Trigger (horse) - Death and Legacy

Death and Legacy

After Trigger died in 1965, his hide was stretched over a plaster likeness and put on display at the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum in Victorville, California which was relocated to Branson, Missouri in 2003, and closed in late 2009. The taxidermy work was performed by Adolph Robert (Bud) Stasche of A. R. Stasche Taxidermy, Feasterville, Pennsylvania. A 24-foot replica of Trigger was produced to sit atop the Roy Rogers Museum in Victorville. The 1,300 lb. replica could be seen from the freeway and served as a landmark until the museum closed and moved to Branson. When the fiberglass replica of Trigger was being made, Rogers was approached by the owners of the Denver Broncos. Rogers allowed another statue to be made and then broke the mold. "Bucky the Bronco," Trigger's twin, stands above the south scoreboard of the Denver Broncos stadium.

After the closing of the museum in 2009, its contents were placed at public auction on July 14–15, 2010, at Christie's auction house in New York City. Trigger's hide sold for $266,500 to television channel RFD-TV, which plans to start a Western museum. Bob Tinsley, a Victorville developer who had built Roy Rogers' home in nearby Apple Valley, bought the fiberglass replica in April 2010. Tinsley's plan is to make the statue a part of historic Apple Valley Village. He explained, "I just couldn't see letting him go anywhere else."