Clymer Wildlife Museum Provides an Adventure for All

by Kendra Olson   Inside the town of Columbus Grove stands a treasure house of world record animals and incredible stories called the Clymer Wildlife Museum. When you step through the doors you are whisked away to Alaska, Africa, Russia, New Zealand and many other exotic places. Dozens of different species of animals are represented by the heads mounted up and down the walls and the full body stuffs set in action poses around the floor.
    A glance around the front room reveals that this is not a typical museum. In the corner to the left are couches and a big screen TV with a mounted Zebra head beside it. There are also bookcases holding not only books but skulls of different kinds of bears, big cats, and other creatures. A fireplace stands between the cases, guarded by a fierce cougar crouching in the cave above it. The whole atmosphere, though very impressive, is rather cozy; not what you would find in any other museum. But that is because the Clymer Wildlife Museum is not really a museum. It is the personal game room of twin brothers Larry and Gary Clymer.
       In 2000 the brothers sold their business in Pandora which served as the home for many of their animals. When they sold the building they had to find somewhere else to put them. That is when Gary’s wife suggested they fix up the old light plant in Columbus Grove.
    The light plant gave new meaning to the phrase “fixer upper.” Before any of the indoor remodeling could begin, the walls and what was left of the floor had to be completely cleaned because of all the soot from the coal furnaces that were there when the plant was running.  Before it was over the brothers blocked the windows, studded the walls, put in a roof, added a second level to the front room, a floor to the backroom, and furnished all of it. Almost two and a half years later the building was ready.
    Soon other people wanted to see inside. News spread and schools and nursing homes started taking field trips there. The Clymers admitted that they never imagined it would become what it is.
    “We didn’t do this for a museum. We just did it to have some place to put our animals,” Larry said.
    “Pretty soon it became ‘The Museum,’” Gary explained. 
    The brothers enjoy showing their prizes to the public and telling of their many adventures that include leaping out of helicopters, climbing mountains, and tracking grizzly bears. Every spring they take approximately twenty-five hundred school kids through their museum and teach them about the animals that they hunt.

See full story in The Bluffton News