Posted on 01/15/2015 12:27:04 PM PST by servo1969
The story of how it got there may never be known, but a rusting 132-year-old Winchester rifle -- known in U.S. lore as "the gun that won the West" -- was recently found resting against a juniper tree in a Nevada national park.
The gun, its stock split, gray and faded like driftwood, and its steel barrel rusted brown, blended in perfectly against the tree in a remote part of the Great Basin National Park until a National Parks Service employee spotted it.
“The rifle, exposed for all those years to sun, wind, snow and rain, was found leaning against a tree in the park,” said Nichole Andler, chief of interpretation at Great Basin National Park.
An engraving on the gun marks it as a "Model 1873," and Andler said further research showed the serial number on the lower tang, or portion of the grip, matched up with records held at the Center for the West at the Cody Firearms Museum in Cody, Wyo. with a manufacture and shipping date of 1882, Andler said.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
“That is the third one they found just today. :)”
I like that, your right, I read about the other two.
This has happened to me on occassions, put the rifle against a tree, go find & dress out the animal and then try and remember where you set the rifle, its happened also when I went to take a crap and then spend an hour or more trying to find the rifle.
I was stationed at Camp LeJune and I was in a group that hunted the base. Civilians brought in a pack of hounds and turned them loose in the swamps, well when they come by with a couple deer in front of them you had to catch as many of the dogs as you could because if the dogs got by you, we never saw them the rest of the day. Well let me tell you , when you have dog collars stacked up to your arm pits with a black and tan hound on the collar, your gun was the last thing you remember.
The gun laws of the state in which the park is located are in effect in the said park..
Concealed Carry Uber ParcMan!
;-)
That was a great episode too.
Today, it's all reality shows because there is no script or depth of thought required. Roll, shoot, edit it into something.
The cost is usually far less per episode today unless you run into sharp business players like the Duck Dynasty boys.
Ah yes. I remember this well.
Today, it’s all reality shows because there is no script or depth of thought required. Roll, shoot, edit it into something.
The cost is usually far less per episode today unless you run into sharp business players like the Duck Dynasty boys.
But what if they build a national park around your gun?
I wonder how many people the gun attacked while it was resting there. We all know how violent guns are.
Correct.
the deaths could be in the millions
Jerimiah Johnson; Liver-eating Johnson. I guess the critters done et up Hatchet Jack.
Let me get my hands on that rifle, I’ll spend way more than it’s worth to recondition it into a fully operational firearm. It almost surely had a noble background.
1883, not far from when Wild Bill Hickock was killed. Unbelievably cool.
THAT is so funny, I was just sharing with my friend today that an 80 year old friend used to come coon hunting and left his rifle up against a tree on the farm. It took us 4 years to find it. He got it back about 2 years after his silent trailer coon dog died and it was about 2 years later he passed. Good times coon hunting!!!
I find it curious that the trees haven’t grown around the gun.
I have in my back yard an old two-man saw which was literally “eaten” by the trees it must have been left leaning on, growing around it. Yet this gun looks as though you could just lift it out.
detailed history of the park areas http://archive.org/stream/historicresource00unra#page/n0/mode/2up
I knew someone was going to bring that up! I remember that episode, I saw it several months ago on “METV”. It was pretty interesting, and a little eerie; it’s one of my favorites of “Twilight Zone”. This certainly makes me think of that episode, and wonder!
But I’m wondering if the episode some people on this thread are referring to, is the one where the pioneer is lost in the desert on a wagon train. The wagon train stops, and they are trying to find food. One man takes his gun and goes over a nearby hill (or ridge) to go hunting. But He goes over the hill and to his shock, finds himself in a very strange place, and a bewildering situation. He is in the future, and doesn’t know it! (possibly late 50s-early 60s).
He is astounded and a bit frightened as he sees a huge truck barreling up a big, long, modern highway close by him. He meets these very-modern people in a diner, and doesn’t understand why they dress very different than he does. There is a doctor there, and he (the pioneer) tries to tell these modern people who he is and why he’s there!
They think he’s sick or something, but the doctor talks to him and somehow when listening to the man, (after telling him his name and that his son was sick) the doctor is astonished that he knew of a famous doctor featured in a medical book who had the same name as the pioneer’s son!
The doctor starts to act like he believes the man, or thinks it’s possible that something strange happened to him when he came over the hill. He gives the man some medication for his son and lets him go. He seems to think the man’s kid became the famous doctor. Some of the people try to follow the man to see where he was going to. However, he disappears and all they find is a mysterious rifle on the ground!
The man goes back to his own time, and rejoins his pioneer group in the wagon train and tells them what happened to him. He gives the boy the medicine, and (presumably) he recovers as they go on their way! I don’t know if this is the episode some on the thread were talking about. But article made me think of it!
I nailed a stainless steel pot to a tree for a dog’s water dish so she wouldn’t accidently tip it over. The tree has nearly swallowed it in 20 years.
That’s why I find it so curious that the rifle isn’t “swallowed up”.
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