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1923: Official cross burning takes place in public park

Subhead
Bits by Betty
Lead Summary
By
Betty Mann, President, Rock County Historical Society

The following appeared in the Rock County Herald on August 24, 1923:
 
FLAMING K.K.K. CROSSES MAKE WEIRD SCENES
 
Tourist Organizer of Ku Klux Klan or Local Wags Burn Two Emblems of the Order
 
Luverne’s first introduction to what might be termed a ceremonial of the Ku Klux Klan was given Friday night at the public park, when what is considered the organization’s official cross was burned shortly after 10 o’clock.
This cross was made of a two-by-four about ten feet long, with a five-foot cross arm, which was wrapped with cloth, bound with wire and saturated with oil before being touched off. The resultant fire is said to have made a decidedly weird impression on those who saw it, and practically all tourists who had camped for the night at the park hastily packed up and left.
Sometime after 1 o’clock the same night, a second cross was found burning. The first cross was erected at the west end of the park, southwest of the old power house and near the river, and the second one had been set up a short distance east of the new power house, north of the highway bridge and west of the river.
L. J. Mitchell, chief engineer at the power house, discovered both crosses in flames, and when he noticed the second one burning, he went over and pushed it down and threw it into the river.
A third cross, somewhat crudely made, but of new two-by-fours, was found near the cook shack in the park Saturday evening by park attendants, and they needed just such pieces of lumber to complete what they were making. They took this cross, cut it up and used it.
Several copies of the official organ of the Ku Klux Klan, published at St. Paul, were found near the first cross burned which furnished a connecting link between the organization and the incident.
It is claimed that the burning of a cross of the organization may indicate that the Klan has a hundred new members or that it is done as a warning, but quite a few of those who are in position to get advance information, are quite certain that there is no Ku Klux Klan organization here.
There are some who are quite firmly convinced that it was entirely the work of some local wags, who wanted to throw a scare into a certain individual. From time to time there have been tourists at the park that were organizers of the Klan, and it is thought that the propaganda they left furnished the idea of burning the crosses.
Another theory is that the first cross was really erected and burned by one of the tourist parties, who were composed of organizers, merely as an advertising stunt. Similar crosses have been burned at other tourist camps north and west of here by Klan enthusiasts who are motoring through, and claims of large membership in neighboring counties are frequently made.
At any rate, it is held to be passingly strange that a tourist could haul in or go to work and make a cross, mount it and set it afire, in a place like the public park, without being seen by someone while thus engaged.
Donations to the Rock County Historical Society can be sent to the Rock County Historical Society, P.O. Box 741, Luverne, MN 56156.
Mann welcomes correspondence sent to mannmade@iw.net.

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