At the end of 2014, employees of the Great Basin National Park in Nevada were going about their daily tasks when they stumbled across a strange find. Up against a tree leaned a Winchester rifle. Just by looking at the rifle, the employees could tell that it wasn’t new, but they were amazed to find out later that it was more than 130 years old.
It was established that the rifle was a Model 1873 and was manufactured in 1882. More than 700,000 of these guns were made between 1873 and 1919. All of this information, unfortunately, didn’t shed any light on who may have owned the gun or why and how it landed up in the park. Theories include that the rifle may have belonged to a cowboy or gold prospector who left it behind while searching for greener pastures. This would also mean that the rifle had been standing upright in the park for more than 130 years.
However, most find this scenario implausible.According to experts, another, more believable, theory would be that someone inherited the rifle and decided to leave it in the park for unknown reasons. The rifle is being held at the Cody Firearms Museum, but the aim is to eventually return it to the park for display purposes.