thanks so much for watching. and remember, you can't take it with you. ♪ >> it stands in the way. >> it's just her house in the middle of the block. >> she won't sell out. >> the 84-year-old seen here turned down $1 million payout. >> he's caught in the middle. >> i promised her that i wouldn't let them take her away. >> that's a really big promise. >> what's "up" with that? >> people from all over the country and even around the world have stopped by this house. >> they put balloons on the house, and that's how it became the "up" house. >> it is amazing. i can't believe that she held out. [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ] ♪ >> i'm jamie colby, and today,

i'm in seattle, headed toward the ballard neighborhood. it's an upscale area once known for sawmills and commercial fishing, and just down the road is one man's strange inheritance and a story with a hollywood ending. >> my name's barry martin. i inherited a tiny, hundred-year-old house from a little old lady. if there ever was a real-estate niche, this is one. >> hi, barry. i'm jamie. >> hi, jamie. nice to meet you. >> i meet barry in front of this little house. yep, this is it -- his strange inheritance. it's just 600 square feet, and it's now surrounded by a huge shopping mall -- a mall that the unlikely heir in this story helped build. >> who leaves this to somebody? >> well, edith left it to me. >> edith? >> yep. >> love to learn more. >> okay. come on. >> barry explains that when this house was built over a hundred years ago, ballard, washington,

was the shingle-mill capital of the world, with 20 mills producing 3 million shingles a day. >> there was fishing on elliot bay there, and the shingle-mill industry, all along shilshole avenue here. >> cass o'callaghan from the ballard historical society tells me more. did the neighborhood really change over the years? >> in about the late '30s, early '40s, the commercial district moved north and businesses moved out. nobody wanted to be here anymore. >> with the exception, that is, of edith macefield and her retired single mother, alice wilson. edith's early life is a bit mysterious. we know she was born in august 1921, and that her parents divorced shortly thereafter. during her 20s, edith disappears -- to england, she says, where she seems to have gotten married once or thrice. but, again, it's hard to tell fact from fiction.

[ camera shutter clicks ] by the 1950s, she's back in ballard, single, and working as a store manager for spic 'n span dry cleaners. edith buys this house for her mother and the two name it whitewood cottage. edith is able to pay off the $3,700 mortgage in just a few years. in her off hours, she babysits for next-door neighbor gayle holland. hi, gayle. you know why i'm here -- to hear about edith. >> i've got a lot to tell you. come on in. our street was very quiet and edith would play games with us. >> so she was older, but she loved to hang out with children? >> oh, yes. everybody liked edith. she would play her saxophone or her trumpet outside. we would sit and listen to her, and she'd let us blow on her instruments. >> what a character! they ask her about her past, and, oh, the stories she tells. >> i know she had a son who died

of meningitis. >> edith shares only a few sketchy details -- that the boy was born out of wedlock, that his father was jewish, that james macefield, a much older englishman, married her to help save the boy from the nazis. it's all very complicated. you see, edith was spying on hitler for britain at the time. is it all true? who knows? gayle just loves hanging out with her eccentric neighbor, until her family, like so many others, abandons the area. so, you left and edith stayed. >> yes. it was the early '60s when we moved away. >> in 1976, edith's mother, alice, passes away on the couch in the front room. not long after, edith retires and spends her days watching greta garbo videos and listening to big bands on vinyl. more and more, whitewood cottage stands apart -- her oasis amid

urban blight. by the '90s, homeless -- living in parked cars -- provide an edgy backdrop for the grunge-rock scene. but all the while, developers are slowly gobbling up edith's neighborhood, says real-estate broker paul thomas. >> each time a parcel came up on the market, they'd just quietly acquire it and let it sit in an llc, and they assembled the whole entire block, except for her house. >> it's in early 2006 when edith gets the knock at her door. it's a representative of kg investment management, which wants to put up a shopping mall. the developer makes a proposal they think the 84-year-old can't refuse -- $750,000! what do you think the house was worth? >> $150,000. [ chuckles ] it wasn't worth very much. >> edith could buy five whitewood cottages. even so, she does refuse the offer.

