MEMORIES AND MOUNTS: Talented taxidermist Mike Freiman continues 50-plus-year career with friend Joe Summers at Taxidermy and Wildlife Studio in Bakersfield

Contact Summers Taxidermy and Wildlife at 417-505-9144, visit  www.summerstaxidermyandwildlifestudio.com or follow their Facebook page “Summers Taxidermy and Wildlife Studio.” Owner Joe Summers says the studio is always accepting new clients and work. 

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If you walk into Summers Taxidermy and Wildlife Studio, tucked away in the rolling hills along Bakersfield’s Highway 101, you’ll likely be met with infectious laughter from taxidermy team Mike Freiman and Joe Summers. 

“It’s been fun,” Joe told the Times last week. “We do some neat stuff, and we have a lot of fun together.”

Although the jokes and camaraderie are in good measure at the studio, their work is serious business. 

The studio puts out an impressive amount of taxidermy work, mounting more than 300 animals a year, including everything from Ozark County-killed whitetail deer to exotic South African animals. 

“We do a little bit of everything… fallow deer, black belly sheep, aoudad sheep, eland, lechwe, black bucks,” Joe said. “We do shoulder mounts, European mounts, full body mounts. We do soft-tanned hides for coon, fox and stuff like that. Mike does a lot of custom fish work. We do birds, moose, snakes, just about anything.”

Joe says the studio has a wide range of customers too. 

“We do work for people that cut wood for a living, and we do work for famous people who have more than their fair share of money,” he said. “They all are important to us and are a part of what makes this place.”

Although Joe and his wife, Monica, own the studio, Joe is very candid about another important aspect of the studio’s success – working alongside his mentor, Mike, who Joe says has taught him everything he knows about the art of taxidermy.

“He doesn’t work for me. He works with me. This studio is ours. I feel incredibly lucky for him to be here with me every day,” Joe said. 

A living legend, Mike Freiman

Mike, now 71, has been doing taxidermy work for the public for an impressive 52 years.

“How old was I when I started? Fourteen,” Mike said, remembering his beginning in the taxidermy world in the 1960s while he was growing up in Chicago. “I had my dad’s building where I used to mount fish. He taught me at first, and then I just kind of picked it up on my own. Then, after doing that for awhile, I ordered some books to see how you’re supposed to do it,” he said, laughing.

Mike’s natural artistic ability and his eye for composition lent itself to producing high-quality taxidermy work, and his skill quickly improved. When he was 15, he moved to Pomona, “shooting and catching anything around” and continuing to hone his craft. He began taking on customers and opened a little taxidermy studio in Pomona. 

“It was a lot different back then,” he said. “There was no air guns for painting anything. Everything was done with an artist’s brush. Fish, everything.”

Mike is humble about his work, but Joe is happy to brag on Mike’s ability and reputation as one of the best taxidermists in the country. His clientele has included professional football player Mark Rypien, Nascar driver Michael Wallace, famous country music artist Mel Tillis and several other well-known personalities.

How do such well-known people know about a taxidermist in Pomona?

“I’ll just tell you, his work speaks for itself. He’s known around the country because his work is unreal,” Joe said. “He’s that good. He’s not big on the phone or one to market himself, so it’s really all just been word of mouth from people who have seen his work. He’s very, very good, and people talk.”

“Boy, do they talk,” Mike piped up with his typical good-natured humor. 

Mike is pretty modest when it comes to talking about his work, but when prompted to tell a little more about his more well-known clientele, he was quick to recall memories from customers. 

‘I’m the quarterback for the St. Louis Rams’

“Mark Rypien’s daughter had cancer, and he brought me this fish into my little old shop, and we were talking. He told me his daughter had leukemia,” Mike said. “He said, ‘I’d like to have this fish for Christmas.’ I said, ‘Well, I can have it to you in two weeks.’ He said, ‘No, that won’t work.’”

Under the tight deadline, Mike got to work right away, designing a one-of-a-kind piece for the girl’s Christmas morning surprise.

