The Evans rifle was a lever action repeater that was built in the 1870s in Maine.
The story begins with a Thomaston, Maine Dentist by the name of Warren R. Evans. Evans was not just a Dentist, Evans was an inventor as well and one of his ideas was a repeating lever action rifle with a very high capacity magazine.
In a time when the military was adopting a single action breech loading rifle (the Springfield Trap Door Rifle). Evans had invented a rifle with a capacity of 34 cartridges.
The magazine was part of the butt stock, similar to that of the Spencer Carbine, only this magazine was heliacal in design and allowed for 34 of the proprietary .44 Evans Short cartridge to be loaded.
When looking for help to manufacture the rifle, two parties assisted with and invested in the project. One was the firm of Merwin-Hulbert the other a local business man named Adna Curtis Denison. Denison owned a machine shop on the banks of the Little Androscoggin River. Merwin-Hulbert had the finances and the distribution network needed to market the rifle.
The rifles and carbines were built at Adna C. Denison's machine shop in Mechanic Falls, Maine. Adna owned many companies including a hotel which sat a stone's throw from the machine shop.
This map from 1873 shows the location of the machine shop (top center of map)
There were lots of other mills and shops nearby, all using the water from the Little Androscoggin River for power.
Here is what the location looks like today, pretty much all the mills are gone, a large fire destroyed the last mill a few years back. The location is where Lewiston Street (Hwy 11/121) makes a bend to the south to meet Elm Street.
Sources
Mechanic Falls, Atlas: Androscoggin County 1873, Maine Historical Map (historicmapworks.com)
The Evans Repeating Rifle (leverguns.com)
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