[train222]

Hi All,

I was just contacted by the Plymouth Preservation Network. The person that was suppose to purchase the remaining lot of bricks from the Daisy Wall has backed out of the deal! So they are now available on a first come, first serve basis to the general public....

Wendy has asked me if I would post this information:

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For Sale: Daisy Bricks From The Daisy Factory Wall In Plymouth, Michigan

Priced at $20.00 each plus shipping..

Each brick will come with a C.O.A from the Preservation Network.

Limited amount of bricks remain!

Here is your opportunity to purchase a piece of Air Gun History!

Please contact Wendy at the Preservation network...

Here is her Direct Email Link:

Wendy

[email protected]

Please let her know where you got the info..

Thanks for looking,

Stu

Stu Gabriel (MrGun)

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Here is an interesting story of the last remains of the Daisy Airgun Factorty being torn down in Plymouth, Michigan..


As most of you know, I am an avid collector of Daisy Air Guns...


When the wall was torn down in November of last year, there where only 200 of the 1,000's of bricks from the wall that where saved. The remaining bricks where dumped in a land fill.


The remaining 200 Bricks where divided among the Historical Society's in Plymouth so they could use them for thier fund raising programs.


After contacting the different Historical Society's I finally lucked out on my last call. They had three bricks left, so I purchased them all. I recieved the bricks along with a C.O.A. for each brick.


These bricks are over 131 Years Old!


Below you will see the internet news report on the tearing down of the wall. I also made a wall display in my gun room with the bricks and all of the documentation that I had available on the wall comming down.


Thanks for looking and Enjoy,


Stu


Stu Gabriel (MrGun)


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Plymouth Daisy Wall Sees Its Last Day


Plymouth lost the historic landmark during its demolition Monday morning.


Posted by Aysha Jamali (Editor) , November 18, 2013 at 02:05 PM

With a little nudging from a construction excavator, Plymouth's "Daisy wall" comes down brick-by-brick Monday morning. Credit: Aysha Jamali


The lone wall that stood at the curve of Union Street near Main Street in Plymouth is history.


Actually, the "Daisy wall" was already a part of the city's history, but now the wall is gone after its demolition Monday morning.



The worker operating the excavator nudged and picked away at the bricks and window lintels, which will be saved, until they fell loose. The wall was down in about 30 minutes, while the steel frames took longer to disassemble.

The wall was the only remnant of The Daisy Air Rifle Factory, once Plymouth's manufacturing showpiece. The Plymouth City Commission approved an agreement with Daisy Plymouth LLC for the demolition of the wall. The deal includes the construction of a park as well as the condition that the wall must come down before building permits will be issued.


"They'll be issued as soon as this afternoon," Plymouth Community Development Director John Buzuvis said during Monday's demolition.


Daisy Plymouth LLC agreed to donate 200 bricks as well as the decorative window lintels to the Plymouth Preservation Network (PPN), who led the charge to save the wall. They plan to sell the 200 bricks to raise the money for more historical markers around downtown.


Some Bricks Are Now Available For Sale!


There is more information about the Wall and The Bricks on the PPN website at plymouthpreservation.org.

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[chuckie68]

Stu,

I used to live about 3 blocks from that factory. To me it was a sad day when the factory came down for Condo's, then the wall was saved as a historical marker. When the wall came down it was like a sharp stick in the eye. But that's Plymouth politics.

Chuck

 

[train222]

Chuck,

I feel the same way that you do...

At first I didn't realize that it was that the township that wanted the wall taken down, not the Developer...

That blew my mind...An historic landmark over 130 years old, now gone forever!

I saw the drawings and skecthes that were presented to the township from the historical society's that were trying to save the wall.

It was a really a neat looking covered, palvaion attached to the wall witch will have benches, tables, trees, ect in a park like setting...

But the Township turned the proposed plan down and...THE WALL CAME DOWN!

I know this is just a tiny thing in the current overall world conditions, but this really disappointed me.

