Asking for the moon: Deadliest Catch star fights to keep lunar rocks missing for 38 years



Coleman Anderson, star of a hit Discovery Channel reality series, is asking for the moon.

Mr Anderson, captain of a fishing boat featured on the first season of Deadliest Catch, is asking an Alaska judge for permission to keep several fragments of moon rock he says he found in debris following a 1973 fire at an Anchorage museum.

President Nixon first presented the moon rock, encased in clear plastic and mounted on a wood plaque, to former Alaska governor Keith Miller in 1969.



Coleman Anderson of the Discovery Channel's hit series Deadliest Catch is asking an Alaska judge for permission to keep his moon rocks

Until Mr Anderson filed his suit, the plaque – and the moon rocks – was presumed to have been destroyed in the fire.

The U.S. gifted 230 moon rocks to governments throughout the world following the Apollo 11 and 17 space missions. But according to Joe Gutheinz, an attorney and retired NASA investigator, more than half of those rocks are unaccounted for or destroyed.

Mineral-wise, the rocks are nearly worthless, but the black market is home to collectors paying high prices for the rocks as well as scam artists peddling fakes.

As an undercover NASA agent, in 1998 Mr Gutheinz recovered the Honduras Goodwill moon rock, which had been offered on the black market for $5 million.

Today, as part of his criminal justice course at the University of Phoenix, Mr Gutheinz sends his students out on moon rock hunts to hone their investigative skills. So far, they’ve found 70 rocks.

Lunar rocks like these, which were retrieved on the Apollo 11 mission, are of great value to collectors

While some of the rocks had been misplaced or stolen – including three which had been accidentally taken home by outgoing state governors – Mr Gutheinz told The Seattle Times that his students have discovered that 160 of the original moon rocks are missing or presumed to have been destroyed.

Mr Gutheinz’s student, Elizabeth Riker, was assigned to find the Alaska rock. After her investigation stalled at the Anchorage museum fire, Ms Riker published an article in the Capital City Weekly in Anchorage encouraging the state to renew efforts to find the moon rock, in August 2010.

Mr Anderson filed his lawsuit four months later.

Since then, Alaska has filed a counterclaim, claiming that Mr Anderson took the rock without permission. Assistant Attorney General Neil Slotnick said the state is asking for Mr Anderson to return the rock, in addition to damages.

In his lawsuit, Mr Anderson claims that he discovered the rock in the trash following a 1973 arson at the Alaska Transportation Museum.



The U.S. government gifted 230 moon rocks to governments throughout the world following the Apollo 11 and 17 space missions

Though the plaque hasn’t been authenticated, Mr Gutheinz reviewed an undated photograph, said to have been taken by Mr Anderson, provided to The Seattle Times by Mr Anderson’s attorney, Daniel Harris.

Mr Guthienz told the newspaper that the plaque seems authentic, ‘right down to the irregular way the state flag was affixed to the plaque.’ He also said that the plaque shows no sign of fire damage.

Mr Anderson claims he was combing through debris left by the museum fire when he discovered the plaque, which had been covered with a layer of melted materials.



‘Plaintiff thought it was “cool” and that he might be able to clean it up and turn it into a great souvenir,’ states the complaint. It also states that Mr Anderson left the site with the plaque in full view of garbage-removal workers.

‘In 1973, the plaque was widely considered not to have any real monetary value because it was assumed moon trips would soon become a nearly everyday occurrence,’ states Mr Harris in the lawsuit.

Mr Harris also argues that the state of Al aska never filed a loss claim, and that it released any interest in the rock once it instructed garbage crews to remove debris from the site of the fire, ‘after meticulously searching through the debris for all objects it wished to salvage.’

Mr Anderson is asking the state for reimbursement because he ‘rescued the plaque from destruction’ and ‘expended considerable time and resources restoring’ the plaque.

Mr Gutheinz believes the rocks are historically significant reminders of the dreams that fuelled the Apollo missions.