Chalk Mountain is a small

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

Erath County Erath County () is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Texas. According to the United States Census bureau its population was 42,545 in 2020. The county seat is Stephenville, Texas, Stephenville. The county is named fo ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, United States. It lies along

U.S. Route 67 U.S. Route 67 is a major north–south U.S. highway which extends for 1,560 miles (2,511 km) in the Central United States. The southern terminus of the route is at the United States-Mexico border in Presidio, Texas, where it continues ...

near the Somervell County line, approximately 12 miles southwest of Glen Rose. In 2009, Chalk Mountain was the site of a

meteorite A meteorite is a rock (geology), rock that originated in outer space and has fallen to the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the original object enters the atmosphere, various factors such as friction, pressure, and chemical ...

hoax.

Climate

The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters. According to the

Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

system, Chalk Mountain has a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a subtropical -temperate climate type, characterized by long and hot summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between ...

, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps.

Meteorite hoax

In May 2009 Manfred Cuntz, a professor of physics and the director of the astronomy program at the

University of Texas at Arlington The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA or UT Arlington) is a public research university in Arlington, Texas, United States. It is the second oldest university in the University of Texas System and was founded in 1895. It was in the Texas A& ...

, was called in to investigate a supposed

impact. Cuntz along with other experts, a Fox TV crew and the property owner met at the site. They found a refrigerator-sized gray-white rock at the end of a trench. A few smashed trees were nearby, but no signs of burning could be seen. Arthur Ehlmann, a professor of geology at the

Texas Christian University Texas Christian University (TCU) is a private university, private research university in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. It was established in 1873 by brothers Addison Clark, Addison and Randolph Clark as the AddRan Male & Female College. It i ...

and an expert in meteoric research, chipped off a piece of the stone and pronounced it to be made of

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

, which was plentiful in the area. Generally, meteorites are not composed of limestone. Local newspapers, TV and the Texas Mutual UFO network sensationalized the story trying to explain how it could be a meteorite despite its composition, lack of burning as it would have had if it zipped through the atmosphere. A meteorite of this size would have "caused widespread devastation", yet nothing of this sort occurred. Later on, Cuntz received an email that linked the property owner to being the owner of an earth-moving equipment company. His website mentioned that their equipment could move rock of any size. Cuntz made the Fox TV station aware of his conclusion that this meteorite impact was probably a hoax, and the TV station took the news clip off their website.

Notable person

* Jerry Naylor, recording artist, disc jockey, and television and radio personality

References

Bibliography

*T. Lindsay Baker, Ghost Towns of Texas (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1986). *Vallie Eoff, A History of Erath County, Texas (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1937).

External links

Chalk Mountain, Texas
from the Handbook of Texas Online
Chalk Mountain info at Howe Town Locator.com website
Unincorporated communities in Texas Unincorporated communities in Erath County, Texas Ghost towns in East Texas {{ErathCountyTX-geo-stub