“He told me to just be creative with it. I said OK. Then he said keep it around $1,000. I said, ‘Well, that’s pretty creative!’ When I got done, it was an underwater scene. It had melting snow running into the water and all kinds of neat stuff.”

Mike took the fish to the post office, ready to ship it to the Rypiens for Christmas, but he was told the piece would likely break in transit. 

“So, I just met him in Rolla at Steak and Shake. He paid me for the fish, and then he said, ‘I know you didn’t have time to eat, let me buy you dinner…’”

Mike, unaware of his client’s occupation or fame, said he thought they’d catch a quick bite to eat at Steak and Shake, but instead Rypien took him to a fancy steakhouse.  

“So, I’m sitting there, and it was obvious that people knew him. He was signing napkins for people, and one guy came up and looked at me and said, ‘Well, who are you?’ Mark Rypien laughed and said he’d picked me up down the road. I told them, ‘I work for food,’” Mike said, laughing. “After a little while, he looked at me and asked, ‘Don’t you watch football?’ I said, ‘Well, I love football, but I don’t ever get a chance to watch it.’ He said, ‘I’m the quarterback for the St. Louis Rams.’ I thought for a second and said, ‘Well, I’m a taxidermist in Pomona.’”

Mike said he only got to watch one Rams game after he met Rypien. During that game, the announcer asked for a moment of silence in honor of Rypien’s daughter, who had died shortly after Christmas.

Taxidermy, music and a Harley 

Mike says the girl’s death was a sad end to a special piece and a special customer. Other memories are more lighthearted.  

“When I went to deliver a fish to Mel Tillis, oh, he made a big deal out of it. Called me up on stage at his show and everything,” Mike said, adding that he never likes to be the center of attention. “He had caught the fish and turned it loose, so we’d made an artificial one. He’d caught it when he was in Canada on a Mel Tillis Stutterbug. Can you believe that?”

He recalled another client who was once a famous outdoor TV star.

“Oh, gosh, that guy couldn’t hit nothing when he first started. I taught the guy how to shoot, and then he went and got a TV show,” Mike said. 

Mike’s colorful taxidermy stories pair well with several other interesting chapters of his life. “He used to be a drummer,” Joe said. “He opened for Diamond Rio. He’s good at it. He used to sing. He also used to custom build crown molds when he worked at a dentist’s office. He’s very artistic. He could do anything he wants, really.”

Now, in addition to working full time at Summers Taxidermy, Mike also runs a catering business, Southern-Q barbecue with “the best potato salad you’ve ever had,” Joe says.

But Mike’s heart is still in his taxidermy work. “That and my Harley. I’ll never give up my Harley,” he said. 

Joe Summers

While Mike was making a name a for himself in the taxidermy business working out of his Pomona shop, Joe Summers was just a kid growing up about 35 miles down the road in Bakersfield. 

“When I was 14 or 15, we moved to Bakersfield, off EE Highway here. I lived in Crider before that,” Joe said. “But I went to high school here.”

After high school, like many Ozark County residents, Joe left his hometown to follow a career. He traveled the country as a boilermaker. The job paid well, but it meant Joe had to be away from his family for months at a time.  

During his time working out of state, he became pretty good friends with Luke Freiman, a Caulfield man who was working as an expediter in the oil industry. 

“He was a couple years older than me in school, so I’ve known him a long time, but I really got to know him well when we were doing the boilermaker thing. We were staying at a house together in 2017-18 in Minnesota,” Joe said. “We weren’t working on the same crew, but we were working on the same shift, so we got to see each other a lot. We cooked together and just hung out. He was one of those guys you just knew was coming, because you could see his smile before he even got to you. He was a good dude. Everybody liked him.”

Joe said Luke often talked about his dad, who was a taxidermist in Pomona. 

“They were pretty close,” Joe said. “He liked to talk about what all he was doing.”

Joe let Luke know that he was growing tired of the boilermaker life and hated leaving his wife Monica and their blended family that includes six kids for such long periods of time.

