This is right out of a Twilight Zone episode...
Anyone who died nearby wouldn’t necessarily be found.
Desert mice nibble bone for the calcium.
Scavengers scatter remains over quite a distance.
That’s what I was thinking: boating accident.
It belonged to Hatchet Jack...
...according to Jeremiah Johnson
;—)
The assumption that the rifle was standing there for 130 years is a stretch. it could have been put there a year ago.
How old is the juniper tree it was lying against?
Read the article and the quotes. It’s so badly written that how it ever passed publication requirements is more of a mystery than the rifle.
Maybe someone left it there 130 years ago by accident and it’s been there ever since.
The stock has rotted away.
Aliens.
Great Basin NP, near Ely is way out there. Unattended objects may not be discovered. The ranger there gave us a private tour since we were the only visitors.
The highway there can have no vehicles for hours. We pulled over to relieve ourselves openly without privacy concerns.
I’ve been saying this since it was first found.... The rifle was probably placed against the tree in relatively modern times. If it had been leaning against the tree for 100+ years there would have been substantial interaction with the bark growth and there is no trace of that. My theory is that the rifle was found by someone in a more likely place, like at the bottom of a cliff or down a ravine where it was first dropped. Someone (who doesn’t know much about firearms) picked it up, possibly carried it some distance, placed it against the tree, and continued on their way — probably within the five years preceding its discovery.
Well the owner could be the following:
1) Alien
2) Someone who is currently 130 years old
3) A Time Traveler
4) Someone traveling on a horse and buggy
5) Someone who had a very bad boating accident
One would think if the rifle were left against the juniper tree many decades ago, the tree would grow around it and encase it.
Why does it matter so much? So someone left a rifle against a tree. I’m aure there are more laying around.
Nobody so far has mentioned Howard Hughes.
Not everything is a big mystery with a fascinating untold story. I have found old guns and know others who have also found them. One guy found a shotgun that had been leaning against a tree for many years. Somebody probably placed it there to do something else and couldn’t find it again.
See, if we had had gun registration in the territories, we wouldn’t be in this quandary now.
