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Hung up on the family business
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| Lake City taxidermist Mike McCauley puts the finishing touches on a group of turkey heads in his workshop. McCauley has done work on animals such as deer, bears and hogs, but has also recreated armadillos, zebras and sharks. JASON MATTHEW WALKER/Lake City Reporter |
Taxidermy has become way of life for McCauley family.
By BRANDON FINLEY
bfinley@lakecityreporter.com
Deer mounted in family living rooms across this nation hold more than just the illusion of a once-beautiful creature.
To many people, these wall-hangings hold a story and a sense of nostalgia.
And chances are that when any animal has been wall-mounted throughout Lake City, that sense of nostalgia has been prompted by one man: Mike McCauley.
McCauley’s job doesn’t resemble that of most everyday workers.
He is, and has been for 44 years, his own boss as a taxidermist — a business of choice he didn’t arrive at through schooling or by working his way up the career ladder. It happened by fate.
And as fate would have it, McCauley began his taxidermist career as an observer.
“I actually didn’t have enough money to mount a mallard duck when I was 16 years old,” McCauley said. “It was $35, and I made a deal to bring a guy six more mallards if he would make me one. I sat and watched how he did it, and it all kind of started from there.”
After 31 years in Lake City, McCauley is now an expert at his craft, but that doesn’t make the job any easier.
Putting in at least 40 hours each week, and working as late as midnight on certain days, McCauley’s job isn’t for everyone.
After receiving the hide from a customer, McCauley then must peal the skin back off its head. He then applies it to several molds before seeing which one it will fit “like a glove.”
There isn’t a limit to what McCauley can recreate. He’s done everything from armadillos to bears, and from zebras to sharks. McCauley has even recreated a life-like 600-pound boar that sits in the shop he works in, located in front of his home.
Through his showmanship at local fairs, McCauley’s work has gained plenty of notoriety, and that’s given him the opportunity to do work for many famous people including Johnny Cash, Ray Stevens and members of the country band Sawyer Brown.
McCauley has a simple philosophy of hard work equaling good work, which has allowed him to stay successful in a business that provides luxury items in a time of economic dismay.
“I had to do good to get enough work,” McCauley said. “People come back and say they’ve had work done elsewhere, but the quality doesn’t match mine.”
Yet at one time McCauley almost left the business.
After delving into the mobile home business for a couple of years, McCauley had promised his wife, Lissie, to stay away from taxidermy. As fate would have it, he was once more called into the business.
“Gator Levens wanted me to mount a deer for his son,” McCauley said. “His was nine years old, it was the ninth month of the year, and the buck was a nine point. He wanted me to do it, but I had stuff I was still holding onto for two or three years, working on.”
McCauley sent him to a taxidermist farther south in the state whose work he had always admired — and considered better than his own. As it turned out, Levens preferred McCauley’s work, and soon McCauley returned to the trade.
Now McCauley is doing for his grandson, Cameron, the same thing that was once done for him — passing on a trade.
As an avid outdoorsman, Cameron has always loved to hunt, which is why he specializes in deer taxidermy. But he didn’t always plan to go into the family business.
Cameron began a career as a Columbia County firefighter, but his calling soon steered him to taxidermy as well.
“Eventually every firefighter has to find a second job,” Cameron said. “My love for deer hunting and the outdoors pretty much led me here.”
Three years later, Mike McCauley is Cameron’s best endorser, although it’s a constant struggle between the old way of doing things and the new school way of thinking.
“There are nine ways to skin a cat and I try to show him my way, but he has his own way of doing things. His will work,” said the senior McCauley. “He’s going to be a lot better than I ever was.”
To many people, these wall-hangings hold a story and a sense of nostalgia.
And chances are that when any animal has been wall-mounted throughout Lake City, that sense of nostalgia has been prompted by one man: Mike McCauley.
McCauley’s job doesn’t resemble that of most everyday workers.
He is, and has been for 44 years, his own boss as a taxidermist — a business of choice he didn’t arrive at through schooling or by working his way up the career ladder. It happened by fate.
And as fate would have it, McCauley began his taxidermist career as an observer.
“I actually didn’t have enough money to mount a mallard duck when I was 16 years old,” McCauley said. “It was $35, and I made a deal to bring a guy six more mallards if he would make me one. I sat and watched how he did it, and it all kind of started from there.”
After 31 years in Lake City, McCauley is now an expert at his craft, but that doesn’t make the job any easier.
Putting in at least 40 hours each week, and working as late as midnight on certain days, McCauley’s job isn’t for everyone.
After receiving the hide from a customer, McCauley then must peal the skin back off its head. He then applies it to several molds before seeing which one it will fit “like a glove.”
There isn’t a limit to what McCauley can recreate. He’s done everything from armadillos to bears, and from zebras to sharks. McCauley has even recreated a life-like 600-pound boar that sits in the shop he works in, located in front of his home.
Through his showmanship at local fairs, McCauley’s work has gained plenty of notoriety, and that’s given him the opportunity to do work for many famous people including Johnny Cash, Ray Stevens and members of the country band Sawyer Brown.
McCauley has a simple philosophy of hard work equaling good work, which has allowed him to stay successful in a business that provides luxury items in a time of economic dismay.
“I had to do good to get enough work,” McCauley said. “People come back and say they’ve had work done elsewhere, but the quality doesn’t match mine.”
Yet at one time McCauley almost left the business.
After delving into the mobile home business for a couple of years, McCauley had promised his wife, Lissie, to stay away from taxidermy. As fate would have it, he was once more called into the business.
“Gator Levens wanted me to mount a deer for his son,” McCauley said. “His was nine years old, it was the ninth month of the year, and the buck was a nine point. He wanted me to do it, but I had stuff I was still holding onto for two or three years, working on.”
McCauley sent him to a taxidermist farther south in the state whose work he had always admired — and considered better than his own. As it turned out, Levens preferred McCauley’s work, and soon McCauley returned to the trade.
Now McCauley is doing for his grandson, Cameron, the same thing that was once done for him — passing on a trade.
As an avid outdoorsman, Cameron has always loved to hunt, which is why he specializes in deer taxidermy. But he didn’t always plan to go into the family business.
Cameron began a career as a Columbia County firefighter, but his calling soon steered him to taxidermy as well.
“Eventually every firefighter has to find a second job,” Cameron said. “My love for deer hunting and the outdoors pretty much led me here.”
Three years later, Mike McCauley is Cameron’s best endorser, although it’s a constant struggle between the old way of doing things and the new school way of thinking.
“There are nine ways to skin a cat and I try to show him my way, but he has his own way of doing things. His will work,” said the senior McCauley. “He’s going to be a lot better than I ever was.”
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