Artifacts discovered at Jesse James robbery site

History enthusiasts from around Iowa showed up at the Jesse James Historical Site in Adair Saturday with the hopes of getting their hands on the past. Close to 30 people showed up, metal detectors and shovels in hand, to help find artifacts connected to the 1873 train robbery.

Gene Stevens, a history author who put the event together, said he was thrilled with the turnout.

“I actually just asked a question on the Facebook page [IOWA metal detecting.] I’m like, ‘Would anybody be interested in this?’ I expected maybe five or six people to come out,” Stevens said. “This huge response. I had no idea this was going to hit a nerve with people, but people are very interested in history. They’re interested in the history and especially the metal detector people, that’s why they’re out here. They’re looking for artifacts and trying to connect with it.”

Located a mile and half west of Adair, the historical site commemorates the location of the world’s first robbery of a moving train, performed by the now-notorious Jesse James and his gang. The evening of July 21, 1873, part of the railroad track along what is now County Road G30 was pulled up and a rope was tied to it. When the train came, the rope pulled the track out of place and the engine fell into the ditch, killing the engineer.

The location where the engine fell is less than 1000 feet away from the historical monument, so it was between these two spots the volunteers searched for artifacts. While no large relics were found, a number of smaller pieces were located.

“We found a lot of railroad related parts here. This is a J hook, which would be used to keep track from sliding. This is probably an old pin for a train because they used to pin them together. We found a lot of railroad spikes,” Stevens said. “I knew we were going to find things along the lines, but I didn’t know we would find this much, so we actually had a pretty good haul as far as artifacts go.”

One attendee was Nodaway Valley teacher Sam Grubisich, who teaches seventh and eighth grade social studies. Grubisich said this was his first time using a metal detector, but he had a blast.

“The first thing I found was a Busch Light can, which is very Iowa, but honestly it felt like treasure to me,” Grubisich said. He later found a large piece of old barbed wire. “Just being a history buff and obviously teaching has been a big thing for me. Knowing that the West, which is something again I teach my eighth graders, was started out here with the Mormon Trail, with Jesse James and Buffalo Bill being from the other side of the state... In my mind it’s amazing to find anything to put in a museum or even, I might just show this barbed wire to the kids because we do cover the invention of barbed wire, so I just found a primary source to show my kids.”

This won’t be the last time the area is explored by Stevens and local history fans. A group will be coming back in the future to recover the remaining tracks left from that those years.

“We found the name of the manufacturer on the side of the track so we know where it came from and we know it’s from the time period,” Stevens said. “I approached the county board and they gave me a green light to recover track out of there and that track’s going to be cut up and it’s going to be distributed to the county museum here and to Boone & Scenic Valley Railroad.”

Though Stevens said the large turnout was surprising, all involved are glad this part of Adair County’s history is getting more attention.

“We’re just doing this for history. You can’t let it go. There’s people who drove right by that worked right here, didn’t know that was even down there,” Denny Anderson of Glenwood said. “You’re part of it. You think about this derailment, it’s the first train derailment [of a moving train.] It’s all part of Iowa history and we shouldn’t let it go.”

Stevens reiterated this, highlighting that anything found would be kept in museums, not sold off.

“This is for historic preservation. And as I told the folks out earlier, nobody here is making a profit off of this. I want to make that clear. This wasn’t a treasure hunting expedition,” Stevens said. “We’re out here trying to preserve the story and to highlight the story, especially for people today, because I think people they’ve kind of forgotten about, they kind of forgot about their history. And that’s what I’m trying to bring back.”