Durand is the end of the line of the Chippewa River Trail, with
milemarker 30 just after the trail turns away from the rail bed.
The first waypoint is near the end of the rail line, and the final
waypoint is in historic downtown Durand. At the first waypoint, you
will find a reminder of the man hanged, Ed Maxwell that will give
you the coordinates for where the lynching started and where the
final cache is located.
120 years ago, Durand was known as "Hangin' Town" due to an
infamous lynching that occurred here in 1881. The "Hangin' Town"
reputation was one factor in the county seat being moved from
Durand to Arkansas, at least for a few years.
It all started with a wild west style shootout took place in
Durand and two brothers, Milton and Charles Coleman, both officers
of the law, died in a blaze of gunfire. They were the first two law
officers to die in the line of duty following Wisconsin’s
statehood. The Coleman’s were family men and highly regarded in the
community. They were killed in the shootout by two other brothers,
Ed and Lon Maxwell, who fled from the area afterwards.
Following an intensive nationwide manhunt, Ed was captured on a
farm near Grand Island, Nebraska and brought back to Durand to
stand trial. His brother, Lon, apparently escaped and was never
heard from again.
Ed, meanwhile, was a fiery young man, who had a few things to
say to the people of Durand at his preliminary hearing held at two
o'clock on November 19, 1881. According to an eyewitness account of
what happened that cold November day, when two o’clock came, the
upstairs courtroom in the Pepin County Court House was crowded to
suffocation. Maxwell, cool and collected, not showing the faintest
trace of nervousness, was led through the aisle between deputies.
The crowd surged and pushed to get a better glimpse of him. Threats
grew from mutterings to menaces, but he flinched not a whit. His
eyes roamed a moment over the crowd, and his lips moved into a
half-sneering smile.
This was to be only a preliminary examination and a statement of
the charges against Edward Maxwell. When asked for his plea,
Maxwell exclaimed, "Not Guilty!" Over the shouts and uproar of the
crowd in response to his plea, he continued in a loud voice, "Yer,
honor…my brother an’ me…we killed them Coleman boys in
self-defense, but didn’t know ‘em from Adam! We was sittin’ in a
grove up town when we saw ‘em pass us. They had guns with ‘em and
was lookin’ ‘round often, as if searchin’ for somethin’. We knew
there was no game ‘bout there, an’ they wouldn’t be huntin’ on
Sunday, so we knew they was after us. An’ til then, we hadn’t done
nothin’! When they got past us, they started to run. Then we got
over the fence an’ followed ‘em up the road, thinkin’ we was
surrounded and caught in a trap. We hadn’t gone but a short
distance before we met ‘em…and the one nearest the fence fired
first, his shot hittin’ Lon in the face and arm. Then Charley fired
at me, an’ I at him a second later. His shot struck my arm…an’ he
fell to my bullet, but he got on his knee an’ fired again. Lon had
shot the other one before that, an’ both was down. Then we turned
and ran. It was nothin’ but self-defense, pure an’ simple!"
At this, the crowd went into tremendous uproar and had to be
shouted and gaveled down by the Judge. Once order was restored, the
Judge bound Maxwell over for trial and adjourned the preliminary
examination. The judge had scarcely finished, when, with a growl
like a wild beast, a dozen men sprang on Maxwell. Women shrieked as
the melee grew. The deputies made resistance, but, in less than a
moment, the prisoner was being dragged through the yelling crowd to
the door.
A rope had made its appearance as if by magic, and when Maxwell
reached the outer door, a noose was already around his neck. The
crowd was wild with passion.
It took only seconds to reach the tree. The end of the rope was
over the projecting bough in an instant. A shuddering sob went up
from the onlookers as the body of the desperado was jerked into the
air; a score of willing hands tugging at the other end of the
rope.
There were a few spasmodic clutches of the ironed hands. The
feet were drawn up once or twice. And then, the head fell over to a
sickening droop. And, all was over.
A grand jury, which later convened to investigate the lynching,
determined that no local citizens had been involved in the incident
beyond watching it. The deed was credited to a few blue and
red-shirted loggers and outsiders who started the action.
This is one of a series of caches along the Chippewa River
Trail. The route traces quiet countryside and broad meanders of the
Chippewa River. For the most part, it follows the rail bed of the
Milwaukee Road railway, built in 1882, which connected Eau Claire
to Red Wing, Minnesota. The railway was abandoned in 1980.
The Chippewa River was once the "Road of War" for the Ojibwe
(Chippewa) and Dakota (Sioux). It was a direct canoe route between
the center of Dakota power at the north end of Lake Pepin and
Ojibwe territory in northwestern Wisconsin. The conflict raged for
more than 150 years with the last battle taking place near Eau
Claire in 1854.
The trail goes though the Lower Chippewa River Valley, an area
with much remaining natural habitat, including 50% of the states
plant species, 70% of the state's fish species, 75% of the state's
nesting bird species and 25% of all native prairies remaining in
the stat.