Sioux Falls Marshal’s Badge Found In Alaska?

How on earth did a Sioux Falls Marshal's Badge from the days of the Wild West find its way into a thrift store in Alaska?

You can find all kinds of things in the last frontier: Bears, Ice Road Truckers, and apparently, even antique law enforcement emblems.

Years ago, my sister sent me this badge. As it turns out, she happened to find it in a box, along with a number of other badges at a local store in the tiny town of Chicken, Alaska; With a grand total of just seven people living in the town, I was a bit stunned at what she found. And just how it got there is a bit of a mystery.

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Here's a fun fact: My sister and her family live in the Alaskan wilderness. If you've ever watched those reality shows where people are living out in the bush, that's them. Getting to their cabin (which is in the middle of the Yukon Charley Preserve) can be a challenge. First, you fly into Fairbanks on a commercial flight. From there you proceed to hop on a three-seat plane, fly over some of the largest mountains in North America, land on a tiny airstrip in the middle of nowhere (Eagle, Alaska), and finally boat upriver for three hours and you've arrived at Wood Island; where my sister, husband, and three children call home.

So, to put it into context, this badge was a very long ways from home. The fact that it was in a box with a number of other badges has me about suspicious as to whether or not it's legitimate. And I have yet to take the badge to an expert to verify its authenticity. But even if it's a fake, it still looks pretty cool.

I'd like to think there's a great story behind it that someone can tell. Now that I live in Sioux Falls, it's a great decoration for my desk.