Defeat of Jesse James Days is This Weekend in Northfield

Minnesota's largest all-volunteer celebration is this weekend in Northfield. Defeat of Jesse James Days includes fun for the entire family.

The most popular events each year are the Bank Raid Re-enactments and the Grand Parade.

Longtime member of the re-enactment team Chip Demann has been a guest on AM Minnesota a number of times over the years and has talked about the extensive research they did to make the re-enactment as accurate as possible.

Lynn Ziegler, one of the rodeo coordinators, and general chairman T.J. Heinricy are scheduled to be guests on today's KDHL AM Minnesota program beginning at 9:30AM.

Congratulations are in order for Nola Matheson, chosen as the 2016 recipient of the Joseph Lee Heywood Distinguished Service Award. We will get details about the selection on today's show.

The event actually began Wednesday with the Joseph Lee Heywood Graveside Memorial Service at Northfield Cemetery.

Heywood is the bank clerk who lost his life on September 7, 1876, when a member of the James-Younger Gang killed him during the robbery attempt of the First National Bank in Northfield.

It was 2PM on a sunny day. Heywood refused to open the bank vault, telling the gang members it was locked and those at the bank could not open it.

So the celebration surrounds the "extraordinary courage of these ordinary men that we honor the weekend after Labor Day each year."