In this undated photo, people peruse items up for bid at Harrisburg's Wild West auction, in Harrisburg, Pa. Approximately 8,000 items are up for sale. The cash-strapped city is selling the pieces, starting Monday July 15, 2013 which former Mayor Steve Reed purchased with public money as part of his dream to build museums in Harrisburg to draw tourists.

HARRISBURG — Thousands of Old West artifacts will be sold in Harrisburg at an auction that could produce millions in badly needed revenue for the cash-strapped state capital.

The collection was assembled by a former mayor, who hoped to build a museum of the American West in south-central Pennsylvania as part of a plan to attract tourism. The museum idea died and the saddles, guns, gambling devices and other Western memorabilia have been kept in storage for the better part of a decade.

Auctioneer Guernsey's organized the collection by type, and the bidding gets under way today with items classified as mercantile, advertising, vintage clothing and the like.

It continues through Sunday on City Island, a city-owned property on the Susquehanna River that is home to Harrisburg's minor league baseball team.

Along with Western material, the sale also includes African objects purchased for a different museum that also was never built, a large number of documents linked to U.S. presidents and other historical figures, Spanish colonial pieces and random other items.Because Harrisburg is under a state receivership and teetering on the brink of bankruptcy thanks largely to having hundreds of millions of dollars in debt tied to a trash incinerator, officials say a judge may have the final word in deciding how the sale proceeds are spent.

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A Colt 78 double action pistol belonging to Red Angus is one of the items up for sale at the Wild West auction in Harrisburg.

Dave Mark of Linthicum Heights, Md., looks over spurs recently at Harrisburg’s Wild West auction preview in Harrisburg. About 8,000 items are up for sale.Photography by The Associated Press