Red Desert, WY in years past had a decent
truck stop type restaurant. It was a good place to stop coming from Utah for a
meal, restroom break, or just coffee. Everything there is closed now.
Along one wall with assorted curiosities was
a mounted jackalope. A tourist lady was questioning the waitress as to its authenticity.
The waitress assured her it was real.
Turning to me, the tourist asked, “Are
you from around here?”
“I was born in this county”, I replied (which
was true).
“Is that real?”, she demanded, pointing
to the jackalope.
“No”, I replied. “Jackalope have
different horns”.
Now agitated, she demanded, “Have you
ever seen one?”
“My grandfather had a ranch east of
Saratoga. When I was young, I would spend a week on his ranch. They would come
down to his irrigation ditch for a drink and browse in his alfalfa. But, that
was years ago”, was my response.
“They are survivors from the Pleistocene
era along with pronghorn, or what most people call antelope”, said another
patron in an authoritative voice. “Very rare, and in danger of extinction”.
Completely flummoxed, the tourist and her
party left.
The waitress, the other patron, and I
exchanged grins but said nothing. Fun messing with tourists.
10 comments:
Gotta be careful, I heard they're reintroducing them to the wild, much like the wolves. Don't want to unbalance that delicate food chain... of course many of them are winter-killed, the horns keep them from being able to graze effectively in the snow.
It is messing with tourists, not messing with the blog author.
I wonder if she would like to go snipe hunting?
Hehehe... Good one!
Hah!
Thanks.
I have pulled a number of city people legs as I regaled them with tales of the rare (dangerous if cornered) jackalope. Of course there are numerous examples of photographs and I've seen my share of stuffed and mounted jackalopes here and there -- usually at diners and small truck stops in the Intermountain West.
I have a habit of stopping at hole-in-the-wall joints, which these days are usually run by Mexicans. The food is usually excellent, catering to locals in the out-of-the-way places that I like to explore when moving from A to B. The tradition of mounting jackalopes in those places has waned in the past 20 years because the Mexicans don't get it. They TAKE FOR GRANTED that everyone knows there are jackalopes prowling the planes. Yes, their herds have been reduced from millions to ten or twenty here and there. The bucks with the horns are very shy but you often see the jackalope females (hornless) bounding here and there.
There is a story of some man in Maine inventing a story about lobster ranching as his party stood on a dock. After they moved on, the question was asked, "Is he a local?"
"No", was the reply, "But he will do".
The Terry Bison Ranch off I-25 has several of them mounted on display in the gift shop.
TBR, a tourist trap like I enjoy visiting. Once had a memorial Thanksgiving dinner there with friends and relatives.
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