Saturday, November 9, 2013

I found it! 
 When I was younger, I would watch this show Truth or Scare with my younger brother. On one episode, it showed this house known as the Winchester Mystery House. The show talked about how the house was built by Sarah Winchester, on the advice of a voodoo priestess. Sarah was advised to keep building and adding onto her mansion, in order to avoid being haunted by the spirits of those who lost their lives by the hands of a Winchester rifle. At first I thought this lady was a complete basketcase. But little did I know, that on November 9 2013, I would realize how crazy this lady really was.








The Winchester Rifles became popular during the late 1860's and soon became known as "The Gun That Won The West." They were some of the first self loading rifles and were the weapon of choice when it came time to fight against the Native Americans. Unfortunately for Native Americans, they clearly didn't have weapons of the same strength or magnitude. Sarah Winchester was afraid that the spirits of those Native Americans killed by the Winchester Rifle would come back and haunt her for the rest of her life.

 If you look closely at the picture, you can see the outline of a Native American chief, as well as the headdress. This was one of two pictures of Native Americans throughout the entire museum. I wasn't expecting to see many pictures of Native Americans and I was surprised when I found this one. There were also some old newspaper articles, and it made me feel as if I was on the set of Little House On The Prairie. My sister said she felt like she was in a old western film. I prefer my set better. Ha!
 They had many different guns of varying sizes, some would probably fit in my purse and others, well lets just say I'm not strong enough to hold them. Haha! I was surprised to see how well maintained the guns were, seeing as how they are over 130 years old. My brother said how they reminded him of Yosemite Sam. I guess you could say that the Winchester Firearms Museum would be Yosemite Sam's paradise! (Say yer prayers, you pesky varmint) Poor Yosemite, he never could catch old Bugs Bunny.



What surprised me about the rifle company was that they are based from Connecticut and not California. I figured that since the Winchester House was in California, that the company was as well. Another thing that surprised me was that people didn't know about Winchester Rifles. They only went to the Winchester Mystery House to learn about the bizarre house and not the history of Sarah's husband Oliver Winchester.


The man behind it all, Oliver Winchester 


Some favorite past times. Cards, poker chips and guns. 






I did get the chance to tour the Winchester Mystery House, I would say that Sarah was out of her mind. To think that she actually listened to some voodoo priestess, I guess she was that superstitious. If I was in her situation, I would have just ignored that crazy voodoo lady or just moved away somewhere halfway across the world. I mean spirits can't follow you right? Overall, I had a great time with my siblings and we all learned a little bit of history. I didn't tell them about the trip and luckily they were just as excited as I were, once we reached our final destination. So if you ever want to visit a creepy, mansion help yourself to the Winchester Mystery House. But be sure to visit the Firearms Museum before your house tour, it helps to put everything into perspective.




















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