Salem, Ore. – A Salem museum is asking for the public’s help tracking down a missing artifact. The Willamette Heritage Center calls the 19th Century rifle an irreplaceable part of Oregon history.
Curator Kylie Pine discovered the gun’s secure case empty last week during routine cleaning. “We found some tampering with the locking mechanism for the case,” she tells KXL News, “It took some fenagling to get out.”
Pine calls it a brazen day-time heist; there is no evidence of a break-in, and no other artifacts appear to be missing. The rifle is several feet long, “With a decorative plaque on the side that talks about its significance to a man from Oregon history named Josiah Parrish. The Rev. Josiah Parrish came to Oregon as a missionary in the 1840s.” She says he’s important in the founding of Willamette University, “This gun was ceremoniously presented to Willamette University by some of his relatives, and then was loaned to us about 20 years ago, because we talk about his story here on site.”…