Shallow Impact

Why don't tourists flock to the meteor crater outside of Odessa? Because most don't know a bona fide Texas treasure from a hole in the ground.

A A A Comments By Carlton Stowers Thursday, Aug 23 2001

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Now, after a lifetime of urging, another advancement--this one a giant step--has revitalized Rodman's enthusiasm. State Representative Buddy West, who says he first visited the crater as a 12-year-old Odessa Boy Scout, recently sought and was granted a $500,000 state appropriation for improvements and maintenance of the historic site in his home district. To some political grousers it may sound like pork; to Tom Rodman it is a prayer answered. The funding, to be administered through the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department and managed by Ector County and the University of Texas-Permian Basin, will allow for the construction of a visitors' center-museum, housing for a full-time caretaker and necessary upkeep for the next two years.

Representative West, 64, who pitched both the scientific and historical importance of the site to the appropriation committee, says his efforts would never have succeeded had it not been for the lifelong commitment of Rodman. "This has been his dream for a long time," West says. "He had the vision. It just took the rest of us awhile to catch up to him."

Tom Rodman, 70, stands in the West Texas spot where a meteor crashed some 50,000 years ago.

Aerial photo courtesy of Tom Rodman

The Odessa Meteor Crater lacks the eye appeal that draws tourists to the Barringer Crater--even though the Odessa site is the second-largest in the United States.

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Much of Rodman's time today is spent helping plan the displays that will greet vacationing families and school groups making field trips to the museum that will open in the fall. Hundreds of meteorites that have been housed by the local library will be returned to the site from which they came. Once open, it will be only the fourth meteor crater museum in the world, joining similar venues in Arizona, Germany and Africa.

"This," Rodman said as he recently watched construction workers pour the concrete foundation for the museum, "is finally going to make it the first-class attraction it has so long deserved to be."

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