Iowa I Opener: Jesse James' first train robbery

Jesse James was a lad that killed many a man,
He robbed the Glendale train,
He stole from the rich and he gave to the poor,
He'd a hand and a heart and a brain.
"Jesse James," most recently by Bruce Springsteen.

Jesse James historical marker

In my atlas, near Adair, Iowa, is a spot marked "First Train Robbery in the West." What I learned when I got there is that it was also where Jesse James, and the James-Younger Gang, robbed their first train--on July 21, 1873.

Earlier that month the gang received a tip that a shipment of gold from Wyoming Territory worth $75,000 would pass through western Iowa on the Chicago, Rock Island, & Pacific Railroad. Near Adair, they found a curve on the tracks where they fashioned a rail-trip wire of sorts that forced the locomotive off the tracks, killing the engineer. The train's fireman later died of his injuries. The gang wore Ku Klux Klan masks during the robbery.The Missourians' sympathies were with the recently vanquished South.

Tallgrass prairie

But the pickings were small. In the train's safe Jesse and his criminals found only $2,000, another $3,000 was taken from passengers.

The site of the robbery is marked with an original section of Rock Island track and a vintage locomotive wheel. But I wanted to see the actual rail line, so I struggled up a hill covered by tallgrass prairie to capture the picture on the lower right.

Surrounding the site is a massive wind farm--a couple of windmills can be seen in the background of the photographs. Click on any image to make it larger.

The James-Younger gang continued to rob banks and trains until they were defeated by ordinary citizens in Northfield, Minnesota three years later, as you'll read below.

Jesse James was killed by a member his last gang, Robert Ford, while he dusted a picture on a wall in his Missouri home.

As for his Robin Hood image? James didn't hand out his booty with the poor.

Next: Loess Hills

Related post:

The tracks today

September 7, 1876: The defeat of Jesse James in Northfield, Minnesota

Earlier posts:

• A Madison County bridge and some Cold Turkey
• John Wayne's birthplace
• Grinnell's Louis Sullivan Jewel Box
• Amana Refrigeration
• Amana cemeteries
• Amana Millrace and the woolen mill
• Amana Colonies overview
• Anamosa State Penitentiary Cemetery
• More about Stone City and Grant Wood
• Stone City and Grant Wood
• Where North Avenue ends
• Field of Dreams
• Guttenberg and its pool
• A final look at Effigy Mounds National Monument
• More Effigy Mounds
• Effigy Mounds National Monument
• Freedom Rock and Veterans Day
• Pikes Peak
• Buffalo Bill