A Sales Record of Pistols and Revolvers for a Salida sporting goods store just turned up and was donated to the museum. The names of people who purchased firearms in Colorado had to be recorded by law after 1911, so records such as this one printed by a Denver hardware company presumably were distributed to sporting goods stores throughout the state. Dog-eared and held together by threads, the pages and hand-written names are still legible and some familiar—Starbuck, Scanga, Paquette, etc.
The law, which is printed in its entirety on the inside front cover, states that stores “shall keep a record of each pistol or revolver sold, rented or exchanged at retail.”
There is an unexplained date gap between the 1911-13 entries and the 1942-1952 entries. Guns are entered by make, for example Colt, Rem, S&W (Remington, Smith & Wesson), along with caliber, finish and serial number followed by name of buyer, age, occupation, residence, date of sale and name of seller. Most residences are local–Salida, Poncha, Smeltertown–but there are entries from as far away as Ulysses, Kan., Quincy, Ill. and Midland, Tex.
Most buyers are men, but a 37-year-old Salida housewife wrote her name in beautiful cursive and bought a 16-gauge, double-barreled Springfield in October 1942 and a 38-year-old housewife living on the Garfield Star Route, bought a 22-calibre Marlin, blued, in 1945.
You have to wonder. Will this discovery open any cold-case files?
Linda Cook brought the book to the museum February 8, 2020. She found it while cleaning out the second floor of her building at 137 F Street, which was known originally as the Wheeler Block for the hardware store owners Egbert and Lena Wheeler. The Wheelers lost their first building in the January 1888 fire and rebuilt within a year on the same spot. By 1903-04 the firm of Paine & Paine Hardware was in the building selling hardware, plumbing supplies, and sporting goods. The building continued as a hardware store through the 1920s and 1930s.
Historic real estate appraisal cards from the 1950s (online at Salida Regional Library archives) show the Indian Grill at 135 F Street and next door, to the south, Cady’s Hardware at 137 F Street.
The Indian Grill location was absorbed in 1961 by Gambles hardware, which had been operating next door, to the north, since 1943. When Gambles closed in 2009 this location became the first location of The Book Haven.
Cady’s Hardware was operated by Jack Cady at 137 F Street during the years 1947-1994, while the family lived upstairs. Later the space was used as part of Gambles. As of this year (2020) the downstairs at 137 F Street is being used as the Salida Pharmacy and Fountain.
And upstairs where the pistol record was found?
Salida Walking Tours claims the building is still haunted by the ghost of a woman who appears in the second floor window at night.