September 9, 2025 • 9 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, on a March day in 1876, residents of Bath County, Kentucky, looked up to find chunks of raw meat falling from the sky. Some said it was mutton. Others claimed beef or venison. A few even tasted it. Known now as the Kentucky Meat Shower, the event remains one of the strangest and least explained weather phenomena in American history. Was it vultures? A freak storm? Something else entirely? Our regular contributor, Ashley Hlebinsky, shares the story of this bizarre chapter in American lore
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
This is Lee Habib, and this is our American stories.
The Kentucky meat Shower of eighteen seventy six baffled witnesses
and scientists alike. Here's Ashley Lebinski to share the story
of what really fell from the sky on that day.
Ashley is the former co host of Discovery Channel's Master
of Arms. Here's Ashley.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I want to set a pretty ridiculous scene for you.
So the date is March third, eighteen seventy six, in
Bath County, Kentucky. It's a bright, clear morning, and a
woman named Missus Alan Krowe is outside her farmhouse in
Olympia Springs and she's working on a batch.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Of homemade snow.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
And then out of nowhere, something happens that will end
up in newspapers across the country because with that warning,
on this beautiful day, pieces of raw meat start falling
from the sky.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
And you heard me correctly. I did not say rain.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
It wasn't snow, it wasn't hail, it wasn't sleet.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
It was meat.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Missus Crouch later described it as flakes of beef, and
some of them were really small, so they were like
the size of snowflakes. But others were four inches across,
which I feel like might hurt a little bit as
it's falling on you. And this meat fell for several minutes,
and it covered an area of about one hundred yards
(01:51):
long and fifty yards wide, And like I mentioned, if
that wasn't odd enough, the sky was completely clear. Obviously,
something absolutely as crazy as this causes word to s
friend really quickly, and neighbors started gathering to see what
had happened in Missus Crouch's front yard, and of course
(02:15):
a few people even decided to taste it to make.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Sure it was really meat.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
And those people thought that it was either mutton or venison,
while others guessed it could have been beef, deer, or
even bear. But in the end nobody actually agreed. This
story definitely had legs, and it left Kentucky and within
days the New York Times was publishing about it, and
so was Scientific American, and they called it one of
(02:44):
the most remarkable meteorological phenomena in history. And of course,
reporters repeated every single.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Wild theory that they could find.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Was it debris from an exploding meteor, meat from some
unknown aerial animal, And a lot of people thought maybe
it was a divine sign. Now not sure what that
sign would be, but some people definitely went there. Specimens
were collected and sent off to scientists for examination, and
(03:15):
that's where things got even stranger, if you can imagine.
Microscopic analysis suggested at least three types of tissue muscle, cartilage,
and long and one physician claimed that some pieces looked
like lum tissue from either a horse or disgustingly, from
a human infant. Another identified the muscle that could have come.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
From sheep or deer.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
But it also was apparent that different samples were different
types of animals entirely, so it was a literal buffet
of meat rain, if you will.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
And then there was a man named Leopold.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Brand Ice, and brand Ice was a well known figure
in natural science circles at the time, and he thought
that the mystery meat.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Wasn't meat at all. He believed it was something.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Called nostoc which is a type of cyanobacteria that can
lie dormant on the ground actually and then swell into
a jelly like mass after the rain. And apparently people
had mistaken it for flesh before, and it was sometimes
called witch's butter. But the problem was that it hadn't
(04:28):
rained a drop that day in Bath County.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
The sky was clear from morning tonight, so there.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Wouldn't have been any reason for this dormant cyanobacteria to
swell up and simulate meat rain. So whatever fell on
Missus Crouch's yard didn't come from the ground, or did
it Because another professor, a Transylvanian professor Kurt and Godie,
thought it was a weather phenomenon called upspout where it
(04:56):
literally would pick up small animals from the ground and
move them around, and this led to the explanation that
most scientists still favor today, and that comes from doctor L. D.
Castenbind's vulture theory. If you didn't think it was already gross,
(05:20):
it's about to get way worse because with this theory, vultures,
especially turkey vultures and black vultures we know, feed on
dead animals, but they have this charming defense mechanism, which
is when they're startled or they're needing to take off quickly,
they projectile vomit whatever's in their stomach and it literally
(05:42):
lightens their body for flight, but it also creates this
revolting deterrent for predator and critically when one does it.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Imitation is the sincerest form of.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Flattery, so when one does it, pretty much everyone who's
nearby does it too. So if a large flock was
passing overhead possibly startled into flight, it's entirely plausible that
dozens of vultures all weregurgitated at once, sending half digested
meat raining down on Missus Crouch's farm, which, if you
(06:16):
think about the people who were tasting the sample, makes
it pretty gross, but it does fit the evidence perfectly.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
There would have.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Been multiple types of tissue, they would have been random sizes,
and it also explains the clear sky. Of course, not
everyone was satisfied with that either, and the story continued
to become more and more outlandish and rumors basically just rumors.
