LOT Davis Brothers Auction  /  Silence of the Prairie  / 

116

1916 Butte Montana Giant Elk Photo

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Western Americana Start Price:10.00 USD Estimated At:100.00 - 150.00 USD
1916 Butte Montana Giant Elk Photo
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11 5/8" by 13 5/8". Edmund Carns was a set designer for the Broadway Theater. His design credits included floats for the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, the roller coaster at Coney Island, and an elephant made of apples erected for an agricultural show. His design plans, at seven times the size of the model, a stuffed elk at the organization’s hall, were spread across the Broadway Theater stage. Construction began on June 25. The structure was a wooden frame, covered with wire mesh and fabric soaked in glue and coated with plaster mixed with copper ore. The pedestals supporting the elk’s hooves were coated with peacock ore (bornite), and the five-ton elk was electrified. Purple and white lights were strung through its antlers, and the 10-inch red bulbs that served as his eyeballs were set to blink every five seconds. The Elks Club’s traditional greeting, Hello Bill, was laid out in lights on the creature’s flanks. After the convention’s five days of ebullient joy were over, the question arose of what to do with the giant $4000 elk. The proposal to move it to the peak of Big Butte was quickly dismissed out of concerns about the wind and weather there, but the idea of moving it to Columbia Gardens got more serious consideration. They needed $2000 to move it, but funding could not be found. The elk was dismantled on July 28, and his coat, containing $1200 in copper, went to the smelter. The largest elk in the world was history.
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