The village of Medina, North Dakota incorporated in 1906 and it became a city on this date, April 1st, 1946. Established on the railroad line, Medina once called itself “The Biggest Little Town on the Northern Pacific.” But that’s not Medina’s real claim to fame. Medina will always be know as the site of the February 18, 1983, shootout between tax protestor Gordon Kahl and several law enforcement officials who were attempting to arrest him. Two US Marshals, Kenneth Muir and Robert Chesire, were killed that day, and three other law officers wounded. Gordon Kahl escaped the scene that day in a Medina police officer’s car and was eventually tracked down in Arkansas where he was killed in June of 1983 in yet another shootout.

By Merrill Piepkorn

Sources:
North Dakota Place Names; D. Wick
“It’s All About Power”; Graf and Schnabel

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