[3] Following its donation to the government in 1987, a visitor centre was constructed with a circular stone access and seating area.

In 1920,[1] the owner of the land, Jacobus Hermanus Brits, encountered the object while ploughing one of his fields with an ox.

The obstruction was excavated, identified as a meteorite and described by Mr. Brits, whose report was published in 1920 and can be viewed at the Grootfontein Museum in Namibia.

In an effort to control relocation attempts, with permission from the farm owner, Mrs O Scheel,[6] on March 15, 1955, the government of South West Africa (now Namibia) declared the Hoba meteorite to be a national monument.

[7] As a result of these developments, vandalism of the Hoba meteorite has ceased and it is now visited by thousands of tourists every year.

On the 7th of December 2021, an unusually large 2.8-kilogram (6.2 lb) specimen, illegally harvested in 1968, was sold for $59,062[9] in Los Angeles by international auction house Bonhams.

Using a hand saw, they cut a large block of the meteorite from the main mass 'as a souvenir', an activity which took them between three and four hours.