Sheldon Museum staff relocated after finding what may be a live mortar round in their office last week.
Sheldon Museum staff relocated after finding what may be a live mortar round in their office last week.
Discovery of a WWII-era Japanese 80-millimeter round led army explosives experts to advise the change in location. Military officials will come from Fairbanks to analyze the ordnance.
Collections assistant Zack James was sifting through items on Jan. 22 in an effort to purge objects and artifacts that don’t serve a purpose in the collection. The process of removing items from a museum’s collection is called “deaccession.”
James said they had little information about the mortar, but it was donated in the early 1990s. James traced the mortar back to Norm Smith, who gave the museum a cache of military items collected during he and his uncle’s combat tours during WWII. Smith’s uncle, Harry Smith, was a WWII veteran who served in the Pacific and Norm Smith served in Europe.
“That made me think they actually had the chance to pick up a live one,” James said. “I didn’t have any paperwork that said anything was done to it.”
Along with his uncle’s mortar, Norm Smith also donated Japanese currency, dog tags and other items from Europe. Norm Smith Junior, Smith Senior’s son, told the CVN he remembers the mortar and said he’d be surprised if it contained an explosive core. “That thing’s been around forever,” Smith said. “It was kicking around our house for 40 years. It doesn’t have a detonator on it. All the sudden it’s a live ordnance?”
Lacking specifics about the mortar, James did what most do. “I Googled it,” he said.
The ordnance matched Internet images of a Japanese T-100 mortar. After discussions with the museum’s collection committee, James called the police on Friday. Officer Chris Brown inspected the mortar and contacted the state’s emergency response center who put police in touch with Captain Brandon Browning of the 7/16 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company.
“This occurs occasionally,” Browning said. “We had an incident in Yakutat last summer. A piece of ordnance appeared in the city.”
Browning said a soldier is scheduled to arrive in Haines on Jan. 31 to determine whether the mortar is explosive. “If it is a legitimate ordnance item, the team leader has the authority to determine how to best render it safe,” Browning said. “We have numerous options.”
Browning said he couldn’t speculate on those until its analyzed. The weapon isn’t a type that will destabilize over time if live, but it’s best to approach it with caution. “It’s always safe that when you find something, to treat it as a worst-case scenario,” Browning said. “We won’t be able to determine the condition of it until we’re there on site.”
If the mortar is live, Roger Schnabel has agreed to let the army use his gravel pit as an area where they can safely explode it.
The mortar is currently in the museum’s vault. At a meeting with museum staff on Monday, police chief Heath Scott said the collection is safe, but that the museum may want to consider what it accepts in the future. “I think it’s a good opportunity to reflect on accepting munitions,” Scott said. “Maybe write a policy about it.”
Museum community coordinator Regi Johanos said moving forward, museum staff will consider “more about whether we accept this type of item.” Staff were already revising museum policy regarding what they will and will not take.
Johanos said among other items on the museum’s list for deaccessioning are poison-tipped darts from Papua New Guinea.
Due to the office relocation, the opening of the museum’s exhibit, “Attu75: War Came to a Wilderness,” an artistic rendering of the Japanese invasion of two Aleutian Islands, has been rescheduled from Feb. 1 to Feb. 9.