and the bulldozers roll around her. >> i have a picture when they tore everything down in the whole block and it was just her house in the middle of the block. >> reporters catch wind of the story and turn edith into a local folk hero -- a steadfast champion against yuppification, standing up for seattle's old neighborhoods, defying the encroaching chain boutiques, food courts, and those $6 lattes. that's how they portray edith. and that's exactly who barry martin expects when he becomes construction manager of the mall. how did you meet edith? >> i always go visit the neighbors and give them my card so that if they have any problems, they know who to get ahold of, and i walked past her yard and introduced myself. she was actually very pleasant and said she was looking forward to the activity. >> turns out, edith wasn't watching garbo flicks because she "vanted to be alone." that becomes clear with edith's

beauty-shop appointment. she needs a ride, so she calls barry. not exactly what he was thinking when he dropped off his card, but what the heck? he drives her. they get to talking. >> a lot of people thought that she was against development, and that wasn't the case at all. it was more she just didn't want to go through the exercise of having to move. >> indeed, edith actually makes fun of the anti-development types, who, among other things, are trying to get landmark status for the local denny's. edith's view -- things get built, things get torn down. that's the way of the world. it wouldn't be their last car talk. soon, barry's co-workers call him "driving miss daisy." could you rattle off for me some of the errands you were asked to do for her? >> i would take her laundry out to be done. we would go get her lunch. i would take her to all of her doctor's appointments. >> she didn't pay you. >> no. she just needed it. >> you're not a saint.

>> nope. >> but his wife and two high-school-age children surely have the patience of job, when barry spends more and more time at edith's. >> i made her meals three times a day, seven days a week. on the weekends, basically, i'd stay there, and if not, th had made sure that somebody else was there. >> barry isn't there one night when edith falls and lands in the hospital with broken ribs and a platoon of social workers insisting she should no longer live alone. then tag-teaming executives from the development company show up again with a deed ready to sign and another big fat check. >> they offered her $1 million and actually offered to buy a house for her in ballard and she refused that, also. >> $1 million for a little old granny and a new house in her neighborhood, and she says no. >> yes. >> what would you have done?

>> i would have probably taken the money and had somebody fanning me with big feathers and feeding me figs. >> the 84-year-old seen here turned down $1 million payout. >> it just adds to the edith macefield legend -- a story that can't help but go national. what's infuriating barry is that he believes he's cast as one of the black hats, trying to manipulate old edith into selling out. the truth, he says, is just the opposite. >> i promised her that, um, i wouldn't let them take her away and that she could stay there and die in her house. >> that's a really big promise. >> it is. and it became a lot bigger deal than, you know, i had originally anticipated. >> that's next. >> but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question -- where was america's first indoor shopping mall built? the answer in a moment.

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>> it's "b" -- minnesota. the southdale center in edina, the country's first fully-enclosed, climate-controlled mall, opened in 1956. >> in 2008, 86-year-old

edith macefield and her whitewood cottage stand in the way of a shopping mall. barry martin's job is to build that mall. but he's also made it his life's work to keep edith in her home. barry didn't even know edith two years before. now he just doesn't know what to make of her. >> she had a lot of stories to tell and she never really finished a story. >> but, boy, the way she drops names, you'd think she's forrest gump. like hitler -- she met him several times, ended up in a concentration camp, and was sprung by the fuhrer himself. benny goodman -- her cousin, she claimed -- he gave her her clarinet. tommy dorsey, the band leader -- once, when he was short on cash, she bought his sax. mickey rooney -- she taught him dance steps. and so on. barry has one thought -- edith's a wack job. >> i was thinking "crazy old lady" for a while.

