Box 5
Folder 7. Treasure – Nebraska
Item 1. Newspaper Clippings
Transcribed Text (OCR)
GARY MANGIACOPA ARCHIVE ============================================================ Title: B5F7I1 Slug: b5f7i1 Categories: Lost Treasure Source: https://garymangiacopraarchive.com/b5f7i1 Pages: 1 scanned, 1 extracted OCR: Google Vision API (document_text_detection) Processed: 2026-06-06 ============================================================ 26 NOV 1985 28 New Have 1985 Truesday Register, Anchor in hayfield renews mystery for prairie townspeople Associated Press BRADY, Neb. The discov- ery of a second rusty anchor near this town on the Platte River <- a stream "a mile wide and an inch deep" has rekindled a mystery that has puzzled residents since the turn of the century. The 4-foot high, 100-pound anchor was found in a field three miles west of here in July. A simi- lar anchor was found about three miles away in the 1890s. One amateur historian says his research indicates the anchors came from a large steamboat that traveled up the Platte River in 1852. But other historians say the river was too shallow for large boats. "The Platte was never naviga- ble," said Marvin Kivett, former director of the Nebraska State Historical Society. "There were some fur traders that used the riv- er, but only at flood time. And even then they spoke of the hard- ships of dragging across sandbars. R. Allen Coleman, an amateur historian and author from Oma- ha, said both anchors probably came from the steamboat El Paso, which reportedly traveled up the Platte in 1852. While re- searching the original anchor, Co- leman said he came across a newspaper story saying the El Paso had lost two anchors during an "extensive voyage" that year. Although the story didn't men- tion how or where the anchors were lost, Coleman speculated it may have happened during a kedging operation in which the anchors were used to free the boat from a sandbar. The latest anchor was found 66 The Platte was never navigable. There were some fur traders that used the river, but only at flood time. And even then they spoke of the hardships of dragging across sandbars. Marvin Kivett 99 by Gloria Liljestrand on her par- ents' farm near Brady. She was swatching hay in a field when she struck a přece of metal that knocked a section from her sickle. "I thought it was some type of flood debris,' Liljestrand said. "I've hit all kinds of things out NATION Associated Press Gloria Liljestrand, right, and her father, Harlan, show the 100- pound anchor she found. there tractor wheels, tennis balls, pop bottles, you name it. "I thought, 'Where did that come from?" I just stood there and started laughing. I couldn't believe it.' Coleman believes periodic flooding made it possible for large boats to traverse the Platte, al- though other historians disagree. Ted Stutheit, a historian with the state Game and Parks Com- mission, said the steamboat wasn't mentioned in any Fort Kearny records even though the boat would have passed by the fort on its trip west. Kivett said there is evidence the anchors ended up in Nebras- ka because they were used to sup- port a pontoon bridge across the river. But Coleman said it would have made more sense to anchor the bridge with local limestone than to buy anchors that weren't readily available. "The closest city where you could have bought those anchors was St. Louis, he said. "That means they would have had to send somebody over 1,000 miles to buy something they could have gotten from their own backyard.' While historians debate how the anchors arrived in the middle of the prairie, the Liljestrands' anchor sits chained to a Chinese elm in their front yard. "It's a good conversation piece," said Harlan Liljestrand, Gloria's father. "Not many peo- ple around here have an anchor in their yard."