Thanks for the comments,

Stu

 

[joe kuhn]

Stu - lots of nice pictures on Google Images. There's the wall you're referring to on the right. I was looking for more context. Thanks for the note.

 

[Brian in Oregon]

What a waste. But glad you got some momentos of it.It's sad to see things from the past needlessly and often mindlessly destroyed.

We had an old highway bridge in Hood River get bypassed and blown up because it was obsolete. It was still in good condition, and would have served just as well being left in place for walkers and bike riders to travel over. But at the time no public agency wanted to adopt it, so it was destroyed. Now ODOT is pulling out all the stops to preserve and restore what's left of the old highway. How times change in only a relatively short period of time (two decades). In fact, it was destruction of this bridge that caused a lot of people to demand no more destruction and started the preservation movement.

One of my hobbies is researching and visiting abandoned rail lines in Oregon, and also travelling on bypassed highways. I've often returned on business trips by detouring on old back roads. There are a lot of great sights to see and it can be much more relaxing than travelling on main highways in a "wolf pack".

In fact, here are a couple of pics of myself, the kids and a friend in our FJ40 Land Cruisers exploring the Barlow Road. My son is with me in the blue FJ40, and you can see my daughter in the ivory FJ40.

The Barlow Road was a toll road built in 1845 from eastern Oregon to western Oregon, going around Mt. Hood, by Sam Barlow. It was an important trail that was part of the old Oregon Trail. It gave people arriving from the Oregon Trail a choice of rafting down the Columbia River, where many capsized and drowned, to reach western Oregon, or paying a toll and going over the Cascade Mountains. The "road" is an unimproved trail, with no gravel and minimal maintenance. It's pretty primitive in some areas and can beat up passenger cars. It's not a big problem for jeep type vehicles unless you run into washouts or other issues. It's nice that it has been left preserved in its original condition. I think it's been left open to vehicles as that's the best way to make sure forest growth does not obliterate it.

Edit:

http://photomomlinda.blogspot.com/2010/09/barlow-trail-hike-back-in-time.htm

The above link shows part of the Barlow Road in an area west of Mt. Hood called Laural Hill. The trail is not drivable in this area because it is simply too steep and narrow. With a 60% grade wagons had to be lowered down with ropes and block and tackle. Old Highway 26 ran over some of the Barlow Road, while bypassing other parts of it. Now new Highway 26 bypasses old Hwy 26, and even obliterates some of it. The bridge railing shown in the vicinity of the waterfall was a stop made by FDR when he toured Mt. Hood and gave a speech at the CCC constructed Timberline Lodge, which still stands today and is in use by skiers. The lodge itself is a magnificent work of art, with a lot of wood carving, masonry and wrought iron work done to the level of artwork.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timberline_Lodge

 

[train222]

Joe,

Thanks for the picture, thats a lot better than the same shot I have, so I am going to replace it with the one you just posted...

Thanks,

Stu

 

[train222]

Brian,

Thanks for your post and the links that you provided. The pictures of the inside of the lodge really show some very nice craftsmanship..

Stu

 

[Tron]

A very sad day in Michigan history for sure. Right across the street from Daisy was King Manufacturing, which also produced lever action sheet metal BB guns. Daisy bought them out and produced the Daisy King for years. It was a less expensive alternative that held over 500 BB's.

The lever gun pictured was my Uncle Rex's King and it was also my first gun. It still works!

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These are just a few of my many Airguns. From the top, that's a Sheridan C9 .20 cal.

The next is a Crosman 1400 (thanks Tripod!)

After that is a Daisy 853 US issue CMP rifle. That gun was manufactured for the US military's training program to get juniors familiar with firearms. It's marked #3.

Then, the Daisy 499, aka "The most accurate BB gun in the world". It is truly a remarkable piece.

Next is the Daisy 99. A predecessor to the 499.

Second from bottom is a 4th variant (1976) Crosman 760.

