Caledonia Argus

African animal collection leaving town

Posted: 6/1/04

By David Heiller
Argus News Editor

A lot of animals will soon be departing from Caledonia.

Arletta Rupp, 92, and part of her collection of mounted wild animals are moving to a one bedroom apartment in St. Paul.

She is taking a zebra skin, a bear skin, a lion skin, a python skin, and the shoulder mount of a small puku with her.

The rest of the stuffed animals are going to her children and grandchildren.

It will be the end of an era in Caledonia and surrounding communities. Many people have seen the collection, most of which came from an African safari that Arletta took with her husband, Victor, to Kenya in 1965. The ìZambezie Safariî cost $785.70 per person, Arletta recalled. That did not pay for the cost of shipping the carcasses home and having them mounted or made into rugs.

For about three years after that trip, the Rupps visited civic groups and churches in the Caledonia area to tell about the trip and show the animals.

And for many years after that, Arletta would give talks in the ìSafari Roomî of her basement to local fourth graders, who could view an amazing array of animals. She would let them touch the skins, or stand in the hollowed out elephant feet the size of small waste baskets.

There was a crodocile, a caribou, an impala, a reed buck, a cape buffalo, a warthog (ìTheyíre good to eatî), an eland, a sable, a 17-foot long python skin, elephant ears the size of a small rug, two huge ivory elephant tusks, an 10-foot-long lion skin, a zebra skin, a bear shot in Alaska. There were local critters too: a crow, pheasant, skunk, porcupine, gopher, and a ìcoon from this county.î And thatís just what this reporter took in on a 45-minute visit to the Safari Room last week.

ìVictor liked to hunt,î Arletta said in the understatement of the week.

Victor, who for many years was the Caledonia School superintendent, shot about 25 animals on the three week safari. He shipped them back home, and had them mounted or made into rugs. Arletta said she didnít have a favorite animal, but then reconsidered my question and said maybe it was the zebra, because it was the first animal that her husband shot.

She remembers most the African guides, and how perfectly they cared for everything.

Is she going to miss her collection? ìWell, my grandchildren will all have one or a couple,î she answered. ìAnd Iíll have the zebra, the bear, the snake ñ what was it called?î

ìPython,î I answered.

ìAnd the bush buck,î she continued, ìin my one bedroom apartment in St. Paul.î

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