“I just got sick of being gone on the road. My kids got to where they hardly knew me, and I hardly knew them. I just wanted to be home,” Joe said. “Luke told me his dad was wanting to slow down, maybe retire. He said, ‘Man my dad… he’ll like you.’ I told him I’d like to learn something new and do something different. He said he thought his dad might take me on as a student.”

Joe liked the idea of transitioning from his job into a career at home. So after more than a decade working as a boilermaker, he decided to quit the profession – and visit Mike.

“It took me two months after I was home to work up the courage to go down there to see him at his shop,” Joe said.

When Joe finally got there, Mike liked him right away but kept his poker face. “I didn’t even know if he was going to take me as a student for two or three days. Then he finally said he would,” Joe said.

Joe soon began traveling to Pomona each night to learn the trade from the gifted taxidermist. He was the last student Mike ever taught.

In 2018, Joe and wife Monica decided to open their own taxidermy studio in Bakersfield. They built the 2,400-square-foot building in that summer and officially opened in October 2018. 

“I knew Mike was wanting to slow down, so I kept trying to get him to come work for me down here,” Joe said. “He’d say, ‘No. I ain’t driving all the way down there.’ I didn’t bug him, but I just stayed on him about it.”

The night tragedy struck

In December 2018, two months after Joe opened his shop, Joe’s and Mike’s worlds were turned upside down. 

Luke Freiman, Mike’s son and Joe’s good friend, died in a car crash on H Highway, about 10 miles south of Dora. He was 47 years old and left behind a wife and young son. 

“It’s hard to talk about,” Joe said last week. “But it’s a night I’ll always remember. It was 11:30 at night, and I got a call from my wife’s nephew who owned a shop that hooked onto Mike’s place. He told us what had happened.”

Joe and Monica immediately got dressed and drove to Mike’s house to be with him during his most difficult hours. 

“I had just gotten done with my schooling. I just wanted to be there for him. You know, if it wouldn’t have been for Luke, I would have never in a million years met Mike,” Joe said. “And Mike’s the best friend I’ve ever had. For what it’s worth, Luke is the one who made my dream come to life.”

Coming together

Mike and Joe worked through their grief in their own ways. Joe helped organize a benefit for Luke’s wife and son that raised over $30,000. 

“It was amazing how the community showed up that night. We couldn’t have done it without everyone. There were people from Bakersfield, Dora, Caulfield, Gaines-ville… I mean just everywhere…”

Life continued, and Joe kept urging Mike to come to work at his studio in Bakersfield.

“Then one night I had to go get a buffalo for a guy. It was late January, early February, and it was like 15 degrees outside. I called him up and said, ‘Man, please go with me to do this one,’” Joe said. “He said he would and came to the shop to take care of the buffalo. We were hanging up the hide, putting the meat away, and he just said out of the blue, ‘You know, I think I’m going to take you up on your offer.’ I asked what he was talking about, and he told me he was going to come work with me. I was ecstatic. He’s been working with me five to six days a week ever since. I learn something every day from him.”

The pair now make a great team. While Mike continues to produce excellent taxidermy work, Joe continues to learn from him and has become quite talented on his own. 

“I’m especially good at skinning. I’m very confident in that,” Joe said. “I can skin it, and there won’t be a hole in it except the one I put in it. I skinned two life-size deer this week: one Sunday, one Monday. We’re doing those like they’re jumping a fence, but it’s going to be jumping over a banister for a guy’s cabin in Conway.”

Joe also mans the phones at the studio, something Mike hates. 

“I love talking to people,” he said. “So I’m happy to get on the phone and talk with our customers.”

While the two men do the work at the studio, Joe’s wife Monica handles the marketing side of the business in addition to running her own photography business and raising cocker spaniel puppies. She also designed the rustic-themed studio. 

The business specializes in custom work and artistic, lifelike mounts, and Mike has gotten to where he can mount just about anything in any way anyone wants.  

“When parts come in, they don’t always fit what we’re wanting to do. Joe will look at it and say, ‘That’s not going to fit.’ I’ll say, ‘Oh, yeah. It will,’” Mike said. 