On the bottom is a first variant of the Daisy 880. It was a somewhat dangerous gun, being that it is quite powerful and you have to cock and load it before it can be pumped! That was a really stupid engineering mistake.



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[Brian in Oregon]

My first BB gun was a Daisy 99. just like #4 in your pic. It was fairly accurate for a smoothbore BB gun, probably because of the halfway decent sights. It had an OD green sling and the box it came in hawked it as BSA approved, though the gun was not marked so. It's supposed to be somewhere still in my mom's house, but we've not been able to find it.

(Edit: I forgot, it did have a "bronze" BSA medallion in the buttstock.)

I loved it when we'd have ice storms, because I'd take a couple of the wax 1/2 pint milk cartons that Daisy sold BBs in, go to a nearby creek, and plink at icicles, and if the surface ice wasn't too thick, plink holes in it. Sheets of ice could also be stood up for targets.

I also would collect damaged Christmas ornaments and burned out Christmas and household light bulbs and use them as targets. I found out quickly that it was best to shoot these in an open box on its side, so the mess could be contained.

My next gun was a Crosman 760, which I preferred because it had enough power to kill pest birds like starlings and english sparrows. Kept blowing out the seals from pumping it up too much and it eventually bit the dust dieseling one too many times.

(And another edit: My parents made me complete Hunters Safety before I took possession of the Daisy 99.)

 

[Tron]

Coming soon: "Super 760" project. This is where I take a $10 Crosman 760 that I found on Craigslist (very rare rifled barrel variant), completely restore it and improve performance by porting and installing a longer Model 66 pump tube.

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[train222]

JB,

Can't wait to see the finished product on the 760. You do some amazing restortations on these older air guns.

Now I know who to send a piece to, when something unusual comes along...

I didn't realize you had such a large collection. I thought I got you started into airguns and created a monster...

Looks like I was wrong and you have been collecting a lot longer than I thought.

Later,

Stu

 

[Tron]

Thanks for the kind words Stu. Actually, I have been collecting for some time now, but the PCP guns are relatively new to me. Anyway, here is what the 760 receiver looks like after bead blasting and powder coat. Just like new!

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Completely resealed. Now, the wood. This will take a few weeks or so because I do my own projects in between jobs.

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[Brian in Oregon]

Uh, I thought all 760s had rifled barrels? Myself and the rest of the kids in the neighborhood had 760s, except for one kid with a Benjiman, and all our 760s had rifled barrels, including those with the older wood buttstocks, but all forends were wood. It was a bolt action BB repeater but a single shot pellet rifle.

 

[Ertz]

I still have my Daisy Winchester 30-30 circa 1969. Everytime I look at it I am filled with memories.

 

[Tron]

No Brian, well over 90% (probably more along the line of over 95%) of 760's were smooth bores, trust me.

 

[1oldtimer]

Did you ever pull the trigger with the lever hanging down??

OUCH!!!!

Clyde

 

[JDEERE]

I have a Sheridan similar to the one in Trons pics. It doesn't build pressure when you pump it. Does anyone make a rebuild kit for these?
Thanks, s.d.

 

[Tron]

The kits are available on Ebay and there are YouTube videos that go through the sealing process step by step. They are a fairly easy gun to disassemble and reseal.

 

[Barry C. Roach]

Back in the day, when I was a little shaver, the Illinois Conservation Department used to give you a dime per pair for sparrow legs. The local farmers didn't mind if you shot them the barn as long as you used a Daisy BB gun. I had a ball and I bought a Benjamin .22 pump air pistol with the proceeds. I still have all my Daisys and the Benjamin.

Kids should have that much fun today. I can never remember being stressed as a child.

 

[johnboy]

I repaired a friends model 25 back in the late fifties and we would harass the local fox squirrel population in southern Michigan on Saturday mornings. I remember it was much more powerfull than the lever actions and several one shot kills were made with the M25. The last M25 I saw was made in China!