>> but in the winter of 2007, edith's health suddenly declines. just as suddenly, the construction manager finds himself doing things he really never signed up for -- helping edith shower, use the bathroom, take her medicine, including insulin shots. a big question occurs to barry -- what happens when the mall is done and he moves to another job? what happens if edith lives to 100? that won't happen. in april 2008, edith is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. she declines treatment and, knowing she'll soon need someone else to make her decisions, gives barry her power of attorney. it's a big responsibility. did you really want it? >> i didn't really want it, and i didn't really understand exactly what all it meant. >> uh-oh. >> yeah, uh-oh. i said, "do you understand the power you're giving me?" and she said, "why do you think i chose you?" >> did you know all along that you were going to get that house? >> no. i didn't know until after she

asked me to become her power of attorney. then she said that she wanted to redo her will at that same time. >> barry's a bit sheepish, knowing many suspect him of angling for the house from the beginning. but that's her wish -- like her desire to die on the same couch as her mother three decades earlier. and on june 15, 2008, death does come -- as a friend -- to whitewood cottage. >> i promised her that i wouldn't let them take her away and that she could stay there and die in her house. >> does it make you emotional? >> it does. >> why? >> um... because i got to help her end her life the way she wanted to. >> the little house in the big mall is now barry's.

but soon he'll discover that, thanks to a hollywood blockbuster, edith macefield fans will claim it as their own. >> there were people out on the sidewalk taking pictures and leaving little notes and putting up balloons with messages on them. >> that's next. >> here's another quiz question for you. you've met barry martin, the construction manager in this story. the answer after the break.

>> it's "a", john ratzenberger. just a coincidence he's a dead ringer for barry martin, the heir in this

"strange inheritance" story. >> it's spring 2009, and barry martin is trying to figure out what to do with his strange inheritance -- a house he helped build a mall around. the owner, edith macefield, had died the year before, and barry assumes memories of her will fade, too. but then disney comes a-calling. it's ready to release an animated feature called "up." it's about a crotchety old man who, just like edith, refuses to sell his house to a developer. disney wants to use edith's house to promote the film. >> they wanted to put balloons on the house for their premiere here in seattle, so they came out and put balloons on the house and took a picture and that's how it became the "up" house. >> did you think it was a good idea? >> i thought it was rather funny, myself, and then after i saw the movie, there's actually some photographs that look very similar to the picture in the movie.

>> soon, edith's cottage and that of character carl fredricksen are associated as one. >> there were people out on the sidewalk taking pictures and leaving little notes and putting up balloons with messages on them. >> and inspirational, it sounds like. >> very. inspirational to different people for different reasons. kids loved it because they thought it was really the house from the movie. you'd see grown-ups crying on the sidewalk. >> she stuck to her guns, you know, even though she could have made a ton of money. >> this woman was kind of the last holdout. she wanted to keep her home, and that's huge. >> it's amazing. i can't believe that she held out. >> but by the time the movie "up" comes out, the nation is in a downer -- the great recession. and barry's real life is anything but a storybook fantasy. >> that was right about when we had our downturn. i was out of work. >> so, barry decides it's time to sell edith's house. she once turned down $1 million for the place, but the window on that offer closed long ago.

>> did she tell you she would be okay with you selling it? >> oh, yeah, and she told me to hold out until i got my price. >> what did you sell it for? >> i sold it for $310,000. [ cash register dings ] >> what did you do with the money, may i ask? >> paid for my kids to go to school. i invested the money and got money back monthly, and it made my house payment. >> that's not nothing. plus, barry says the new owners planned -- in the spirit of "up" -- to raise edith's house 20 feet off the ground and make a public tribute to her below. but they run out of money, and the house falls into foreclosure. >> what was your role in all this? >> i was hired by the bank to sell the house for them. >> the bank includes a provision in the face of pressure from local community groups who want an homage to their folk hero. >> one of the terms of the sale was that each person was required to memorialize edith in some way. >> 38 offers come in, but it's the 39th that wins --

at $450,000. [ cash register dings ] the buyer? the same folks who offered edith $1 million years before -- kg investments, now the manager of the shopping mall. they plan to knock the house down, eventually. so, ultimately, edith's house went to the organization that wanted to buy it all along. >> well, it's kind of neat in a way because she got what she wished for and the shopping center ended up being able to buy the property at a lot lower price than they originally had offered. >> will they do anything to remember edith? >> the ownership has committed that they'll put up a brass plaque that memorializes edith. >> it will be just one more way the ballard community pays tribute to its folk hero. there's also an annual edith macefield music festival. ♪ you can even get a tattoo of edith's house with the legend underneath -- "steadfast." for the heir in this "strange inheritance" episode, that's further proof edith was

misunderstood. maybe even, he'd discover, by himself. >> you must have learned an awful lot about edith once you started to go through her things. >> i learned a lot more than she had let me know. that's next. what's your "strange inheritance" story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail or go to our website -- strangeinheritance.com.

