| Duane L. Cronk, Publisher | THE ANGWIN REPORTER | Oct 26, 2006 |
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About Angwin...
Angwin is a community of about 2500 residents on Howell Mountain. We are in a coastal range of northern California, about 70 mi. north of San Francisco.
The Village ranges from 1600 to 2200 ft. elevation, overlooking the scenic Napa Valley. It is surrounded by vineyards and forests.
Many Angwin residents work for Pacific Union College, a liberal arts college with a national reputation, or the nearby St. Helena Hospital.
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In Angwin?
The Pitcairn Islands Connection
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One of the most unlikely things about Angwin is that it is home to the Pitcairn Islands Study Center, created and administered by Herb Ford, long-time Angwinite and president of the Angwin Community Council for 18 years. Herb founded the Center in 1977 and obtained housing in the PUC Library, to provide information to researchers, authors and others about The Bounty Saga. Comprising the worlds largest collection of material about the saga, it also provides direct help of various kinds to the Pitcairn people.
The Study Center contains large and beautiful collections of books on Pitcairn, stamps, artwork and numerous other historic documents. Visitors come from all over the world to see these treasures and do research.
Last week, Herb gave us this story.
Gun Collector Donates Pitcairn Guns
After more than 60 years on one of the worlds most remote islands and more than 100 years after their manufacture, two rifles, both famous for being among The Guns that Won the West have found a home in the Pitcairn Islands Study Center.
The firearms are a gift to the Center from the estate of the late gun collector Frank Q. Newton, Jr.
The rifles include one of the famous Winchester 73's, that began being manufactured in 1873 by the Winchester Firearms Company and was commonly known as the Gun That Won the West. The other gun is a Colt Lightning 44 caliber rifle, manufactured in 1887 by the Colt Firearms Company in Hartford, Conn.
The guns have come to the Pitcairn Islands Study Center because for more than 60 years, from 1890 until 1956, they were used on Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific Ocean by William Christian and later by Floyd McCoy, both of whom were direct descendants of Fletcher Christian and William McCoy, sailors who mutinied against Captain William Bligh on the ship H. M. S. Bounty, Herb explained.
The 1789 revolt of the sailors, which has come to be known world-wide as The Mutiny on the Bounty, has been the subject of five major Hollywood-type motion pictures and hundreds of books over a period approaching 200 years.
The inhabitants ofPitcairn Island have long made use of light firearms to eliminate wild goats that invade their gardens, or to shoot breadfruits down from towering trees on the island.
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Herbert Ford, director of the Pitcairn Islands Study Center (right) inspects one of the guns donated to the Center by Michael Patkis, executor of the estate of Frank Q. Newton (left). 
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