Horn House – Man Collected 15,000 Antlers Over 60 Years
Tauheed Ahmad Nawaz
Horn House – Man Collected 15,000 Antlers Over 60 Years. This is a supernatural world where you dip into thoughts of people’s hobbies. Every human being has different hobbies and you would be surprised to come to know about unique interests. Just like a Montana man who is lust for bone collection.
Thus, inside his bizarre “Horn House”, more than 15,000 antlers were collected during his 60 years career. The entire house is covered with antlers, horns, and skulls, which he has collected over 50 years. The man’s obsession is rowing the bones in a lovely way, stacked on the walls, or carefully dangled from the ceiling. The collector James Phillips has named it “The Horn House”.
James Phillips started to collect bones when he was a boy, a curious, enthusiast to gaze at his eerily beautiful collections. As a child, he lived in Gallatin Canyon, and would regularly hike the area’s vast public land, fascinated with discarded antlers being claimed by nature in the hillsides. His younger days were mostly spent scouring the ground for a glint of bone shed by whitetail, mule deer, elk, or moose. And mostly he stored in an old shed in his backyard in town.
He’s quite different from others when he tries to figure out a way to stack the antlers to best view of them. He didn’t pile, just like others do. Those, who have an interest in viewing his collections, are warmly welcomed by him free of charge. The antlers he started gathering nearly 60 years ago are now available to view, hence visitors flock to gaze inside, and, irrespective of whether they have a personal interest in antler gathering or not, they are said to have a common reaction when the doors are thrown open.
Moreover, some of his collection includes ‘atypical’ antlers, which have grown in an inverted shape, or doe skulls with twiggy horns. Thus, over the past few years, his fascination with the antlers has proven lucrative; particularly most of the antlers have been sourced for free.
Therefore, his true passion lies in antler sourcing from the landscape, he has also dabbled with hunting. His 80% harvested antlers have been sourced within 100 miles of Three Forks, but there are also antlers in the mix from eastern Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, North Dakota, and elsewhere.
Hidden inside an ordinary-looking shed in Montana is the result of one man’s obsession – 15,000 antlers, horns and skulls collected over 60 yearsJames Phillips, the man behind the bizarre horde, is pictured here holding one of his largest specimensPhillips insists that anyone can do it and all it takes to build a collection is a strong back and a weak mindPhillips told MailOnline Travel he was out about three weeks ago and hiked 14 hours and covered 26 miles, and ended up finding 11 antlersRows upon rows of the bone remains have been lovingly stacked on the walls or carefully dangled from the ceiling, in the 30 by 64ft building collector Phillips has named The Horn HouseSome of his collection has been gifted, some obtained in trade, but the rest have been strapped to Phillips’ back and transported on dawn-to-dusk hikes or multi-day excursionsHorn House – Man Collected 15,000 Antlers Over 60 Years. Some of his collection include antlers that are ‘atypical’ – where the bone has become invertedThe collector said his family is extremely supportive of his lifestyle. Pictured is his daughter, who is now grown up and works as a teacher
