A rifle that was created in St. Louis and was integral to the shaping of the West is now Missouri’s Official State Rifle.
The Hawken muzzle-loading rifle was created by Jacob and Samuel Hawken, brothers who learned gunsmithing from their father before opening a shop in St. Louis in 1815. As the Rocky Mountain fur trade was getting underway, the brothers created the rifle meet the needs of fur trappers, explorers, traders, and others venturing out into then-largely unexplored parts of what today is the United States, west of Missouri.
Legislators hope that by making this one of the symbols of the state, it will draw people to learn more about this part of history.
“With the fur trade era, this just opened up the entire West, and the fact that it started right here in Missouri, I think is just incredible. People couldn’t just go to Wal-Mart and just go buy clothes,” said Representative Mazzie Boyd (R-Hamilton), who sponsored the idea. “I think it’s just a whole different world that sometimes people just don’t even think about.”
Representative Doug Clemens (D-St. Ann) also carried the state rifle legislation, after a gunsmith friend of his approached him about the idea. Clemens, who has a minor in history, said the Hawken gave those in the frontier a reliable, high-quality weapon that was effective at very long range.
House members this past session heard from historians who said giving the Hawken this state designation would be appropriate.
“It’s about more than just the gun. It’s about the history of the western fur trade and how that was the economic engine for the State of Missouri around 1825, first coming out of the mountains into St. Louis and then being shipped all over the world to be used in beaver hats and fur hats and things like that,” said Paul Fennewald, former state Homeland Security coordinator and historian.
He said it was actually one of the state’s first executives who spurred the rifle’s creation.
“It was a change from the long guns … the Pennsylvania guns. Once they started going west, that gun needed to be stouter because it had to go so far on horseback and survive in the mountains and so forth,” said Historian and Dekalb County Commissioner Kyle Carroll. “There’s nothing that would compare to the reputation that the Hawken had, the significance of it.”
Representatives Boyd and Clemens both, at the recent Hawken Classic event in Defiance, had to chance to fire both an original Hawken and a replica. Both say they shot well with it, and they were given plaques for supporting the rifle’s state symbol designation this year. Both said it was an honor to fire the 190 year-old original, which Boyd notes, is very valuable.
“If you want to get an original Hawken it’s over six figures now.”
The replica Hawken they fired is expected to go on display in the Missouri Capitol, as an addition to the State Museum on the Capitol’s first floor. Clemens is looking forward to having fun with that.
“I’ve been joking that’s going to be one of my ‘old man’ things,” he said. “I’m going to go in the Capitol and I’m going to point at that rifle behind the glass and I’m going to say, ‘I shot that gun!’”
Missouri becomes at least the 10th state to have a firearm among its state symbols. That Hawken rifle language was added to Senate Bill 139, which was signed into law in July.