These weren't serious stories, but people were.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Willing to get creative.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
One rumor claimed the meat came from a fight between
hunters and the mountains ah and those remains were swept
over by the wind. Others claimed it was fallout from
an explosion at a local slaughterhouse, and then or dark
theory was that it came from a nearby sanatorium or
mental hospital where there was some type of grim kitchen
(07:07):
accident that launched meat into the air.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
That's what being crazy is. And I'm senseless out of it,
gone down the road, wacko.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
The problem with all of those stories being ridiculous was
there were no records, no witnesses, and no evidence. They
were just colorful side notes in a very strange chapter
of Kentucky history. By the summer of eighteen seventy six,
the Great Kentucky Meat Shower was still making the rounds
in national papers. Scientific American revisited the story, leaning heavily
(07:40):
on this vulture theory. The New York Times ran follow
ups delighting readers with all of those grisly rumors, and
Bath County it gained a new place in the annals
of America's Strangest natural events. Believe it or not, some
of the original mystery meat even survived. A few samples
(08:01):
were preserved in alcohol and displayed in museums, and incredibly,
when the Bath County History Museum reopened in twenty twenty four,
they put one of those specimens back on display, nearly
one hundred and fifty years old when it first put
on display.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Today, the vulture explanation.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Is one that many historians and biologists agree on. It's
not supernatural, wasn't alien, wasn't some secret slaughterhouse catastrophe. It
was just nature, messy, unpredictable, and sometimes flat out growth.
It's also a reminder that history doesn't have to be boring,
(08:39):
doesn't have to just be dates and battles. Sometimes it's
the bizarre little moments that no one sees coming, the
ones that make you stop and wonder what on earth
just happened? And sometimes the answer is simply vultures having
a very bad day.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
And a terrific job on the production, the editing, and
the storytelling by our own Greg Hengler, and a special
thanks to Ashley Lebinski. She's a frequent contributor here on
our American Story. She's the former co host of Discovery
Channel's Master of Arms. She's the former curator in charge
of the Cody Firearms Museum. And Ashley is so right.
(09:17):
History doesn't have to be boring, and it could be
downright fascinating and even downright grotesque. This is a great, gross,
fun funny and interesting story, the story of the Kentucky
Meat Shower of eighteen seventy six, Bath County, Kentucky. You
(09:37):
can go there and see a meat specimen at their
local museum. The story here on our American story,
This is Lee Habib, and this is our American stories.
The Kentucky meat Shower of eighteen seventy six baffled witnesses
and scientists alike. Here's Ashley Lebinski to share the story
of what really fell from the sky on that day.
Ashley is the former co host of Discovery Channel's Master
of Arms. Here's Ashley.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I want to set a pretty ridiculous scene for you.
So the date is March third, eighteen seventy six, in
Bath County, Kentucky. It's a bright, clear morning, and a
woman named Missus Alan Krowe is outside her farmhouse in
Olympia Springs and she's working on a batch.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Of homemade snow.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
And then out of nowhere, something happens that will end
up in newspapers across the country because with that warning,
on this beautiful day, pieces of raw meat start falling
from the sky.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
And you heard me correctly. I did not say rain.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
It wasn't snow, it wasn't hail, it wasn't sleet.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
It was meat.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Missus Crouch later described it as flakes of beef, and
some of them were really small, so they were like
the size of snowflakes. But others were four inches across,
which I feel like might hurt a little bit as
it's falling on you. And this meat fell for several minutes,
and it covered an area of about one hundred yards
(01:51):
long and fifty yards wide, And like I mentioned, if
that wasn't odd enough, the sky was completely clear. Obviously,
something absolutely as crazy as this causes word to s
friend really quickly, and neighbors started gathering to see what
had happened in Missus Crouch's front yard, and of course
(02:15):
a few people even decided to taste it to make.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Sure it was really meat.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
And those people thought that it was either mutton or venison,
while others guessed it could have been beef, deer, or
even bear. But in the end nobody actually agreed. This
story definitely had legs, and it left Kentucky and within
days the New York Times was publishing about it, and
so was Scientific American, and they called it one of
(02:44):
the most remarkable meteorological phenomena in history. And of course,
reporters repeated every single.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Wild theory that they could find.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Was it debris from an exploding meteor, meat from some
unknown aerial animal, And a lot of people thought maybe
it was a divine sign. Now not sure what that
sign would be, but some people definitely went there. Specimens
were collected and sent off to scientists for examination, and
(03:15):
that's where things got even stranger, if you can imagine.
