Mike Wigley grew up in a small Central Texas country town. From a young age he learned to hunt and fish and as any country boy, he cherished his time in the outdoors. But, something was different about him. He enjoyed the cleaning and skinning as much or perhaps even more than the hunt itself.

By his teenage years, he had learned to preserve hides, bleach skulls for European mounts and through trial and error he had taught himself to mount a large assortment of fur-bearing animals. At this point in his life, Taxidermy was a wonderful hobby.

Mike followed in his father and grandfather’s shoes and became a craftsman of wood and over the next fifteen years, he had made an exceptional name for himself in custom carpentry. As a contractor, he was known as never being satisfied with “all right” or “good enough”, it had to be as close to perfect as physically possible. During the winters, construction always seemed to slow down in Texas so Mike would fall back on his love of taxidermy to make ends meet through the winter months. He started working under Taxidermist Don Ivie in Mesquite, Texas and honed his skills even more. He learned a great deal under Mr. Ivie and was grateful for the basic knowledge of the trade that he was taught; however, something was missing.

Mike was simply not satisfied with the work he was seeing, so after discussing it with his wife they decided to move to a little town in Eastern Wyoming where he went to work for Wildlife Creations International under the watchful eye of Master Taxidermist and Owner, Stan Taylor. Mr. Taylor had a keen eye for detail. Mike knew he had found the right man to mentor him in the art of Taxidermy. While working under Mr. Taylor, Mike was able to expand his expertise to include bison, antelope, elk, dall sheep, caribou, bear, mountain lion and any other North American Big Game you could think of. He also became an expert with African Game mounting animals for several well-known hunters. Mike and his family have now returned to Northeast Texas and own a small ranch where he has opened his own Wildlife Artistry Studio. He believes the word “Taxidermy” does not describe what the hunter expects when he comes to pick up his trophy. There is an art to deliver a live-looking mount and anything less than that will not do.