Name/Title
MusketEntry/Object ID
2012.03.01Description
Northwest Trade gun that descended through the McAllister family. James McAllister was an American settler who took a land claim near the Nisqually delta, and was killed in the Treaty War in 1855-1856. This gun has a percussion cap lock mechanism that began to be used in the Puget Sound area in the 1850s. Family provenance has it that the gun was given to James McAllister by the HBC for hunting company cattle on the prairies. The lock mechanism is by Isaac Hollis and Sons. The family was in the gun manufacturing business since 1800, but this particular mark may date it to 1861 - 1879. A 1951 article in "The Beaver" by S. J. Gooding (HBC Trade Guns) dates the mark "I Hollis & Sons" as early as 1853, so research is on-going. The gun has the typical serpent motif with a large trigger guard which defines HBC Trade Guns. Overall length is 52 inches, butt plate is 4 3/4 inches and separate ramrod is 35 1/4 inches in length.