Wild West Lives Again in History Buff’s Collection : Exhibits: Wanted posters, handcuffs, badges and other frontier artifacts are included in a local display.

“Wanted, Dead or Alive, Bloody Bill Anderson, for murder, rape, arson and robbery.”

Hold your horses!

Ol’ Bill hasn’t been reincarnated just yet. But his $500 wanted poster has been. A replica is on display with several others at the West Covina Public Library.

They come from Bill Singleton, an out-of-work history buff who collects Old West artifacts and builds models of them too. In the past three years, he has carved reproductions of Wells Fargo stagecoaches, gold boxes, a two-story hotel and a sheriff’s station.

Singleton, 55, said he became interested in Western art about 12 years ago and began making copies of original wanted posters and collecting spittoons, leg irons, handcuffs and badges.

The West Covina resident, previously a building contractor, became property manager of Movie Land Frontier Town in 1989. When it closed in March, he was left with a roomful of handmade and antique artwork from his Western shop on the premises. He stored most of it in garages at family members’ homes.

A friend told him about the monthly art displays at the library. He showed his oak stagecoach to library officials who liked it so much they allowed Singleton this month to set up his treasures in several display cases.

Included are books on Western history, such as “The Last Buffalo Hunt,” “The Land Baron,” “The Guns of Ellsworth” and “Clung,” and a faro game board surrounded by a deck of cards. Singleton said that faro--a game in which players bet on the cards to be uncovered by the removal of cards from the top of the dealer’s pack--was the most popular card game in the Wild West.

“I like the cards,” said Ashek Hossain, 9, who was at the library last week with his mother. She brings him in each week so he can check out his favorite books on UFOs.

He didn’t know much about the Old West, he said, but he was intrigued by pictures of hearts and diamonds on the playing cards.

The piece de resistance is Singleton’s handmade 18-inch Wells Fargo & Co. mail coach, one of two replicas in the display. It is red with yellow wheels. The top is removable and the doors open.

Singleton trimmed the outside with leather and lined the inside with red velvet. Miniature suitcases, a trunk, a chicken coup and a saddle are on top of the carriage on a rack. He said the real coach was designed to seat nine passengers inside and eight to 10 outside. (The uncomfortable ride from St. Louis to Los Angeles took 22 days.)

“I couldn’t even begin to tell you how long it took me to finish,” Singleton said, adding that he worked two to three hours a night for several months.

The price for the real thing would have been about $1,500. Singleton said he wouldn’t sell his replica for less than $1,000.

“This is very interesting,” said Rosella Alm, who had driven from Valinda on business. “Western history is fascinating. I love American history.”

After the display ends Monday, Singleton said, it will move to the El Monte and West Covina historical museums and will be displayed during the annual San Dimas Western Days festival in October.

Singleton hopes the showings will land him a job as a curator.