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."
Read more about this topic: Trigger (horse)
Famous quotes containing the words death and/or legacy:
“But, when nothing subsists from a distant past, after the death of others, after the destruction of objects, only the senses of smell and taste, weaker but more enduring, more intangible, more persistent, more faithful, continue for a long time, like souls, to remember, to wait, to hope, on the ruins of all the rest, to bring without flinching, on their nearly impalpable droplet, the immense edifice of memory.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“What is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)