Drizzt
Member
Yes, there's a cap-gun museum at Trois Estate
12:00 AM CST on Sunday, January 6, 2008
By JANIS TURK / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News
FREDERICKSBURG, Texas – When he was a boy, Charles Trois had just one thing on his Christmas wish list: a double-holster cap-gun set. More than 50 years later, his wish has been answered, thousands of times over.
Toy guns at the cap-gun museum in Central Texas Today, he has what may be the world's largest collection of cap-gun sets and individual cap guns, about 5,000. He displays his treasures for visitors to his cap-gun museum at Enchanted Rock near Fredericksburg in Central Texas.
The facility boasts more than 50 big display cases of holster sets, cap guns and memorabilia from Hollywood western serials and TV stars of yesteryear. Older visitors wax nostalgic, and kids gape at oddities such as cameras and belt buckles that hide cap guns.
"When I was a kid, my dad had a small beauty shop on top of our apartment in Philadelphia, and he'd give me 50 cents or maybe a dollar for doing my chores. I'd run downstairs and over to a store to buy a cap gun," Charles recalls.
In 2003, he decided to build a museum to house his guns. Soon, people from all over the world began contacting him about his collection and coming to see it.
Charles says one gun from the 1950s in his collection is "so rare that, if I wanted to sell it, I could ask what I want and probably get it. But if you offered me $50,000, I still wouldn't sell it."
The oldest cap gun in his museum collection dates to 1792, the year embossed in the metal when it was molded. But it wasn't until the 1940s, '50s and early '60s when cap guns hit the bull's-eye of fame, thanks to Hollywood.
The museum boasts guns and holsters bearing names such as Wild Bill Hickok, Rin Tin Tin, Gunsmoke and Maverick.
Displays also include chaps, vests, hats, cowgirl outfits, American Indian headdresses and movie-star photos.
Janis Turk is a freelance writer in Louisiana.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcon...dside_0106tra.ART.State.Edition1.3765258.html
12:00 AM CST on Sunday, January 6, 2008
By JANIS TURK / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News
FREDERICKSBURG, Texas – When he was a boy, Charles Trois had just one thing on his Christmas wish list: a double-holster cap-gun set. More than 50 years later, his wish has been answered, thousands of times over.
Toy guns at the cap-gun museum in Central Texas Today, he has what may be the world's largest collection of cap-gun sets and individual cap guns, about 5,000. He displays his treasures for visitors to his cap-gun museum at Enchanted Rock near Fredericksburg in Central Texas.
The facility boasts more than 50 big display cases of holster sets, cap guns and memorabilia from Hollywood western serials and TV stars of yesteryear. Older visitors wax nostalgic, and kids gape at oddities such as cameras and belt buckles that hide cap guns.
"When I was a kid, my dad had a small beauty shop on top of our apartment in Philadelphia, and he'd give me 50 cents or maybe a dollar for doing my chores. I'd run downstairs and over to a store to buy a cap gun," Charles recalls.
In 2003, he decided to build a museum to house his guns. Soon, people from all over the world began contacting him about his collection and coming to see it.
Charles says one gun from the 1950s in his collection is "so rare that, if I wanted to sell it, I could ask what I want and probably get it. But if you offered me $50,000, I still wouldn't sell it."
The oldest cap gun in his museum collection dates to 1792, the year embossed in the metal when it was molded. But it wasn't until the 1940s, '50s and early '60s when cap guns hit the bull's-eye of fame, thanks to Hollywood.
The museum boasts guns and holsters bearing names such as Wild Bill Hickok, Rin Tin Tin, Gunsmoke and Maverick.
Displays also include chaps, vests, hats, cowgirl outfits, American Indian headdresses and movie-star photos.
Janis Turk is a freelance writer in Louisiana.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcon...dside_0106tra.ART.State.Edition1.3765258.html
