132-year-old Winchester rifle found propped against tree in Nevada

[slagmaker]

Found this article today while doing some surfing of the net. thought it was interesting.

http://fox59.com/2015/01/15/132-year-old-winchester-rifle-found-propped-against-desert-tree-in-nevada/

If this rifle could talk.

In a gravelly voice, it may recite a yarn of weary settlers swaying on horses’ backs in the parched, rocky Nevada wilderness. It may talk about riding in a saddle holster across neighboring Utah more than a decade before it became a state of the union.

Great Basin National Park workers found the Winchester Model 1873 propped against a tree in the desert in November.

Who knows how many years the rifle stood there, after someone left behind the model called “the gun that won the West.” Did they have to depart in a hurry â€" running from danger?

Or did they not see it, as it stood neatly camouflaged against the arid trunk of the juniper tree?

Wind, snow, desert sun have beaten years of furrows into the Winchester’s grayed stock, and rusted its barrel brown, along with its receiver and signature figure-8 repeating lever.

But its model name remains steadfastly engraved on its tang, along with a serial number. The Great Basin National Park’s staff checked it against the Cody West Firearms Museum’s records.

The gun was manufactured and shipped in 1882, the museum told them. “Winchester records do not indicate who purchased the rifle from the warehouse or where it was shipped,” the park said on its Facebook page.

Cultural researchers will try to squeeze out a few more secrets about the gun’s history from old newspapers and family trees. Then conservationists will not restore, but conserve it in the condition in which was found. It will become part of the display commemorating the park’s 30th birthday in 2016.

The 1873 model was widespread. Between 1873 and 1916, more than 760,000 were made, the park said. Today, collectors offer hundreds to around 10,000 dollars for one online. A Winchester collectors’ association says Model 1873 was discontinued in 1919.

But in 1882, the price dropped by half to $25 dollars apiece, the park said.

It put them in the hands of many towards the end of “Indian Wars” in the Southwest. But those battles were mostly in surrounding states, particularly fights against Apache warriors who refused to be confined to reservations in Arizona.

That would seem a safe distance away. The spot where the gun was found in the Great Basin Desert could hardly be more in the middle of nowhere.

[msmith]

That is very interesting.

I will say though, I don't believe the tree it is propped up against is near a 130 years old.

[slagmaker]

I thought the same thing. But then again I don't know what a 130+ year old juniper tree looks like

[riverboss]

I would love to know the story!!!  I may have to make it to see it someday i am sure it would be worth the trip.

[Okanagan]

I thought the same thing. But then again I don't know what a 130+ year old juniper tree looks like

That rifle is a COOL find!  Just because it was made in the 1880's doesn't mean that it was left there right after someone bought it.  It might have been left there in the 1930's.

Re the tree age:  Desert trees grow very slowly and though you'd have to check a tree in the area to know how slowly, the tree could easily be that old or much more.  That one looks really old to me.

The oldest trees known on earth are bristlecone pine thousands of years old, and some of them are in the same Great Basin Park in Nevada where this rifle was found.

Tree rings on such old trees are so thin that a cross section looks like a roll of onion skin paper, so close together that they may need a magnifying glass to count.  I've cut trees for firewood near timberline in northern BC (many high altitude areas are essentially a cold desert) that were 125 years old and 2 1/2 - 3 inches in diameter.

[riverboss]

I have to believe that what ever happend to the owner of said gun couldnt be good! I for one would never let one like that without doing everything i could to retrieve it. I wonder if it was loaded. I my guess is some indian left it after the person was killed.

[slagmaker]

I was looking for more depth on the story and I found that the rifle was not loaded. So there is still a world of things that could have happened.

[msmith]

Interesting story for sure. Didn't know that about desert trees, but it makes sense.