Bagley Wildlife Museum

Update: The Bagley Wildlife Museum is closed and not expected to reopen. The fate of the taxidermy collection is unclear. 

The Bagley Wildlife Museum is a jam-packed ark of a place, an extravagant monument to nature's fertility. This collection long ago outgrew the front window of a shoe store and now occupies half of a ranch home on the edge of town. Most of the animals were bagged and mounted by Bagley shoemaker Hank Haug from the 1940s through the 1970s.

Everything in this space is Mr. Haug's creation. There is a notable unity to the collection and painted displays, from the selection of items and their preparation to the construction of exhibits and wording of labels. The museum is an all-encompassing work of untrained genius and Hank Haug's collection is a real compendium of nature's wonders of the northern prairie.