Wild bison herd carving donated to National Bison Range
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MOIESE – National Bison Range Project Leader Jeff King said he thought the recently donated piece of artwork was going to be just “a little carving” to display at the visitor’s center.
The three-dimensional piece turned out to be almost eight feet long and about two feet high of carved black walnut. “When it arrived our jaws dropped,” said Laura King, refuge program specialist.
The carving depicts nine bison compacted together in movement. Laura said the scene reminds her of the free roaming bison herds moving across the prairie when they were about 60 million strong before the 1800s.
It sits on a stand under a class case to protect the intricate details of the work. Laura said about 200,000 people visit the range each year and she wouldn’t want things like the delicately carved bison tails to eventually break off if people were allowed to touch them.
The piece was unveiled during a ceremony on Friday, May 12, in the visitor’s center. “This belongs to the American people,” she said. James and Barbara Kackley donated the piece. It was in their home in Wisconsin for several years, but they downsized and didn’t figure the sculpture would fit in their new place, so they decided to donate it to a museum and eventually decided on the range. “This is the perfect place for it,” Barbara said.
The couple said they didn’t realize how difficult it was to give something away. They had the case and stand built without any problems, but then they had to figure out how to get the sculpture and the glass case to Montana. “Not many people will deliver something like this,” James said.
They rented a truck and hired a professional to secure everything so it didn’t move during the 1,400-mile journey. It arrived in three crates weighing a total of 1,200 pounds. Laura said she looked around the visitor’s center for “a place of honor” to have it set up. The large topographical map was moved and lighting was arranged.
Artist John Sharp from Wisconsin spent a year developing the piece after the Kackley couple commissioned him to create some thing for them in 2002.
Sharp was also at the unveiling ceremony. He said he had his eye on a 1,000-pound log at the junkyard for some time when the couple asked him to carve them a big sculpture. “I knew there was something in that log,” he said.
He moved the log to his backyard workshop in two pieces. It was too large to handle in one section. He used a chainsaw to shape the wood, reducing it to about 400 pounds, and flattened the bottom so the logs wouldn’t roll over on him as he worked.
Barbara said she would visit Sharp to “peek in” on the progress and saw him watching the log and waiting for it to tell him what his next move would be. He eventually saw a bison herd running through the grain of the wood.
He connected the two pieces of wood seamlessly and used a set of Swiss carving tools to form the long backs of each figure, the bison tails, and heads, some turned with a tongue gaping out. He notched in the details of their hair. Last, he freed their legs and hooves. Then he added an oil finish and kept the natural color of the wood. “It lent itself to the subject,” he said.
Sharp started learning to carve about 60 years ago when he was a Boy Scout before becoming a professional artist. “I made little figures for my parents, and I got wood chips under my fingernails and never got them out,” he said as a metaphorical description for his passion for carving.
The range presented the artist and donors with a set of bison horns from the original herd as an appreciation gift. Jeff also recognized Laura for the work she did to help get the carving to the range.
“I want to personally thank her for the work she did,” he said. “This will be in the National Bison Range from now until forever.”
A full-length coat made of bison hide and hair in perfect condition was also donated to the range from a man in Canada. It’s estimated to be more than 100 years old.
