Moon Rock Hunter Closes in on Tracking Down Missing Stones

Moon Rock Hunter Closes in on Tracking Down Missing Stones
Lindsie Smith, from the Clark Planetarium, holds moon rocks encased in acrylic and mounted on a wooden plaque at the Clark Planetarium, in Salt Lake City, on Aug. 23, 2018. AP Photo/Rick Bowmer
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SALT LAKE CITY—A strange thing happened after Neil Armstrong and the Apollo 11 crew returned from the moon with lunar rocks: Many of the mementos given to every U.S. state vanished. Now, after years of sleuthing, a former NASA investigator is closing in on his goal of locating the whereabouts of all 50.

In recent weeks, two of the rocks that disappeared after the 1969 mission were located in Louisiana and Utah, leaving only New York and Delaware with unaccounted-for souvenirs.