The saga of the coonskin hat

This tale really begins here, at the Mountain Man Rendezvous, Fort Bridger, Wyoming in September 2007. The Schill family moved into our neighborhood in January of 2007 and Caroline and Brinnan became good friends. She was invited to join them for this fun weekend in September. Because I wasn't there, I can only imagine what happened but guess it went something like this...

Caroline was having such a wonderful time at the rendezvous. There were vendors with furs, wooden toys, buffalo moccasins, scones, homemade root beer, and other amazing things from another time. Some of the people were dressed as pioneers, others as fur trappers or Indians. Caroline must have seen a real raccoon fur hat and thought it was pretty cool. Brother Schill, being the mountain man that he is, told Caroline that if she ever found a raccoon at the side of the road within a few short hours of dying, he would help her skin it and make a hat of her own. Well, for an adventurous 11 year old girl that sounded like the offer of a lifetime.

Caroline didn't let me in on this amazing offer until a cold, dark night the next winter. We were driving home from Caroline's gymnastics lesson on Geneva Road in Orem. There was something in the road so I swerved to avoid hitting it. Caroline asked why I had just swerved and I said there was a dead raccoon in the middle of the road and I didn't want to hit it. She then launched into a very excited, loud, statement that we had to go back and get it! What?!? She told me how Brother Schill had made the offer of a lifetime (jumping up and down in her seat, hands clapping, face lit up, squeals of joy) and that we just had to turn around and go get it.

Now, any sane parent at this point would have just chalked it up to the foolish imaginings of a child and kept right on down the road. I hadn't seen Caroline this excited about ANYTHING in a long time. She was more than halfway through the 2nd year of a 2 year very demanding, stressful, time consuming, accelerated school program. Lately, she had been much more tired, worried, and overworked than any 6th grader should ever be. I had been wondering how I could help her look happy again, enjoy life more like she should be doing at such a young age.

With a disbelieving giggle, I turned the car around and went back. She was ecstatic! I was not sure at this point if Brother Schill was really serious about this or not. We pulled over so the headlights shone on the raccoon in the road. In the edge of the headlights' beam, I found a 2x4 at the side of the road and went to roll the carcass out of harm's way and to see whether or not this would be a potential taxidermy candidate. I explained that I was not going to put a dead, most likely diseased, animal in the back of the minivan, that we would need to call Brother Schill for the go ahead and instructions about how on earth I was to get a dead raccoon across town.

Caroline called as we drove towards home. He said that yes, he would love to help her! She was so excited, frequent squeals of joy and exclamations about how she just couldn't believe this could really be happening and how happy she was kept coming out of her mouth. Her whole person shouted with the energy that only comes from a long awaited break in monotony. I couldn't stop laughing, it was so fun to see her with so much enthusiasm and giddiness.

We went home and got leather gloves, a shovel, a cardboard box and garbage bags. We drove back to the spot on the road and to Caroline's relief it was still there, unharmed. I parked the car off the road. I imagine it looked like a scene from some B horror movie, headlights shining on the dead in the frozen darkness, the body being shoveled into a container. Could I really be doing this? I guess the Alaskan in me was truly stepping up. My mother would be so proud, no sissy girl here.

Caroline was still giddy as we drove back towards home. We went to the Schill's to re-tell the whole tale. Steve and his brother were there and we all had tears in our eyes from laughing so hard by the end. Steve and his brothers had had many similar adventures and were glad, I think, to have found kindred spirits. Unfortunately, Steve was leaving town soon so the raccoon had to be put in the freezer until a later date. Uhhhh, what was that? He now was suggesting I put the dead, most likely diseased, carcass in my freezer along with the frozen peas, juice and hamburger. Is this really true? Yes, I went home and wrapped the raccoon in 14 layers of plastic trash bags and put it in the freezer. Looking back, I am surprised I actually did this, aren't you? The things mothers will do for their children.

After a couple of months, we were instructed to thaw the beast so it could be skinned. This is done by leaving it on your roof for a few days in the hopes that the Spring weather will slowly but surely do the job. This made me laugh, too. How white trash is it to be thawing your road kill on the roof? I am imagining myself in the Ozarks with my overalls unhooked on one shoulder, barefoot in front of a tin shack with smoke coming from the chimney.

With the skinning done, the skin was put back in the freezer for a date in the future when we could get some tanning supplies. This time for some reason the skin went into the Schill's freezer. So sorry Jennifer! Occasionally she would mention that she would come across it while looking for a roast or something. Oh my. You are a true friend and must also love your husband a lot to allow such a thing.

A couple of rendezvous went by and we would forget until it was too late that we needed a certain amount of time to complete the project. So, Caroline went without her hat. Last Christmas Caroline got a tanning kit to finish the job. Can you see the giddiness and excitement? This was definitely the hit present last year.

Here are Caroline and Steve stretching the skin on a board in one of many steps in the tanning process.

Scraping the fat off the skin. There were a few more steps that I don't have pictures of. This took place just before we took off in our motorhome for California last May. More poor planning, but we had to take the hide with us on vacation and "work" it several times a day to make it nice and soft. It was now ready for hat construction. Steve got some rabbit fur for the body of the hat and they planned to finish it at Rendezvous, the place this story began.

The long awaited time had come. Here is Caroline modeling the raccoon skin on her head. Can you imagine what it will look like?

Here she is cutting our the rabbit fur.

Ta-Da!!! She reported that the hat was very warm and she loves it very much!

Caroline, you are so awesome! I love you!