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KEARNEY HUB (Nebraska) 02 August 04 Randolph taxidermist stuffs nation’s longest gator
Randolph (AP): Brian Lewon’s neighbors have grown accustomed to seeing a menagerie of creatures pass through the doors of Lewon’s taxidermy business.
Most of the museum-quality mounts completed at the shop are native to the environs of the Midwest.
But not the 15-foot reptile mount that was prepared here recently.
Lewon helped an old friend and former Norfolk man in preparing what’s thought to be the longest alligator mount in the world, according to the Ripley’s Believe It or Not museum in Orlando, Fla., where the big beast soon will be on display.
Tim Dobbs thought a return visit to Northeast Nebraska would be the perfect opportunity to prepare the specimen seeing as how he not only could share his craft with Lewon, but also make a stop in an area he called home for nearly a decade.
Dobbs is now a minister in Midland, Texas.
Somewhere between jobs in Nebraska and Texas, Dobbs said he started doing taxidermy as side job and grew especially fond of preparing alligator mounts.
“Gators are like dinosaurs,” he said. “They are like working with a prehistoric reptile.”
Dobbs kept in contact with Lewon, whose taxidermy business has skyrocketed from its humble beginnings out of his house.
Lewon’s phone rang a few weeks ago, and Dobbs said he was coming to Randolph and bringing three alligator skins with him.
The skins were transported to Randolph in oversized coolers and kept on ice while in transit.
The men were able to complete three mounts in two days while a steady stream of onlookers stopped by the studio to watch the pieces take shape.
Lewon’s wife, Val, said part of the fun was hearing Dobbs tell alligator stories.
He told a tale about how an alligator that lived next to a Florida golf course died of indigestion after consuming 300 golf balls over the course of its life.
Or there was the one about a gator found with 13 dog collars in its stomach.
A hunter for Florida’s state games commission offered the 15-foot reptile to Dodds.
National records indicate this particular alligator was longest one captured in America and may contend for the world’s longest specimen honors.
Dobbs later struck up a deal with Ripley to sell the mount and plans to work on other taxidermy projects for the museum. His work already has been featured on Ripley’s television program.
Randolph taxidermist stuffs nation’s longest gator

If this was a true 15' foot gator, it would've been the longest on record, cause Superman at Billie's Safari who is supposedly the biggest gator is a little less than 14'.

Wish this hunter offered this gator alive to some farm and not have sent it to the swamp in the sky.

Bummer =(