Stewardship
Where Hunting Happens, Conservation Happens™
Is This the Best Big Game Bar?
Trophy mounts have always adorned the walls of certain watering holes across the world. But there is one bar in California that is home to more Boone and Crockett Club records than any other.
From Main Street in downtown Rio Vista, California, midway between Sacramento and San Francisco, the front of Foster’s Bighorn does a remarkable job of hiding what’s behind its doors. Facing the street, there’s the name of the restaurant with an illustration of a bighorn ram. A little neon sign with a cocktail glass lights up the evening. The sign reads, “coffee shop.” And that’s it. Nothing would indicate that once you open those doors, your eyes will be bombarded with hundreds of trophy-sized mounts from all over the world.
There is a giraffe, a snow leopard, a rhino, a Cape buffalo, and so many more. The elephant was mounted in 1952, and it’s massive, with its trunk measuring 13 feet and five-foot-long tusks weighing 110 pounds each. Look closely to find the platypus. In 1912 on the Kenai Peninsula, Foster killed the Alaska-Yukon moose that looms over the bar. Its greatest spread is just shy of 69 inches and ranks 23rd All-time
There’s also a healthy representation of the bar’s namesake. There are at least a half-dozen bighorn sheep and a couple of desert rams that are recorded in the Boone and Crockett Club’s big game records. The largest in the collection is an Alberta ram that scores 198-6/8 points. There’s a musk ox from Greenland and the number four Pacific walrus. A pronghorn and mule deer round out the North American record-book collection. All told, more than 300 specimens watch you sip on a beer.
Who Was Bill Foster?
For starters, that wasn’t his real name. Bill Frieda changed his name when he was run out of Alameda by the county attorney. Foster was a bootlegger who settled down (kind of) when he opened Foster’s Bighorn in 1931. Prohibition ended in 1933, and bootlegging and gambling were especially profitable. Foster used that money to fund his passion for hunting. He made eight trips to Africa between 1928 and 1950, as well as trips to Canada, Alaska, India, Greenland, and Mexico. He met Ernest Hemingway on his first trip to Nairobi. Growing up in Hayward, he worked as an apprentice for a man who was one of the first African hunters to bring movies of wildlife to the U.S. in 1918. To preserve his own collection, Foster hired his friend John Jonas of Jonas Brothers Taxidermy.
Foster officially retired from big game hunting in 1953 and died in 1963. His widow honored Bill’s wishes to keep the collection in Rio Vista. She reportedly turned down requests from Howard Hughes and Walt Disney, who wanted to buy it all. The collection has even survived multiple bar owners.
In November 1986, the Boone and Crockett Club published its first Associates newsletter. In an article, it features Foster’s restaurant in what might be the Club’s first-ever review of a dining establishment. “But, for the price of a couple of beers or a meal, you can enjoy some really fine trophies.” The newsletter mentioned the impressive bighorn collection, but the food was “forgettable, although not expensive.” To be fair, that review is nearly 40 years old. Chances are the menu has improved. As for the decor, that has thankfully stayed the same.
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Boone and Crockett Club250 Station Drive
Missoula, MT 59801
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Weekdays 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
406.542.1888
