Three massive
bull elk keep
watch over
Mills Building
Supply
TROPHIES
A REMINDER
OF THE GOOD OLD DAYS
AT MILLS BUILDING SUPPLY
A corkboard
covered in
images of old
hunts sits
behind Kenny
Mills’ desk at
Mills Building
Supply. Mills
has been
hunting since
he was 12
and began
bowhunting
in 1982.
Kenny Mills,
owner of
Mills Building
Supply, talks
on the phone
surrounded
by trophies
and
memories of
past hunts.
16 • GRANT COUNTY HUNTING JOURNAL 2016
STORY & PHOTOS BY RYLAN BOGGS
Kenny Mills fondly remembers the good old days as he
stares around his storefront full of elk, deer and mountain lion
mounts. The owner of Mills Building Supply Co. for 32 years,
Mills still has time to slip out the back and enjoy the crisp fall
weather with a bow in his hand.
His store has become a sort of shrine for those in area who
don’t have enough room at home for their mounts or those
who have left them behind. Behind Mills’ desk is a wall
covered with grainy film images of past hunts. Grizzly bears,
deer, elk and all sorts of other game decorate the wall. The
oldest of the mounts is a deer shot in 1933 by Cliff Lemons.
Mills points fondly to an image he took in his backyard of a
buck eating out of a barrel with a yard stick resting on the
brim. He explains the buck had become tame enough that he
could get within a few yards to take a picture.
“People ask me, ‘How wide is he?”
“Well, he’s 34 and a quarter.”
“Well, how you know that?”
“Cause he’s eating out of that bucket,” Mills laughed. “Yup,
those were the good old days.”
The photo wall is flanked by two massive elk mounts. One,
a 363-point bull, is the biggest in the store. The other, Kenny
shot with his bow in the ’80s.
Still a hunter, Mills hunts when he can get away from his
building supply store. He went on his first hunt at age 12 and
has loved it ever since.
Mills has been bowhunting since 1982. Raised on hunting,
he says enjoys the challenge and the escape it provides.
“We put in a lot of hours here so it’s just a good getaway,”
he said.
MyEagleNews.com
The closest kill Mills has made was from 15
yards on a bull elk in rut. That elk is now hanging
in his shop. He claims he’s never had a bad time
hunting — maybe lost in the fog a few times, but
never a bad time.
“I usually just hunt locally, just grab the bow
and a couple Snickers and head out,” Mills said.
Above the windows in the front of the store
are two sets of elk antlers locked together with
barbed wire. The antlers were found in 1969 by
Bud Streeter, a logging superintendent for the
San Juan Lumber Company, according to Blue
Mountain Eagle records.
The two six-point bulls fought to the death
and became entangled in a fence south of Canyon
Creek in the Sloan Gulch area. The animals had
reportedly pulled up roughly 400 feet of fence
during the battle. Streeter found them an
estimated week after death, removed the antlers
and buried the carcasses. Despite this, the
manager of the store at the time had to “call upon
a variety of air-freshening devices to purify
matters.”
All around Mills’ store are reminders of the
past, photos of old friends and long----gone
hunts. Mills admits to not knowing the story of
every mount on the wall or knowing every
person in the photo collection.
Still, he said, they’re an embodiment of “the
good old days.”
MyEagleNews.com
Behind
Mills’ desk
is a wall
covered
with
grainy film
images of
past hunts.
Grizzly
bears,
deer, elk
and all
sorts of
other
game
decorate
the wall.
A bighorn
sheep
mount at
Mills Building
Supply.
GRANT COUNTY HUNTING JOURNAL 2016 • 17