HUMBOLDT — One of Humboldt’s newest museums has quite a showpiece.
A crowd of about 50 gathered Saturday at the Whitetails & Wildlife Museum for the reveal of a bronze sculpture of a whitetail deer in front of the museum’s entrance.
Max Rickerson, the museum’s benefactor, and sculptor Fred Boyer of Anaconda, Montana, were on hand for the occasion.
“I was honored they asked me to do this piece,” Boyer said. “I hope you all realize what a benefit this museum is.”
“I feel very fortunate we got to run into Fred,” Rickerson added. “All of the attention today should go to Fred.”
It took Boyer about nine months to create the 300-pound beauty, about 1½ times the size of the actual deer. The mount also features a second image, engraved on its back, giving spectators another spectacular image of the animal in its natural environs.
Boyer challenged those in the audience to figure out which deer inside the museum was the model for the sculpture.
“When you get inside the museum, some of the antlers will blow you away,” Boyer chuckled. “When we were talking about the project, I suggested doing a more typical whitetail, because if we did one similar to some of those deer inside the museum, a lot of people aren’t gonna believe it exists.”
After painstakingly shaping the clay mold, a process that took about four months, Boyer was able to get a wax duplicate, used for pouring the bronze at Valley Bronze in Oregon, one of the premier foundries in the world.
“They did about 90% of the monuments in Washington, D.C.,” Boyer noted. “It’s a fantastic foundry.”
Boyer said his biggest appreciation for the museum came not just from the animals on display, but its educational element.
“It’s not just about shooting whitetail deer,” he said. “It’s about learning about conservation.”
Rickerson is a Humboldt native now living in Chanute, who provided 90% of the displays in the museum, which opened in 2024.
The museum, at 715 New York St. on the southwest corner of Humboldt’s downtown square, is open from 1 to 5 p.m. Fridays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and 1 to 4 p.m. Sundays.
