Health forces early retirement at 53, and moving to Montana
Taking stock of his health and setting new goals, Dan Johnson has closed Bear River Taxidermy in Ericsburg.
Johnson said he was raised to go the extra mile in everything that he does. He decided to close when he felt he couldn’t work at the level he was accustomed.
“It was fun and I enjoyed it immensely,” said Johnson. “Once you lose your drive for it, then you might as well get out, and for me it was health reasons.”
As much as the work, he said he misses the conversations with the hunters and anglers that come to his shop.
“Taxidermy is an art,” said Johnson. “I never thought of it as a business.
Johnson decided to get a check up after his brother John had a heart attack while duck hunting in South Dakota. The near loss of his brother and the loss of his father to a heart attack a decade earlier, brought concern about his shortness of breath.
When doctors found 95-percent arterial blockage, Johnson said that immediate surgery and stents to open the arteries prevented a likely heart attack in a matter of weeks.
“I still go into the woods, but not like I want with six stints in the heart,” he said.
Johnson also suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, a condition he has had since age 17, with a gradual worsening in his hands. He said there are days when even holding a cup of coffee is painful; let alone the dexterity required for taxidermy.
“Sewing a cape on deer can take six hours,” he said.
At 53, Johnson and his spouse Karen, a county worker, are looking to move to Montana, a place he has admired since his trucking days. He would also like to write about his outdoors adventures.
The couple recently visited Lincoln, Mont. They want to move there after they sell their 11-acre home in Ericsburg, where great hunting and fishing was enjoyed in their 40 years on the land.
Their son, Jeremy, works as a wrangler in Bozeman, Mont. Their daughter, Jessica, once worked at a Wyoming ranch, and is also considering a move to Big Sky Country.
Johnson is pleased that the kids want their parents nearby. He recalled his favorite childhood memories with his father bird hunting with a picnic lunch. He, in turn, took his kids on trucking trips and would always bring them hunting.
“That is where I got the ethics to take the kids with me all the time,” he said of his father.
Johnson was born and raised in International Falls and said he enjoys Borderland. After seeing most of the country as a trucker, he said having open land and the same neighbors for 30 years was a great experience.
“People are much different up here,” he said. “When you get north of Duluth there is a completely different attitude.”
He learned to deer hunt from his uncles Loren Johnson and Hennes Johnson.
“Loren taught me to hunt big bucks,” he said. “He told me to look for the edge of red willows to find where bucks travel.
“He is 87 now and a tough old bird,” he added.
Dan Johnson tried the metro life for a while after going to telephone school in Wadena. He worked as an independent lineman until a possible layoff prompted a career change as an over-the-road trucker. He would drive for the next 18 years until losing an eye in a stretch cord accident.
Facing another mid-life career change, Johnson turned to his taxidermy hobby as a business idea in 2003. He learned the trade from a cousin in the 1970s.
“I talked with my wife and kids about taxidermy and decided to get into the business and make money off of it,” said Johnson.
He said the kids helped out and his wife is skilled with “rugging” and stretching bear hides.
Some of the unusual jobs over the years included a zebra hide that once belonged to an area physician. It was in a box for over half a century after an African safari. The physician’s son wanted it repaired and made into a rug. It took Johnson and his wife a month to slowly stretch out the folds and stitch up the cracks.
Someone brought a skunk hide to make into a rug as a gag gift. It took three days to de-scent the hide with chemicals. He recalls that his wife made him disrobe at the door before entering the house.
“I tell you what, that was a pretty rug,” he added.
The odd jobs are not as difficult as meeting the expectations of others to perform miracles on damaged or imperfect animals.
“Some people expect more than what we can actually do,” he said.
Technological breakthroughs make the job easier and with better results. Yet, he said there is still the quick way and the right way to do things.
The thin, strong and transparent adhesives and chemical drying agents available now are good. However, he says that taking shortcuts can present bug risks. He still prefers to pickle the hides in a bath of citric acid, water and salt.
“It takes longer to do, but you know the hide is done right,” he added.
His favorite fish to work with are walleye and northern. He dislikes the smallmouth bass, because it often loses color and turns black requiring a bleaching step.
Ducks have a lot of fat bubbles that need to be roughed out and washed several times with soap and disinfectant to stop bacteria. He is pleased with the new artificial duck heads and prefers painting them to avoid the chance of bugs in real heads.
Birds also present slippage problems, he said.
“Always take the extra step,” said Johnson. “If you think you have gone far enough preserving the hide, then go a little bit further.”
