Last Saturday evening about 8 o’clock a large and brilliant meteor was seen by a few fortunate ones who chanced to be “‘neath the starry heavens.” It started nearly overhead and “struck a bee line” for the northeast, leaving a tail of fire after it resembling a comet. Just before it reached the horizon it exploded, throwing out particles in all directions. The sight was magnificent. By the Chicago Times of Monday, we notice it was seen in Chicago and in Battle Creek, Michigan. At the latter place the light from the meteor was so brilliant as to dim the gaslight.¹

It was seen well beyond Dayton. Chicago papers called it a fireball of extraordinary brilliance. Some Michigan observers thought stones might have fallen, while others insisted the explosion was strong enough to shake buildings. No confirmed meteorites were ever found, but the speculation gives a sense of how powerful the detonation must have been.

In Dayton, the meteor left no physical trace, but it was remembered. It shows up in the same breath as the great floods and the deep snows — one of those moments when something unusual crossed the sky and the correspondent thought it worth noting.

1. Ottawa Free Trader, January 8, 1881, p. 8, col. 3