U.S. Army explosives team removes antique mortar from Haines Sheldon Museum

The Haines Sheldon Museum was closed for several days this week due to safety concerns about an antique mortar in its inventory. An explosives unit from the U.S. Army removed the device from the museum on Thursday and detonated it in a remote location. 

Haines Sheldon Museum Director Helen Alten said that the WWII-era mortar was made for the Japanese army.

“It looks like a torpedo,” Alten said. “It’s kind of a teardrop shape with wings on the end. Probably about 16-20 inches long and then 81mm is the diameter. It’s kind of heavy. We handled it quite a bit.”

It first arrived at the museum in the early 90s. According to Alten, it was donated to the museum by a late Haines resident who had a collection of items from WWII that he used for history talks.  

“His uncle was in the Pacific Theater and he was in the European Theater at the same time, so this was part of his uncle’s collecting,” Alten said.

When museum staff carried out a review of its inventory last year, the mortar was identified as an item that may not fit with the museum’s mission to preserve the history of the Chilkat Valley.

Alten said that staff examined the object at a recent meeting. They were trying to find out more information about its origins.

“We didn’t have any paperwork that said it had been deactivated,” Alten said. “So we called the police to find out what they would know.”

Haines dispatch received the call about the mortar on January 25th. When Haines Police Officer Chris Brown went to the museum to examine the explosive, he was unable to determine whether it posed a safety risk. Images of the mortar were sent to the 716th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company out of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage.

The unit is tasked with responding to unexploded military munitions found in communities throughout Alaska. It advised the Haines Borough Police Department to close the museum to the public and staff.

Captain Brandon Browning of the 716th EOD said that further assessment of the mortar was required.

“From the pictures we received it seemed possible that it could be a legitimate Japanese piece of ordnance from WWII,” Browning said. “It’s just always best to treat something as worst case scenario. If it looks real it is best to treat it as real and the precautions that go along with it.”

A team of six soldiers arrived in Haines by helicopter on Thursday. Around noon, three members of the 716th EOD entered the museum to assess the mortar. Alten said the team reported that the device did, in fact, pose a safety risk.   

“They spent quite a bit of time in there. They did X-rays and they weighed it,” Alten said. “It is not a full mortar. Somebody did try to empty it, but it isn’t low enough in weight to be empty. They found a haze in the pictures that suggests there is still some explosive in there.”

The team of soldiers decided the safest option was to dispose of the device by detonating it.

According to Haines Borough Police Chief Heath Scott, the mortar was transported to a gravel pit along the Haines Highway and detonated using C4.

This isn’t the first time that an old explosive has been unearthed in Haines. In 2007, a tourist discovered an unexploded grenade near the Port Chilkoot dock. Four years later a mortar was discovered during a cleanup of the same area. The explosives were left over from military preparations at Fort Seward during WWII.

Ironically, the Haines Sheldon museum was scheduled to open a new exhibit on Friday commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Attu – the only ground battle of WWII to take place on American soil. Alten said it is a shame the mortar couldn’t be used for the exhibit.

“You know if it was empty, it would be great because it’s a really interesting looking piece, but I don’t think it is going to make it into an exhibit case, I’m afraid,” Alten said.

Museum staff were able to return to their offices Friday.