By STEVE HATHCOCK
Special to the PARADE
Steve Hathcock
Minnesotan Frank Horak has been wintering on South Padre Island since 2001. Over the years, his son, Steve, a retired plumber and treasure hunter from St Paul Minn, has been able to join his family during the latter part of each winter. A couple of years back, the two were metal detecting a few miles north of the city limits and back along the dunes.
“I hadn’t found much except trash all morning,” Steve recalled in a later interview. “But this signal sounded different.”
Frank, who had been walking the beach looking for shells, wandered over to where his son was doing some serious digging.
After a short dig, Steve unearthed a most unusual find.
As soon as he realized what he had found Steve blurted out: “This needs to go to a museum!”
After returning from the beach, Steve contacted several city offices and the chamber of commerce before he was directed to Dennis Franke, President of the Historical Foundation of South Padre Island.
After seeing it, Franke initially offered to buy the pistol, but Steve reiterated, “No, thank you, but no, I’m not here to sell it, I am here to donate it to your museum.”
“Thank you. Our future museums’ success relies on donations like this,” Dennis replied as he accepted the artifact.
It will be at least another year before The Historical Museum of South Padre Island opens its doors. We hope our gun-savvy readers can help us identify Horak’s pistol. Though we will be doing extensive construction and have no real place to store donations at the present, we would like to hear about your unusual finds… Perhaps you will be the subject of a future article.
Contact me at sh123hs098@gmail.com.
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