In 1902 Barringer learned of the existence of a large (1.5 km in diameter) crater, located 35 miles east of Flagstaff, Arizona.

In 1906, Barringer and his partner, the mathematician and physicist Benjamin C. Tilghman, presented their first papers to the U.S. Geological Survey outlining the evidence in support of the impact theory.

The mining of the crater continued until 1929 without ever finding the ten-million ton meteorite that Barringer assumed must be hidden.

Barringer died of a heart attack on November 30, 1929, shortly after reading the very persuasive arguments that no iron was to be found.

He was survived by his wife, Margaret Bennett, and eight children, who, with their descendants, formed the Barringer Crater Company,[3] which owns the site to this day as a family business.