132 Year-Old Model 1873 Rifle Found Against Tree in Nevada

[UnderMiner]

A Model 1873 lever-action rifle has been found leaning against an old Juniper tree in Nevada's Great Basin National Park. The rifle seems to have been undisturbed for at least a century.

"While the specific history of the aged Winchester rifle is as yet unknown, the opportunities for speculation are rich. Perhaps it belonged to a lone cowboy riding the high range. Perhaps it was set aside by a sourdough prospector in his search for a vein of rich ore. Whatever the actual story, it has the makings of a great campfire tale."



132 Year-old Model 1873 found against a tree at Great Basin National Park - Winchester Repeating Arms Article

Updated story on the gun July 18, 2015:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/07/1...-left-behind-130-year-old-rifle-in-nv-desert/

 

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[Slingshot]

Must not have termites out there.

 

[Dave44]

I would be surprised that the ground didn't erode around the bottom and that the tree didn't even try to grow around it in 100 years? Maybe I am just too jaded.

 

[lockster99]

Drunk cowboy went to take a leak and forgot it. LOL

 

[pgfhgs]

Now an Archeologist will have to start a long,tedious and boring study to try to determine if it was there naturally or if it is a planted item. There will never be total agreement between them and metal detectorists but I think they will all agree that it is indeed a tree whether someone planted it or not.

You forgot the government grant that would be needed for a final determination which should take 15 years and just under 1 billion.

 

[UnderMiner]

I would be surprised that the ground didn't erode around the bottom and that the tree didn't even try to grow around it in 100 years? Maybe I am just too jaded.

I think that is becasue there is very little rainfall in Central Nevada. Wood and metal are much better preserved as a result.

As for the tree not growing around it, I've done some research and discovered that the Juniper is one of the slowest growing species of tree and may take hundreds - even thousands of years to grow to its full size. Some Juniper Trees have been documented at over 2,000 years old (the oldest, Juniper in the Western US is the 3,000 year old Bennett Juniper). I would bet that it is very likely this little tree looked almost exactly the same in 1880 as it does today. Now I have a desire to find ancient trees

 

[Dave44]

Drunk cowboy went to take a leak and forgot it. LOL

Ahhhh the good old days.. Now I am wondering what I may have left out there?

 

[austin]

Hope it wasn't a 1 in 1000

 

[ARC]

Amazing story... best one/coolest on here in awile... This sorta stuff amazes me.
This stuff just makes my imagination go wild.
Like the place that time forgot...
The stock of gun did not rot because of lack of moisture...
I will tell you one damn thing...
If metal detecting was allowed in that area...
And I lived even remotely nearby...
I would be on that area like tick on a hound dog. (my redneck buddy says this)

 

[Dave44]

Amazing story... best one/coolest on here in awile... This sorta stuff amazes me.
This stuff just makes my imagination go wild.
Like the place that time forgot...
The stock of gun did not rot because of lack of moisture...
I will tell you one damn thing...
If metal detecting was allowed in that area...
And I lived even remotely nearby...
I would be on that area like tick on a hound dog. (my redneck buddy says this)

hey,, whoa, that doesn't necessarily make me a redneck! Lol

 

[lockster99]

Just wondering for fun...not that either will/would/should happen, between archies and eco's, which do you think would happen first.

1) The removal of the tree to recover and conserve the rifle as a historical artifact.
2) The removal of the rifle due to possible damage to the tree from leaching of metals onto it.
3) Removal of both due to the oil on the rifle contaminating the water table.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Would love to have found it...

Posted From My $50 Tablet....

 

[ARC]

P.S.> I had to save the pic of it leaning on the tree...
gonna put on my desktop for awile...
what a trip.
I started thinking...
what if a gun collector set the gun there in 1960...
went to take a piss...
saw bigfoot...
ran to get a better look...
fell off cliff.

Gun only there since 1960... yep... that's what happened.

 

[ARC]

Ordinance removal on a 1941-47 army training base now turned housing development (heh)...
One of the houses had a pile of hand grenades just sitting at the base of a tree...
They looked like they had been there a few months...
What was really weird to me was not the age...
But how in the hell no one ever saw em there.
This was not out in some remote or rural untouched area...
Kids played in woods there...
houses built etc.
land surveyors etc etc.

 

[boogeyman]

Lockster99's explanation is probably closer to the truth.
Truth is funnier than fiction!!!

 

[civil_war22]

That happened a few times a pea ridge battlefield park. I have heard of two guns found rested against trees out there and also heard from Ranger Rick there that people have walked up on bayonets that has washed up from heavy rainfall

 

[H-2 CHARLIE]

The guy leaned his life saver up against a bush to take a # 2 and got chased away by a bear or Indian but must have run like hell ..

 

[stefen]

Now an Archeologist will have to start a long,tedious and boring study to try to determine if it was there naturally or if it is a planted item. There will never be total agreement between them and metal detectorists but I think they will all agree that it is indeed a tree whether someone planted it or not.

An archeologist would attribute the rifle to a famous person like Wild Bill Hickock instead of Wild Willie, a hapless cowboy who was dumber than a post...

 

[pong12211]

Wow that's an awesome find. Somebody must have left in a hurry to leave a beauty like that behind. In todays markets those rifles bring a premium. Trust me I collect them. If my wife only knew

 

[RGM]

You would be surprised how stuff is preserved in the Nevada desert, low rainfall and very low humidity. Years back in the 70,s I found a lever action in a central Nevada pinion pine forest leaning against a tree that had grown around the barrel, left it there, probably still there. What I speculate is the owner shot at a deer leaned gun against tree and could not find it again. The trees are thick and look alike. Found another gun barrel, cap and ball 50 cal. above Reno with the stock rotted away, Sierras much more wet.