On a clear March morning in 1876, chunks of raw meat rained from the sky over Kentucky for several minutes. The leading explanation: vultures threw up mid-flight.
On March 3, 1876, hunks of raw meat fell from a clear sky over a 100-by-50-yard area near Olympia Springs in Bath County, Kentucky. The shower lasted several minutes. A local woman was making soap on her porch when it started.
The pieces varied in size — most were about 2 by 2 inches, though at least one measured 4 by 4. A local grocer who went to investigate reported the smell was 'offensive to the extreme, like that of a dead body.'
Two curious bystanders tasted the samples. They believed the meat might be mutton or venison, though others identified it as beef. Later laboratory analysis found evidence of lung tissue, muscle, and cartilage — consistent with mammalian flesh but inconclusive on species.
One scientist proposed the meat was actually Nostoc — a type of cyanobacterium sometimes called 'star jelly.' This theory was widely mocked, particularly since no rain had fallen that day, which is typically required for Nostoc to become visible.
The leading explanation, proposed by a physician at the time and still widely accepted today, is that a group of turkey vultures flying overhead disgorged their partially digested stomach contents simultaneously — a known vulture defense mechanism when they need to lighten their load for takeoff.
The story made national headlines, appearing in the New York Times, Scientific American, and the Louisville Medical News. It has never been definitively solved. A preserved meat sample sat in storage at Transylvania University for over a century before being rediscovered in 2004; DNA testing was inconclusive.