Dozens of guns on display

1939 – 1955

Arcadia, CA

• Mr. William Parker Lyon
• the first Pony Express Museum in San Marino
• 1934 moved to Arcadia, CA
• six acres
• three enormous buildings
  (using material salvaged from Lucky Baldwin’s old Santa Anita Racetrack and from the Oakwood Hotel)
• One of the buildings on the property had 30 rooms
• purchased an abandoned, narrow-gauge train from Nevada and constructed a circular track on his property offering short rides to museum visitors
• more than one million collectibles:
  saloon furnishings, a printing office, mining equipment, toys, dolls, musical instruments, along with old signs, bottles, kerosene lamps, guns, saddles, chamber pots, dishes, “wanted” posters, clothing & hats, stamps and currency.
• stagecoaches, fire engines and even a jail cell
• collection of Native American artifacts was considered one of the nation’s finest
• 1949 W. Parker Lyon died
• His son took over the management of the museum for about 6 years
• The collection of more than one million treasures went to Reno
• later was broken up and sold to private investors