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>> now back to "strange inheritance." >> barry martin doesn't just inherit edith macefield's home, but everything else she owned. >> wow, you must have learned an awful lot about edith, once you started to go through her things. >> i learned a lot more than she had let me know. >> and enough to question whether all her stories were as wacko as he once thought. >> did she have a vivid imagination, or do you think most of it was real? >> i'm a little -- i'm not quite --

>> you still don't know. >> i still don't know. exactly. >> what did you find? well, evidence that she was benny goodman's cousin -- this album, inscribed "your cousin, benny goodman." and quite personal notes from a-list actors -- clark gable, katharine hepburn, spencer tracy, and errol flynn. >> there's charlie chaplin. there's tommy and jimmy dorsey. >> okay, okay -- nothing about meeting hitler or being a spy. still, it dawns on barry that the most valuable thing edith bequeathed to him could be her story -- now his. >> i had an agent contact me about writing a book, and she actually talked me into doing it. >> you ever write a book before? >> no, never written a book before, and she got me a ghostwriter, and we did it that way. >> what's the story? >> the story is basically about edith and myself and our little adventure and then the lessons that i learned. >> "under one roof" gets barry a

$75,000 advance from the publisher. and that's not all. >> actually in the process of making a deal with fox searchlight. >> did you ever think you'd be making a book and a movie about all this? >> no. i just about fall down on the floor laughing because it's hysterical to me. >> i think it could work. i'm picturing a "driving miss daisy" type of guy meets a female forrest gump and they go on a real-life "up" adventure. and definitely got to give john ratzenberger the lead. there's a scene in the movie "up" that sounds exactly like one edith might have had with barry. carl fredricksen, the man whose house the real-estate company wants to buy, says to the construction foreman, "tell your boss he can have my house." "really?" asks the foreman. "yeah, when i'm dead," growls carl and slams the door. i'm jamie colby for

"strange inheritance." thanks so much for watching, and remember -- you can't take it with you. >> two proud texans with a passion for old west guns, guts, and glory. >> i do see bullet holes. >> two strange inheritances -- one a lone star mystery... >> i'm roy roberson. >> i don't think he wanted anyone to have the combination, because that was his control over the pandora's box. >> ...the other a texas-sized challenge. >> this may be financially one of the dumbest things that i have ever done. >> together, can they make history? >> fire! [ explosion ] [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ] ♪

>> i'm jamie colby, and today i'm out in west texas, about 50 miles southwest of abilene. i'm here to hunt down two strange inheritances submitted by viewers whose stories converge into a single tale, a tale born straight out of the wild, wild west. >> my name is garland richards. in 1998, my dad passed away, left me and my siblings a large cattle ranch and a giant part of history. >> well, i got your letter, and i'm dying to learn more about your inheritance. what is this place? >> this is the richards ranch, and this is fort chadbourne. we will be glad to show you around. >> i'm ready. garland tells me fort chadbourne was built in 1852, during the great western expansion. [ gunfire, horses neighing ] the area had become a hotspot for violence between the pioneers and native indian tribes. >> the u.s. military came in

here and set up fort chadbourne as a buffer zone. >> and unmistakably, i do see bullet holes. >> there was a comanche warrior that was killed in this officers' quarters, and that's part of the history of fort chadbourne, also. >> during the fort's early years, a who's who of future confederate leaders walked through its doors. >> robert e. lee was through here on three different occasions. pickett. longstreet. >> after the civil war breaks out, hundreds of texas troops are mustered into the confederacy here. but by 1867, chadbourne is reoccupied by u.s. troops, many of whom leave their marks on its walls. garland, every one of these walls, they're covered with etchings. wow. "forsythe, october 1870." amazing. garland, if these walls could talk. imagine. the u.s. cavalry uses the fort

