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James/Younger Gang Bypasses Marysburg LbNA #49669

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Aug 12, 2009
Location:
City:Marysburg
County:Le Sueur
State:Minnesota
Boxes:1
Planted by:sky
Found by: Educate America
Last found:Aug 18, 2010
Status:FF
Last edited:Aug 12, 2009
Recently found: Aug 14, 2010. Reported missing once since then.

A pure letterbox in a series that traces the route taken by the James-Younger Gang after their unsuccessful attempt to rob a bank in Northfield on Sept, 7, 1876.

Sept. 9-12, 1876. Having had several near misses, the gang takes some diversionary tactics and is not seen for several days. About 3 miles northwest of Elysian (although their goal is southwest) they abandon their horses. Friday night and Saturday are spent alternately creeping and resting in the woods and marshes heading along the south-side of the German-Jefferson chain of lakes. On Sunday morning, as they approach Marysburg, they hear the bells of St. Mary , and circle south around the village to avoid detection. A few miles west of town they find an abandoned farmhouse where they spend the next three nights recuperating, drying out and resting.

Meanwhile the posse, numbering over a thousand, the biggest in the history of the U.S., is becoming increasingly discouraged, disorganized and discontented. Rewards encourage many members to go their own way rather than to follow orders. Glory-seekers start taking chances. Rumors fly. Any innocent stranger is likely to generate a report that an outlaw has been spotted and posses split off to pursue every false lead. And the rain is incessant making tracking impossible and the picketers shirk their duties.

Directions: Marysburg was much bigger in 1876 than it is now. About all that remains is the church and the bell and a monument. Check out the monument, the church and the bell. Then consider the row of pine trees on the north side of the cemetery. Under a pot at the base of the fourth pine you'll find the letterbox.