THE HUMANE
SOCIETY
FOR MOUNTS
JONNA’S HAIR SALON
FEATURES TROPHIES FROM
JOE WEST’S OLD BARBER SHOP
STORY & PHOTO BY RYLAN BOGGS
Jonna Bishop (right) describes her salon as the "humane society for mounts" because she
hangs a great number of abondoned trophies on her wall.
Jonna Bishop describes her shop as “the humane society for mounts,” because her
storefront is nearly overflowing with trophies that have been handed down or
discarded.
On the walls hang sun-faded bucks, a pair of longhorns from Texas and a one-eyed
antelope. Against one wall are the original chairs, sinks and mirrors from Joe West’s
old barbershop on Main Street.
Bishop’s salon is more than just a “humane society,” though. It’s partly a record of
Grant County’s hunters and partly a tribute to Joe West, a barber who owned many of
the mounts before Bishop.
“It started out as a tribute to him,” said Bishop of West, who had been a barber in
John Day from 1960 to 2005. When West took his barber apprenticeship tests in
Portland in the late 1950s, his results were the highest written score recorded at the
time, according to Blue Mountains Eagle records.
In 1960, West joined his father, Con West, to work in John Day as a barber for over
four decades. He died from cancer in May 2006.
An avid hunter of everything from deer to rattlesnakes, West is commemorated in
Bishop’s salon. Two bucks of his that once hung in his barbershop now decorate
Bishop’s walls, as does his old photo collection.
When West’s shop was closed, Bishop couldn’t stand the idea of his things being
separated, so she incorporated as much of it as she could into her salon.
These trophies and photos carry a certain sense of history to them.
“This was like history, I felt, of Grant County,” Bishop said.
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GRANT COUNTY HUNTING JOURNAL 2016 • 23