An Interview with the Curator of Weatherford's Taxidermy and Museum in Tuscola, Illinois

Weatherford's Taxidermy and Museum is one of those rare gems you can only find in small town America, a unique display of animals from around North America.

"That bear and porcupine both came from New York," Weatherford said on the informal tour of his shop/museum at 105 West Scott Street in Tuscola. "That's why they're displayed together."

Weatherford, 63, is an amiable man with a quick smile who started his craft in 1956 with birds and other animals he had either hunted, or found while out hunting. He has a picture on display of his first mount, a duck head. "I've been fascinated with this since I was a kid," Weatherford said.

Then came the formal training, leading to his license as a taxidermist. "It was really boring at first, those classes," Weatherford said. "My father sent away for the correspondence course for me, and the first few months were all things I'd already learned on my own."

Weatherford received his license in 1964, and has been preserving animals ever since. "I started with birds," he said, "and didn't do my first deer until 1965. And I did my first fish in 1966," he said, displaying the piece he bought back from a customer who fell on hard times - 30 years later.

The Weatherford's, who have been married 42 years, raised their family of five children in Tuscola seven blocks away from where his shop and home are now located. "Dad bought this place in 1962, and my shop has been in the same building since I got my license, since it's zoned right for a business," Bruce said.

Weatherford worked at the Dekalb seed plant in Tuscola full time up until 1999, when the plant was purchased and closed. "I thought I would just retire from that and go into this full time," Weatherford said with an infectious grin. "But I'm as busy now as I was before."

Weatherford did start down the road to retirement, and sold half of his collection to restore his classic 1956 Studebaker that you'll often see sitting outside in good weather. The Weatherford's personal collection has since grown back to its original size, and then some. "It's really kind of in my blood," laughed Bruce.