Bath County Kentucky, celebrated a historic occurrence this month. It's the meat shower of 1876. That’s when pieces of meat mysteriously fell from the sky onto a farm.
At the Bath County History Museum in rural Kentucky, dozens of people crowd around Kurt Gohde. He’s a professor at Transylvania University in Lexington
“We believe it’s a sample from the meat rain of 1876, “ said Gohde.
He’s holding a glass jar with the meat sample in a clear liquid. Gohde has been fascinated with the meat shower for over 20 years.
“And the pieces that rained in that storm ranged from the size of a hailstone to the size of Rebecca Crouch’s hand,” Gohde explained.
Rebecca Crouch is the woman who witnessed the meat shower 150 years ago. She was outside making soap on her Bath County farm when pieces of what appeared to be raw meat rained on her under cloudless skies.
In line to see the meat is Andrew Cruse. He has a cabin in eastern Kentucky and has heard the meat shower story for years.
”It’s wild. You know? It’s one of those things that you hear about and assume it’s kind of urban legend, but it’s actually, there’s a piece of it,” said Cruse.
Some, like Sasha Reinhardt, are having their picture taken with the jar of meat. She believes she’s a descendant of the Crouch family who experienced the meat rain,
“It’s definitely a family, you know, part of our oral tradition. Of course, you know Appalachia is really big on storytelling, oral tradition, and this was always a favorite,” Reinhardt.
A hundred and fifty years ago, the story was heavily publicized, in The New York Times and in scientific journals. There were several theories about what it was and why meat fell out of the sky. Theories ranged from it being a sign from God to a hoax. But Gohde said the most accepted theory is that the meat was vulture vomit.
“And the idea ultimately there is that a flock of vultures was flying high enough above the farm that when Rebecca Crouch was hit with the meat, she looked up, she couldn’t see them, and the whole flock disgorged at the same time,” said Gohde.
He said they tested the meat in the university's gene sequencer.
“ultimately the strands were not long enough to be completely conclusive, so we don’t know exactly what it was, but we do know that it was closest to a goat,” explained Gohde.
“It was one of those things that, as a child growing up here in Bath County, that you learned it from your parents," said Corbin.
That’s Ian Corbin who grew up here.
“We even had a week in school where you had your local history of Bath County, and learned about it,” said Corbin.
Now he has organized a festival around the event.. He orchestrates meat-themed games in the town square, like a meatball toss and a bologna throw, where a thick piece of bologna is hurled like a frisbee.
Vendors line the streets and sell things like t-shirts and mystery meat chili.
At the town’s library, author Mick Sullivan reads his meat rain book to the kids.
“ Sometimes strange things happen. And you’re most certainly going to think this story is strange,” read Sullivan.
Janie-Rice Brother brought her two kids to the library to hear the story. She said she’s heard it from her father, who heard it from his father.
“I think it’s just a wonderful thing that this small community has decided to take what is a very strange occurrence and make it into something that the entire community can get behind and support,” said Brother.
At the end of the festival Hundreds of people stand around a white split rail fence near a field. A Cessna airplane flies over the area. One thousand eight hundred seventy-six individually wrapped pieces of beef jerky spill out of the window.
That’s the work of Kurt Gohde and his team. Thanks to them, a meat shower has rained in Bath County for the second time in 150 years.
