Submitted photo HISTORICAL CANNON FIRE: After completing the restoration of a Spanish-American War era cannon this summer, Tim Kirsch took his cannon out for a test fire. After loading it with a blank shell, Kirsch is pictured above as he pulled the lanyard resulting in a large puff of smoke and a very big bang. Kirsch's cannon was rusted and clogged when he bought it for $50 in 1970. Kirsch's restoration has transformed it into a valuable piece of history worth several thousand dollars.

"It's very loud," said Kirsch after the cannon was fired for the first time in decades.

After thousands of hours of labor, his project of restoring a rusty old cannon from the Spanish-American War era was completed this past summer.

The next step was one he has been working toward for years -- a test firing.

He pulled the cannon behind his car to a big field on his son's farm and loaded it up while family and friends stood back to watch and witness the test.

The cannon was once used to fire something like an artillery shell and it had a range of 3.5 miles.

For the test firing, Kirsch used a blank.

After the loading, everyone moved back leaving Kirsch standing alone with his cannon to pull the lanyard to fire. He admitted to being a little anxious about what would happen at that moment but the nervousness turned to joy as the cannon performed perfectly and a big puff of smoke came out the right end of the seven-foot long barrel.

Kirsch credits his friend, Joe Christ, of South Carolina with making the restoration a success.

"He machined the entire breach mechanism -- where the ammo goes in. Joe spent well over a thousand hours working on this," said Kirsch.

Before the restoration was complete, Christ passed away unexpectedly leaving Kirsch sad that his friend did not get to help fire the cannon.

"I fired it for him -- on the first anniversary of Joe's death. I couldn't have done this without him," said Kirsch.

Since Kirsch's project has been completed, he has received offers to buy this piece of history which he purchased for $50 at an antique store in 1970.

"I just turned down $32,000. I don't want to sell it. This cannon is staying right here in my garage in Greene County," said Kirsch, who lives in the eastern part of the county not far from the Greene County Chapel.

After a story about the project appeared in the Greene County Daily World, Kirsch found out the article was hanging on a number of walls in the area including a classroom at Eastern-Greene School.

"A teacher told me a student brought it in for 'show and tell'," said Kirsch.

He has since talked to a teacher about showing the cannon to a class.

"The next thing is to get a trailer so it will be easier for me to take the cannon places," said Kirsch.

The cannon is a unique artifact from an important time period in American history. It was forged at Watervliet Arsenal in New York in 1898. In that year, the United States declared war on Spain after it sunk a U.S. battleship, and the U.S. engaged the enemy in Cuba and Puerto Rico and defeated Spain with the battle cry "Remember the Maine," and Americans were proudly reading about the heroic deeds of Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders.