The meteorite was found on the site of Lake Murray State Park in 1933 by J. C. Dodson, Sr.
[2] Allen Graffham, a geologist and curator of the park's Tucker Tower museum, was interested in a more scientific study of the object.
He assessed that it was composed primarily of nickel and iron, and estimated that it may have weighed 2,000 pounds (910 kg) when it struck, about 90 to 110 million years ago, but that oxidation had since worn away 5 to 6 inches (13 to 15 cm) of the surface.
[2] LaPaz, then the director of the Institute of Meteoritics at the University, carefully cut the specimen into two pieces.
[4] One half of the specimen was retained at Lake Murray, where it has been displayed at the Tucker Tower museum since the early 1950s.