{"id":31445,"date":"2016-04-24T08:00:21","date_gmt":"2016-04-24T15:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/monroe-the-bear-gets-a-spa-day\/"},"modified":"2016-04-24T08:00:21","modified_gmt":"2016-04-24T15:00:21","slug":"monroe-the-bear-gets-a-spa-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/monroe-the-bear-gets-a-spa-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Monroe the Bear gets a ‘spa day’"},"content":{"rendered":"

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. <\/strong>\u2014 Monroe the Bear just got treated to a makeover.<\/p>\n

The Kodiak bear, often considered the centerpiece of the Monroe County History Center, on Wednesday got a bit of a \u201cspa day\u201d as Bill Fulcher, owner of Bill\u2019s Taxidermy, brushed out and dyed the Kodiak grizzly\u2019s fur and fixed cracks in Monroe\u2019s mouth and paw pads.<\/p>\n

As Fulcher brushed through Monroe\u2019s thick undercoat, he pointed out spots of discoloration that he said would make the fur coat the toughest part of the job. Other items on the to-do list, such as filling in and painting over cracks or fixing a broken toe he found while brushing, wouldn\u2019t take as long, he said.<\/p>\n

Hilary Fleck, the history center\u2019s collections manager, said it\u2019s the first time the center has hired someone to work on the approximately 70-year-old bear, according to museum records.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s much-needed work for the center\u2019s beloved bear, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make sure he\u2019s going to be around for another 70 years,\u201d Fleck said.<\/p>\n

Monroe, who was officially named in 2013 after a local contest and voting, has called the history center home since 1990.<\/p>\n

Before that, he was on display in the center of Schmalz\u2019s Department Store on North Walnut Street for four decades.<\/p>\n

Store owner Roy Schmalz had shot the large male in 1949 on Kodiak Island, Alaska.<\/p>\n

Schmalz, who was an avid hunter, had to get special permission from the federal government to hunt the bear and bring it back, because Alaska was still a territory, Fleck said.<\/p>\n

Fulcher said Monroe is on the top end of the Kodiak range in height and girth \u2014 between 8 and 9 feet tall on his hind legs \u2014 and a crease in his head serves as further proof that he\u2019s a big male.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe (Schmalz) didn\u2019t settle for the first one he saw,\u201d Fulcher said.<\/p>\n

Other stuffed animals that the center inherited when Schmalz and his son died \u2014 the collection includes a cougar, a bobcat and a buffalo head \u2014 are similarly large.<\/p>\n

Though they aren\u2019t necessarily a part of Monroe County\u2019s history as a species, the animals hold a direct tie to a local historical figure, Fleck said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do like the history behind it,\u201d she said. \u201cIt helps us tell the human story of Roy Schmalz.\u201d<\/p>\n

And his family has been involved in helping the center tell that story.<\/p>\n

Kimberly Schmalz Ochsenschlager, Schmalz\u2019s granddaughter, lives in Illinois but came back to the history center in 2013 for the official naming.<\/p>\n

Ochsenschlager also wrote the center a check for $350 to fund Monroe\u2019s preservation.<\/p>\n

Fleck said the center hopes to preserve the rest of the taxidermy collection as well, and another $1,050 is needed for that effort.<\/p>\n

There also are sponsorships available for other items, including a photo album from 1891 and bound meeting minutes that detail the history of the burning down and rebuilding of a Smithville fraternal lodge in the late 1890s, through a program that\u2019s part of the county\u2019s upcoming bicentennial celebration in 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. \u2014 Monroe the Bear just got treated to a makeover. The Kodiak bear, often considered the centerpiece of the Monroe County History Center, on Wednesday got a bit of a \u201cspa day\u201d as Bill Fulcher, owner of Bill\u2019s Taxidermy, brushed out and dyed the Kodiak grizzly\u2019s fur and fixed cracks in Monroe\u2019s mouth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":31446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-31445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31445"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=31445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}