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Recent Blog Posts:

• 1829 Fugitive Slave Broadside from Greenbrier County, WV
  Here's another interesting item I found in the Cowan's auction records, which pertains to local history here in the Greenbrier Valley: a fugitive slave "broadside," dated 1829 seeking the return of an escaped slave, and giving a detailed description of the individual. Here's the information from Cowan's: …
• Cree Beaded Buffalo Hide Knife Sheath with Knife
  I found this perusing through the Cowan's website. This is a pretty cool knife. It's a bone-handled dagger with pewter inlays, and a buffalo hide beaded sheath. …
• Primitive Artistic Bird Decoy
  This is an interesting old wood-carved bird decoy. I'm not sure if it was artwork or a functional decoy. It has sort of a cartoonish look to it, but on close inspection, has some well-executed artistic features. Some of the attachments indicate that perhaps it was functional. That's about all I know about it. I can't seem to find others that closely resemble it. …
• A New Frontier: Sharps-Borchardt Model 1878
  A newer addition to the Scavengeology Museum History Bunker, a Model 1878 Sharps-Borchardt Rifle. It was cutting-edge technology for the time, being a hammerless single-shot rifle with an internal firing pin. The sleek, modern rifle was designed by Hugo Borchardt, who would later become famous for the design of the early semi-automatic "Borchardt Pistol," the predecessor to the German Lugar - much later popularized in the Red Dead Redemption video game series. …
• Original Southern Shooting Bag, Powder Horn, and Contents
  This is an original antique (19th century) leather hunting bag and powder horn, with original accessories and contents, as of its last usage. The "honey comb" wooden cap on the powder horn indicates a Southern, most likely North Carolina, provenance. …