Elkfest caters to multiple users

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

By Henry Sweets

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-The annual Elkfest antler auction has for the past 40 years brought people from around the world to Jackson’s Town Square to bid on thousands of pounds of elk antlers. 

The buyers come to bid on the antlers for a number of reasons. Some will turn them into art, others will use them to make furniture or decorative knife handles. Still more see the antlers as a cure-all for various ailments.

But will romantic vigor, as rumor would have us to believe, play a part in this weekend’s search for the perfect seven-pointer?
Not likely, antler experts here say.

As urban legend goes, some Asian countries believe the antlers, when ground into a powder, can be used as an aphrodisiac.

But in fact, Korean and Chinese buyers of antlers would be “fairly insulted” by the rumored use, said Linda Rumsey, who owns Wild West Designs with her husband Ryan. Rumsey said the American media probably started the aphrodisiac rumor years ago.
However, many consumers do believe the antlers have medicinal purposes. The Rumseys’ export company, Little Bighorn, sends over 150,000 pounds of elk antlers annually to Korean and Chinese markets, where they are sliced into wafers and sold as a cold or flu remedy.

During a seven-day process, ailing Asians soak the wafers in ginseng tea to fortify it with amino acids and calcium, and then ingest them for medicinal purposes, Ryan Rumsey said.
Deer antlers are also used for this process, but Mr. Rumsey said the elk antlers are more popular.

“They figure the bigger the animal, the more powerful it is,” he said. “The elk antler has the biggest blood core, so that’s what they like the most.”
Currently, there are only three or four elk antler exporters in the United States, including Little Bighorn.
“I wish it was [an aphrodisiac], because then there’d be more countries interested in buying it,” Rumsey said.

Despite the major export business they run out of Idaho Falls, the Rumseys still save most of their Jackson purchases for showroom pieces like chandeliers, lamps, belt-buckles and other furnishings.
Buyers at the auction will be looking for certain features in the antlers, local dealers said.

The highest-grade antlers for showroom pieces are those with a deeper brown color with unbroken tines, or the points on the antler, said Kyle Anderson, the owner of Game Trail Gatherings. Antlers are categorized as “typical” if they have tines in the normal places, but Anderson said he also likes antlers that might have a unique curve, an errant tine or some other nonconformity that will make them “non-typical.”

Non-typical antlers often bring the best price, according to Loretta Kirkpatrick, who organizes the Boy Scout collection and auction. Kirkpatrick said the highest price she has seen paid for antlers were those that belonged to an elk nicknamed “Barnacle Bill,” because of barnacle-like growths that covered almost the entire surface of the antlers. Barnacle Bill’s antlers fetched about $50 per pound, compared to the usual rate of $10 per pound, she said.

More than a fundraiser, Kirkpatrick said Elkfest is a unique experience for the Boy Scouts, who see each antler they find as a treasure.
One year a scout found a rack still attached to an elk head.

“You’d think they would want someone else to carry it because it stinks so bad,” Kirkpatrick said about the young scout and his find. “No sir, it was their prize and they were going to carry it.”

The Elkfest starts at 7 a.m. on Saturday, May 17, on the Town Square.

Photo by ANDREW WYATT
Boy Scouts Tommy Jennings and William McCreedy carry a load of elk antlers they found on the elk refuge last Saturday.

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Elkfest caters to multiple users | Planet JH News Article: General Music Arts and Culture

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