1910 was a prosperous year for Franklin and included the building of the National Guard Armory overlooking French Creek. The brick building on the corner of Franklin Avenue and 13th Street has housed the Wild West Museum & Franklin Antique Mall for the last quarter century, thanks to massive renovations by Dan Hardesty & his son, Dan Jr.
The top floor of the building is the Wild West Museum, containing numerous items from the 1800s, such as the rifles lining the walls and display cases.
Exposition contains:
- A display case contains firefighting medals from the 1800s, including many from Franklin, Oil City, Cornplanter, and other northwestern PA fire departments.
- Dozens of small Remington bronzes fill the old PA National Guard Armory in Franklin, including a speeding stagecoach pulled by six horses.
- Cowboy mannequins accompany a miniature stagecoach and horses in one of the rooms.
- The museum contains various guns and rifles from the 1800s, including this Civil War-era Remington six-shooter with a ball-and-cap firing system.
- Several totem poles can be found throughout the three Doors of the Museum.
Not only does every piece have sentimental value and sometimes strange and exotic stories, but many of the items are historically significant, especially in the upstairs building where the Wild West Museum is located. While it showcases items that could be classified as Western - an entire artillery unit of rifles, pistols and shotguns, pictures of Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill, Steve McQueen's cowboy hat, Tom Mix's horse saddle, a stuffed wolf (below) that was once believed to be the largest in the U.S the upper floor is also dedicated mainly to Civil War antiques, riverboat gambling pieces and other historical oddities. Among these are a collection of hunting shotguns used by Honus Wagner, the famed turn-of-the-century Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop.
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