Ashley Hlebinsky, the Robert W. Woodruff Curator at the Cody Firearms Museum, shares a close up look at the recently famed “Great Basin Gun”–a Winchester Model 1873 found leaning mysteriously against a tree in the Great Basin National Park.

Ashley and her team of curators at the Cody Firearms Museum were tasked with preserving the severely weathered firearm in its current state for display at its permanent home the Great Basin National Park.

The Winchester 1873 has earned the world-renowned nickname of “The Gun that Won the West.”

The Cody Firearms Museum is one of five major museums including a research library at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming. Visit the Cody Firearms Museum and the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming in person or check them out online.