Tale of a Henry

[Tascosa Joe]

I hope all y'all find this interesting.  In 1984 or 5 I was the active duty soldier at a Colorado National Guard 8" Battery.  SSG Miller was my clerk and his family had lived in Southeastern Colorado for over a 100 years.  There were several of us in the battery that were into the mountain man culture at that time.  One day he told me he had this old gun and would I like to see it.  Of course I told him to bring it in.  A couple of days latter he comes in with something wrapped in a towel.  He took the towel off and low and behold, here was beat up old Henry.  The stock was broken at the wrist and it was missing.  He and his brother had played cowboys and indians with it as kids and he drug it around their neighborhood in La Junta.  They were playing Davy Crockett at the Alamo when the stock was broken.  Anyway I contacted another guy in the battery who was a good mechanic and wood worker and his brother had a gun shop.  We got a reproduction stock from Navy Arms or Dixie.  Park restocked it and made it look pretty good.  I tried to buy the rifle but he was going to leave it to his niece.  Considering how long the family had been in the area, this rifle may have been used in the Sand Creek Massacre. I was transferred to Texas a couple years latter and have no clue what happened to the rifle.  I know his family did not shoot and was not into history.  The rifle still may be in Denver someplace, but I am afraid his liberl relatives took it to on of those church buy back events and it is gone forever.

[Coal Creek Griff]

Thanks for that great story!  I keep reaching for the "like" button, then I remember...

Griff

[Coffinmaker]

  YEPPER

A great and FUN story.  Just a shame we don't know what happened to that Henry, nor where it wound up.

However, you really shouldn't try to blame everything on "Liberal" relatives.  That last comment was uncalled for.  Especially since you have no factual idea what the disposition was or wasn't.

[Abilene]

Joe, if the Millers had been there that long, they may still be.  I know it's a long(really) shot but maybe you could reach out to the family and ask?  Cool story, anyway.

[Tascosa Joe]

The family that would have received the Henry lived in Arvada, if the 40 year old memory is correct.  The girl was in high school at the time.  SSG Miller and his wife have probably passed as he would be about 95 years old by now. 

[Buck Stinson]

I have a Henry tail also.  A friend of mine was, many years ago, a Wyoming State brand inspector.  He was also a collector/dealer in antique firearms.  He told me one time when he was visiting a ranch in central Wyoming, the rancher (a friend of his) told him about an old rifle stuck in some rocks on his ranch.  Dick said he'd like to see it. So they jumped in the truck and drove out on the prairie.  As they got closer, Dick could see this small rock outcropping in the distance.  By this time they were driving cross country through sage brush and bunch grass, until they reached these granite boulders  half buried in the ground.  Wedged in a frost crack in one of the large boulders was a Henry rifle, with the muzzle pointing to the sky.  Dick said it was wedged in and solid as the rock it was set in.  The rancher said he had seen it ever since he was a kid, but never thought about trying to remove it.  Dick told him it was best to leave it as is, because any attempt to remove the rifle would surely destroy it.