Winchester: One of One Thousand

Book excerpt: When a modern-day construction worker unearths skeletal remains beneath a gigantic boulder, the story of a unique and fascinating journey through history begins. The only real clue to the puzzle is a saddle and a rifle-still intact-clutched in the desiccated bones of what was once a man's hand. The rifle, a Winchester Repeating Arms 1873, is a specially made "one of one thousand," which sold for more than five-times the cost of a standard Winchester rifle. From the New York shop where it was originally sold new, this particular rifle begins its amazing and volatile journey across America in a story like no other. Travel back in time when a Belgian immigrant arrives and is just hours into the New World when he purchases the rifle. Journey with the gun as it ultimately passes through the hands of eight owners, each with their own story of the firearm and their unique and individual adventures in the Wild West. Before being unearthed more than a century later, this rifle will have traversed the early West in a remarkable story unlike anything readers are likely to have before encountered.