“To my nephew, Hunter, I give my hunting trophy collection because it fits his name.” Everyone laughed at this statement during the reading of Uncle Jack’s will because he had always been known for his sense of humor. Hunter’s cousin Will had once received a stack of bills from Uncle Jack because Wil l is short for William and Bill is also short for William. At the time Will was only ten years-old and he just started crying until he realized Uncle Jack had included money in each envelope along with the bills, which were already paid. This is why Hunter’s youngest cousin was named Tiffany. Everyone wanted to see if Uncle Jack would really buy her gifts from the famous store. But Uncle Jack had died during one of his big hunting trips in Africa.

Uncle Jack’s trophy collection was quite exotic with Springboks, Wildebeest and Warthogs among them. There were also the usual deer, cougar and elk but the birds and fish from other lands were truly a sight to behold. In the weeks following, Hunter developed an interest in the hunting trophies. He began researching the process of taxidermy to learn how the animal heads were preserved. And that was when he learned something very interesting.

In many cases very few parts of the actual animal were used to create the trophies. Over time, the process of taxidermy had evolved from stuffing animal skins with pillow stuffing to more of a recreation of the game animal, fish or bird. Taxidermists were actually artists who carefully created a lifelike version of the wildlife. The eyes were made of glass, the muscles were formed from polymers and in some cases this was all done from a very good photo of the captured game.  The taxidermist of today will often choose a pose and size and other characteristics of the animal from a set of mass-produced mannikins that are quite lifelike.

In view of this new knowledge, Hunter decided he would research Uncle Jack’s collection to determine which ones may have actual animal parts and which were created by artists. What if Uncle Jack didn’t even capture these animals at all? What if he just had them made from photographs in National Geographic? Who would know for sure? It was all so very fascinating. But the most immediate need was for a place to display the hunting trophies. A place where others could check out the interesting array of wildlife from around the world. And Hunter thought, it could be a place to get more in depth into taxidermy. All of which led to the obvious – a Sherman Pole Building that would function as a hunting trophy display space.