Wallace Gusler is a native Virginian who grew up in Fort Lewis Hollow at the foot of Fort Lewis Mountain in Roanoke, County. Living practically in the shadow of Andrew Lewis’s French and Indian War fort could have been what sparked Wallace’s interest in the frontier and longrifles but it wasn’t. Despite their name, Fort Lewis School largely ignored this local history. Instead it was the “arrowheads” that he found in plowed fields that inspired Wallace’s fascination first with Indians, then with the Virginia frontier. In about 1954 Wallace’ father, Lester Gusler, decided to replace a family longrifle burned in a house fire years earlier. He purchased a full-stocked, iron-mounted, .32 caliber, squirrel rifle and, when he had trouble getting the old percussion rifle to fire, Wallace asked if he could try it. Mr. Gusler handed it over and, as they say, “the rest is history.” While many events come together to shape the direction of a person’s life, having that rifle to shoot and hunt with had a huge influence on Wallace and this writer, who was at the time his neighbor.
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