He was also the founder and owner of Idaho’s European Wild Boar Hunt in Shoshone, Idaho that allows archers, pistol, rifle, and black powder enthusiasts the opportunity to hunt European wild boars.
Early in life, Richard developed an unbelievable love for nature and history. He was fascinated by the world around him and began his great collection by collecting butterflies and arrowheads as a boy on his father’s farm and hunting small animals and birds that he mounted for display. At the tender age of fourteen, his desire to share the things he found with others led him to plan to build a museum of natural history. Growing up, Richard became an avid hunter who traveled the world and brought back everything he could for this museum. He also learned taxidermy and most of the mounted animals you see today are the careful, steady work of his own two hands.
Discovery
As a high school senior, Richard Olsen discovered Idaho’s Mammoth Cave in 1954 while hunting bobcats in the area. He was with his high school sweetheart at the time and stumbled across the entrance by accident. He talked her into exploring the cave with just a single flashlight and loved to chuckle about how as they made their way through the cavern (his excitement and imagination growing the whole time — expecting to find treasure at any moment), his girlfriend, scared and unhappy, cried the whole way in and the whole way out. He fell in love with the cave during this adventure and decided that he wanted to share it with the world.
Today, the Shoshone Bird Museum of Natural History is dedicated to the good of the community for education and enjoyment of all who visit to develop a better appreciation of our creator who made all of these beautiful things of nature. As the largest private museum of its kind in the North West, it features artifacts from around the world and four generations of Olsen collections.
As a young man who helped farm his father’s land, Richard went to a Barber College in Pocatello, Idaho. This trade helped him to support his growing family throughout the years while following his dreams. He also worked as a trail walker and outdoor survivalist for the Anasazi Foundation, a non-profit wilderness therapy program based out of Mesa, Arizona that serves more than 10,000 youth and young adults each year. During this time, he taught young walkers how to track and read signs of animals and whenever he spoke, they listened to him because of his knowledge and wisdom of nature.
“He was a great blessing to us all and his legacy needs to live on as a testimony of who he was.” — Ezekiel Good Buffalo Eagle (Co-founder of the Anasazi Foundation).
Memories and stories of him may be sent to us directly online or left at Idaho’s Mammoth Cave & Shoshone Bird Museum of Natural History’s Facebook page.