Park officials believe the rifle hadn’t been located sooner because the weathered, cracked wood stock and brown rusted barrel blended into the juniper tree. The firearm was found leaning against a tree in a remote rocky outcrop. The rifle was found and recovered by park archaeologists in November, according to the Great Basin National Park Facebook page. Great Basin National Park employees are trying to solve the mystery of an 132-year-old Winchester rifle found in the park. KSL-TV (Salt Lake City) has an interesting lost-and-found story going back a long way and involving “the Gun that Won the West.” The bullet is included in the new exhibit case. There, officials did an X-ray, found a bullet in the stock and removed it. The rifle on display has been exhibited at gun shows and at the Buffalo Bill center for a summer. The rifles sold for $35 to $50 in the 1880s and can now fetch up to $15,000 depending on their condition. €œYou just don’t leave a gun like that there,†he said. 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. €œThe 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,†said Nichole Andler, the park’s chief of interpretation. 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 GREAT BASIN KILLER SERIAL NUMBER#
The serial number was visible, allowing experts at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyo., to determine it was made in 1882. No sales or ownership records have been found. 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.īased on its condition, experts believe the weapon might have been abandoned in the forest more than a century ago.īut nearly five years after its discovery, park officials still don’t know who it belonged to nor why it was left against the tree.
The Model 1873 Winchester found leaning against a Juniper tree in Great Basin National Park in 2014 is now a popular exhibit.Ī 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.
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