| Summary: | decided to give Wes his taxidermy equipment and the supplies that he had left. His first experience in taxidermy dates back to 1951. Later Wes enrolled for a correspondence course from one of the nation's top taxidermy schools, and several weeks later he was making his first bird mount. As he continued his work, his fascination for this newfound hobby grew, and in 1961 he decided he needed more room in which to work so he purchased an old two-room house from a neighbor and moved it to his farm for a taxidermy shop. As his work became known, the orders for mountings increased. A bigger shop was needed, and so last summer he bought the abandoned school house. Ample space is provided in this classroom for display and the large floor area is ideal when he works on animal rugs. Wes has had a love for the outdoors and wildlife for many years and hopes someday to go on an African safari or some other big game hunt. This hobby has become a year-around business, and the requests for mountings of all types, keeps him and a full-time employee, Gerald Zieszler of Garrison, busy for several months. Taxidermy has changed a great deal over the years, Wes says. Mountings no longer consist of sawdust but nowadays taxidermists use a light-weight paper form, wrapping the skin about it. These then, are ordered by measurement for an expert in Wyoming who specialized in sculpter- ing for mounting. Arsenic that formerly was used for curing skins has been replaced by a solution much easier and safer to work with. A trophy that has been on display in several Minot stores and will be exhibited this summer again at the Garrison resort, is one of Wes's proudest ac- complisments in mounting. It is a full- body polar bear mounting which he made for Gene Lee, Garrison resort owner. The bear which weighed about 1,000 pounds was shot by Lee near Point Hope, Alaska. 169 Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.
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