B 10-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 8, 2003 Kids Korner Ranchers Turn Cattle Skulls Into Western Art BARNESVILLE, Ohio A fa ther and sons team of ranchers ride herd on a trend —turning cat tle skulls into Western Art. It started back in 1977 when a dev astating blizzard on the high plains of Colorado killed 40 per cent of the Dickinson family Longhorn cattle herd. At a point when everything seemed hopless, Darol Dickinson started salvag ing what was left sticking out of the snow, those serpentine long horns and skulls. Although not as good as the production of the liv ing cow, the cleaned and polished skulls often sold for more money than a normal commercial living cow would bring at auction. Over the years collectors and western decor buffs have contin ued to snap up the one of a kind appendages. Today Darol and sons Joel and Kirk, now ranching in Belmont, County, Ohio, sell 50 to 80 skulls a year at prices that begin at $l3O and go to $950. Collectors and designers view the longhorns as the quintessential symbol of the Old West. “Longhorns have a mystique about them,” said Joel Dickin son. “They stand for courage, stamina, independence—all the admired qualities of our early frontier settlers.” The Longhorns Head to Tail Store, located on the family ranch north of Barnesville also markets all the other longhorn components such as steer shoul der mounts, mounted steer tails, tanned hides, bull walking canes, bull golf clubs, hoof lamps, and of course healthy lean beef, all natu ral and delicious. Everything really started with the skull polishing. Many of the Grange Hosts Flag Raising Ceremony LEWISBERRY (York Co.) Lewisberry Valley Grange #1360 and #1230 Rosstown Road, Lewisberry, hosted a special flag raising ceremony Sunday, March 2, at 2 p.m. at the Grange hall. The 40-foot flag pole was pur chased and erected as an Eagle Scout project by Adam Karl of Boy Scout Troop 312, York l Adams Council. Adam is the son of Mary and James Karl of Fish ing Creek Road, New Cumber land. Adam is a senior at Red Land High School The project included research into flagpoles and kits, removing Helping kids do < hildrt n s . , . Agricultural lasks Z//C> JOO c.ia help parents safely T ha ; h,,<l ' l J J physical mental ami emotional abilities with an agricultural job ■SnS" View the Guidelines ■■ online at children’s M.womk IU w.nmcat orv skulls come with a lengthy histo ry, photos of the living animals taken in its heyday and the docu mented registration certificates. Customers who purchase a skull get more than a skull, they get a personal history. There’s Shorty, a longhorn steer doing the roideo thing. After a year he became increasingly le thargic and instead of a rodeo star, he became an X-Rodeo per former, graduated to a feed lot and then went on to a health foods store. Each of them has been profes sionally immortalized as a bleached and polished skull. Over the years, Kirk and Joel have developed a 23 step clean ing and polishing technique. They ship by UPS polished skulls across the USA as well as Nor way, Germany, and Japan. Ger man people are especially taken with the culture of the Wild West and are enthusiastic collectors of all things western, according to ranch manager Joel Dickinson. To start collecting skulls, price is a consideration. The wider the spread the better. The more “cork screw” the higher the price. Horns, like trees produce a growth ring. Horn grows fast in the summer and grows a long light colored section, but grows slow in Winter with a darker, smaller section. The younger cat tle have smaller, shorter hom and the older cattle have the really big trophies. Bulls have a more masculine horn with a large cir cumference and steers have the six to eight foot spreads. The longest horned steer on Dickin son Cattle Company today mea sures right at 90 inches. Many people purchasing trophy skills vegetation and shrubbery from the parking lot island where the pole was erected, installing the base for the pole, placing a weed barrier in the island, planting new plants and shrubbery, erect ing the flagpole, installation of a solar powered dusk to dawn light and finishing the landscaping with tanbark. Adam began the project with Valley Grange #1360 in July 2002 and completed it in Decem ber of last year. The original plans called for him to erect a 30-foot flagpole and Valley Grange #1360 donated half the costs. Adam decided to purchase and erect a 40-foot pole and is raising money to cover the addi tional costs through candy sales. * i from the store actually prefer smaller spreads due to limited den or wall space. Not every one can have an available area for the really big ones. In reality, longhorn skulls aren’t for everyone. Gaping na sals and eye cavities strike some as, let’s say, not sophisticated. But buyers can be guaranteed one aspect of the skulls, immacu late cleanliness. The craniums go through a multi process of boil ing, bleaching, sanding, and high pressure washing that leaves each one polished and as bright white as if it had sunned in the desert for 50 years. Kirk says, “During the buffing and polishing process I try not to overdo it. Most collec tors prefer a natural look. The hom natural color is beautiful; if they are too polished, they look like plastic. The family cattle operation in the Appalachian foot hills of south eastern Ohio runs over a thousand registered Texas Long horn cattle and sells mostly breeding stock for people starting herds. Tours are provided during the Summer for the public. The regular processing of beef for the store provides a renewable supply of skulls to a limited degree. The 23 step skull process is not an easy feat, in fact it is quite labor intensive, to the extent not many Longhorn ranchers take the time and trouble to make them “indoor desirable.” It is just easier to hang a skull on the side of the barn. “People aren’t fighting to get into the authentic Longhorn skull-polishing business,” said Kirk. There’s not a lot of compe tition in this industry.” For more info www.head2tail.com tells the rest of the story. The ceremony was attended by Sen. Jeff Picola and Rep. Bruce Smith (a member of Valley Grange #1360), officers and members of Valley Grange #1360, surrounding granges, and Betsy Huber, PA State Grange Master. Construction of the Valley Grange hall was completed in 1996. Valley Grange had previ ously sold their original hall in Lewisberry. There had been much discussion since then among members about erecting a flagpole but nothing had ever been finalized. Boy Scout Troop 312 began meeting at the Grange hail early in 2002 and shortly afterwards the idea of Eagle Scout projects was brought up. A flagpole was one of the first items discussed and Adam quickly de cided to make that his Eagle project. The Grange is a family frater nal organization dedicated to the betterment of rural America through community service, edu cation, legislation and fellowship. Valley Grange #1360 meets at its hall at 1230 Rosstown Road (Rt 177), Lewisberry, the second and fourth Mondays of each month at 7:30 p.m. Joel and Kirk Dickinson of Barnesville, Ohio, display a state of the art Texas Longhorn polished skull. The Dick inson Cattle Company has been polishing skulls for 26 years for sale to collectors of unique western memorabil ia. The ranch runs a sizable herd of Texas Longhorns and develops a number of decor products from every part of a critter. It isn’t just the all natural beef that sells at the Longhorns Head to Tail Store but also tanned hides, Longhorn steer shoulder mounts, hoof lamps, mounted steer tails, leather place mattes, bull walking canes, bull golf putters, and ladies purses. The ranch also provides public tours during the summer. yj\ 3- —t—\ . ft* # 1
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