Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/590511
S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S 4 3 R oughhewn men walked the streets with guns. Aggressive kids plinked at cans in backyards and sharp-eyed women blasted glass balls tossed in the air. Such was Cody, Wyoming, in 1896. It must have been a wild, wide-open town, and understandably so. It was founded in part by the producer of the famous Wild West Show, William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody himself. Cowboys, Native Americans, miners, settlers, and adventurers wore, packed, carried, traded, demonstrated, and regularly used revolvers, shotguns, and rifles around town, but in its wild west heyday, Cody never had as many firearms per capita as it does now—at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West Cody Firearms Museum. Forget the musty, dusty, boring museums of your childhood. This one is bright, clean, systematically organized, and fascinating for anyone interested in guns, ammo, and the history they helped create. Whether you're interested in the role of firearms in warfare, the "taming" of the West, the advancement of wildlife conservation or the evolution of pop culture, you'll find it at the Cody Firearms Museum, repository of the most comprehensive collection of American firearms in the world. There are matchlocks, needle guns, flintlocks, and caplocks. You'll find four-barrel pistols and revolving rifles. Handguns, shotguns, rifles, and gatling guns. Rimfires and centerfires. Hawken, Colt, Spencer, Sharps, Henry, Winchester, Remington, L. C. Smith, Parker, Ithaca, Stevens, Browning, Savage, and Ruger guns. Altogether, some 7,000 firearms are on display along with more than 30,000 related artifacts from ammunition and saddles to posters, toasters, and knives. Wait a minute. Toasters? Yes, Winchester toasters. And shovels, ice skates, fishing reels, and flashlights. After its massive buildup of manufacturing capacity during WWI, Winchester found itself with loans to pay but no more government contracts to fill. There wasn't enough consumer demand for guns and ammo to continue funding the giant operation. So Winchester went into the hardware business with Simmons Hardware Company, making nearly anything that would sell. By the late 1920s Winchester was marketing some 5,000 products with the slogan "As Good As Our Guns." While the guns them- selves paint a detailed picture of firearms history, With 7,000 firearms and 30,000 related artifacts on display, the Cody Firearms Museum has the world's most comprehensive collection of American firearms. Ron Spomer i f l e s R