Smithgall Artillery Museum

I had known he was going to open a museum at some point but had not learned he actually had until a few days ago due to a facebook post. I followed his site and this morning they posted that because of the rain they were going to open it to visitors today. He does not have regular hours but has held a few open houses and opens it up on appointment. We made the trip down, it's about an hour south of my house and checked it out today.

Charlie is very nice, he used to be the Mayor of Lancaster City and is pretty famous locally. He was there to great everyone coming in. I asked if photos were allowed and he said yes so long as I did not post them to the internet so I unfortunately cannot post any of them. This video is already there however so you can get an idea of what he has.

Cannons, mortars and more: A look through a Drumore Township museum [video] - YouTube

And this is the facebook page for his gun "shop". He operates it out of the rear of his pharmacy. Didn't know about this either until a few months ago.

https://www.facebook.com/smithgallsguns/

I took a lot of photos. At the end of our visit, prominently displayed near the entrance I saw he had posted signs stating no photos or videos so his granting me permission was awesome. Others were taking photos too so he's obviously flexible on it. Some of the pieces he has in his collection are the only carriage abandoned on the field at Gettysburg. Cut up and left in the peach orchard, he has the original wood although it is badly decayed. He rebuilt the carriage and installed the original metal on it. He has an original complete caisson with attached double ammo caisson. Huge siege mortars, a line of Gatling guns, several Revolutionary war cannons, an Alger coffee mill gun, Civil War mountain guns, a Hotchkiss mountain gun. Most of the wood on the carriages has been replaced so I don't know how many if any are original but I believe most of the metal is. I got some photos of various plaques, and stampings on some of the carriages. He also had a mechanics wagon built to original specs which looks great but is obviously new. They do have open houses periodically where he takes some outside and fires them. Admission is free, he's a non-profit but does have a donation box which we contributed too. If you follow his gun shop on facebook you'll get notices in advance of his open houses.