until 1873, when its buildings and surrounding lands are abandoned. four years later, garland's great-great grandmother snatches it up. >> they paid $500 gold for a section of land, which at that time was in the upper end of the land prices. >> garland's ancestors used some of the fort buildings for milking sheds, feed and saddle storage, and even houses. >> they overcame a lot of adversities to actually make it a successful ranch. and this has been handed down to us. >> so when do a handful of decaying government buildings become a historic treasure worth preserving? for fort chadbourne, it begins when young garland, the sixth generation of richards on this land, plays his first game of cowboys and indians among the ruins. heck of a playground. >> i shot a lot more indians out here than the cavalry did. growing up, i thought everybody

had a frontier fort in their backyard. >> but as garland gets older, he realizes how special this place is. and while watching the old fort crumble doesn't much bother the rest of garland's family, it crushes him. what are we talking about? one pebble at a time? >> no. whole sections of walls. [ thunder crashes ] >> during a heavy rainstorm in 1995, garland witnesses a column crumble off one of the old fort barrack walls. >> and i looked at this, and i thought, "that's gonna be the last time i see any of the rocks fall off of fort chadbourne." i didn't want my heritage destroyed by mother nature. >> knowing his father, conda odom richards, plans to divide up the ranch among his three children when he dies, garland asks for the slice with the ruins on it so he can fix up the fort. >> this may be financially one of the dumbest things that i have ever done. >> when his father dies in 1998

at the age of 72, garland gets his wish -- 9,000 acres. his strange inheritance includes fort chadbourne, and he gets $125,000 to boot. garland's life's mission is now mapped out. he even convinces his bride, lana, to quit her job and come along for the ride. what do you say to your beautiful bride -- "i love you, sweetheart. we have a beautiful life ahead. oh, but i forgot to tell you -- we're going to rebuild a fort"? >> he didn't know how complicated it was gonna be. he had no clue. >> everybody said, "you cannot do this. you are not qualified to do this. >> but this stubborn rancher won't give up without a fight. and he'll get some help from an old friend over in abilene, texas. by the way, that man's heir, unbeknownst to garland, also wrote me about his strange inheritance. i'm back on the road after the break.

>> but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question. after a drought in 1883, texas made it illegal to carry what items? the answer in a moment.

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the severe drought sparked a violent conflict between open-range cattlemen and ranchers, who used barbed wire to fence in their land. the law was on the books for over a century. >> hi there. back on the road again, heading out from garland richards' ranch. we'll return to his story. but first we want to pay a visit to another viewer, from abilene, texas. he wrote me about his strange inheritance. >> my name is roy roberson. when my father passed away, he left the family a mystery in the form of two safes that would take us years to open and unravel the mystery of what was inside. >> roy roberson's father, also named roy, was a civil engineer by trade. what do you remember most about your dad? >> i remember as a child thinking my dad was a little nerdy because he was an engineer. he was an outdoorsman. as i grew older, i realized that

those interests were quite sophisticated. >> such as roy sr.'s favorite hobby -- scouring the southwest for antique firearms. >> that was his passion, after his family. to him, that firearm represented american freedom. >> riding shotgun on many of these gun-hunting trips -- fellow history buff garland richards. >> i met roy at a gun show, and his interest in collecting guns and my interest tied us together as friends. >> roy sr. collects rare firearms for almost 50 years, but only he knows the true extent of his armory. >> he had everything in a couple of safes in the garage, but he never laid them out for anyone to see the scope of how many were actually there. >> this is the 1866 rifle. >> he most certainly never shares the combination to those

safes. >> that was his power, his control over the pandora's box. >> this is also a 66 carbine. >> roy sr. does give others a taste of his collection, though -- one gun at a time, maybe two if you're lucky. >> it was almost like a celebrity not conducting interviews. he never let them see the whole story. it was a mystery. >> for roy sr., every firearm he collects is a glimpse into the gun-toting frontier. >> one of the things my dad liked to do was he would pick up one of his favorites and say, "can you hear what this is saying to you?" >> "talk to me." >> "tell me your story." this particular one has seen some very hard use. that means this was carried on something -- most likely a saddle horn -- by someone for thousands of miles... >> oh, my.

