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4285 Center Rd. (SR 83), Avon, OH 44011
Telephone: 440-934-5813.
(A 1999 Deer and Fall Turkey Check Station Location)
Hours:
M-Th-F 9am- 6pm
Wed 9am - 8pm
Sat 9am-5pm
Tues/ Sun Closed
FEATURE ARTICLE from THE PLAIN DEALER, 12-27-99, By RICH EXNER, PLAIN DEALER REPORTER
"Bringing skin, bones to life
AVON - Richard Miller picked up another shipment at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and began organizing things in his workshop.
Neatly placed across the floor were the skulls of warthogs, zebras, baboons, other monkeys and a variety of antelope. The animals' skins, turned inside out, were neatly folded in stacks.
Miller's task?
Take these animals from an African trip by two central Ohio hunters and make the remains look alive.
It is work Miller has been doing for more than 40 years as owner of Miller's Life Like Taxidermy, starting out in Olmsted Township before moving to Avon 30 years ago.
Only a handful of the 280 registered taxidermists in Ohio are licensed to accept game from Africa, said Art Ledger of Art's School of Taxidermy in Cleveland.
"I feel it's an art," Miller said. "Some people put a paint brush in their hands and paint a flying pheasant. I can re-create a pheasant."
Miller got interested in the ancient trade after his father, Edward, took him to a taxidermy shop in Cleveland. Miller was only 10, but he ordered a class by mail from the Northwest School of Taxidermy ...
By the time he graduated from Olmsted Falls High School in 1960, profits paid for a 21/2-car garage used as a workshop.
In the early years, local wildlife, such as pheasants in the days before deer were plentiful in the area, kept Miller busy. But word spread. Two-thirds of his business now comes from outside the area, from places like Alaska and the December shipment from Zimbabwe.
His showroom looks like a staging area for Noah's Ark: leopards, moose, elk, giraffes, buffalo, bison, monkeys, deer and fish.
The "trophies" are the end product of a process that takes four to five months to do right in the best of circumstances, Miller said. His turnaround time is about double that, in part because of a backlog of about 130 deer.
The skin goes through a preserving process with heavy use of salt before it is "leathered out" with tanning solutions.
Miller makes polyurethane forms on site, animals are not stuffed, and the skin is placed on the body forms. The eyes are glass. Everything else visible is real, unless the animal's mouth is open. In those cases the teeth and tongue are artificial.
Deer heads run $215 to $250. A whole deer costs $900 and up. A big brown bear would start at about $3,000.
"You learn to love animals," Miller said. "You want to preserve what is left of them."
But Miller said he draws the line at pets. He refuses to do them, instead suggesting that people frame a picture or get a nice oil painting done if they want to preserve the memory of their pet ...
Miller, whose interests at an early age included both hunting and art, said he was attracted to taxidermy by the thought of re-creating the beauty of pheasants and other animals.
After he met Dotti, his wife of 33 years, "she spent a lot of dates watching me do taxidermy." He said the business is a success because his wife runs the financial side of things.
For 35 years, Miller also worked as a lineman and supervisor for the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co. "I would come home at night, eat supper and work [on taxidermy- until midnight."
Miller, 58, and retired from CEI since June 1998, said he would like to start cutting back, perhaps hiring an apprentice to join his other taxidermist on staff, Todd Kinzel ..."
©1999 THE PLAIN DEALER
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