Meat Shower. Today, it is a wondrous phenomenon that we can look back on in awe.
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