The mystery of the "Meat Rain" in Kentucky, USA

For several minutes on March 3, 1876, chunks of meat rained down from the sky over Bath County, Kentucky.


Between 11 and 12 a.m. on March 3, 1876, a farmer's wife named Mrs. Crouch was making soap on her porch near Olympia Springs in Bath County. It was a clear and sunny day. Suddenly pieces of meat began to fall from the sky.


Mrs Crouch described pieces of meat ranging in size from 5 to 10 centimeters and feeling harsh. Mr Crouch saw the meat falling around his wife and described it as big red snowflakes.


Mrs. Crouch and her husband said that they consider meat a sign from God, like the manna that in the Bible fell from heaven to feed the Israelites.


Mr Harrison Gill visited the Crouch house the day after the incident and found pieces of meat sticking out of fences and scattered on the ground.


Apparently, the meat was fresh when it fell, but by the time of Harrison's visit, it had deteriorated and dried out.


Mr and Mrs Crouch believed the meat was beef. Two men who came to the scene to taste the meat described it as venison or mutton.


A scientist named Leopol Brandeis wrote in the Sanitarian magazine that it was a type of cyanobacteria called Nostoc. Brandeis submitted the sample to the Newark Scientific Association for further analysis.


Dr. Allan McLane Hamilton of the Newark Scientific Association analyzed the sample and concluded that it was the lung tissue of either a human infant or a horse.


Other samples were examined, and all of them were recognized as either lung tissue, muscle, or cartilage.