RIPP:

Great story!!

Historical finds of this sort are always fascinating.

Outside Cody, Wyoming are some little museums that display various old guns found in parts of Wyoming. Really neat stuff and always great for mind-benders; how, why, what??

Der Jaeger, the story says 160 years ago, c.1850. But the gun looks like a Springfield {post-1863} to me, but I am no expert. Anyway, it could have been left anytime after being made...even "recently"!

Winding through my ranch is an old stage road that linked a number of logging camps and tiny "milltowns". Then, in the early '30's, the "new" highway was built, requiring several cuts. One is right in front of our house.

One day my son and a friend were playing in the dirt above the big stock pond and found a large knife. It is of a shape and design that are somewhat unique, being similar to a couple knives shown in Cole's classic book, but not identical. Of general "skinner" type, the handle portion was quite long. It appeared to be a mass production type of the late 1800's-early 1900's era which, of course, would fit in well with the settlement period here. It is possible that it was handmade. It's condition being "relic", it is somewhat hard to be sure.

Long story short, I made a duplicate, then wrote a piece for a knife magazine about it. Now the duplicate is part of our butchering equipment, so the "spawn" of the old one still works!