>> ...protecting themselves from something. so the question is, what was the guy doing with this? was this a wagon train, cattle drive, a stagecoach? really tough times. difficult situations. life-and-death struggle. >> that love of relics that tells stories from the past drives the now-retired civil engineer to help his old pal garland restore fort chadbourne. >> once he saw that it represented a very important position in american history, he wanted to come every chance he got. >> garland certainly needs help. remember that $125,000 he inherited along with the fort? he blows through it faster than a texas twister. didn't you ever say, "i don't know how much more of this i can take"? >> yeah, there's a few times that i'm like, "where are we gonna get this money? where are we gonna get that money?"

>> was that sad for you and garland? >> oh, garland was devastated. >> but garland's not cowed, and neither is roy. but do the buckaroos have enough grit left in their boots? and why does it take so long for roy jr. to open roy sr.'s locked gun safes? >> i think that was one of his final practical jokes on me. >> next -- two strange inheritance stories come together. >> here's another quiz question for you. the .405 winchester was a favorite of which american president? the answer when we return.

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>> so, the .405 winchester was a

favorite of which of these presidents? it's teddy roosevelt. the powerful rifle was one of t.r.'s favorites. after taking it on safari in africa, he called it "the medicine gun for lions." >> beautiful day. in the early 2000s, garland richards is trying to restore his strange inheritance, fort chadbourne, a frontier army outpost that has sat in ruins on his family's west texas land for over a century. >> i always describe it as jumping off in the raging water and swimming your way out. >> garland enlists the help of his old buddy roy roberson sr., but he needs money, too -- a lot more than he ever imagined. he applies for grants and gets $374,000 from a private foundation to stabilize several of the fort buildings. >> we hired several consultants. they would tell us that you would have to tear these

buildings down, put a foundation under them, and build these buildings back up. >> garland scoffs. he proposes an old west technique of braces and turnbuckles to stabilize and restore the walls. >> as a rancher, i've been taught all of my life to patch it up, make it last one more year. what we've done is taken that ranching theory and we've applied it to a historical site. and we did this without removing any stones from fort chadbourne. >> garland's dogged determination pays off. his strategy is a huge success, leading to the reconstruction of three of the oldest fort buildings. >> a lot of this was done because they told me that we could not do this. >> but not everything can be fixed with texas ingenuity. garland needs more money. thankfully, it's increasingly clear the site is of genuine historical significance.

>> we were left probably one of the most pristine archaeological sites of any of the frontier forts. >> that attracts an army of archaeology buffs, who discover thousands of artifacts. rattle off for me some of the items that were part of the artifacts that you inherited. >> gun parts. doll parts. surgical instruments. coins. >> some items link back to garland's own ancestors, like this plate fragment signed in gold by garland's great-grandmother. >> the shard was actually found under the floor in the archaeological excavation. this plate has been handed down through the family. >> it's beautiful. in total, the excavations uncover some 800,000 artifacts. the discoveries help garland raise $6 million more in private donations and grants. in total, eight fort buildings are restored or stabilized.

but garland's old friend roy doesn't live to see all this restoration. he dies in 2004 of coronary heart disease at the age of 66. he died young. >> yes. and i didn't really expect to lose my dad that young. but he made sure that every moment that we had him was great. >> it would be five years after roy sr.'s passing when garland and roy jr.'s strange inheritance stories really merge. in 2009, garland breaks ground on a new visitors center, and roy senses a way to make his late father a part of it. he's finally ready to open those safes his father left to the family. >> at that time, the fort museum was just being completed. so it made sense then to try to get into the safe and see what was there. >> if i had lost a relative who had a safe of anything and i didn't know exactly what was inside, i'd sort of want to look

right away. >> we were hesitant to get into dad's personal space. it felt like we were invading his privacy. >> coming up... were you surprised when you saw everything he had? >> i was astounded. >> what's your strange inheritance story? we'd love to hear it. send me an e-mail or go to our website -- strangeinheritance.com. impressive linda.

