Countdown to Defeat of Jesse James Days is On

Northfield townsfolk defeated the James-Younger Gang in about seven minutes.

Planning and promoting the annual festival that commemorates the shootout takes awhile longer—like all year.

Volunteers in charge of staging this year's Defeat of Jesse James Days joined for their regular biweekly meeting at on Tuesday. Many of the gold golf shirt-clad people in attendance had already been working hard for weeks and months on their portion of the festival as it draws nearer.

DJJD annually draws thousands of Northfield residents and visitors to town the weekend after Labor Day. The festival marks the anniversary of the failed bank robbery attempt on the First National Bank of Northfield by famed outlaw Jesse James and his gang in 1876.

This year’s festival runs from Sept. 7-11. Two new events—a soapbox derby and mounted shooting—have been added this year. Also planned is a remembrance of the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on Washington, D.C., New York City and Pennsylvania.

With about six weeks remaining before the traditional start of the festival—the Joseph Lee Heywood and Nicolaus Gustavson graveside memorial service on Sept. 7—committee members said planning was on schedule. Routine issues like lease agreements, legal waivers and dehumidifiers for the beer trailer were discussed.

General chair of this year's DJJD, Wayne Eddy, made one request of those volunteers at the meeting: Solicit more help.

"Wouldn't it be nice that if everybody here would bring a neighbor, a friend, a son, a daughter, a husband, a wife, a mom or a dad to the next meeting?" he said. "We have so many people asking for help here, we could fill all of those slots if we had more people here."

The DJJD committee knows a thing or two about volunteerism. It prides itself leading one of Minnesota's largest all-volunteer events.

Among the volunteers promoting the festival is the DJJD royalty, which appears at community festivals and parade throughout the state.

"The royalty has made over 60 appearances for the festival this year," said Julie Eddy, who is in charge of DJJD's royalty coronation. "Most of those appearances are between May and August. It’s amazing to see the pride of our royalty at these events."

In recent weeks, the DJJD Royalty took part in the Minneapolis Aquatennial, "Sparkle Night" at Target Field in Minneapolis and community celebrations in Hopkins and Montgomery, among others.

While participation in nearly all of those events could be described as routine, the royalty ran into car trouble at the Lakeville Pan-O-Prog Parade, said Queen Arianne Foster. The radiator in Wayne Eddy's convertible sprung a leak along the parade route.

"It was the only parade the three of us [Foster and princesses Rebecca Peterson and Maren Peterson] didn't wear our cowboy boots," she said. "So, when the car broke down, we hopped out, pulled on our boots and continued in the parade."