LINCOLN — The town’s most famous grizzly bear came home Thursday to a celebrity’s welcome.

A steady stream of locals and visitors passed through the doors of the Lincoln Community Center to take photos and watch taxidermists craft the display on which the hide of the 830-pound grizzly will be mounted.

“We were here about eight o’clock this morning, and people started stopping by as soon as we got here,” Pat Shanley, a wildlife biologist with the Helena National Forest, said in amazement as people pulled out folding chairs and sat down to take in the spectacle. “Three different people who live in the canyon each came in and said, ‘It’s my bear.’ People are proud of this thing.”

Sandra and John Roe of Ovando stopped by with their friend Peter Ryan of New York. All were impressed by the size of the bear — including its claws longer than an adult’s finger — and the work of the taxidermists.

“This is pretty amazing,” Ryan said with a grin. “Now I can tell my family I saw a grizzly bear, even if it is a dead one.”

The grizzly was first spotted, collared and tattooed near Choteau in 1996, but later was hit by a car and “they wrote him off as dead,” Shanley said. However, during a DNA sampling survey in 2004, grizzly experts realized this was the same animal but had moved to the Lincoln area.

In recent years, the 12-year-old grizzly had taken to strolling into people’s yards and breaking into sheds, one time eating 30-plus pounds of cat food. Dennis and Sue Smrdel of Lincoln even set up a motion-sensor camera that took pictures of the big bruin outside of their home at night.

But the bear’s wandering ways ended on Oct. 17, 2007, when a diesel-powered pickup truck hit him at 3:45 a.m. about five miles west of Lincoln.

Being one of the three largest bears ever documented in the Northern Continental Divide ecosystem, the hide was coveted by many — including the University of Montana — for display and educational purposes. But the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks department decided the grizzly would stay in Lincoln and be displayed at the USFS ranger district office.

“The children in Ovando and Lincoln wrote letters with their opinion of where the bear should be. I liked one child’s comment, who wrote ‘We should keep him in Lincoln so he could be dead where he used to live,’ ” Shanley said. “I think those comments helped a lot.”

Steve Faechner of Havre is chairman of United Taxidermist Incorporated, and he pulled together a team of experts to create the mount. They’ve already had tanned and prepared the hide, but wanted to put the finishing touches on it this weekend in a public venue so people could watch and learn.

“The skin is the animal’s soul,” Faechner said gently. “We’re really into bringing back the animal and how that animal was when it was alive. It’s how we show respect.”

In one corner of the octagonal community center, Terry Sears of Ulm sat with an “s-curve tri-cut” sewing needle, using it to stitch the bear’s 7-inch-wide paw into a pocket that will fit over the fiberglass and foam bear form.

“Then we’ll come in here with clay and build the toes,” he said. “This is my first grizzly to work on, and sewing this is a lot harder than doing small mammals.”

He paused as the loud buzz of a saw made conversation a little difficult. Over at the bear form, Jay Roberson of Lincoln, Shawn Dawson of Great Falls and Dan Snyder of Pennsylvania were adding 9 inches of girth and 3 inches of length to the form — which actually is for an Alaskan brown bear — then cutting off the rough edges and sanding it down for a perfect fit for the hide.

“It wasn’t big enough for this bear,” Faechner said. “He was a little fat.”

“When we skinned the body it had about five inches of fat on it,” Shanley added. “He wasn’t hurting for food.”

The tools of the taxidermy trade are laid out on another community center table, ready for use: a glue gun, latex paint and all-purpose, self-hardening clay. They have drill bits and rasps, Apoxie Sculpt, a fake nose, marble-like eyes and Pert shampoo.

“After the bear is mounted, we’re going to give him a good shampooing outside and make him nice, shiny and clean,” Faechner said. “Then we’ll take a couple leaf blowers and blow-dry his hair to make it nice and fluffy.”

The bear isn’t posed in a threatening stance, since in life he wasn’t aggressive toward people, and the USFWS wanted it to be in as natural a form as possible, Shanley noted. It’s hoped that the bear will help educate the public about what to do if they see a bear, and how to make homes and camps relatively bear-proof.

“There’s no question it’s a dangerous animal to encounter, but they don’t always act aggressively,” Shanley said. “We’re trying to help prevent human conflicts with bears.”

He hopes to have the mounted bear on display in the Lincoln Ranger District’s lobby by July 4, adding with a laugh that they’ve delayed a window replacement project just in case the bear doesn’t fit in the door. He expects the community will have some type of bear-naming contest in the near future.

“We’re not sure what to call him at this point,” Shanley said. “This bear will be on display for a long time so future generations can gain better awareness of bears.”

Reporter Eve Byron: 447-4076

or eve.byron@helenair.com