Hunting For Jesse James, With a Metal Detector By G.C. Stevens

 

On May 09th, 2026, a group of metal detector enthusiasts converged on the site of the Jesse James 1873 train robbery in Adair Iowa. The train robbery site which is located along the famed "white Pole Road" is a very significant historic location because it marks the spot of the first train robbery in the American west, an event that would send shockwaves across the nation. This robbery also solidified the reputation of Jesse James as a controversial post-civil war figure, and feared outlaw whose escapades would lead to many large scale man-hunts to try to arrest the outlaw and his gang. The location is also important to railroad history because the Rock Island and Pacific railroad line that ran through here would pave the way west and the rails would contribute to the growth of small towns along the tracks leading to Omaha Nebraska. 

 The event was coordinated by historian, author and blogger Gene Stevens. The objective was to locate and recover any possible artifacts at the site to be given to local museums. Approximately thirty people from the Iowa Metal Detecting Group attended the event and assisted with the expedition. Many items were recovered that revealed the rich railroading history of Iowa in this region. Of particular interest was the presence of narrow gage railroad track and smaller railroad spikes which indicated the presence of a possible connected narrow gauge rail operation or spur in this location. 

Many thanks to all the great people who came out to help! Photo courtesy of Sandy Riley, Adair News.

NEWS ARTICLES,

CRESTON IOWA NEWS ARTICLE ARTIFACTS FOUND

Narrow Gauge Rail Service in Iowa

The Rock Island logo was in the shape of a beaver pelt!

Photo courtesy of wikimedia

                             Frank James and Jesse James photos from the authors collection

                                      Flyer courtesy of the Adair County Conversation Board

 Flyer courtesy of the Adair County Conservation Board

Part of the initial of items included the expected roadway and construction debris, but in the debris was found many significant railroad related items.

An American Style engine of the Chicago Rock Island and Pacific Railroad

Photo courtesy of Black Hawk Railway Historic Society

Railroad items recovered, railroad spikes, track bolts, track plates and one track rail anchor

Historian Gene Stevens showing a railroad track bolt that was recovered from the site.

Of particular interest was the large pin at the top of this photo. The pin is part of a "link and pin coupler" which dates between 1873 and 1900. The link and pin was the coupler of the day. Photo by the author

A close up of the pin, photo by the author

                                                       Photo from Voices of Harvey County 

"Historically, the Brakeman held the most dangerous job on the train. They had to walk atop moving cars and manually apply the brakes.  The brakeman was also in charge of coupling the cars.  He stood between the cars while holding the link in position to slide into the receiver of the car being coupled as it was pushed by an engine. The brakeman held the link in one hand an a second pin in the other while the next car is pushed into position. At exactly the right moment, he must let go of the link and insert the second pin into the pocket of the oncoming car. Early cars had no means of cushioning the impact so if the brakeman's timing was off, he could lose fingers, a hand, or even be crushed completely between the two cars. Links were kept short to reduce slack."

ref Tools from Our Collection: The Link and Pin Coupler

By Kristine Schmucker, Curator

                 READ OTHER ARTICLES ON JESSE JAMES

Members of the group spread out across the area in search of artifacts. Photo by the author

Photo by the author

                                 Another large iron casting now believed to be 

                                a part from a Caterpillar D8 tractor photo by the author

                                                             

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250 Years of American History: Witness To History: The Story of Benjamin Speer, Guarding President Lincoln's Body

   

 

Special thanks to Jerry Beatty and the Warren County Iowa Historical Society

for the use of photos and information from the publication

"Warren County, Iowa & The Civil War" Which was published in 2015

Pvt. B.F. Speer

Benjamin Franklin Speer was born in Princeton, Missouri, on Feb 25th, 1845, he was the son of Joseph and Dorothy (Collier)Speer. His mother died when he was four years of age and Benjamin took up the responsibilities of helping his father on the family farm. But when the American civil war broke out, Ben who at the time was only sixteen years old, enlisted in the army on September 04th of 1861, in Company D, of the 7th Missouri State Militia. He served in the 7th for approximately eight months, then in August of 1862 he again enlisted in Co, G, 27th Missouri and served in this regiment until the end of the war. Ben was with the regiment at the siege of Vicksburg Mississippi. He became disabled {sic]and sent to Jefferson Barracks, 12 miles south of St. Louis and then to the Marine Hospital in St. Louis. After his release from the, hospital, Benjamin was assigned to Camp Chase, near Columbus, Ohio, he was then assigned to the infamous Camp Douglas, at Chicago where he guarded Confederate prisoners of war. 

