Double Headed

Published July 27, 2008

Collecter’s item
Double-headed calf #1
Ekalaka, MT

Out here on the Plains, lots of folks are sharing their collections with me. I’ve even started my own…

Traveling across the Great Plains in my mule wagon, lots of folks have showed me their collections. Folks like Ted Fladeland up in Saskatchewan, Canada.

Ted Fladeland

Ted shared his mysterious collection of arrow-pierced bottles and drinking glasses. Click here for that story…

Here in the mule wagon, though, I don’t have room to collect stuff. Still, like most travelers, I have this urge to collect oddities. My speciality?

Double-headed farm animals – or rather, photos of them.

Right. It’s an odd interest. Back home in North Carolina, folks like mule Polly’s old owner, my buddy Ronald Hudson, would call it “kwur”, or “queer” if you spelled out the Southern dialect.

But I’m not alone. Seems there are others on these Great Plains that collect more than just photos of double-headed critters. Yep, they collect the heads themselves.

So far the tally of double-headed critters I’ve found between Neptune, Saskatchewan, where I began my voyage, and Hill City, South Dakota, where I’m holed up as of this writing, is:
Calves: 3
Sheep: 1
Humans: 0 (but I’m still looking)

Here, in case you’d like to see them, is my collection. I’ve also noted where you can find the heads in real, or rather stuffed, life.

Double-headed calf #1
Carter County Museum
Ekalaka, Montana
Click here for more about Ekalaka

Double-headed calf #2
Stoneville Saloon
Alzada, Montana