POTD: Carrie Strahorn Deluxe Colt Lightning – A Pioneer’s Christmas Gift

POTD: Carrie Strahorn Deluxe Colt Lightning – A Pioneer's Christmas Gift

Welcome to today's Photo of the Day! This exceptional Colt Lightning slide action carbine represents both firearms artistry and genuine frontier history. Manufactured in 1888, it’s one of the rare “Baby” Lightning models chambered in .32 CLMR (.32 WCF) caliber, featuring deluxe walnut furniture with checkered panels and a high-polish “piano” finish. What truly sets this carbine apart is its factory inscription on the left side of the frame in Old English lettering: “Carrie A. Strahorn/1888/Christmas/from/R.E.S.” – documenting it as a Christmas gift from Robert Edmund Strahorn to his wife and traveling companion Carrie Adell “Dell” Strahorn. Robert Strahorn was no ordinary frontier husband. Known as “the Last of the Old Scouts” alongside Buffalo Bill Cody and Captain Jack Crawford, he worked as a war correspondent during the Great Sioux War of 1876 and reportedly was nearby when Custer fell. General George Crook once remarked that “Strahorn worked as well with his rifle as with his pen.” After marrying Carrie in 1877, Robert insisted she accompany him on his travels as a condition of his employment with the Union Pacific Railroad. Together, the couple traversed the American West by stage, train, horseback and pack train, with Carrie documenting their adventures in her two-volume work “Fifteen Thousand Miles by Stage” (1911).

"Historic, Factory Inscribed, Deluxe Colt Lightning Baby Carbine." Rock Island Auction Company, https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/4090/1102/historic-factory-inscribed-deluxe-colt-lightning-baby-carbine. Accessed 17 Mar. 2025.

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