New clue casts light on mystery of antique rifle in Nevada
The mystery rifle of Great Basin National Park has returned home to Nevada, and it brought with it a tantalizing new clue.
Researchers still don’t know who left the 133-year-old Winchester rifle under a tree in the park 300 miles northeast of Las Vegas, but they do have a better idea of how long it sat there before park archaeologist Eva Jensen stumbled across it in November 2014.
Park officials now believe the rifle sat there, leaning against a juniper tree on a remote outcrop, since at least 1930. Jensen said it could have been left as far back as 1900, a conclusion backed by experts at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West’s Cody Firearms Museum in Cody, Wyo.
That’s where the park sent the Winchester Model 1873 this year to be examined and stabilized in its current, weathered condition. In the process, the staff at Cody took an X-ray of the rifle and discovered a cartridge tucked inside its stock where cleaning rods normally were kept.
The .44-40 caliber bullet was carefully removed and traced back to its long-gone manufacturer: Connecticut-based Union Metallic Cartridge Co., which merged with Remington in 1912.
Jensen said the folks in Cody believe the cartridge was made sometime between 1889 and 1911.
They also were able to determine the rifle was manufactured in February 1882 and shipped from Winchester’s factory in New Haven, Conn., in June 1882. But the Winchester records kept at the museum did not reveal where the gun was shipped or what happened to it after that.
The rifle spent the summer on display at the museum in Cody. Jensen and another park archaeologist traveled to Wyoming and returned with the Winchester on Nov. 6, one year to the day after she discovered it.
“It was a coincidence,” she said.
The park will celebrate the Winchester’s homecoming Dec. 5 at Lehman Caves Visitor Center, where the rifle will be placed on temporary display while a permanent exhibit is developed.
The event will feature a 1 p.m. question-and-answer session with Jensen and the rest of the archaeology team, followed by a 2 p.m. screening of the 1950 Western “Winchester ’73” starring Jimmy Stewart.
The screening is free but seating is limited, so ticket reservations are required by calling 775-234-7510.
As for the broader mystery surrounding the rifle, Jensen said she is no closer to knowing its story or that of its former owner.
When she found it, the butt of the old Winchester was buried in 4 or 5 inches of dirt and debris from the tree, completely obscuring its metal butt plate and the lower portion of its stock. The gun was uncocked, its chamber and magazine empty, its metal rusted. The stock looked like just another scrap of dead wood.
At the time, she described it as “someone’s well-used tool.”
Its discovery made headlines around the world, but the media attention hasn’t shaken loose any answers like Jensen hoped it might.
“I still follow a few leads every now and then,” she said. “Hopefully some day we’ll know the story.”
— Contact Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350. Follow him: @RefriedBrean
