Tin Sign Info

A few years back, I had the good fortune of receiving a beautiful oak bar from a friend of mine who was moving and no longer had room for it. I immediately designated an area of my basement to be the bar area and decided to decorate it properly. I stocked the bar with all the essential liquor and mixers, bought a mini fridge to store beer, and even bought coordinating bar stools so all my friends would have a place to sit. Still, something was missing – a little decor to liven up the area.

I decided that neon bar signs were too tacky for my rustic oak bar, so I went with retro bar tin signs on the walls. I found tin signs for a few of my favorite beers, like Anheuser Bush and Budweiser, as well as some retro Coca Cola and A&W Root beer tin signs to add some color and variety. The end result looks great, and all my friends look forward to coming over after work for a drink. The vintage tin signs add character and flair without overwhelming the space or looking tacky.

June 20, 2007, Daisy President & C.E.O. Ray Hobbs and Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe, made an announcement at a press conference held under a tent in the field in front of Daisy’s offices: Daisy is coming home to Rogers. After ten excellent years of assembly operations in Neosho, Missouri, Daisy would relocate the entire operations under one roof, in the same facility in which the company had housed their offices since November, 1999. The move was made in record time and on July 25, 2007, the first Red Ryder came off the production line.

In 2008, Daisy celebrated 50 years in Rogers, Arkansas. The City of Rogers and Daisy hosted a four-day weekend celebration which was called a Homecoming. In addition to Daisy staff, Daisy Museum personnel, retirees and community friends, 189 Daisy collectors from every corner of the U.S. and Canada, registered for the event. An extremely limited-edition engraved Red Ryder BB gun commemorated the event and was numbered 1 of 189 in honor of the 189 people who registered for and reserved one of the guns.

You still have a Daisy Airgun tin sign to bring back all the old memories and share new ones with your kids.

The year was 1886. France had just given the bright copper Statue of Liberty to the United States. Coca-Cola had just been invented and was only available as a syrup mixed with soda water. The Plymouth Iron Windmill Company in Plymouth, Michigan, just outside of Detroit, had for four years been making iron windmills for farmers. However a premium item, given free to farmers who purchased these windmills, was about to change that company’s destiny.

Windmill sales did not take off as expected and the company came close in 1888 to liquidating. The vote failed by one vote – that of General Manager Lewis Cass Hough. While the “Chicago” air rifle–made almost entirely of wood – had been made since 1885 by the Markham Air Rifle Company of Plymouth, Hamilton was the first to develop a metal air rifle. After firing the gun (first at a basket of red-ink covered paper and then an old shingle), Hough exclaimed in the slang of the time, “Boy, that’s a Daisy!” and later convinced the Board of Directors to use the metal air rifle as a premium item.

The popularity of the premium item was huge. Farmers were more interested in the “Daisy” than the windmill– so much so that the focus of the company shifted from windmills to airguns. By 1890, the twenty-five employees of Plymouth Iron Windmill Company were producing 50,000 guns, most of which were distributed within a radius of one hundred miles of the factory.
 1891 – Charles Bennett is hired to serve as the Company’s first salesman at a salary of $85/month plus expenses. Two days after being hired, Bennett makes a trip to Chicago and sell 10,000 guns to Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Company. The order is filled in 6 months.

For everyone that their first gun was a Dasiy airgun, know you can have a Daisy Airgun tin sign to bring back all the old memories to share with your kids.

The Daisy Airgun Museum, located in downtown Rogers, Arkansas, is a non-profit corporation which preserves and promotes vintage products and artifacts of the historic Daisy company while serving as a national tourism destination for Daisy fans and collectors.
A growing core group of “Friends of the Daisy Museum” lend valued support to the Museum through membership fees and purchase of limited edition collectibles. 

The success of the Museum is dependant on admission, product sales, donations and memberships.  We invite you to join “Friends of the Daisy Museum” to help us maintain this wonderful facility for future generations.

Throughout its rich history, Daisy airguns have been a part of the fabric of American life. Most successful hunters and match competition shooters today will tell you that their first gun was a Daisy. Chances are, yours was too. Know you can have your very own dasiy airgun tin sign.