A presentation Friday morning in the basement of the Crow Wing County Historical Society shed some light on an artifact found in the area which dates back hundreds of years.
Ray Nelson, speaking to a group of about 15 people, told the story of a rifle relic J.T. Gustafson found on the shoreline of Lower Hay Lake in the 1960s. Nelson first saw the buttstock 28 years ago, he said, and over the years it's been found, forgotten, faded away and was nearly thrown away multiple times.
"I thought, 'Holy buckets,'" Nelson said. "This is something pretty cool."
Once he started examining it, Nelson realized it was much different than any rifle stock he had seen. Over the years, he reached out to multiple antique rifle experts to get their opinions. They all responded with some variation of "I've never seen anything like this," he said.
It sparked a search for information that's spanned nearly three decades, Nelson said, and resulted in him finding some information in strange places. He thought the rifle experts he consulted would provide him with a quick answer, he said. Instead, he found himself on a personal mission through primary and secondary historical sources, trying to find an answer for where and when the rifle came from.
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Nelson's presentation featured main characters from the 18th century in Germany, France, Denmark and the Netherlands, many of whom made their way to what would become America. Different sources pointed to the rifle being either German or French, he said. He's been able to determine the rifle has attributes from the Odenwald region of Germany, near the Neckar and Rhine rivers on the French border.
"I thought, 'Well, that's a good start,'" Nelson said.
Nelson told the stories of immigrants from Germany and Denmark who came to America in the early 1700s to become traders. They started putting together rifles which had characteristics of rifles from their homes, he said, which shed some more light on the story.
"I started finding bits and pieces of information that was really like aha moments," Nelson said.
Nelson pointed to two periods of rifle history, from 1740-1780 and from 1760-1800, when he thought the rifle could be from. The time period led him to find the names of the immigrants he started researching, who Nelson thought could be the originators of the rifle.
"You can see how this kind of gets confusing a little bit here, with this little project," Nelson said.
Many traders would give their best rifles to Native American chiefs in order to keep up business ties with them, Nelson said. He traced one trader's inventory in the 1770s and determined the trader had given his rifle to a chief in the Great Lakes region. Smoothbore guns were most popular in the region, he said, which made rifles rare.
"The smoothbore, lightweight guns (were popular)," Nelson said. "Rifles were not really known."
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Nelson's research showed Native Americans would be buried with their guns, but not before parts of the gun, including the barrel, would be removed. This helps explain why only the buttstock of the rifle was found on Lower Hay Lake, he said.
The water level of Lower Hay Lake would rise and fall throughout the year, Nelson said, which could stir up artifacts along the shoreline during low water conditions. Lo and behold, Gustafson located the buttstock during low water conditions, he said.
Through his research, Nelson has been able to determine the rifle comes from 1760-1800 and was made by gun makers with German and French influences. It's a rare rifle, he said, possibly the oldest rifle brought to Minnesota.
SPENSER BICKETT may be reached at 218-855-5859 or spenser.bickett@brainerddispatch.com . Follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/spenserbickett .
