While thumbing through some postcards in the Antique Mall the other day, I came across a card that reminded me of my Mama. She was big on postcards and she was big on Arizona. She subscribed to the magazine, Arizona Highways for years and the Navajo Indians always held a special place in her heart. She was a missionary on a reservation back in her college days in the 1950’s.
The postcard was of a horse and some Navajo Indians out in the desert, or what appeared to be the desert. The card was probably from the 1950’s or 60’s, it was a dollar, so I bought it.
Before mailing it (yes I mailed it) to my daughter who is away at college, I looked up the photographer/postcard artist or whatever you call someone who makes picture postcards. The fellow’s name was Bob Petley.
Bob was very famous for his postcards. As noted in the newspaper, The Tucson Citizen, “Petley began snapping his picture-perfect cards by trolling the state with his camera and a station wagon in 1945, eventually favoring a Lincoln Continental.”
Well, I read a little more about Bob and found out that he is credited with inventing the “Arizona Jackalope.”
This was not the actual first jackalope, which was pretty common to funny postcards at the time – but it was the first “Arizona Jackalope.” Evidently Bob put together his own jackalope from a stuffed rabbit bought from a taxidermist, topped him with a set of antlers and plopped him on top of hill in the desert. Bob made it look real and folks had to have a “Petley Postcard” of a jackalope.
Bob Petley died at 93 years old, famous for his postcards, but even more famous for the Arizona Jackalope. If I’d have known this, I would have been willing to pay even more for the postcard of the Navajo Indians.
You know that I had to figure out who really invented the jackalope, so I decided to do a little research and see if I could figure it out.
If you are unsure as to what a jackalope is, you are probably not alone. It is a mythical animal of North American folklore described as a jackrabbit with antelope horns. If you were to say these creatures don’t exist, you would be right… They only exist after a taxidermist has done a little magic on a jackrabbit with some deer antlers or horns from another unfortunate creature.
The jackalope was actually “born” in Wyoming, where Douglas Herrick and his brother, hunters with excellent taxidermy skills decided to graft deer antlers onto a jackrabbit carcass. They sold the original jackalope to a hotel in Douglas, Wyoming and then started selling their creations to retail outlets.
They say that people will buy anything – I tend to believe that.
In order to sell such a thing, you need to have a good story to go along with it. Seeing as how these jackalopes often appear in bars and pool halls and such, it needs to be a good story.
The legend goes that jackrabbits were infected by this terrible virus that causes horn and antler like tumors to grow in various places. Conveniently, the jackalope antlers seemed to be confined to its head.
This is America where we have fellows who studied taxidermy through mail order classes back in the 1930’s when they were teenagers. The first jackalope these Herrick brothers birthed was sold for ten dollars. Checking in the Cabella’s catalog, a good looking mounted jackalope will cost you about $150.
This is America where we have folks who need a jackalope on their wall so bad, they’re willing to pay $150 for it.
I’m seriously thinking about putting some Mickey Mouse ears on my Standard Poodle, Doolittle, snapping a picture and selling postcards. The only trouble is I need to come up with a story and something to call a mouse eared 95 pound poodle.
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Cranks My Tractor
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I'm BN Heard and I like semicolons, dogs and sending postcards.
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