The first settlers in this region, like the traders, trappers, hunters, and explorers before them, would no more have entered into this wilderness without their rifles than they would have gone into battle unarmed. And it wasn't long before quaint and often pitifully inadequate little gunmaker shops appeared, along with the scant tools and equipment for making the graceful and serviceable weapons which came to be known internationally as the American rifle, nationally as the Kentuckey rifle, but which was called locally "the squirrel rifle" or the "hog rifle". In this writer's opinion, it became and remains the most popular and most sought after collector weapon in the country.

Excerpted from the book "Guns and Gunmaking Tools of Southern Appalachia
by John Rice Irwin

The Museum houses numerous examples of early pioneer firearms as well as historical pieces dating from the Revolutionary War to the 20th century. Many pieces in our collection are documented to their former owners and or military units. Our latest acquisition is the York gun.