Need a canon??

Do you have a need for your very own personal Parrott Rifle? It weighs 500 pounds, costs $1041.70 (plus shipping) and the rolling cradle is extra. Oh, and you better have a humungous truck to go fetch it. And where can you get such an item? In Post Falls, Idaho! Would you believe?

Hern Iron Works "is the successors to the respected Washington Machinery Foundry and the National Iron Works, established in 1884. Hern Iron Works was constructed in the 1970s on a wholly-owned 30-acre parcel ...... " near Post Falls.This company offers a goodly line of products including different kinds of canons!

You can buy a Revolutionary War Howitzer, an English Swivel Gun, a Coehorn Mortar and a Parrott Rifle (which is really a #1000 canon!), an Ordnance Rifle, and a Carronade.  Who would have thought that such a company is right in our back yard???

F.Y.I.  The Parrott Rifle was developed by Robert Potter, supervisor of the West Point Foundry from 1836-1867. This canon was easy to use, cheap to make and quick to produce...... "the best practical thing that could be got at the time." It was a cast iron canon.

Now who would buy such a thing? Those who re-enact historical times, that's who!

At our recent Walking with Ancestors we were admiring a vintage Civil War canon in Greenwood Cemetery and it was Charles Hansen who tipped me off that you can buy your own right here in our neighborhood. Who would have thought?