The trunk contained more than 1,000 membership cards and dues receipts revealing the names of "citizens" of the local chapter of the Invisible Empire of the Ku Klux Klan, as well as hoods, sashes and other equipment.

In the lead article in the June 2004 issue of the Indiana Magazine of History, Allen Safianow described in detail the effects of the discovery. They ranged from calls for public disclosure of the names to comments that the finder of the trunk, a local building contractor named Don Roberts, should have burned its contents and kept his discovery secret. Instead, Roberts donated all of the Klan materials to the Hamilton County Historical Society, where they are preserved as a valuable resource for those seeking a better understanding of the Klan's operations in Indiana.

"You can't burn history," Roberts said later in explaining his decision. "That's what is wrong today. Too many people are trying to bury history, and history is history. You may have liked to change it, but it's gone, it's behind us."