This is an I-Heart podcast.

And we continue with our American stories.

For a time, a near-Mint Colt Walker held the distinction of being the most expensive gun

ever sold after it was auctioned for $1.8 million in 2018.

Here to tell the story of the legendary Colt Walker Revolver is Logan Meddish.

Logan founded and runs high-caliber

history LLC and has more than a decade of experience working for the Smithsonian

Institution and the National Park Service. Let's take a listen. Two of the most

iconic words in the world of gun collecting are Colt Walker. Only 1,000 of the

revolvers were ever made for the U.S. military, and only 100 more were made for civilians. And of those,

only about 10% survived. That scarcity has propelled this black powder percussion revolver to legendary status.

Sporting a nine-inch barrel and tipping the scales at four pounds nine ounces, this 44 caliber

wheel gun was huge and designed not to ride in hip holsters but in saddle-mounted holsters and to

be used by cavalry troops on horseback.

It was the most powerful handgun in the world for an impressive 88 years, from its introduction in 1847,

until the 357 Magnum cartridge hit the scene in 1935.

It also saved Samuel Colt from bankruptcy after his first commercial revolver design tanked.

So what's the deal with the gun's name?

Captain Samuel Hamilton Walker of the Texas Rangers began his military career at 19 with a brief stint with the Washington

City Volunteers during the Creek Indian Campaign in 1836 in Alabama. He then traveled to Florida

as a scout and finally ended up in Texas in 1841. He was in Galveston in 1842, serving under Captain Jesse Billingsley, fighting for the Republic

of Texas against the Mexican Army.

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