If the Northwest Indiana Excellence in Theatre Foundation gave an award for best prop, it would certainly have to go to the stagecoach in Valparaiso's Memorial Theatre Company's production of "Annie Get Your Gun."

"For $17, people get to see the show, and in addition to that, we've added a cool artifact," Said Memorial Opera House facility director Brian Schafer. "It's a perfect opportunity to pull something that we have in storage that actually has significance to the characters in the play."

Theatergoers who have made their way to the opera house since "Annie" opened June 6 have had the chance to see first hand a stagecoach originally built in 1866 owned by legendary cowboy "Broncho" John Sullivan.

Sullivan was an original member of "Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show" and was friends with the likes of gunslingers Annie Oakley and Frank Butler, who borrowed one of his stagecoaches for appearances. He settled in Valparaiso in the 1880s.

In 1948, three years before his passing, he donated many artifacts, including the stagecoach seen in "Annie," to the Historical Society of Porter County.

A decade after receiving the stagecoach, which Schafer estimated to weigh two tons and sit approximately ten feet high, the society had it restored. Kevin Matthew Pazour, executive director of the Porter County Museum, described the work done on the stagecoach a half century ago as a "Hollywood restoration."

"What should've been a better suspension is replaced by seatbelt material," he said. "The interior was not done correctly. It was done with vinyl, and they did not have vinyl back in 1866."

Pazour also said that he hopes to restore the stagecoach correctly in the near future, but the cost to do so would run in the $200,000 range.

Schaefer said the stagecoach will be available for viewing by the general public at Memorial Opera House through July 15 during box office hours, which are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

"How cool is it that we have a piece of history that Annie Oakley and Frank Butler actually used?" Schaefer said. "How cool is it that we have the stagecoach on our stage?"