Soldier B.F. Speer Guarded Abraham Lincoln's Body. 

During Benjamin's time as a camp guard. President Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. A few days later was honored to have been chosen as one of the soldiers who be tasked with protecting President Lincolns body while it was in Chicago.

Monday May 1st, 1865

The funeral train arrived in Chicago on May 1st, 1865. The arrival and presence of the train was said to be both a pageant and very solemn experience and it was estimated that nearly thirty-six thousand people turned out to greet and honor President Lincoln. After the body was taken off the train and carried to the court house, where he lay in state. Benjamin was stationed at the front end of the casket, where he stood two-hour watches with three other soldiers. Their assignment was to keep the endless stream of grieving people moving in an orderly manner. The next day, while the casket was placed into the hearse, in preparation for the return to the train depot, Speer and the three other guards, took their positions at the four corners of the hearse and stood at "arms rest, at the reverse" with the muzzle resting on the toes of their right foot, with their chins resting on their hands, on the butt of their rifles. As the casket was placed on the hearse, Speer continued in the position, and then right wheeled to March in escort of the hearse until the procession of a "Colored boy" [sic] who took the horse by its bridle and walked it too the train depot, where it was loaded and taken to it's final destination in Springfield Illinois. Benjamin then returned to Camp Douglas, where he served, until sent to Cairo Illinois where he was honorably discharged on August 1st of 1865.

After the War

After the war, Benjamin worked six years on a farm near Decatur Illinois and then returned home to Princeton where he cut railroad ties and did other construction work. He joined the Grand Army of the Republic, and later married Martha Moore at Goshen Missouri, they had five children, then in 1913 they moved to Indianola Iowa

Source: Sally J. Speer, Indianola Iowa.

 

The attack on Fort Sumter officially signaled the beginning of the war.

Stereograph shows cannon shells, rocks, debris, and

gabion reinforcement retaining walls inside Fort Sumter.

- Library of Congress

Engine "Nashville" of the Lincoln Funeral Train

Photo shows a Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati Railroad engine, with a

 portrait of Abraham Lincoln mounted on the front. The engine was one of several used to 

carry Lincoln's body from Washington, D.C., to Springfield, Ill.

-Library of Congress

Lincoln funeral car on the old tracks of the Illinois Central Railroad by 

Lake Michigan, Chicago, 1865

-Library of Congress

Funeral service of President Lincoln at Chicago, Illinois, May 1.

 Removing the coffin from the funeral train to the catafalque

-Library of Congress

Assassination of the president Abraham Lincoln : Emordung des Präsidenten Abraham Lincoln. L'assassinat du président Abraham Lincoln

Names

Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana (Library of Congress)

250 Years of History CSL&OH.A.

Historic items have a way of falling into my lap. I recently acquired this belt buckle that commemorates the 200th anniversary of the United States. I was alive to see it and remember it well.  

                                                    

    

    250 Years of American History

From the foundational 1620 Mayflower compact to Settlement of the vast American west. Our story is as sweeping as the Great Plains west of the Missouri River. Settlement of the west, the civil war, the railroads and great names such as Jim Bridger, Kit Carson, Jedediah Smith, William T Sherman, U.S. Grant, Robert E Lee, George Armstrong Custer, Lewis and Clark, John C. Fremont, Black Hawk and Sitting Bull, are all part of that landscape. Over the next twelve months the CSL&OH.A. will be creating articles dedicated to that legacy.

G.C. Stevens

                                                          

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Frontier Tales Rides Into The Sunset By G.C. Stevens

 

I was sad to learn that the Editor of Frontier Tales Duke Pennell had decided to move on from Frontier Tales. Duke's wife Kimberly Pennell passed away back in July of this year, and she was a major supporting leg of the western ezine. Duke had sent out an email to his readers and contributors asking if anyone wanted to take the reins at Frontier Tales. I immediately stepped up to the plate and told him that I would take Frontier Tales under our wing here at Dusty Trails of the Old West.  Duke agreed. We exchanged a couple of emails, and he was apparently going to begin the transfer, but unfortunately communication ceased at that time, and I have not heard anything since. I sent additional follow emails but no response, and the last time Frontier Tales website was updated was in September.            

Editor

Gene Stevens

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