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MIAMISBURG — Imagine Nelson Clark rising from a chair to stretch after working all day in the small building behind his home, just a stone's throw from the Great Miami River.

Only a few years before, at age 21, he trained to be a gunsmith in Lebanon and now he's set up in Miamisburg doing exactly that.

He holds a hefty percussion rifle he's just completed in his hand: its curly maple stock shines warm in the sunlight, the spare brass work he's carefully added sparkles and the long, 40½-inch barrel stretches out before his eye.

That scene was probably enacted in about 1840 and where the rifle has been since isn't known.

But what is known is where it is now. Thanks to Tom Gentry, a Miamisburg gun collector, this Clark rifle is back home.

"I trade and go to a lot of auctions," Gentry said.

When he saw a particular rifle in an auction catalog from Findlay, something caught his eye.

"It said it was an 'N Clark rifle from Miamisburg,' " Gentry said.

Armed with that information, Gentry contacted the Miamisburg Historical Society, guessing the "N" might stand for Nathan. But the historical society came up with a blank.

That's when "one guy said we've got a Nelson Clark. And he said: 'He made guns.' "

Bingo.

"The History of Montgomery County," published in 1882, shows Nelson Clark was born in 1801 in New York State and moved to Indiana as a child, where he learned basket making from his Indian playmates along the White River.

After moving to Lebanon and learning gun making — "the entire weapon being made out of rough iron and steel" — Clark moved to Miamisburg and continued the trade. He built a brick home at 345 N. Main St. in 1825.

The N Clark rifle was said to be well-known throughout the west.

Gentry, meanwhile, hoped to return the rifle to Miamisburg.

"If it's within my (price) range, I'll bring it home," he said.

And that's exactly what happened.

Gentry said Clark knew his trade well.

"He did a magnificent job. He did a spectacular job on the stock itself."

The striped wood is curly or Tiger maple.

And rather then keep the rifle to himself, Gentry took just two weeks to enjoy it and then put it on permanent loan with the Miamisburg Historical Society.

"To me, it's part of Miamisburg history. It is where it belongs now."