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FEBRUARY / MARCH 2020 • MONTANA SENIOR NEWS
Making Memories in Taxidermy
BY HOLLY ENDERSBY
Most folks who hunt can easily recall
every animal taken, every trail hiked or
ridden, and every tent and campfire that
went into making a season. Sometimes, an
animal taken is so special that we want a
permanent reminder of that hunt and the
life we took. That’s were taxidermy comes
in: it’s a visible reminder of what every
hunter holds dear.
My friend, Dr. Dwight Curtis, Director
of Moscow, Idaho’s Department of Parks
and Recreation, has been a taxidermist for
decades and still enjoys the thrill of putting
together an exceptional mount for himself
or others. But like most craftsmen, he
started small.
“My first mount in 1972 was due to a
bunch of ground squirrels making holes
in our pasture for the horses and cattle to
step in,” he recalls. “My dad shot a bunch
of them, and making mounts of those guys
was my first attempt at taxidermy.”
According to Curtis, his dad also intro-
duced him to a man who already knew the
ins and outs of taxidermy, so he got a quick
course in what to do.
“And that was it,” he says. “I’ve been
doing it ever since.”
It was, he adds, just a hobby for
many years.
“But, at one point it seemed I should
actually treat it as a business, and I did
for several years. Now, I’m more back to
hobby status.”
Curtis says the smaller animals are the
hardest to do.
“Some of it is down to my own aging,
I guess,” he explains. “You have to have
fine, small muscle control and good eye-
sight, even with the help of a magnifying
glass, to really work the small mammals
and birds.”
But that said, Curtis says he enjoys the
challenge of working on smaller mounts the
most. Animal Control of Moscow provides
Curtis with some practice critters.
“Whenever they find dead fox squirrels
that aren’t too damaged after being hit by
a vehicle, they save them for me, and I put
317345
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them in our freezer. They are good practice
specimen, and that way they’re not just
tossed in the trash.”
Although he hasn’t done a lot of birds,
Curtis says working on waterfowl is partic-
ularly satisfying.
“My favorite bird to mount is prob-
ably a duck,” he adds. “Pheasants are
pretty, but everyone does them so I
gravitate to waterfowl.”
“The first time I mounted a bird, I didn’t
enjoy it, because you really need to be a good
artist to do it right, and I’m not there yet.
But it’s sheer poetry when you see a really
well-done bird mount.”
To prepare a bird, Curtis says you tan the
skin like you would a deer or elk, but keep
the feathers on.
“The feathers don’t need any treatment,
but you have to be careful not to damage
them as you skin the bird and dry the flesh.”
Curtis uses purchased molds for the ani-
mals he mounts, although he does carve fish
forms himself out of a special Styrofoam.
“Using preformed molds really cuts
down the time needed to finish a mount,”
he explains.
Lately, Curtis has been doing a lot of
re-mounting.
“I’m really getting a kick out of making
old mounts look good again,” he says. “I
re-did a big mule deer my dad shot that
had been mounted poorly by an amateur.
The hair was wearing off mainly because,
with nine kids in our family, that deer head
got petted a lot: we just couldn’t resist it.”
Curtis has also discovered that some
spouses don’t want a full shoulder mount
of a dead animal in their house. He’s
found that mounting just the antlers
and wrapping the base in rope with a
trademarked process, called ‘the Curtis
wrap’, looks classy and unique. The rope
takes the place of a traditional leather
skull plate and is a great way to showcase
some beautiful antlers.
Right now, Curtis is working on a mount
for himself with some special additions.
“I’m doing a shoulder mount of a deer,
but I made a rustic backpack and have
a rolled hide to put on, and I fashioned
real snowshoes as well out of traditional
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RECREAtION PAGE 53
materials, so the whole impression is of
packing a deer out of the mountains.”
Crafting unique ways to display animals
is a hallmark of Curtis’ work.
“A friend brought me a whole family
of raccoons he’d eliminated, because they
were killing his chickens,” Curtis recalls.
“Some of them were in good enough shape
to mount, so I put one with its head coming
out of a timbered knothole, like you’d see
in a tree.”
Curtis says getting kids involved in taxi-
dermy is a great idea.
“If a kid is thinking about college, this
is a great way to help them make money
to cover some of that cost. It’s also a good
second income for young people, because
lots of people want animals mounted.”
But for Curtis, it’s not about money: it’s
about making memories for people who
cherish their time in the outdoors.
To see some great mounts, go to www.
curtistaxidermy.com the website of Curtis
Taxidermy, LLC. MSN
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