Animal collection available for viewing
A warthog wades into a watering hole off Fritz Cove Road. It's a scene from Tanzania, recreated in Juneau by hunter Fred Koken and taxidermist Bob Scherf.
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Mounts of about 60 animals from around the world are on display in an enormous room in Koken's home overlooking Smugglers Cove. He calls it the Southeast Alaska Museum of Natural History, and Koken has invited schools, scouting and youth groups to view his animals. The collection includes full-body mounts of wild sheep from Mongolia, gazelles from Tibet, a lion and leopard from Africa, a Himalayan bear from India and a host of Alaska animals.
"It's my objective to let the public know this resource is available," Koken said. He's provided brochures and offered invitations to all Juneau schools. Some school groups have already visited the facility, and Koken said the zebra is a favorite among kids. There are no plaques providing information on biology or natural history of the animals, but Koken serves as a tour guide, talking about the mounts and his hunting experiences.
Koken, a retired stockbroker, founded the Fred K. Koken Educational Foundation and first opened the doors to his museum about three years ago. His collection has grown considerably since then, and this year he plans to add a new Alaska themed display featuring Sitka black-tailed deer, foxes, beavers and ducks.
The collection represents 42 years of hunting, but Koken said the majority of the animals in the collection were taken in the past 10 years, since he retired. Koken has lived in Juneau since 1970. He grew up in Oregon, and his father took a job in India and moved the family there for several years when Koken was a teenager. He's hunted deer on Chichagof or Kodiak Islands almost every year since he came to Alaska, and hunted caribou, goats, sheep, elk and cougar in the Yukon and British Columbia. He's been to Africa twice and Asia about six times, he said. A full-body moose and wolf on display were taken on trips to Prince William Sound.
"Sheep hunting is my favorite kind of hunting," he said. "But age is catching up with me and the mountains get higher and higher every year. I don't sheep hunt anymore."
He said his most exotic trophy is a record-book Himalayan high-altitude brown bear he took in 1965, when his parents had returned to India.
"After I finished college and the Army I was visiting my parents in India and my dad said, 'Let's go hunting,'" Koken said. "We were in the foothills of the Himalayas - they call them foothills, but it's about 12,000 feet."
One side of the room is a 38-foot high stone wall with dozens of animals posed on ledges. A cougar lies on a "limb" under the ceiling, and two mountain goats climb a ledge 30 feet off the floor. The floor displays feature more than a dozen full-body mounts of animals including two Cape buffalo, ibex and antelope.
Douglas taxidermist Bob Scherf of Northstar Taxidermy helped design the room and has done virtually all of the taxidermy. The animals appear to be standing on ledges, but they are actually supported by steel pipes running behind the mounts back into the stone wall. Scherf custom mounted and posed the animals for the displays, and even built realistic artificial rockwork for many of the ledges.
Scherf said installing the displays was one of the most challenging assignments in his 65 years as a taxidermist. The initial placement of some of the sheep and goats was a real learning experience. "It was really tough at first, they're big animals and it's a long ways up," Scherf said. "We had that scissor-lift fully extended."
Koken encourages visitors to look closely at the floor displays, but not touch the mounts. A side room provides the opportunity to handle skulls, hides, fur, horns and antlers. There is no charge to visit. Because the facility is in a private neighborhood, it is not open on a daily basis, but by appointment. Koken may be contacted at 789-9304.