Ithaca Gun Company | McCracken Research Library

Ithaca Gun Company (1880 – Present) is a manufacturer of shotguns and rifles originally established in Ithaca, New York in 1880.  Ithaca Gun Company became famous for building firearms based on expired patents owned by Remington Arms.  Its hunting shotguns were known for their fine decorative work, typically waterfowl or hunting dogs.  Around 1877, Leroy Smith went into business with William Henry Baker.  They moved the W.H. Baker Company, which manufactured double- and triple-barreled shotguns, from Center Lisle, New York to Syracuse.  In 1883, Baker, Smith, and several partners moved to Ithaca and established the original Ithaca Gun Company.  The original factory was located in the Fall Creek neighborhood of the city, on a slope later known as Gun Hill, where the nearby waterfall supplied the main source of energy for the plant.  The factory was condemned in March 2006 and only the smokestack presently remains. 

The company was controlled by the Smith family until 1967, when it was sold to a Colorado company which later became General Recreation, Inc.  After a failed attempt to move manufacturing to Colorado, it filed for bankruptcy in September 1985.  In 1987, new owners Ithaca Acquisition, Inc. moved manufacturing to King Ferry, New York.  In May 2005 it moved to larger facilities in Auburn.  Then, the owners sold all of Ithaca's assets, trademarks, and manufacturing rights to the Marshalls from Upper Sandusky, Ohio.  The physical goods were relocated to Floyd Marshall's tool and die shop.  The Marshalls sold the company to Dave Dlubak in June 2007, and it continues to operate in Upper Sandusky, Ohio.