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Taxidermist, Beth Johnson working on a wild turkey.
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By Eric Bruce
The specialty tag on her Corvette says “STUFFIT, and the tag on her Hummer says “REDBARN”. I'm referring to business-woman, entrepreneur, taxidermist, and deer processor Beth Johnson. Also known as the lady who runs Feather, Fin, and Fur Taxidermy and Red Barn Deer Processing in Loganville.
Beth has been stuffing things at the Red Barn since 1989. From a small investment and a tiny building to a thriving business, she has found her passion and is well-known among local hunters and has become a Loganville landmark.
Johnson attended Bob Jones University (Greenville, SC) and graduated with a B.S. in Composite Science with an emphasis in Physical Education. Her plan was a career of teaching at a Christian school. “The second day of the first year of teaching, I knew I didn't like teaching”, Beth reveals.
Beth taught school for five years but knew that this was not what she wanted to do. “Bottom line I wanted to do my own thing but I didn't know what my own thing was,” Beth said. But she would soon discover it.
On the way home from work one day she saw a 'Help Wanted' sign and went in to inquire. She secured a part-time job with Ted Ravenel of Bear Claw Taxidermy and fell in love with taxidermy. “I knew I had found my thing with Ted,” she recalls. “It was a complete godsend for me to stop at this house that had a 'help wanted' sign and I just fell in love with taxidermy.”
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Beth Johnson and “friends”
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The taxidermy job kind of tied in with her science teaching and she would sometimes bring animal parts to class to show the children. “I would take them to school the next day and show the kids and completely gross them out. But they just loved that and I ate it up because it was science related,” Beth relates.
But Beth knew that it was a matter of time before she left teaching and changed careers to taxidermy. “I knew I had to go to taxidermy school and in 1987 I moved to Phoenix to attend the Mountain Valley School of Taxidermy.”
After a year and a half of schooling, Beth moved back to Georgia in 1989 and opened up shop. Her first store was a tiny building on Lawrenceville Highway. Starting with a $5,000 investment, she bought several freezers and put a sign out front. That first month she made $6,000.
Three years later she moved to another building on Highway 78 in Lilburn. The cinder block building was painted red and titled 'Red Barn'. Johnson also began processing deer which added much more work in addition to the taxidermy. Her passion, business, and distinct brand was all coming together.
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Beth Johnson’s business is located on Hwy 78 in Loganville.
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This is also when she had to start adding employees to help with the processing. Her busiest time is the fall deer season. Her work increases dramatically from October to December and help is brought in to assist. She adds up to fifteen employees during deer-cutting time to convert a whole deer to packages of chops, steaks, roasts, sausage, jerky and ground venison.
Beth refers to the process as a well-oiled machine at times when the whole gang is moving like an assembly line of cutting and wrapping venison. “If you surround yourself with good people, it works out,” Beth insists. “I am what I am because of the group of people that work with me.”
After seven years at the Lilburn location, Johnson bought property in Loganville in 1998. In June 1999 she opened her doors to her present location on Highway 78 on the east side of Loganville near Highway 81 and across from Maxie Price dealership. The building is colored red and has large lifesize brown metal statues of game animals in front to add eye-catching “pop” to the shop.
She hears plenty of stories about how the big one was killed or got away. There are always stories about a new hunter that gets his or her first deer. Proud fathers who have been bringing their deer to Beth for years will bring their son's first deer or a buddy's deer in for Beth to process.
Over the years, some of those tales have been quite interesting. She recalls last season when a man came into the shop and informed her that he had a road-killed deer that he wanted her to process. She went out to take a look at it as he told the story of seeing it get whacked by another vehicle. As he was talking Beth noticed that the deer appeared to be breathing.
“Are you sure the deer is dead?” she asked. “Oh yeah, I saw the car really smack it” the man replies. Just then the deer raises its head and looks around!
The man asks if she has a gun but none was found so he decides to head home to get his. So as he drives back home to get a gun, here's this deer laying in the back of his truck, tied in, and looking around. Imagine how an adjacent motorist at a redlight must have thought as it sees a deer tied down in the back of a truck with its head up and looking around. Eventually he returns with the deer and a gun and they dispatch it and submits it for processing, this time it was actually deceased.
There is no doubt that Johnson has found her calling and loves her work. She is an example of someone who finds what they want to do and pursues it with dedication. “I was just determined, I had such a passion for it. No one around me ever thought this would happen. I knew what my passion was and I had to do what was right for me. I knew this was right for me, this is where I needed to be,” Beth says passionately.
But she also adds that there is more to it than liking your craft. “You've got to be able to do taxidermy,” she adds, “plus you have to know how to run a business.” In addition to mounting bucks, ducks, catfish, kudus, and crappie, there is payroll, marketing, taxes, utilities and so on that all come with running a business. “ If you're doing the best that you can do and you're honest as a business person and people are coming back, that's all you can ask for”.
He business has grown steadily over the years and her client base has also expanded. In 1989 she mounted 23 deer heads. In 2008, she took in 362 deer for mounting. That first year she had ten fish to mount and in 2008 it has grown to 168. “I never dreamed it would be so profitable, but I was determined and had a passion”.
There are numerous other taxidermist in the area with plenty of competition. But Beth believes that there is enough taxidermy to go around. She is a member of the National Taxidermist Association and does charitable work. She lets school groups come in for tours, donates venison to needy families, and has a booth at many church wild game dinners.
Over the years Beth has dabbled in different directions such as an additional processing facility in Winder, a pet crematory, selling live bait, and even refereeing basketball games. She feels that her quality is always getting better and her prices are competitive. “I look at my employees all the time and say, 'I can't believe I get paid for doing this!'”.
