Live Civil War-era cannonball on display 20 years detonated

PLEASANTON, Kan. – Authorities in eastern Kansas have detonated a Civil War-era cannonball that had been on public display for two decades before officials determined it was live ordnance.

Kansas City television station KMBC reports that the cannonball had been on display for 20 years at a Pleasanton museum before it was detonated Friday afternoon.

The 90-pound (40.82-kilogram) cannonball was donated to the Trading Post Museum. It had originally been purchased in the Chesapeake Bay area in the 19th Century.

A visitor to the museum Thursday noticed a fuse in the cannonball and alerted museum officials that it might still be live. Museum officials contacted authorities, and Fort Riley’s Explosives Ordnance Disposal Unit later came out to detonate it in a controlled environment.

No one was injured.

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Information from: KMBC-TV, http://www.kmbc.com