Carolina Moment: Hendersonville taxidermist: ‘Not many of us left’
By Derek Bryant
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HENDERSONVILLE, North Carolina (WLOS) — Alton Barton has been a hunter and fisherman all his life, and when he went into the U.S. Army, he got the opportunity to go to night school for taxidermy.
He said he almost got his diploma, but those plans were put on hold.
“I lacked two weeks, and they sent me to Vietnam,” he said.
Barton ended up getting his diploma after his service. He said you’ve got to love the wildlife to be in the line of work of taxidermy.
“It’s nice to take something dead and bring it back to life, so to speak,” Barton said.
As soon as Barton got back from Vietnam, people started bringing him animals to work on.
“Fifty something years have gone by. I’ve met a lot of nice people and a lot of interesting people,” he said.
He’s done full-body mounts on lions, deer, bear, otters, turkeys, all sorts of birds, coyotes, bobcats and raccoons.
“I’ve even done a hummingbird. It’s real challenging. I got a big magnifying glass, and I work with two pair of tweezers,” he said. “That’s what you gotta do in order to skin one.”
His nickname is “Buzzard,” and he gave a good reason why.
“The boys in Alabama I hunt with say when I skin a deer and cut the meat up, the buzzards don’t even have a mess of meat left,” he said.
Barton said he eats a lot of deer, adding that he hasn’t eaten any beef in over 40 or 50 years.
He said taxidermy is a dying art.
“There is not many of us left,” he said.
He said he plans on doing his art as long as he can, saying, “creating the habitats and stuff like that for the different animals, that’s the part I really enjoy.”
Barton’s business in Hendersonville is Alton Barton Taxidermy Services and can be reached at 828-788-0907.
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