Wyoming
The first antler arch was constructed in 1953 through the efforts and fundraising of the Jackson Hole Rotary Club. The National Elk Refuge, a protected haven where hundreds of elk come to take shelter during the winter months, sits just outside of the town of Jackson. Each spring the herd of elk naturally shed their antlers allowing locals and visitors alike to harvest the pieces for art and auction. Using a steel frame as a base and thousands of antlers from the annual spring shed, the rotary club methodically stacked the antlers to form the resulting arch. By the late 1960’s the other three antler arches came into existence and completed the project. The four arches stood proudly for the sixty years that followed. But as antlers are in fact made up of bone, they eventually began to decompose causing the structures to lose their rigidity and foundational structure. In 2006 the Rotary Club began fundraising efforts to replace the structures altogether with newly formed arches. Using donations and the funds received from auctioning off the original arches, some 14,000 pounds of antlers per arch, the club was able to replace them entirely with new frames and new antlers. By 2015 the final arch reconstruction was completed and the new adornments are expected to last at least another 50 years. The antler arches have become something of a Jackson Hole icon and a legacy to be passed onto future generations.
Jackson Hole, WY
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker