2023 Road Trip: Wonders of Wildlife Museum: Lewis & Clark (5/28/2023)

Sunday, May 28, 2023 (continued)

The escalator to the Wildlife Museum climbs
through a bison herd; these are stated to be
"authentic likenesses," so not taxidermied?

Starting with the indigenous people in the
Native American Gallery

Theodore Roosevelt's Cabin: a gallery built to resemble
Roosevelt’s North Dakota Maltese Cross cabin

At last! It's been two years since our Lewis & Clark road trip, but now we can see the famous paintings by Charles Fritz: An Artist with the Corps of Discovery: 100 Paintings Illustrating the Journals of Lewis and Clark:

The Captains Lewis and Clark: Trusted Leaders,
Loyal Friends (2007) (KSS)

From 1998 to 2008, Charles Fritz traveled to the locations visited by the Corps of Discovery, during the season that they were there, in order to accrately portray the scenes as if he had accompanied the original expedition. Already known as an en plein air artist, Fritz was familiar with painting on-site outdoors. 

Captains Lewis and Clark Departing for the
Northwest Passage, 5/21/1804 (2000)

The White Pirogue Under Sail, 7/27/1804 (2009)

Addressing the Otos and Missouria at Council Bluffs
8/3/1804 (1999)

Nightfall in a Mandan Village, 1/2/1805 (2002)

Mapping the Missouri: Winter Afternoon
at Fort Mandan, 1/7/1805 (2009)

Bartering for Corn, 2/1/1805 (2009)

In an Instant the Monster Ran at Us ... 5/14/1805 (2009)

Morning Light: White Cliffs of the Upper Missouri (2003?)

Cordelling the Red Pirogue, 5/31/1805 (2009)

The Arrival of Captain Lewis at the Great Falls
of the Missouri, 6/13/1805 (2005)

Handsome Falls, 6/14/1805

Crooked Falls, 6/18/1805

Glimpsing Freedom: York's Journey with
the Corps of Discovery (2009)

Camp Fortunate, “Where we laid up our canoes”,
8/17/1805 (2009)

Sacagawea Returned to Her People, 8/24/1805 (2009)

Crafting Canoes to Ply the Columbia, 10/1/1805 (2009)

Construction and Diplomacy at Fort Clatsop, 12/23/1805 (2009)

Pompey's Tower, 7/25, 1806 (2003)

Home from the Pacific: Triumphant
Return to St Louis, 9/23/1806 (2008)

National Parks Gallery:

Ursus americanus/American Black Bear:
Yosemite National Park

Canis lupus occidentalis/Alaska Timber Wolves team up
to steal a meal from a Ursus arctos horribilis/
Brown Bear aka Grizzly Bear in Denali National Park

Alces alces gigas/Alaska-Yukon Moose: #2 World Record
scored at 263-5/8 points, taken by Heinz Naef of
Dawson City, Yukon, Canada; Naef dispatched the
animal at 35 yards with an old rifle chambered in .303;
September 25, 2013

One source reports that almost all the specimens in Wonders of Wildlife are taxidermied, having been donated by hunters, collectors, and zoos.

Part of Boone & Crockett's Original National
Collection of Heads and Horns

Bucks and Bulls: the foremost collection of
world-record whitetail deer

Small Game Diorama: Gulo gulo/Wolverines

Sheep Mountain: the personal collection of
Arthur Dubs with 40 record-setting wild sheep
in a 4-D setting (you could hear and smell them!)

Polar Bear Expedition: A real Monodon monoceros/
Narwhal tusk (an elongated upper left canine tooth),
but fabricated body

Seal Fur Parka and Seal Gut Parka made by the
indigenous people of Alaska, Canada, Russia and
Greenland, who made use of every part of
the animals they hunted (KSS)

Ursus maritimus/Polar Bear: 1960s World
Record taken by Arthur Dubs (11'1/2"/3.3 m
tall and 2,210 pounds/1,002 kilos) near
Kotzebue,  Alaska; it was displayed
at the Seattle World's Fair 1962

Great African Hall

Conservation Center: Wonders of Wildlife is collaborating
with conservation organizations to launch Mission
Conservation Virtual Learning, a digital app to make
conservation education fun

Next: Route 66 in Missouri continued.