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137-Year-Old Rifle Found by a Tree Has New Home

It's going to the "Forgotten Winchester" exhibit
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted May 26, 2019 3:15 PM CDT
137-Year-Old Rifle Found by a Tree Has New Home
This image provided by the Great Basin National Park shows a Winchester Model 1873 rifle found in Nevada.   (Great Basin National Park via AP, File)

A 137-year-old rifle found five years ago leaning against a juniper tree in Great Basin National Park in Nevada is now part of an exhibit dedicated to the "Forgotten Winchester" at the park visitor center near the Utah border, the AP reports. The weathered Winchester Model 1873 is in a case designed to capture the way it looked when park archaeologist Eva Jensen stumbled across it on a rocky outcrop above Strawberry Creek during an archaeological survey. Based on its condition, experts believe the weapon might have been abandoned in the forest more than a century ago. But nearly five years after its discovery, park officials still don't know who it belonged to or why it was left against the tree. No sales or ownership records have been found.

The serial number was visible, allowing experts at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming, to determine it was made in 1882. The exhibit also highlights the role the Model 1873—one of the most popular guns on the Western frontier—played in the history of the West. "The exhibit is a showcase for visitors to discover the rifle's mysterious story and become inspired to imagine, investigate and care about a piece of their American history," says Nichole Andler, the park's chief of interpretation. Herbert Houze, former curator of a firearms museum at the Buffalo Bill center, has said Model 1873 rifles were so valuable that whoever owned the one on display might have rested it against the tree and been unable to find it later. "You just don't leave a gun like that there," he said. (One girl found an Iron Age sword in a lake.)

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