Aged bomb in Kake gets official inspection

[subdjoe]

It was an annoying object when you stubbed your toe on it but a great conversation piece.

By Klas Stolpe
JUNEAU EMPIRE

Della Cheney remembers playing with a family heirloom growing up, a rather strange looking metallic object that wasn’t easily moved about.

“It was very heavy,” Cheney said. “At least 25 pounds.”

The heirloom? A roughly 12-inch long, 30-pound unexploded round of ammunition that struck the village more than 140 years ago.

Or in the words of one of the descendants who found the shell resting on the other side of a hole in a Southeast rainforest soaked stump, “It was an annoying object when you stubbed your toe on it but a great conversation piece.”

Kake elder and magistrate Michael Jackson, Della’s brother, remembers the shell being in the family forever.

Jackson said the shell had been buried in Kake since 1869.

When a Kake resident was clearing property for the building of the Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall in the early 1940s, the 30-pound Parrott Shell and other shrapnel was found near a rotten stump with a hole in it.

“That was why it didn’t explode,” Jackson said. “It went through the stump and was laying on the other side of it.”

Wheee-doggy! I bet it could hurt when you stubbed your toe on it!

“The bomb has just been sitting here. It isn’t going anywhere… we hope,” Jackson said.

Maybe just a bit of understatement?

[KABAR2]

Boy after reading the artical it gives a different view of just how peaceful
the natives were in Alaska.... it also shows that the Navy could be a little
heavy handed......

there should be no reason why the shell can not be rendered harmless and intact.

The whole story:

http://www.lancasterfarming.com/agriculturalinformation/ap/Expert-will-be-brought-in-to-defuse-Kake-ordnance

[gulfcoastblackpowder]

When magistrate Michael Jackson stubbed his toe on it he said "Hehe!"  He was later quoted as saying "It hurt so bad I turned white!"

After sitting around for so long, hopefully they can disarm it without destroying it.  It should be kept as an heirloom of the town, but as a safe one - and preferably where it won't be kicked by accident.

[GGaskill]

There is always some risk is trying to demil something like this.  Hopefully they won't start by drilling a hole with a 2000 rpm drill motor.

[subdjoe]

I figured some of you would be interested in this.  Amazing how this stuff keeps turning up after all this time.

There is always some risk is trying to demil something like this.  Hopefully they won't start by drilling a hole with a 2000 rpm drill motor.

I would hope they give it a try, anyway.  Better than this from Ft. Taylor:

[RocklockI]

yankweeds , morons , and crackheads could have realized the value of these things  ..... BUT the gooberment does not .

I only wish I could see some of these things ....   ..... and if I ever found one somewhere the very last creatures I'd call is the gooberment ! 

Gary

[KABAR2]

As the quote goes...... "I'm here to help I'm from the Government......

Yes they tend to get heavy handed in rendering things harmless.....

I hope they find a private individual with experiance....

[dan610324]

wouldnt it be possible to ues a waterjet cutting machine to cut an small hole in the bottom of the shells ??

[GGaskill]

I'm sure you could but those are expensive machines to put at risk.

[trotterlg]

A few years ago, (not many) I was on the Normandy coast in France.  I stopped into a little roadside Mom and Pop Museum.  Laying on the floor in the wood framed building were several dozen unexploded bombs of various sizes, many with their arming propellers folded back to the body of the bomb where they had failed to arm before they hit the ground, I would guess 500 to a thousand pounds worth of them along with lots of other cool stuff washed up on the beach from years back.  It's probably there with little kids kicking them every day.  Larry