Posted on 01/16/2015 6:46:32 AM PST by nikos1121
Archaeologists conducting a survey in Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada have stumbled upon a 132-year-old Winchester rifle propped against a tree, possibly having been left there more than a century ago. The rifle, which records show was manufactured and shipped by the gun maker in 1882, had been leaning against the Juniper tree for so long that the wood of its stock was cracked and deteriorated from the desert sun, its barrel rusted. "It really is a mystery," said Nichole Andler, a public information officer for Great Basin National Park. "We know it has been out there awhile because the stock was buried in dirt. But we do not know for how exactly how long." Andler said more than 700,000 Winchester Model 1783 rifles were manufactured by the company between 1873 and 1916, becoming known as the "gun that won the West" because of its popularity. The remote, rugged area now encompassed by the park, in the high desert of eastern Nevada near the Utah border, was used primarily for mining and ranching at the time the rifle was sold. Great Basin National Park was established there in 1986, known for its 5,000-year-old pine trees and other desert flora and fauna. So far experts have not been able to establish who purchased the gun or where it has been in the 132 years since. It was first spotted in November by a member of a park archaeology team surveying the area and Andler said it might have been overlooked in the past because the gray stock of the wood blended in with the tree. Andler said the rifle would be conserved by experts to keep it from deteriorating any further but not be restored to newer-looking condition before it is put on display at the park.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
People are apparently finding these a couple of times a day now. No longer a big deal......
How old is the tree?
What would you think the story behind the story is all about? You leave your rifle against a tree, then forgot where you left it? Weird.
Sure it’s interating, but a “mystery”? Methinks someone doth hyperbolize.
Maybe someone from Disney’s landscaping team planted it last year.
Some day it will be 100 year old cell phones.
Look up 100 yards over the rim.....
Chuck Connors is looking for that
Maybe it was used as a gravemarker? Wonder if somebody is buried below it.
The owner hid it because the politicians were talking about gun control.
“Andler said more than 700,000 Winchester Model 1783 rifles were manufactured by the company between 1873 and 1916, “
Winchester had a time machine, too apparently.
“People are apparently finding these a couple of times a day now. No longer a big deal......”
If you’ve already read your fill about this story, why in hell did you click?
I was out trolling the lake for catfish, and pulled up a whole stringer of Winnies, as we now call 'em.
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>> “How old is the tree?” <<
Probably not a relevant point. - Many of the pines and cedars there are over 1000 years old.
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>> “You leave your rifle against a tree, then forgot where you left it? Weird.” <<
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Not necessarily. - A friend of mine once left a shotgun in the trunk of a car he sent to a salvage yard, and had no idea of the fact until police contacted him several years after when someone else found it.
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First thing I'd do is put a GPS location on the site...then try a metal detector to see if I could pick up any used shells or something that would give a better time frame....then start going through old maps.
I have some 1897 maps. I'll take a look just for the hell of it.
Very likely it was a sheep rancher tending to his stock, and just lost track of where he left it.
Or he could have been shot and died there.
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Wow - the ultrs-rare “Winchester 1783”! You would think that even the geniuses at Yahoo or the “archeologists” who found the rifle would:
1. Recognize an 1873 Winchester with the octagon barrrel, full magazine, curved steel butt as a very common artifact of its time and
2. Read the serial number at the wrist and then give the Cody museum a call to see the exact date of manufacture and to whom it was sold from the factory.
3. Then, if their brains were really in full gear, examine the chamber and magazine to see if it’s loaded and after clearing it, read the head stamp on the cartridges to get an idea when it was loaded and where the ammo might have been purchased.
But it’s just Yahoo. They were just lucky to recognize that it was an old rifle.
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