Clutching an Elk Antler (A Sure Sign of Spring)

The arrival of spring is marked in different ways from place to place.  In Washington, D.C., spring is official when the city is awash in cherry blossoms.  In Hinckley, Ohio, it’s the arrival of buzzards.  In Chicago, the gunplay moves outdoors.  Here in Helena, Montana, the surest sign of spring is seeing people standing outside clutching elk antlers. 

I can explain that.

Elk antlers are a big deal.  First of all, they are pretty cool to look at.  You can make artsy stuff out of them.   Also, they can be sold.  Fresh brown antlers can fetch something like $12.00 a pound.  Sun-bleached antlers rake in about $8.00 a pound.

This time of year, people from around here begin probing areas of receding snow in the nearby mountains seeking antlers shed by elk and deer.  Yesterday, while visiting my sister, a mutual friend stopped by to show us a nice elk shed he found north of Helena.  We all went outside and took turns clutching the thing.

Elk antlers are astonishingly heavy; as if made of stone.

As I mentioned, elk antlers are a big deal around here.  People pay attention to them—especially how many points they have.  Years ago, a story appeared in our paper about a man in Bozeman who beat his girlfriend with an elk antler.  As I recall, the woman did not experience any long-term injury.  But quite a few people I knew were upset because the article failed to mention how many points the antler had.

So my blog will not suffer a similar fate, I have posted a photograph of that girl clutching the antler we saw yesterday.  You can count the points for yourself.

-- Mitchell Hegman