“By Jesse James and his gang of Outlaws”
Monument to the First Train Robbery in the West. Features a section of track that Jesse James used to derail the train. According to Wikipedia: Famous train robbers include Bill Miner, Jesse James, and Butch Cassidy. Jesse James is mistakenly thought to have completed the first successful train robbery in the American West when on July 21, 1873 the James-Younger Gang took US $3,000 from a Rock Island Railroad train after derailing it southwest of the town of Adair, Iowa. However, the first peacetime train robbery in the United States actually occurred on October 6, 1866, when robbers boarded the Ohio & Mississippi train shortly after it left Seymour, Indiana. They broke into one safe and tipped the other off the train before jumping off. The Pinkerton National Detective Agency later traced the crime to the Reno Gang. There was one earlier train robbery in May 1865, but because it was committed by armed guerrillas and occurred shortly after the end of the Civil War, it is not considered to be the first peacetime train robbery in the United States. Some sources say that the May 1865 robbery took place at a water siding while the train was stopped taking on water."
The dropped pin appears to be correct, going by the street view, which means the address to type into your GPS is 1469 White Pole Rd., Adair, IA. It's a mile and a half west down the road from 1156 Anita-Adair.
This is the address I will be trying this summer when I am out there. Wish me luck!
This was easy to find and a nice spot to get out stretch our legs. Not a lot to see here, but the history is interesting and it was a good diversion.
A great stop to stretch your legs, not necessarily a destination spot since this picture is the extent of the site. But if you're a fan of wild west history it is definitely worth a stop. I really liked how it was out in the mist of the wind farms.
Still there, just to go West not East.
Thanks for the feedback, y'all. I've updated the position of the POI to match the dropped pin, so it should be fixed.
On the serious, this is just a little plaque and a bit of old railroad, but it's the kind of place where you can stop, take a picture, and get out of the car for a hot sec. As a history nerd, I find it pretty interesting, but it's certainly not something everyone will care about.
As a train enthusiast myself, I made sure that my wife and kids would make this stop upon our road trip to Denver. At first we had a heck of a time trying to find this place as our maps led us to the gravel road up to the railroad tracks. Nothing was here. Once we got back to the main road, I decided to follow the road that bends and sure enough after half or so mile it led us to the site. It's a great site to witness! There's a storyboard that explains of the event that transpired as well as what happened to Jesse James later on in his life. My boys loved the train wheel statue and it's tracks! It's worth a stop in a small town in Adair, IA.
Not here anymore but there was a ton of wind mills
Thanks for the dropped pin, it got me right there. I thought it was awesome that they left part of the original train tracks as part of the monument - worth the stop.
Dropped Pin
near Summit, IA
http://goo.gl/maps/pwiYg
I meant go west instead of east
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Monument to the First Train Robbery in the West
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