Got skunked, but it was an honor!

[WIDirtFishing]

Today I drove 2 hours to get to the site where Justice caught up with the Younger Brothers. Just South of La Salle, MN lies a narrow dirt road. Off that dirt road an inconspicuous roadside memorial sits. The area is dedicated to the "Madelia Seven" and their capture of the Younger Gang after they failed to rob the Northfield Bank with Jesse and Frank James.

I reached out to the current land owner and after much convincing he agreed to let me use my metal detector and see if there was anything worth finding. The agreement was I would donate any finds of significance to the Historical Society and stay the best I could on the game trails. I couldn't agree fast enough!

When I arrived I was greeted by the memorials and pictures of those involved. The area is extremely overgrown and I knew if I was sticking to the game trials I might be out of luck, but forged ahead anyways hoping I could find some low spots or get to the riverbank itself and do some diggin. I also did a little research before I left and had old plats and topo maps overlayed from Google Earth. I was set and ready to go! I hunted for about 3 hours and didn't come up with much. Most interest is the iron piece and the bullet casings. The Iron piece I will clean up when I have time and the bullet casings I am currently doing research on to see if I can get what style or caliber of rifle they came from. They say "I NI S" on tome or "I NI 2" and have two stars connected by a line at the bottom.

All in all, It was an honor to MD such a historic site and hopefully I will get to go back one day and try again. A big THANK YOU to the private land owner who didn't have to let me out there, but trusted me!
As for the tools I used, an Equinox 600, set to mainly Field 2 or All Metal mode.
Thanks for lookin!

La Salle, MN by T Johnson, on Flickr

La Salle, MN by T Johnson, on Flickr

La Salle, MN by T Johnson, on Flickr

La Salle, MN by T Johnson, on Flickr

La Salle, MN by T Johnson, on Flickr

 

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[Ekim14]

Congratulations for getting on the land. It is always an honor to walk historic ground. The shell casings unfortunately are from blanks. Note the bent over nose where a bullet would have been. Sorry but every year re-enactors would go down there and re-enact the capture with a lot of gunplay and shooting of blanks. Not far from where you were detecting is the Watonwan Post. An old army fort, it was manned by solders during the Civil War. This remote Fort consisted of a stockade with several out buildings and was used to protect settlers from the Dakota Indians during the Dakota war of 1862-63. Two people were killed there during the war. It takes a little looking but you will find a large sign for the Fort that was put up by the State of MN back in the 1970’s. The farmers that own the land are friendly and you may even find a three ringer from an old Civil War rifle. Note that there is also an old brick home on the same corner as the sign. Look it over closely and you will see that it is a converted one room school house. I have never asked to detect it and wonder if anyone else has.

 

[Swaveab]

Adding further to the blanks is that you were looking at it upside down. That read 5 in 1.

 

[WIDirtFishing]

Adding further to the blanks is that you were looking at it upside down. That read 5 in 1.

Haha i realized that after i cleaned them. makes perfect sense i found them because they do a re-enactment there every year.

 

[WIDirtFishing]

Congratulations for getting on the land. It is always an honor to walk historic ground. The shell casings unfortunately are from blanks. Note the bent over nose where a bullet would have been. Sorry but every year re-enactors would go down there and re-enact the capture with a lot of gunplay and shooting of blanks. Not far from where you were detecting is the Watonwan Post. An old army fort, it was manned by solders during the Civil War. This remote Fort consisted of a stockade with several out buildings and was used to protect settlers from the Dakota Indians during the Dakota war of 1862-63. Two people were killed there during the war. It takes a little looking but you will find a large sign for the Fort that was put up by the State of MN back in the 1970’s. The farmers that own the land are friendly and you may even find a three ringer from an old Civil War rifle. Note that there is also an old brick home on the same corner as the sign. Look it over closely and you will see that it is a converted one room school house. I have never asked to detect it and wonder if anyone else has. View attachment 1628900

Yea I figured it out the blank manufacturer after I cleaned up the casings a bit, knowing they weren’t historically significant. The Post would be a great spot to poke around. Might have to do some research this winter and make some phone calls. Thanks for the tip!
I’m currently trying to get some permissions on another old fort, so we’ll see.

 

[EQ8]

I see this is kind of an old thread, but FYI the two brass shells with the stars appear to be "Starline" brass, which is popular with re-loaders.
Can't determine the caliber from the pics though.
Definitely not old.

 

[WIDirtFishing]

I see this is kind of an old thread, but FYI the two brass shells with the stars appear to be "Starline" brass, which is popular with re-loaders.
Can't determine the caliber from the pics though.
Definitely not old.

Yea i didn’t mean to imply they were original to the site history or anything, they are blanks from re-enactments held there.

 

[old digger]

Congratulations on getting permission to hunt that site. The two small bullets look like 22 caliber bird shot, not too old. And your item on the left hand side looks like the tooth to a sickle bar.

 

[Honest Samuel]

You did good.

 

[A2coins]

Great post I would love that opportunity also that had to be a blast. Thanks for sharing your experiance my friend. Tommy