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| Michael Runge - City Archivist for Deadwood |
On Nov 5, 2013, Michael Runge presented "An Overview of
Lawrence County Spanish American War Memorials" to an audience of 62 people
at the November Spearfish Area
Historical Society meeting.
Michael is an anthropology graduate from the University of Wisconsin and
is currently the City Archivist for the City of Deadwood.
There were four Spanish American War Memorials given to
Lawrence County, two in Deadwood and two in Spearfish.
The first to arrive was the bronze cannon placed in front of
the old high school in Deadwood on July 8, 1899. It is still there although the school is now
the elementary school. Investigating the
history of the cannon, Michael Runge found the cannon's serial number and
contacted the Spanish National Archives who handily responded. The cannon originated at the instruction of
Queen Isabella II in a letter dated 1861, requesting its shipment to the Philippines. A year later, the cannon was built by the
Royal Foundry in Seville and was shipped around the Horn of Africa and Cape of
Good Hope to Manilla Bay. The Spanish
American War began in 1898 when the Battleship USS Marine was sunk and on April
25 war was declared. By April 30, South
Dakota had 1008 volunteers, with 62 from the Northern Hills. The war was quickly
won and approximately 1200 cannons were captured. The mayor of Deadwood at the time was Sol
Star and Sol and a group of businessmen requested a cannon to celebrate the 4th
of July and also welcome home the First Regiment of SD Volunteers for the
Spanish-American War. Although the
cannon arrived late on July 6, on July 8, 1889, it was dedicated in a ceremony
led by a citizen dressed as Uncle Sam.
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| Spanish American War Cannon in Deadwood |
The second memorial to the war is a hollow cast white bronze
statue currently located in Spearfish Park in front of the log building. In 1899, women from Spearfish organized to
obtain a monument to honor two soldiers who had lost their lives in the Spanish
American War. They raised money at
community events in Lead, Deadwood and Spearfish. Phoebe Hearst was a major benefactor. On Oct 3, 1900, the statue was originally
placed at Rose Hill Cemetery but it was later moved to the city park.
In the spring of 1905 at the Spearfish Normal School under
Fayette Cook, two Spanish American War cannons were requested and the
graduating class put together funds to build a base and later place the cannons
in front of Woodburn Hall. In 1942, the students under Dr. Jonas wanted
to support the war effort and gave up the cannons for scrap metal.
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| USS Maine Shell |
The last memorial is the smallest of the four, but the story
brings us to modern times. The memorial
is a shell from the Battleship USS Maine sunk in Havana Harbor, Cuba. In 1912 it was salvaged and hauled to Key
West. A year earlier, in Deadwood, the
Sherman Street Fire burned an entire block, leaving space for a new park. The city requested a piece of the USS Maine,
and received a 30 inch 500 lb. shell.
Since the item was so small, it was originally discounted and placed
with the bronze cannon at the old high school where it was forgotten for
decades. In 2011, Michael Runge found
it there, submerged in the dirt next to the cannon. They rolled the shell to City Hall while
investigating further. Then the thought
came "Was this a live shell?" and an investigation followed. The DCI bomb squad took an X-ray of the shell
and found out that it could be a live shell with rear percussion detonation
capability. Michael Runge called in
Ellsworth AFB and their bomb squad responded within one hour. They took the shell to the rubble site and
used 1.5 lbs of C4 explosive to detonate the back end of the shell, creating a
quarter-size hole. In 2012, the artillery
shell was dedicated to its current located in Deadwood Park.
