(Rolling Stone) -- On July 25th, 1965, Bob Dylan walked onstage at the Newport Folk Festival, plugged in his 1964 sunburst Fender Stratocaster and tore through a scorching three-song set. It was a crucial turning point in his career, and it quickly became rock & roll legend -- the moment when Dylan transformed from a protest folkie to a rebel genius. But the guitar Dylan played on that mythic afternoon went missing for the next 47 years -- until recently, when a team of PBS researchers told New Jersey resident Dawn Peterson that she had it in her home. Peterson's late father, Victor Quinto, was a private pilot who worked for Dylan's manager, Albert Grossman, in the mid-1960s. "After one flight, my father saw there were three guitars left on the plane," she says. He contacted the company a few times about picking the guitars up, but nobody ever got back to him."
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New Jersey resident Dawn Peterson has a guitar experts believe belonged to Bob Dylan
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The Fender Stratocaste is believed to be the one played at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival
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Dylan says the guitar he played at that gig is in his possession
PBS
Last fall, Peterson asked @placeholder's History Detectives to help verify her find.
Fender Stratocaster
"He did own several other @placeholder guitars that were stolen from him around that time, as were some handwritten lyrics."
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Bob Dylan
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"I think if they put it up to auction, @placeholder has a claim to the proceeds.
Dawn Peterson
Peterson
Dawn Peterson
For now, @placeholder is keeping the guitar in a secure, climate-controlled environment; she has not decided whether to sell it.