By Matt Finn Published January 15, 2015 FoxNews.com
“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. According to Morgan, Utah-based Winchester Repeating Arms, 720,610 of the rifles were manufactured between 1873 and 1916. In 1882 alone, more than 25,000 of the 1873 models were made.”
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