OkieGranny
Retired WS Staff
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- Apr 8, 2013
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http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs...nd-in-national-park-draws-worldwide-attention
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...e-found-propped-against-a-national-park-tree/
Archaeologists conducting a survey of the Great Basin National Park recently made a surprising discovery: one very old Model 73 Winchester. The .44-40 rifle was found unloaded, leaning up against a juniper tree with four or five inches of its stock buried in the ground.
"It looked like someone propped it up there, sat down to have their lunch and got up to walk off without it," Nichole Andler, Chief of Interpretation at the Nevada park, told the Washington Post. With its wood stock weathered to gray and its metal rusted, the rifle was difficult to spot against its surroundings, according to Andler. Soon, the "gun that won the west" was all over the internet.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...e-found-propped-against-a-national-park-tree/
While the rifles back story remains a mystery, the history of the place offers some clues: Great Basin was primarily a mining site at the time, but could have also been home to grazing cattle and sheep. The gun may have also been the relic of game hunting in the area.
This particular model of Winchester rifle was quite popular at the time, so it wasnt necessarily a rare and precious item for a person to leave behind. The year this particular rifle was made, 25,000 others were also manufactured. In fact, the prevalence of the gun may have contributed to a massive price drop, from costing $50 in 1873 to $25 in 1882...
Park staff are now combing through old newspaper articles and records to try and unearth any information as to how the rifle ended up against that tree.