WINCHESTER: The Factory That Armed America — Then Vanished

It is maybe the most American object ever made: the lever-action Winchester, "the gun that won the West." You've seen it in a thousand Westerns, in the hands of cowboys, outlaws, and movie stars. But almost everything you think you know about it is a story someone sold you. The man who built it never designed a gun in his life — he made dress shirts. The rifle that made him rich had already bankrupted two companies before he touched it. And the legendary phrase "the gun that won the West" was invented by an advertising man in 1919, decades after the frontier was already gone. This is the story of how a New Haven businessman turned a twice-failed rifle into an American icon, how the Winchester factory grew to employ 21,000 people and helped arm the "Arsenal of Democracy" in World War II — and how, after 150 years, it all ended in a single day. On March 31, 2006, New Haven made Winchester rifles. On April 1, it didn't. From a Civil War betrayal that gave the company its name, to the M1 Garand, to the abandoned brick factory that is now luxury apartments with a swimming pool — this is the definitive story of the rise and fall of America's rifle. 🏭 THE LAST FACTORY tells the untold stories behind the factories, products, and people who built America. New documentaries regularly. 👍 Did you know Winchester started as a shirt company? Tell us in the comments. #Winchester #IndustrialHistory #MadeInAmerica #AmericanHistory #TheWest