1.15.64
Poster, Wanted
1950 Approximate
Bob Hodgson Wanted Poster. Material: paper. Size: 13 1/4" x 17". Description: newsprint flyer bordered and printed in black; humorous information on poster, "Wanted! Dead or Alive, $5000 Reward, Horse Thief Bob Hodgson alias Mouse Ear-Mike, Wild Red, Hooknose Blackie, Tulsa Tom, Bogus Joe and a Few Others. Signed Rex G. Sands, Ghost Town Sheriff, May 5th, 1858".
This poster was a tourist piece made at Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, California. The posters all had the same list of aliases on them, but were custom printed with the name of each person who bought the poster. Robert E. Hodgson (1893-1968) was superintendent of the Southern Experiment Station from 1919 to 1960. He promoted modern agricultural methods in Waseca and throughout Minnesota. From 1948 to 1964, Hodgson wrote a column for The Farmer Magazine, and his column “Bob Hodgson Talks” appeared in more than one hundred rural Minnesota newspapers for over 20 years. Hodgson was a member of the Waseca County Historical Society, the Waseca County Horse Thief Detectives, The Boy Scouts and other organizations. Among his many interests were history, nature study and pipe collecting. During World War II, Hodgson wrote a once a month letter to members of Boy Scout Troop 85 who were serving in the armed forces all over the world. The letters were published in the Waseca Journal with separate copies printed and mailed to any Waseca serviceman who wished to receive them. Hodgson’s letters maintained the home contacts, helped men keep up on the locations of friends and provided morale-boosting communications for those far away from home.