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bp engineers use underwater robots, so they can keep watch over operations below the sea, even from thousands of feet above. because safety is never being satisfied. and always working to be better. >> now back to "strange inheritance." >> in 2009, five years after they inherited two locked gun safes, the family of roy roberson sr. decides it's finally time to solve the mystery inside the vault -- that is if his son, roy jr., can ever figure out the combinations on their father's gun safes. >> he came up with this combination that was very complicated. it was like a rubik's cube puzzle. we didn't know how many

rotations, and it was very easy to get the numbers out of order, and then he left out a few numbers. >> so, how long did it take? >> days. >> days to crack them open. >> i think that was one of his final practical jokes on me. >> what he finds inside is nothing to snicker at -- nearly 200 antique firearms, the most rare among them a complete collection of every historic winchester, the rifle that won the west -- short- and long-barrel models of each. >> it was almost like taking a sack of rare coins and realizing, "hey, wait a minute. every date is here and every mint is here." >> roy aims to put some of his dad's guns on display at fort chadbourne, which roy sr. had spent his later years helping to restore. but when word gets out to the gun-collecting community, the family has to rethink things. you knew those guns were valuable. >> yes. and i knew that a lot of people wanted them. >> and is it also true that

breaking up the collection and selling them individually could have yielded a huge payday? >> probably. that's what we were told by auction houses and people that called us. >> the family is suddenly between the horns of a dilemma. based on roy's research, the firearms could be worth as much as half a million dollars. he invites his father's old friend garland richards over to see his inheritance. were you surprised when you saw everything he had? >> i had seen one piece at a time. i had never seen it all in one place. i was astounded. >> garland wants roy sr.'s guns to be part of fort chadbourne, too, to sit on display alongside his own collection. >> i knew that what my collection lacked, his collection added to this would make a very nice timeline in a gun room. >> so he makes the family his best offer -- around $165,000. though it's only about a third

of what roy thinks they could make if they sell them piece by piece, the family takes the deal. >> the reality is he spent his whole life assembling that group of firearms, and so to disassemble them was very disrespectful, in our eyes. >> and so roy's complete collection of firearms lives in garland's now-finished visitors center that tells the tale of fort chadbourne and the texas frontier to 25,000 visitors a year. >> we tried to build this big enough to house all the artifacts and things from fort chadbourne. >> big enough for a stagecoach. is this real? >> big enough for a stagecoach. it is for real. >> and big enough for a texas-sized gun collection. >> i bet roy really would've liked to have seen it this way. >> roy would like where his guns are. >> this is exactly what dad would've wanted. it's on a property run and maintained by his best friend. and it's in a fort that the u.s.

army built and then discarded. so what could be better than that? >> of course, for garland richards, fort chadbourne is more than an old army fort. it's still the place that first unleashed his imagination while fighting indians on the frontier. you can tell he hasn't lost that childhood enthusiasm as he rolls up an antique cannon for my visit. this is a serious cannon. can you tell me about it? >> this is a model of an 1835 12-pounder mountain houser. this is the smallest of artillery pieces but a very, very powerful gun. it could fire a 12-pound shot about 1,000 yards. okay. your first command is "load." >> load. >> everything you see them doing right there is the same thing they did back in the 1800s. >> ready. fire! literally holy smokes. that was amazing.

>> the first time that we ever raised the flag in the middle of the parade ground, i realized, "this is the first time that the flag has been raised in over 125 years." i was overwhelmed. i'm a proud texan. i'm a proud american. and this is my contribution back to america. >> garland and roy loved collecting those old guns that won the west. but they never competed over a firearm. that's because garland favors single-shot rifles, while roy loved his winchester repeaters, those classic rifles used by ranchers and outlaws. two old buddies, their collections now displayed side by side. on that note, i learned something else on this trip to texas. the state motto is just one word -- "friendship." i'm jamie colby for

"strange inheritance." thanks so much for watching. and remember -- you can't take it with you. well. good night from new york. kennedy: the battle for st. louis three days away. how are donald trump and hillary clinton preparing for the critical debate sequel? the party panel is here to discuss. the presidential election ain't the only game in town. we'll look at the congressional races that could swing the balance of power. dr. ron paul is here to clarify why he's leaning away from gary johnson in favor of jill stein. sunday night's debate in solution ra --debate in st. loue for donald trump.