Sharing the spotlight with the M1873 Colt Single Action Army revolver this sesquicentennial year is the Winchester Model 1873 rifle. Manufactured through 1923 and marketed by Winchester as the “Gun That Won the West,” it proved one of the most successful lever-action rifles of its era, selling more than 720,000 models in various configurations. Among them were 136 “One of One Thousand” grade Model 1873s, featuring barrels that produced remarkably small groupings when test fired. Fit with set triggers and given a special finish, each sold for $100 (more than $2,700 in today’s dollars) when the model debuted in 1875.
In a testament to its popularity, a quarter century after Winchester stopped making the Model 1873, the rifle “co-starred” with actor James Stewart in the eponymous 1950 Western “Winchester ’73.” Directed by Anthony Mann, the film traces the journey of a coveted “One of One Thousand” from a shooting competition in Dodge City, Kansas, through the hands of one ill-fated owner after another, beginning and ending with rival brothers Lin McAdam (Stewart) and Matthew “Dutch Henry Brown” McAdam (Stephen McNally). Interspersed with tidbits of history (Wyatt Earp did serve as a marshal in Dodge City in the mid-1870s, and the Sioux did wipe out George Custer’s 7th U.S. Cavalry command at the June 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn), the film is largely a paean to the rifle itself, which sees onscreen action in battle and in the culminating mountaintop showdown between the brothers McAdam.
As part of the publicity campaign around the film’s release Universal Pictures placed ads in magazines nationwide seeking owners of the original “One of One Thousand” Winchesters, garnering the Model 1873 renewed attention from antique firearms collectors. Though the film itself failed to garner any Academy Award nominations, it managed to turn a healthy profit and remains among the highest-rated Westerns of all time. In 2015 the Library of Congress selected “Winchester ’73” for preservation in the National Film Registry. Today the Italian firearms manufacturer Uberti makes replica Model 1873s for working ranchers, outdoorsmen, cowboy action shooters, collectors and other historical firearm enthusiasts.
In 2014 National Park Service archaeologists in Nevada’s Great Basin National Park happened across a weathered Model 1873 leaning against a juniper tree beside the Strawberry Creek Campground. Dubbed the “Forgotten Winchester,” the .44-40–caliber rifle dates from 1883, though the NPS has been unable to determine who first purchased the rifle. The “One in One Million” find is on permanent display in the Baker Visitor Center at Great Basin. One can only speculate as to the fate of its anonymous owner.
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