Frozen Wildlife: the illusion of wilderness in Adirondack taxidermy

Wandering around Hoss’s country corner can be an Adirondack themed adventure in itself. One can spend hours perusing the homes of assorted knick-knacks and trinkets, meant to catch the eye of a visiting tourist or devoted Adirondacker. My attention, however, was fixated on an assortment of other, rather strange items mounted and staring from the overheads, shelves, and walls. A lynx, mid-catch of a rabbit, paws outstretched with a frozen determination in her eye, her fur collecting dust on the top most shelf. As my eyes searched around the store for these frozen creatures, I latched eyes on a moose wide-eyed and blankly staring, a slight discoloration in his fur.  There were deer, ferret and an assortment of other creatures, which fenced the store’s outskirts all of whom had little price tags attached to their mounts.

            In the Adirondacks, “the walls have eyes” writes Mary Thill of Adirondack Life “Taxidermy is part of life and death or at least part of décor.” These disturbingly well-preserved creatures line the walls of hotels, dusty store windows, antique shops and are often found resting over the fireplace in a typical Adirondack home. But as I stared up into the face of the Moose in Hoss’s corner, I couldn’t help but feel the act of preservation was forced and somewhat wrong. In terms of taxidermy, has our desire to bring “the outdoors indoors gone too far”? More importantly, how does it influence our relationship to wilderness?

            Hoss’s corner is located in the area, which birthed the décor and architecture of the great camps of the Adirondacks. It was through this passage of wealth that taxidermy came to be, connecting “the camps stylistically to the wilderness that the dead animals had once inhabited”. In that time, these stuffed animals and rustic but lavish couches, fireplaces and decorations where less about connection to the wilderness and more about trophies, prowess and wealth. These visitors could shoot an animal and have a feeling of control or power over a little piece of wildness.

            In many ways, taxidermy is very beautiful.  Life is very beautiful. But our desire to control and “own it” is not. These unnervingly well-crafted models, in my eyes, symbolize humankind’s inability to understand wilderness. In these objects, a small piece of the wild is conquered and frozen in time. But then again, it really is just a little piece of wilderness, a frozen animal, décor, not alive or wild at all.

sources:

Schneider, Paul. The Adirondacks: A History of America's First Wilderness. Henry Holt and Company. New York. 1997. Print.

http://taxidermyhobbyist.com/history-of-taxidermy/how-taxidermy-got-its-start.html 

http://www.adirondackexperience.com/blog/2015/03/7-weird-adirondack-things

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2015/08/taxidermy/christy-text 

http://www.newyorkhistoryblog.com/2008/08/taxidermy-history-in-new-york-state.html

http://www.adirondacklifemag.com/blogs/2014/02/18/adirondack-still-life/