“One day I walked in and saw him take a saw and start sawing up some of these high-dollar forms. It liked to freak me out,” Joe said. “But the customer didn’t want a straight-on mount for that lechwe. Well, when you order these forms, there are only so many to pick from. There wasn’t one like he wanted, so he just cut the head off and wedged it, and turned it, and turned it. Then we put it back together, and now it’s a left turn, and he wouldn’t have gotten that otherwise.”

Joe has gotten to the point that he trusts Mike’s direction and is always pleased with the outcome. 

‘Lucky to have him’

“He don’t look 71, does he?,” Joe said. “I’m the one who looks older than I am.”

“You know why that is? It’s because I don’t worry about nothing,” Mike said, laughing and nodding toward Joe. “He worries about everything.”

“You’re right. Stress is going to kill me,” Joe said.

Joe says he loves the business and the work but warned that it’s not for everyone – and it does come with a fair amount of stress. 

“This just ain’t for everybody. Lots of people think, ‘Oh, that’s fast money.’ They all think it’s easy. They think you’re working for yourself. Let me tell you, there’s more stress to this… dealing with the public. There are some great customers, but you work with some real jokers too. And it ain’t easy work,” Joe said. 

“I warned him of every bit of that before he started,” Mike said. “It can be easy, if you just throw something together. Just like anything else… a paint job on a car, building a house, anything can be easier if it’s not done well. People think it’s just as easy as stretching a hide over a form. And really, that’s the easy part. It’s all the work getting there that matters – what’s underneath that hide.”

Joe said the covid pandemic has taken a toll on the business this year too. 

“We got about 30 head left in here from last year that we ain’t got done because the covid has really put it on us,” he said. “We couldn’t get forms because everybody’s working from home. Then you got people that want their stuff, but they just want to see a picture, and they can’t pay you right now. That puts a damper on us, but we deal with it the best we can. Some people you got to make exceptions for, and as long as they’re willing to work with us, we’ll do it. We’re going to make it through this covid… we have to.”

The pair are keeping their heads up, and they have faith the business will persevere through the difficult times. 

Joe says they now have contracts with four hunting ranches and outfitters, including Caulfield-based The Hunting Grounds, and he also works with a hunting outfit in South Africa. 

Many local customers bring in whitetail deer to mount. The studio offers three levels of shoulder mounts - a traditional mount, a “Freiman special,” which includes a lot more detail and muscle work, and a 40-hour competition mount. 

“There’s also a lot of people that can’t afford to have a shoulder mount. So my European mounts are $75,” Joe said, referring to a form of taxidermy that includes the bleached skull and antlers. “I do it cheap because you got people who cut wood for a living that’s got four or five kids, and they can’t afford to get that shoulder mount. Everybody else is usually $150 on that. I’m half of that. And it takes the same amount of money to do them as it does the ones that make $150. I just do it so those people can have something from their hunt.”

If a customer’s budget is a little larger, Joe and Mike are happy to build a custom-built piece that includes habitat work and sometimes even furniture pieces.

“We do some pretty neat stuff. We build pedestals. [Mike] does all the habitat work. None of it’s ever bought,” Joe said. “We put it together. He learned that a long time ago how stuff is supposed to come up to a focal point and how to do that.” 

Joe says a day doesn’t go by when he doesn’t feel grateful for Mike. 

“I’m just lucky to have him. You know, when he gets older and doesn’t want to come in here no more, when he wants to do his own thing and be home, he’ll still be the best friend I’ve ever had. I’ve had a lot of friends, but he’s been the best one by far.”

“He ain’t going to let me go anywhere. Just like old Fred,” Mike said, motioning to a mounted groundhog that stands at the corner of the shop, overlooking the pair working together. “He’s been with me about 20 years. He watches over this place.”

As the two share another good-hearted laugh, it’s easy to sense that someone else is also watching over them in this tucked-away place. It’s the one who brought them together: Mike’s son, Joe’s good friend. Luke is there too.