By Peter Cook

On the morning of February 21, 1925, two Millburg State Bank employees prepared for what they thought would be a routine Saturday. However, their first customers were anything but ordinary. Dressed in trench coats, a group of armed men forced the tellers into the back closet and looted the bank. While the robbery only lasted a few minutes, the subsequent car chase, manhunt, and trial would long be remembered as one of Southwest Michigan’s most dramatic crimes of the 1920s.

Peter Cook, the Director of Programs & Outreach at the North Berrien Historical Museum in Coloma, will present the Great Millburg Bank Robbery and its aftermath in all its exciting detail. Peter holds a bachelor’s degree in Public History from Western Michigan University and has been working at the museum since 2018.

NOTE: 1:00pm On Zoom shown at the Scott Club. Or, join via Zoom from wherever you are located. Email info@scottclub.org for a Zoom link.

By Michael Nassaney, PhD

Southwest Michigan attracted freedom seekers on the Underground Railroad as abolitionists worked secretly to conduct African Americans who had escaped enslavement along the route north to free states and Canada. Learn how archaeologists uncovered evidence of this clandestine organization as Dr. Michael Nassaney discusses his investigations, research, and findings related to this fascinating operation.

Dr. Michael Nassaney is an archaeologist, author, editor, consultant, and Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at Western Michigan University. From 1988-2020 he served as the principal investigator of the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project, an interdisciplinary program in community service that focuses on the site of Fort St. Joseph in Niles, Michigan. He directed the investigations of the Underground Railroad in Cass County in 2002. Nassaney has published numerous works on the archaeology of eastern North America, including The Archaeology of the North American Fur Trade (University Press of Florida, 2015) and Fort St. Joseph Revealed (University Press of Florida, 2019).