MANKATO SPOON
AIRED: Season 6, Episode 8
THE DETECTIVE: Wes Cowan
THE PLACE: Mankato, New Ulm and Minneapolis, Minnesota
THE CASE:
A woman in Portland, Oregon has a curious spoon that once belonged to her grandmother. It's known in her family as “the spoon of atrocities.”
An eerie scene is etched into its sterling silver bowl: wagons, buildings and a crowd of spectators gathered before a gallows with figures hanging from them. A disturbing message is inscribed: "Hanging 38 Sioux In 1862 Mankato, Minn.”
What is this tragic scene, and why has it been etched into what looks like a collectible, commemorative spoon?
History Detectives explores the clash between white settlers and the Dakota Sioux in the mid nineteenth-century -- and a struggle that led to the largest mass execution in American history.
Feature: History of Souvenir Spoons
Collecting souvenir spoons has been a popular hobby for many Americans since the late 1800s when this European fad swept the nation.
Think you have a case for the History Detectives? Send us your mystery here. 