suggestion on locateing historic famous firearms.

[Booger Bill]

The thread on tom horn`s rifle where m.m. wright knew it`s last location got me thinking. Some of us know locations of other famous firearms that are dropping out of sight. Why dont we have a sticky that people report where they are or last known of?
I know of such a one myself. Cole youngers 1851 colt navy. Here is the story of it and how such guns can drop out of sight.
Back in the 50`s when I was a teenager the oshkosh wisconsin city museum had his revolver on display. The story given back then was it was taken off probley younger when the group got off a train with their horse`s. It was taken off the man on a vagrancy charge. A few days later after the northfield raid the police chief or whoever else looked in the flap of the holster to find, "from maj. quantrell to c. younger. Also on a stock is carved "CY". I belive the police chiefs daughter later donated the gun to the museum.
I belive the gang rode the train and shipped their horses north, got off at oshkosh and then rode their horse`s west to northfield minnesota. I checked out that revolver a number of times in the 50`s.
About 2,000 I went home and to the museum to see it again. It was gone. I asked the young currater about it and he knew nothing of the revolver and just shrugged his shoulders and said maybe it`s in storage. He even seemed disinterested. A old secatary overheard our conversation and said "I remember that gun!" She said we used to have a postcard of it that we sold in the gift shop. I got her to check storage and she found me a card. (I have been looking for it and misplaced it myself).
The museum had a fire back in the 1990s or so. Some things were destroyed. They had recently reopened it when I questioned the young new currater.
I have googeld the gun and found this on it: http://www.oshkoshmuseum.org/Virtual/ex ... 30266a.htm
I bet others here have similar storys. Why dont we put them all together?

[Cliff]

No problems locating these things. Just go to about any common gun show and most of the stuff being sold at way out prices are rare, historic, one of a kind, carried by someone who was somewhat famous in history.
At least that is the sellers story. Everything from Glocks to pearl handled iver johnson 32 break opens, no matter.

[Sixgun]

Booger Bill,
Great idea. I have paid attention to this sort of thing since I was a young adult. My conclusion is that the overwhelming majority of absolute documented guns are in museums or high dollar collections.

I'm not discounting Cole Youngers '51 as that one is most probable. I have seen/read about a multitude of Pancho Villa's handguns for sale. The last "Pancho Villa sighting" was yesterday at the Lebanon, Pa. gunshow that my buddy attended. My buddy tells me this guy was walking around with a first model '73 that looked like it was drug behind a horse for 4,000 miles. The guy claimed it was Pancho Villa's 1873 and that some relative of some other relative of some other relative knows that to be true.

Even the great Elmer Keith wrote in "Sixguns" that he found one of Billy the Kid's Colt Lightning as when he took the grip off, it was carved "W.B."

From time to time I hear of guns to watch for with this serial number, etc. There's still a few out there. I hear collectors are looking for Obama's gun. Its a pot metal Bersa "9" with "homey boy" sights mounted on the side of the slide. It was loaded with cheaper .380 ammo.

OK, OK, it was time for a laugh ------------------Sixgun

[Booger Bill]

It`s awful hard to probley prove over 1% of all the guns those old boys must have owned unless they died with it in their hands! You probley seen a post or two where I wrote about owning a colt new frontier that audie murphy willed a son. And I lost that one!
Really, a 150 years ago I dont belive many people put the same importance of a famous characters gun as we do today. Also I doubt that many even bothered to write a serial # down to ever be found for postarity. No doubt many of us that collect old guns have had famous guns pass through our hands without ever knowing it!
In the case of the younger/quantrill colt navy, when I was a boy the oshkosh muesum used to have a hodgepodge of many guns. In later years the museum got "modern" and went to murals and "theams" in the rooms and walls and would just hang a gun or two where once there were hundreds stuffed in corners etc. I would estimate where the museum had maybe 500 guns laying around when I was a boy, the new young non gun type currator probley had about 15 or 20 total guns on display!
Another thing: Years ago I lived in california and went to the roy rodgers museum a number of times. Sorry to say, they had a hodpodge of good and not so good guns, but what got me, was it looked like all of them were begging to be cleaned! They really werent taken care of by someone that really knew what they were doing! To me, it was heart breaking! The gene autry museum was/is much better on that score. Of course the buffalo bill museum is tops, followed by the autry museum. I have also been to the smithsonian, but its been close to 30 years ago. I really need to see that one in ardmore oklahoma everyone talks about.

[M. M. Wright]

Booger Bill,
It's in Claremore, OK. The J. M. Davis Museum. Claremore will be having a cowboy trade day Apr 30-May1. The museum will host a gun show inside the museum. My SASS club, ITSASS, has been asked to wear our costumes and guns when we attend. This will include both the Davis Museum and the Will Rogers Museum. Should be a great time.
J. M. Davis ran a hotel in Claremore for many years and accumulated this huge collection which he left to the state. There was some scandal a few years ago that about 1/3rd of the collection was missing. Son of the curator if I recall correctly. Don't remember if he was even prosecuted. I can remember going to the hotel on several occasions to trade guns with Mr. Davis. There were lots of rooms with guns just stacked in corners until there was only a narrow path from one door to the next. Many old flat files that contained handguns as tight as they could be laid in the drawers.
About '55, a friend's dad bought a new, in box Colt SAA, 7 1/2", .38 Special as a club gift to a benefactor from Mr. Davis. Friend and I snuck it out and had a ball shooting it. Just a good cleaning and it became a NIB, unfired SAA again.

[Cimarron]

I remember that hotel. It was just across the street from the Will Rogers Hotel. I remember the lobby had guns from floor to celing, pretty much every flat surface had a gun! Hasn't governor Fallon decided to get rid of the J.M.Davis gun museum? Seems like I read something about thin in the Tulsa World a while back.

[Booger Bill]

Thanks guys. I got to get to ok some day. My best old friend retired at canadian and we got to get together. Talked to him a couple days ago and it`s hard to belive he is 80 and on a walker! Knew him for about 45 years!

[mouthpiece]

[quote I hear collectors are looking for Obama's gun. Its a pot metal Bersa "9" with "homey boy" sights mounted on the side of the slide. It was loaded with cheaper .380 ammo. -Sixgun[/quote]

Absolutely amazing how distateful, unwanted political comment gets interjected into otherwise legitimate firearm posts here.

[jlchucker]

In 1910, World Middleweight Boxing Champion Stanley Ketchel, while visiting a friend's ranch in Missouri, had loaned a Marlin 22 rifle to a ranch hand who later shot the champ in the back with it. It was a famous incident well known to boxing fans. Back in 1910, the murder made national news for days. Ketchel habitually carried a 45 Colt revolver, that was taken from him by his assailant while he was mortally wounded. His killer was captured a day or two later, and subsequently served time for murder. After reading the story about this event, I have been wondering if either the Marlin 22 or Ketchel's handgun had survived through the years. Are they in someone's collection?