Meteor Crater

The impact that created Meteor Crater occurred approximately 50,000 years ago — late enough that the Arizona high desert was inhabited by megafauna (mammoths, giant ground sloths, North American camels) and possibly by early Paleo-Indian human populations. The impactor was a 150-foot-diameter iron-nickel meteorite weighing several hundred thousand tons, traveling at approximately 26,000 miles per hour when it entered Earth's upper atmosphere. The atmospheric entry caused some surface fragmentation but the main body remained intact and struck the Arizona surface with energy roughly equivalent to 10 megatons of TNT — comparable to a moderately large nuclear weapon detonation.

The impact instantaneously vaporized most of the meteorite and a substantial volume of the surrounding sandstone bedrock. Solid rock was excavated and thrown outward as ejecta, with the largest blocks landing up to a mile from the crater rim. The shock wave traveling outward from the impact would have killed any living creature within several miles, and the dust cloud thrown into the atmosphere likely affected weather across a substantial portion of North America for months. The final crater — formed within seconds of impact — measured approximately 3,900 feet across the rim and 570 feet deep at the lowest point.

The crater's geological age of approximately 50,000 years is recent enough that erosion has not substantially modified its shape. The arid Arizona high-desert climate has also preserved the structure unusually well — comparable craters in wetter climates would have weathered substantially, filled with sediment, or been overgrown with vegetation. Meteor Crater is the closest visual approximation on Earth of the impact craters visible on the Moon's surface, which is precisely why NASA selected the site for Apollo astronaut training in the 1960s.

Daniel Moreau Barringer was a Philadelphia-based mining engineer and amateur geologist who became convinced in the late 1890s that the Arizona crater (then generally believed to be a volcanic feature) was actually a meteorite impact site. Barringer reasoned that if the crater were created by an impact, the impacting meteorite must still be buried beneath the crater floor — and he calculated that a mass of nickel-iron meteorite would be worth potentially hundreds of millions of dollars at then-current metal prices. In 1903 Barringer secured a mining patent on the surrounding land and incorporated the Standard Iron Company to conduct exploratory mining operations.

The mining venture continued for nearly three decades. Barringer drilled multiple deep shafts across the crater floor and the surrounding ejecta blanket, searching for the buried meteorite mass that he was confident must exist. The drilling produced significant scientific data on the crater's structure but never located a recoverable meteorite mass. By the late 1920s, scientific consensus had begun to support Barringer's impact theory but had also recognized that the impactor would have largely vaporized rather than survived intact — the buried meteorite mass that Barringer was searching for never existed in the form he expected. Daniel Barringer died in 1929; his sons continued the mining ventures briefly but eventually accepted the scientific consensus that the meteorite was unrecoverable.

The Barringer family transitioned the property from a failed mining venture to a scientific research site and tourist attraction across the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Four generations of Barringers have now owned and managed the crater. The family operates the site through the Barringer Crater Company, retaining private ownership while supporting active scientific research collaborations with universities, NASA, and various government agencies. The combination of stable private ownership, scientific research access, and tourism revenue has produced an unusually well-preserved and well-interpreted site.

Meteor Crater played a substantial role in the United States lunar exploration program. NASA selected the site as a primary geological training location for Apollo astronauts in 1963, recognizing that the crater's structure, ejecta blanket, and surrounding desert terrain were the closest available terrestrial analog for the lunar landing sites where the Apollo missions would deploy. From 1963 through 1972, every Apollo astronaut crew that flew to the Moon — including Apollo 11's Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 14's Alan Shepard, Apollo 15's David Scott, and the crews of every other crewed Apollo mission — trained at Meteor Crater multiple times.

Training exercises typically lasted several days per visit and combined classroom geological instruction with extended field walks on the crater rim, descents into the crater floor, and ejecta blanket geological surveys. The astronauts practiced identifying impact-related rock features (shock-metamorphosed quartz, melt glass, breccia formations), collecting rock samples in the same protocols they would use on the lunar surface, and operating prototype lunar surface equipment. Photographs from the training sessions show astronauts in full Apollo-era gear walking the crater rim — surreal images that highlight the site's role as Earth's closest moonlike location.

The on-site Astronaut Wall of Fame in the visitor center commemorates the program. The wall includes photographs, biographical material, and signed mementos from astronauts who trained at the crater, plus interpretive material on the specific geological lessons each Apollo mission applied from their Meteor Crater training. For visitors interested in the American space program, the NASA-training exhibits make Meteor Crater a genuinely substantial Apollo-related historical site — comparable in significance to (though much smaller than) the Kennedy Space Center or the Johnson Space Center.

The visitor center is a modern facility on the crater's north rim, completed in its current expanded form in 2007 and continuously updated since. The main exhibit hall covers the crater's formation, the Barringer family's research history, the Apollo training program, comparative planetary impact science, and current research projects. Several short films play on loop in dedicated theater rooms — typically a 10-minute overview film, a longer technical film on impact science, and rotating special features. Interactive exhibits include a working seismograph, meteorite samples that visitors can touch, and a 1,400-pound iron-nickel meteorite fragment recovered from the surrounding ejecta blanket.

The standard rim tour runs approximately 30 minutes and is included with admission. Tours are led by site rangers who walk a partial section of the crater rim with small groups (typically 10-20 visitors per tour) covering the formation history, scientific research, surrounding geology, and the panoramic crater view. Tours generally run multiple times daily depending on season and visitor volume; the schedule is posted at the visitor center entrance. The rim walk is on a paved and gravel path with some moderate uphill grades; visitors with mobility limitations can request accommodation or skip the walking tour and access the crater view from the visitor center observation deck.

Beyond the standard tour, the visitor center includes a gift shop with substantial meteorite, fossil, and geology-themed merchandise (small meteorite fragments are sold by weight and are popular souvenirs), a casual food service area with sandwiches and snacks, restrooms, and abundant free parking. The casual cafe is adequate for a quick lunch but most travelers either eat before arriving or continue to Winslow or Flagstaff for fuller meals.

Meteor Crater is open daily from 8am to 5pm year-round, with extended summer hours typically running 7am to 6pm during peak June through August tourism. The site sits at approximately 5,640 feet elevation on the Colorado Plateau, which produces a wider seasonal temperature range than first-time visitors expect — winter mornings can be cold (below freezing is common December through February) and summer afternoons can be hot (90s through 100s Fahrenheit in July). Wind is a near-constant feature; the crater rim is exposed and windy conditions are typical year-round.

Best visiting times are typically early morning (8-10am) when temperatures are mild, light is dimensional, and visitor volume is lower than midday. Late afternoon visits (3-5pm) provide warm golden-hour light on the crater walls but are the busiest portion of the day during peak tourism months. Cloudy days produce flat but evenly lit views that work well for documentary photography but lack the dimensional shadows that show the crater's depth. Strong wind days can make rim walking uncomfortable; high-wind tours are sometimes shortened or rerouted to safer paths.

Plan 2-3 hours for a full visit including the exhibit hall, a film, the rim tour, and time on the observation deck. Visitors short on time can do a focused 60-90 minute visit covering just the rim tour, the main observation deck, and a quick walk through the exhibit hall. Combining Meteor Crater with downtown Winslow (Standing on the Corner Park and La Posada Hotel) produces an excellent full-day itinerary; the crater sits 18 miles west of Winslow and the drive between the two takes about 20 minutes via I-40. Flagstaff is 35 miles further west.