Since the company had sold the old plant on 8th
Street in July of 1999 and relocated their office to
an industrial park in the north part of Rogers in
November, 1999, the Daisy Museum needed a new home.
We found it in a 1906 bank building at 114 South
First Street. The building had a lot of
architectural character with archways and mosaic
tile floor. It was easy to make our antique airguns
and displays look right at home. The City of Rogers
Parks & Recreation Department had agreed to run the
Daisy Museum on a day to day basis with Daisy’s
support. Several Daisy retirees, devoted to the
Museum’s preservation, founded a non-profit
organization called “Friends of the Museum” which
provided much needed support. In March, 2000,
Arkansas First Lady Janet Huckabee shot a balloon
tied in the middle of a ribbon to officially mark
the opening of the Daisy Airgun Museum.
Daisy’s new
product introductions for 2000 included PowerLine
pistols models 400 GX, 45 and 645. TruGlo® fiber
optic front sights were made standard on most
PowerLine rifles and the PowerLline brand of
slingshots were introduced.
Daisy licensed
the Winchester brand in 2000 and introduced a line
of Winchester(R) Air Rifles at the Shooting Hunting
and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show in early 2001. The
initial lineup included walnut-stocked, .177 cal.
pellet breakbarrel rifles with maximum velocities of
600, 800 and 1000 fps. There was also a model 722,
a .22 caliber version which had a maximum velocity
of 700 feet per second. New introductions at the
SHOT Show in 2001 also included the AirStrike model
240 soft air pistol kit and the PowerLine 622 pellet
pistol which featured a 6-shot rotary clip for .22
cal. pellets.
Ray Hobbs was
named President, Chief Executive Officer and
Chairman of the Board of Daisy Outdoor Products in
2001. Ray has brought to Daisy a wealth of related
industry and retail experience as well as leadership
expertise to our management team. His vision for
Daisy continues to contribute to the company’s
consistent growth.
Daisy secured
a contract with the U.S. Navy in 2001 to produce
nearly indestructible drill rifles which are being
utilized by the U.S. Navy, honor guards, color guard
and drill teams nationwide. At first glance, the
Daisy drill rifle looks like a fully functional
1903-A3 Springfield rifle with a black synthetic
stock. The design and durable steel components and
synthetic stock make this drill rifle capable of
withstanding the abuse that is inherent in drill
team use.
In 2002, the
company introduced the 15XT BB repeater pistol and
ShatterBlast targets, the only breakable airgun
target on the market. In June, 2002, the company
took delivery of a custom-designed Mobile Airgun
Range. The 18 foot steel trailer houses a 5-meter,
two shooting point range, complete with electric
target runners.
At the SHOT Show
in 2003, the company introduced several kits, the
PowerLine 617X pistol (a six-shot .177 cal.
semi-auto) and The Natural line of slingshots – the
only ergonomically designed slingshot that allows
the wrist to be in the most natural position when
the forks for the slingshot are perfectly vertical.
The Model 1894 was reintroduced under the
Winchester® Air Rifle brand as a lever action
15-shot BB repeater.
Daisy had
relocated the corporate offices from the old plant
on South 8th Street to 400 West Stribling Drive in
Rogers in 1999 but the BB manufacturing division
remained operational in that building until 2003. A
tremendous undertaking, the company moved the BB
production equipment to a new location in Salem,
Missouri in March, 2003.
In 2004 the
Winchester breakbarrel line was expanded to include
black and synthetic stocks and scoped models.
January 1, 2004 a
non-profit corporation was founded, The Daisy Airgun
Museum. The Daisy Museum collection was donated to
this non-profit and it was charged with the task of
operating the Daisy Museum with revenues coming from
admissions, gift shop and internet sales and
donations from members, the Friends of the Daisy
Museum organization and support from Daisy Outdoor
Products.
On October 25,
2004 the Daisy Museum relocated to the southwest
corner of Second and Walnut streets, the highest
traffic intersection in Historic Downtown Rogers.
The new location is an historic building, dating to
1896 and known to many residents as the former
Rexall Drug building. The new location offered the
Museum an opportunity to build a maze of interior
walls, further defining periods in Daisy’s history.
The new chronological arrangement of antique airguns,
advertising and memorabilia offers a more cohesive
presentation.
In conjunction
with the Museum relocation, the staff hosted a
relocation celebration and open house on Sunday,
November 14th with a ribbon cutting and
silent auction. This date also marked the launch of
a fundraiser to refurbish and relocation of the old
Daisy sign.
On January 31st,
2005, the Daisy Museum, Daisy Outdoor Products and
many of you suffered the loss of a wonderful
friend. David Gates had been a high school coach in
Plymouth, Michigan when the president of Daisy asked
him to write a shooting education curriculum during
the summer school break in 1955. David did so, and
never went back to coaching at the school. He moved
his family from Michigan to Arkansas in 1958 and
held many positions with Daisy until his
retirement. But he was always involved in education
– Daisy’s shooting education programs and as a
member of our community’s school board. David was
instrumental in the efforts to establish the Daisy
Museum in 1999. He was one of the curators when it
opened on First Street in March, 2000. He truly
loved Daisy and the Daisy Museum and worked hard up
until the day that his health no longer permitted.
David was a mentor to many of us. He was a valuable
counsel. It’s not enough to say that he was a great
and true friend. David was a coach.
In 2006, Daisy celebrated its 120th anniversary. We
are humbled by the fact that we are one of only a
handful of companies that have excelled at making
the same product continuously for 120 years. Our
staff is grateful for the opportunity to continue to
serve in this exciting gratifying and fun industry.
We’re proud to have grown this business, preserved
this great old Daisy brand and defended our position
as the market leader in airguns. Along the way,
we’ve had the pleasure of developing products,
traditions and memories for several generations.
Most Rogers residents and many Rogers visitors
remember the old 1960 neon Daisy sign with lights
which imitated the movement of BBs hitting a target.
In July, 1999, four months before the company moved
its corporate offices from 8th Street in Rogers to
400 Stribling Drive, the old sign had been
dismantled and put in storage by the Rogers Parks
Department. In 2001 the Daisy Museum began a
fund-raising campaign to restore the sign. The sign
was re-erected in front of Daisy headquarters on May
9, 2007 and a dedication ceremony was held on May
14th.
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.
The ticketed event began with a Rogers-Lowell
Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours reception
under a tent in front of the Daisy offices on
Thursday, June 19th. Tours of the Daisy Museum and
the Daisy assembly operation were offered throughout
the weekend. On Friday afternoon, a picnic was
hosted by Daisy and it was Daisy Night at the
Northwest Arkansas Naturals baseball game. Saturday,
exhibitors displayed and enjoyed a swap meet at the
John Q. Hammons Convention Center, adjacent to the
Embassy Suites host hotel. On-site appraisals were
offered. An activity called “Speed Daisy” allowed
registrants to visit with current Daisy staff and
retirees to hear their personal Daisy stories.
Saturday evening began with a reception and silent
auction, filled with unique one of a kind prototype
Daisy items and other amazing collectibles donated
by those who registered. The group was entertained
by “Melody Lane”, a barbershop quartet who sang
custom lyrics to the tune of “A Bicycle Built for
Two” (a.k.a. “Daisy, Daisy…”). During the banquet,
the program, emceed by Joe Murfin, included a
welcome from Daisy President and C.E.O. Ray Hobbs
and Rogers Mayor Steve Womack.
1880 ║ 1890 ║
1900 ║
1910 ║
1920
║ 1930 ║
1940 ║
The War Years
1950 ║
1960 ║
1970 ║
1980 ║
1990 ║
2000 ║
The Museum
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