World Wildlife Exhibit A Reality

"We've served thousands of children, between 3,000 to 6,000 a year, from all over," said Stacey Fast, the director of the Northeastern Montana Children's Museum.

After switching locations and struggling to come up with ideas, funding, volunteers and board members over a decade, the museum will be opening up for an open house and grand opening of the World Wildlife Exhibit that has taken Skip Erickson years to put together. With most of it finished but details still left to wrap up, the exhibit will now be open to the public to enter for free on Saturday, March 21, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 512 2nd Ave. S. in downtown Glasgow.

Erickson proudly showed the displays of hundreds of various animals, birds, fish, antelopes and even a giant white lion placed throughout the large room that took months to paint, set up and hang the animals. Nearly all the animals have a story, as Erickson collected them from all over the world. Only a few, which he easily pointed out, had been donated or loaned to the exhibit.

Erickson said that much of the taxidermy work was done by Kent Moorehouse and Dennis Purcell, who is in Roberts, Mont. Some of the older pieces was done by former local Roy Hagen. Some of the pieces took over a year to get back.

Some of the finishing touches in the exhibit are the signs designating which areas the animals might be from, like the plains or grasslands. Fast also said she was working on finishing laminated sheets that will hold information on every animal on display. Not only where they come from, but the habitats and cultures that surround the area.

More birds, fish and a few bigger animals like a big horn sheep will be coming into the museum at a later date. Erickson said that some of the animals would be switched out as well intermittently to keep the museum fresh.

One of the stunning pieces in the display is a 12-foot long alligator. It's 6 feet wide and Erickson said it weighed in at about 720 pounds. His story on how he caught the alligator sounds like a different version of Moby Dick. He explained that the gators were hunted with just a spear. It was the seventh largest one caught in his safari international club.

"I got a very brief instruction on it (spear hunting). I was told I'd miss it a bunch of times," Erickson said. "I ended up throwing the spear four times and reaching my limit."

He explained how those on the boat talked about a very large gator that had been seen in the area and they thought they should go look and see if they could find it. Erickson said that the guides could tell the size of the gators in the pitch black night by the space between the eyes and the tip of the nose. After they went through the water they spotted the large gator.

They followed for about 20 minutes and after he bumped the bottom of the boat, he went for him. Erickson said that he even felt like Captain Ahab at one point as the gator fought. He actually charged the boat with his wide jaws and slapped his huge tail at them, missing and hitting the water and soaking the passengers all the way through. Erickson pointed to the small area on the gator that you could see the spear mark and said that is where he got him, only a small area on the alligators are weak enough for the spears to penetrate.

He explained that the huge gator was had around 160 pounds of meat. He kept 40 pound, brought home 20 pounds and the rest was sold at a wholesale price. As he looked around the room, you could almost see the stories in his mind looking at each animal on display.

The gator story wasn't quite over. Erickson said that the taxidermist that took care of the gator tried to move him on his own and found his hand trapped underneath nearly an hour until help arrived to free him.

"This is really about education and conservation; there is a purpose for it," Fast said as Erickson finished his story.

Erickson agreed and said that he hoped conservations programs could utilize the space in the future and that the animals could be used for education for the younger generations. He said that Walleyes Unlimited had been very supportive of the project and that they might sponsor a few evenings to bring the kids up and discuss how to tie on hooks, lures and sinkers and talk about conservation education, like catch and release, fish hatcheries and habitat projects. He added that maybe the fish and game could also have programs for the kids at the location.

Erickson said that the community support would need to continue as the upkeep and maintenance on the building would have to continue. Other pending projects at the children's museum are waiting for funding. Fast said that they were looking at applying for more grants, but they also needed more volunteers on the board and more bodies to keep the museum open.

"Participation is a big thing," Erickson said. "We need to get some bodies."

People to man the desk and another to man the exhibit. Fast said that they would have more hours in the summer, but the nonprofit museum would have to hire staff to be there. Summer is some of the busiest times in the children's museum. Fast said they were also working on a billboard to go on the highway to bring in more foot traffic.