Here is a fascinating article from the Eau Claire Leader Telegram of December 31st, 1953..
BOYS FIND BOMB WHILE PLAYING ON RIVERBANK
A home-made bomb in a cigar box, found by two boys playing cops 'n robbers along the Eau Claire River bank Wednesday afternoon is being investigated by the police department here.
The crude device was found, clock ticking, by Don Anderson, 13, son of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur M. Anderson, 620 Chauncy St., and Larry Schaefer, 12 son of Mr. and Mrs. Irv Schaefer, 1519 Woodland, about 2pm.
Detective H.L. MacLaughlin says the bomb could have caused "considerable" damage if it had gone off where any damage could be done. It was found by the boys in a cave on the south side of the river over the bank from the end of Lee St., not far from a rubber company parking lot. The bomb is probably the work of some mechanically inclined youth who wanted to see if he could make a bomb work, MacLaughlin said.
LARRY SCHAEFER was eager to tell how it all happened.
(cue enthusiastic 12 year old voice)
(cue enthusiastic 12 year old voice)
"We had some play guns and were playing cops 'n robbers when we saw a place with some old cans that kinda looked like there had been a fire there. I kicked a stone and saw a hole. It was dark in there so I told Don to see what was under there. He lifted the rock and we saw it. We thought it was a telegraph set. We picked it up and heard it was ticking and both hollered 'It's a time bomb'".
The boys dropped it and ran off for a short distance. Then they went back. "I went back and ripped the wires from the clock real quick," Larry continues. "Then I took it up to the house to show it to my dad."
THE BOY'S MOTHER also told the boy to show the box with the pipe, batteries and clock to his father. The elder Schaefer unscrewed one end of the pipe, took out a sample of the powder and convinced himself it was a bomb when it flashed as he lit the sample with a match.
The clock alarm had been set at one o'clock and the device was found at about ten minutes to 2. Wires had been attached to the alarm arm of the clock and then run into one end of the four inch long, one inch in diameter water pipe.
"I don't know just how it would make the second contact," Schaefer said. "I couldn't figure out if it was some kid's prank or what it was."
"The boy said that he and Anderson hadn't seen anyone else playing in the area at the time the box was found. The river bank there is a popular playground for boys the police reported.
LARRY SAID young Anderson had been certain what they saw was a bomb too. "We saw on television where they had bombs like that on Dragnet," he said.
The account goes on a bit more but the basic story, two kids finding a ticking bomb under a rock, seems pretty darn implausible. Finding something this strange under a snow covered rock in the last week of December? I'm figuring as you likely are as well, that they built the darned thing.
I must hand out a substantial number of Parent Points to young Larry's elders. Mom says: "Hmmm. Well, it looks like a bomb. Go show your father." Dad then unscrews one end and puts a match to the powder just to test the theory. Was their life with Larry a series of events like this?
The location of this little drama is unclear, which I suspect is just due to lazy reporting. It references a cave but the actual account given by the kids is different. As it happens, Lee Street is a few hundred yards downstream from the known brewery cave. The cave of course would be a natural magnet for the lads, and there are often the remains of campfires to be found there. But honestly, as large parts of this tale sound to me to be blatant nonsense perhaps it does not matter.
For what it is worth the cave in question was used to store dynamite back in the 1880s. If this article had appeared on April 1st I'd assume the paper was having a little fun with that obscure bit of local history.
For another - oh yes another! - report of a bomb in a brewery cave, come back next time.
The boys dropped it and ran off for a short distance. Then they went back. "I went back and ripped the wires from the clock real quick," Larry continues. "Then I took it up to the house to show it to my dad."
THE BOY'S MOTHER also told the boy to show the box with the pipe, batteries and clock to his father. The elder Schaefer unscrewed one end of the pipe, took out a sample of the powder and convinced himself it was a bomb when it flashed as he lit the sample with a match.
The clock alarm had been set at one o'clock and the device was found at about ten minutes to 2. Wires had been attached to the alarm arm of the clock and then run into one end of the four inch long, one inch in diameter water pipe.
"I don't know just how it would make the second contact," Schaefer said. "I couldn't figure out if it was some kid's prank or what it was."
"The boy said that he and Anderson hadn't seen anyone else playing in the area at the time the box was found. The river bank there is a popular playground for boys the police reported.
LARRY SAID young Anderson had been certain what they saw was a bomb too. "We saw on television where they had bombs like that on Dragnet," he said.
------------------
The account goes on a bit more but the basic story, two kids finding a ticking bomb under a rock, seems pretty darn implausible. Finding something this strange under a snow covered rock in the last week of December? I'm figuring as you likely are as well, that they built the darned thing.
I must hand out a substantial number of Parent Points to young Larry's elders. Mom says: "Hmmm. Well, it looks like a bomb. Go show your father." Dad then unscrews one end and puts a match to the powder just to test the theory. Was their life with Larry a series of events like this?
The location of this little drama is unclear, which I suspect is just due to lazy reporting. It references a cave but the actual account given by the kids is different. As it happens, Lee Street is a few hundred yards downstream from the known brewery cave. The cave of course would be a natural magnet for the lads, and there are often the remains of campfires to be found there. But honestly, as large parts of this tale sound to me to be blatant nonsense perhaps it does not matter.
For what it is worth the cave in question was used to store dynamite back in the 1880s. If this article had appeared on April 1st I'd assume the paper was having a little fun with that obscure bit of local history.
For another - oh yes another! - report of a bomb in a brewery cave, come back next time.
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