100-year-old gun stolen from display

HELENA – A century-old pistol that belonged to a legendary cowboy and outlaw is missing from a rural museum, and the Montana Historical Society is offering $4,000 for information leading to the weapon’s return.

Officials at the Phillips County Museum in Malta determined late last month that the ivory-handled gun on loan from the society was gone, society spokesman Tom Cook said Monday.

He identified the weapon as a Bisley Colt .45, a type of gun manufactured from 1894-1913 for international target-shooting competitions in Bisley, England.

The Phillips County Sheriff’s Department has two suspects in the disappearance of the gun, which once belonged to Dutch Henry Ieuch, an expert Montana cowhand said to have rustled horses and cattle in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Society director Arnold Olsen called the gun “an important artifact that belongs to all of the people of the state of Montana. The thief, or thieves, not only stole a valuable pistol. They also took an important part of our state’s great history and heritage.”

The gun had been out of circulation for about 100 years, said George Oberst, a curator for the society.

“It’s in incredible condition for a gun that old,” Oberst said.

“It’s truly like it just came out of the factory.”

The gun is decorated with an ivory relief of a longhorn cow’s head and shoulders.

Phillips County authorities, who did not identify the suspects, have reported the theft of the gun to federal officials and to the Colt Collectors Society.

The historical society loaned the pistol to the Phillips County Museum in July 2000.

The museum wanted it because of the gun’s significance in county history.

A compromise agreement gave the museum a 10-year, renewable contract to exhibit the gun, with Phillips County paying for insurance.