The study of history through the excavation of discarded items, exploring people's attics, flying drones, and stuff….
This is an original 19th century flintlock “smooth rifle,” .45 caliber, which belonged to a family in Fincastle, Virginia. It was possibly made somewhere around there, around the lower valley of Virginia, next to the mountains – though probably not in the mountains. I posted pics of it a while back, with the information I …
Read moreMysterious Valley of Virginia Flintlock Found in Fincastle
“The French Biscayne trade axes are the oldest style of metal axe we know of trade in North America . . . . Records show Biscay hatchets being traded to American Indians by the Spanish as early as 1520’s – 1540’s; the French from about 1560-1750’s; and the British from 1674-1690’s?
When the first settlers came into the Greenbrier Valley in the 1750’s, this is likely the type of firearm they brought with them. A civilian owned smoothbore fowler. This longarm is exactly 6 feet in overall length. It has a bore of exactly .70 caliber. It could fire a solid round lead ball. Or it …
Read moreThe flintlock the early Virginia frontiersman likely would have carried.
“RCA 19” Rifle a.k.a. Chief Paxinosa’s “Smooth Rifle.” There is an argument to be made that this “smooth rifle,” which means that it is built in a rifle in all ways, except for the lack of the actual rifling, is one of the oldest known American longrifles with an existing record for the date of …