Microscopic analysis suggested at least three types of tissue muscle, cartilage,
and long and one physician claimed that some pieces looked
like lum tissue from either a horse or disgustingly, from
a human infant. Another identified the muscle that could have come.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
From sheep or deer.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
But it also was apparent that different samples were different
types of animals entirely, so it was a literal buffet
of meat rain, if you will.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
And then there was a man named Leopold.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Brand Ice, and brand Ice was a well known figure
in natural science circles at the time, and he thought
that the mystery meat.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Wasn't meat at all. He believed it was something.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Called nostoc which is a type of cyanobacteria that can
lie dormant on the ground actually and then swell into
a jelly like mass after the rain. And apparently people
had mistaken it for flesh before, and it was sometimes
called witch's butter. But the problem was that it hadn't
(04:28):
rained a drop that day in Bath County.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
The sky was clear from morning tonight, so there.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Wouldn't have been any reason for this dormant cyanobacteria to
swell up and simulate meat rain. So whatever fell on
Missus Crouch's yard didn't come from the ground, or did
it Because another professor, a Transylvanian professor Kurt and Godie,
thought it was a weather phenomenon called upspout where it
(04:56):
literally would pick up small animals from the ground and
move them around, and this led to the explanation that
most scientists still favor today, and that comes from doctor L. D.
Castenbind's vulture theory. If you didn't think it was already gross,
(05:20):
it's about to get way worse because with this theory, vultures,
especially turkey vultures and black vultures we know, feed on
dead animals, but they have this charming defense mechanism, which
is when they're startled or they're needing to take off quickly,
they projectile vomit whatever's in their stomach and it literally
(05:42):
lightens their body for flight, but it also creates this
revolting deterrent for predator and critically when one does it.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Imitation is the sincerest form of.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Flattery, so when one does it, pretty much everyone who's
nearby does it too. So if a large flock was
passing overhead possibly startled into flight, it's entirely plausible that
dozens of vultures all weregurgitated at once, sending half digested
meat raining down on Missus Crouch's farm, which, if you
(06:16):
think about the people who were tasting the sample, makes
it pretty gross, but it does fit the evidence perfectly.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
There would have.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Been multiple types of tissue, they would have been random sizes,
and it also explains the clear sky. Of course, not
everyone was satisfied with that either, and the story continued
to become more and more outlandish and rumors basically just rumors.
These weren't serious stories, but people were.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Willing to get creative.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
One rumor claimed the meat came from a fight between
hunters and the mountains ah and those remains were swept
over by the wind. Others claimed it was fallout from
an explosion at a local slaughterhouse, and then or dark
theory was that it came from a nearby sanatorium or
mental hospital where there was some type of grim kitchen
(07:07):
accident that launched meat into the air.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
That's what being crazy is. And I'm senseless out of it,
gone down the road, wacko.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
The problem with all of those stories being ridiculous was
there were no records, no witnesses, and no evidence. They
were just colorful side notes in a very strange chapter
of Kentucky history. By the summer of eighteen seventy six,
the Great Kentucky Meat Shower was still making the rounds
in national papers. Scientific American revisited the story, leaning heavily
(07:40):
on this vulture theory. The New York Times ran follow
ups delighting readers with all of those grisly rumors, and
Bath County it gained a new place in the annals
of America's Strangest natural events. Believe it or not, some
of the original mystery meat even survived. A few samples
(08:01):
were preserved in alcohol and displayed in museums, and incredibly,
when the Bath County History Museum reopened in twenty twenty four,
they put one of those specimens back on display, nearly
one hundred and fifty years old when it first put
on display.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Today, the vulture explanation.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Is one that many historians and biologists agree on. It's
not supernatural, wasn't alien, wasn't some secret slaughterhouse catastrophe. It
was just nature, messy, unpredictable, and sometimes flat out growth.
It's also a reminder that history doesn't have to be boring,
(08:39):
doesn't have to just be dates and battles. Sometimes it's
the bizarre little moments that no one sees coming, the
ones that make you stop and wonder what on earth
just happened? And sometimes the answer is simply vultures having
a very bad day.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
And a terrific job on the production, the editing, and
the storytelling by our own Greg Hengler, and a special
thanks to Ashley Lebinski. She's a frequent contributor here on
our American Story. She's the former co host of Discovery
Channel's Master of Arms. She's the former curator in charge
of the Cody Firearms Museum. And Ashley is so right.
(09:17):
History doesn't have to be boring, and it could be
downright fascinating and even downright grotesque. This is a great, gross,
fun funny and interesting story, the story of the Kentucky
Meat Shower of eighteen seventy six, Bath County, Kentucky. You
(09:37):
can go there and see a meat specimen at their
local museum. The story here on our American story,
Host
Lee Habeeb
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