Archived Feature:
Meteor Crater
Eons ago, in the Arizona desert just off what would later become highway 66, a huge meteor fell from space and struck the earth. The result of that impact is an enormous crater, some four-fifths of a mile in diameter and hundreds of feet deep.
Today, there is a gift shop, restaurant, viewing area, and lots of exhibits which explain the science of what happens when meteors and other bodies meet. Also nearby are the ruins of an observation tower built decades ago, in the heyday of Route 66, and formerly offering a glimpse of the crater from some miles away through coin-operated viewing scopes.
Meteor Crater is off a marked exit, just south of I-40 several miles west of Winslow, Arizona.
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