The legend of Jesse James echoes through Garretson's culture from 1876 to today. After a botched bank robbery in Northfield, Minnesota, both Jesse and his brother Frank were wounded in the ensuing gunfight, but escaped on horses to Dakota Territory. To throw off the posse on their trail, Jesse jumped Devils Gulch. Nearly 150 years later, the legend lives on.
In 2021, the Garretson Historical Society hired a former military ordinance specialist turned locksmith to repair a lock in the Garretson Museum, which is partially housed in a former bank. When he looked at the vault doors, he discovered a live mechanism containing industrial strength tear gas - the story was covered by the Garretson Gazette - earning the paper owner, Garrick Moritz a South Dakota News Media award for the feature story.
