A large salt lick: a story about how city dwellers came up with the idea of ​​creating spectacular and expensive art objects using animals (11 photos + 2 videos)

A bronze replica of a bizarre salt lick pays homage to an equally bizarre urban tradition in Baker City, Oregon.





Whit Deschner, a local fisherman, photographer, and poet, came up with the Great Salt Lick auction and contest after a weekend of mushroom hunting and hanging out with a friend at his cabin in the woods in the Wallow foothills:



We were just having a glass of wine and he was laying out salt licks for deer. He had one that was really licked... And I said, "God, that looks like a sculpture you could put in front of a city building or something."





Whit Deschner

He had seen abstract sculptures like these selling for exorbitant amounts of money. So Whit came up with a plan to auction off these blocks and raise money for a good cause - Parkinson's research.



Meeb Daly

Then Deschner talked his friend and neighbor Meeb Daly, a rancher who has been an auctioneer in Baker County for more than 50 years, into taking part. He agreed, though he hesitated:

I thought he was crazy. You know, art is in the eye of the beholder, and Whit has some pretty weird eyes, I think. A photograph or a painting or whatever is art, but a salt lick? Well, I guess they're art. They're all different. No two are alike, that's for sure.



People leave 20-kilogram blocks of salt on the street, and artists - horses, cows, deer and goats - use their tongues to carve beautiful works of art from them. The best works are awarded cash prizes - from $50 to $150. At auction, the blocks can sell for even more. The current record is $1,800.



Over the years, Deshner and Daly have learned to identify what kind of animal's print is left on a block of salt, which can range in color from cobalt blue to bone white, depending on the vitamin and mineral content.



Since 2006, the event has raised more than $212,000 for Parkinson's and movement disorders. Deshner himself was diagnosed with the disease nearly 25 years ago.

The Great Salt Lick Art Auction and Competition was so successful that the city decided to erect a monument to commemorate the event.



Deschner carved the sculpture out of Styrofoam using a piece of wire connected to a charger. It's a replica of a popular choice auction winner, but he added an extra bump on top to make it more lifelike. A local sculptor helped him cast the piece in bronze.



Disease is taking a toll on Deschner's health, and he last hosted the event in September this year. But as he looks to the future, he hopes the auction will continue after he hands over control:



I'd like people to just drive by and say, "Oh my god, this is a town that does Parkinson's research."