Haviland ? This was a rock festival of a different sort.

Haviland’s first meteorite festival, with the motto “The Rock Stops Here,” drew several hundred people on Saturday. Mayor Jeff Christensen hopes to make it an annual event attracting space rock enthusiasts from around the world.

“Isn’t it exciting to see something nobody else has seen before?” Christensen said. “There’s something about these rocks that’s fun. I know there are other meteorites found in other states, but if you go by weight, we’d win. Why, in Texas, their meteorites are the size of marbles. We’ve got boulders.”

Kiowa County, in south-central Kansas, is prime meteorite hunting territory. The prize find to date consists of remnants of a rock that fell to earth some 20,000 years ago.

Scientists estimated that it was 20 feet across and weighed 500 tons – and although at least 95 percent of it likely burned up during its entry, there are still chunks out there waiting to be found.

Since the late 1880s, about 10 tons of space rock have been found in the county.

They are known as the Brenham meteorites, named for Brenham Township near Haviland. And among collectors, they are well-known and highly sought after because their crystals, when cut, resemble stained glass.

Paul Ross, a farmer from Haviland, found 1,500 pounds of space rocks in a single hole on his land three weeks ago. He hopes to sell the find, which included one 250-pound meteorite, for $200 a pound.

Steve Arnold, who found a 1,400-pounder last fall in a field west of Haviland, brought it to Saturday’s festival. Price Gibbons, of Pratt, brought a 130-pounder hoping to see what it might be worth.

It sat in a pool hall for years, then in his yard. But as valuable as meteorites can be, he said, now “I take better care of it.”

The festival also featured booths of meteorites, jewelry and educational displays.