Sons of Norway, Nordmarka Lodge #1‑585 will host author and historian Jeff Sauve on Sunday, September 13 at 4 p.m. at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, 418 Sumner Street, Northfield.
Jeff Sauve will present his new true‑crime history, Wheels of Murder: The 1896 Bank Robbery That Shocked a Small Prairie Town. The cold‑blooded 1896 heist—second only to the James‑Younger Gang’s attempted Northfield raid twenty years earlier—stands out as the first in which the bandits fled on bicycles and were chased by a large posse for 150 miles across southern Minnesota and northern Iowa.
Sauve explores how everyday people, often caught in the wrong or right place at a pivotal moment, become part of the larger sweep of American history. His talk highlights the Norwegian‑American presence in the narrative and the human drama behind the headlines.
About the presenter: Jeffrey M. Sauve is an award‑winning Minnesota writer and historian whose work has appeared in regional magazines, historical society publications, and museum programs. A former archivist at St. Olaf College, he has written several books, including Murder at Minnesota Point (North Star Editions, 2022), which won a bronze IPPY Award for Midwest nonfiction and a gold Northeast Minnesota Book Award. Signed copies of Wheels of Murder will be available for sale for $20 at the event (cash/check only).