Skip to main content

Guntzviller's Taxidermy and Spirit of the Woods Museum: SO Much More Than A Tourist Trap

 A few weekends ago, I took a small vacation to northwestern Michigan, stopping around Elk Rapids, Charlevoix, Eastport, and greater Antrim and Grand Traverse counties.  One of the coolest spots that we hit was Guntzviller's Taxidermy and Spirit of the Woods Museum (11060 US-31, Elk Rapids, MI 49629).  There's a Minnetonka Moccasin sign out front, which can be found in approximately every Up North Tourist Trap Store, but Guntzviller's is so much more than your average "tourist trap."

Founded in 1928, Marvin Guntzviller opened a shop in southeast Michigan, specializing in taxidermy.  By the 1970s, Voss Guntzviller, according to the shop's website, relocated to their current Elk Rapids location.  They still offer taxidermy services, if you've got a trophy deer or salmon to mount, but the main draw (for me at least) was the taxidermy museum!

It's a small building, but they've done an amazing job bringing things to life - as soon as you walk in, you're met with a small display that teaches you about how they make molds of the critter and tan and stretch the skin to create the wonderful mounts you see in every Midwestern dad's man cave.  They've got interactive displays, inviting you to do things like "Find the weasel" in the display, showcasing large animals (like a buffalo) in a small plexiglass display in their natural environment.  One of the coolest displays for me was an old logging homestead diorama showcasing a bobcat.

They've done a great job, too, at highlighting indigenous culture, talking about how the natives would fish or hunt, and the meaningfulness of taxidermy to the tribes in Michigan.

In addition to the museum, there's a gift shop and retail store...as mentioned, SO much more than just a tourist trap.  Sure, there's the moccasins and the rocks and minerals, but they also sell their own taxidermied wares!  They take great pride in local history, selling Michigan-based history books, local candles, northwestern Michigan cherry sweets, and polished Petoskey stones - that reminds me, I haven't found a good Petoskey stone in a while.  I oughta go look...

I would definitely stop there again, next time I'm in the area!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Eddie Bentz Bank Robbery

Prohibition is one of the most storied periods in American history. Urban myths and legends abound nationwide, with tales of folk heroes like Al Capone, Babyface Nelson, and John Dillinger. Tall tales are woven around organized crime, wild bootleggers, underground saloons, and well-dressed gangsters. There's something uniquely American about the DIY ethos of taking matters into your own hands, making illegal alcohol, and selling it through clandestine channels; stickin' it to the man like those in the illegal alcohol industry did. These stories are immortalized in movies like The Road To Perdition and Public Enemies, as well as TV series like HBO's Boardwalk Empire and, well, PBS's Prohibition. Many lakeshore towns in Western Michigan have tales of organized crime and bootlegging. Easy access to Lake Michigan meant that bootleggers had easy access to boat routes, safely out of reach of authorities. Booze was funneled in from Canada, then taken by boat to cities all aro...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Cedar Swamp Village

Holland has only been a settled city for a little over 170 years. But, it's got a dense, unique history. I took an interest in local history during my college years at Northern Michigan University, and was able to take that interest back home after graduation. Recently, I began researching for this blog, and hanging out at the library, poring through the Local History section. I found an old, forboding looking book, entitled Memorials Of The Grand River Valley, flipped open to a seemingly random page, and read the passage "The Indian village, near the southeastern limits of the city,w as also a prominent landing-place. The log-houses, built by the Indians, were of great service to the newly arrived immigrants; and, as it appears, there never has been any trouble between the Red man and the Dutchman." This piqued my interest, as I live near the southeastern limits of Holland. Was there an Indian village in my own neighborhood that history forgot? Memorials ad...
Post a Comment
Read more

Merry Christmas from Tulip City!

I don't have a full article this week, but here's a little bit of trivia for you: While Holland is a predominantly Christian Reformed city, it was the early Methodists that sprung the Christmas spirit. While an 1867 Sunday School Christmas Program drew nearly 150 youngsters to Hope Church, it was several generations before the Reformed church allowed even Christmas trees into their sanctuaries, as Christmas trees were seen as Pagan symbols. Early Methodists adopted the 19th Century American spirit, and welcomed things like Christmas trees and even Santa Claus into their sanctuaries. I tried to determine exactly how long "several generations" were using Dr. Swierenga's book (and the sources he cites), but could not ascertain the exact time. It's almost certainly somewhere in the vicinity of 50 years (before the Christian Reformed Churches allowed 'pagan' Christmas symbols), which would put their allowing of such things into the early 20th century, but ...
Post a Comment
Read more