XPost: co.general, rec.crafts.metalworking, talk.politics.guns   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: renault@google.com   
      
   The discovery of centuries-old pistol parts in Colorado is   
   shedding new light on the state’s Spanish Colonial history.   
      
   The spring-loaded arm, known as a “dog” and trigger guard were   
   once part of a wheellock pistol, according to the Museums of   
   Western Colorado, which has released details of the fascinating   
   find.   
      
   “The dog was found as part of an archaeological excavation   
   conducted by the Western Investigations Team (Museums of Western   
   Colorado) of a site, known as the Redoubt Site, which included   
   bits of Spanish Armor and other Spanish Colonial memorabilia   
   found near a small fortification, a few years back south of   
   Grand Junction, Colorado,” explained David Bailey, curator of   
   history at Museums of Western Colorado, in an email to Fox News.   
   “After analyzing the material, we discovered there was a dog and   
   a trigger guard [that] were from a very early Spanish pistol   
   known as a wheellock.”   
      
   The pistols, which could be almost two-feet long, first emerged   
   in Europe around 1500.   
      
   Metallurgic tests indicate that the pistol parts found near   
   Grand Junction are from the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries,   
   making the discovery particularly unusual. “The importance of   
   the find is the material is usually found in Texas or New Mexico   
   and not this far north in western Colorado,” Bailey added.   
      
   The historian explained that the dog tightened two clamps that   
   held flint or pyrite in place to ignite the pistol’s powder.   
      
   “There are many theories of how the material got this far north,   
   perhaps the remnants of a Spanish Exploration party or material   
   that was traded to The Ute Indian that lived in this area,” he   
   said. “Many mysteries still remain about this site and we are   
   still working to find additional evidence of why Spanish   
   Colonial artifacts would be found so far north and from such an   
   early period.”   
      
   The pistol parts are the latest archaeological find to provide a   
   glimpse into America’s Spanish colonial history.   
      
   In 2016, archaeologists discovered stones beneath San Antonio’s   
   Alamo Plaza that could be associated with the main gate of the   
   18th century Mision San Antonio de Valero, as the Alamo Mission   
   was originally known.   
      
   http://www.foxnews.com/science/2018/01/04/discovery-600-year-old-   
   pistol-parts-sheds-new-light-on-colorados-spanish-colonial-   
   history.html   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)