The image is almost as identifiable to Wyoming as the bucking horse and rider logo. It graces postcards, T-shirts, shot glasses and more. And this week the father of the jackalope was laid to rest in Casper, nearly 70 years after screwing the first horns into a mounted jack-rabbit.

Douglas Herrick was born in Douglas at his family's homestead in 1920 to James and Dulla Herrick. He had always been interested in taxidermy, hunting and fishing - a sort of celebration of Wyoming's open spaces.

As a child, Herrick heard the legend of the jackalope from his grandfather. The folk tale of the horned rabbit told of a ferocious beast that attacked anything that threatened it. Legend has it the animals used to join coyotes howling at the moon, and join in song with old cowboys as they sang around the campfire.

As a teenager, Herrick completed taxidermy courses by mail order, his son, Mike, said Friday. While all taxidermists like to play around with the animals they help recreate, Herrick didn't know exactly what he would start back in 1939, when his brother Ralph brought him the body of a large jackalope, Mike said.

"I think that it was kind of a joke," Mike said. "A lot of taxidermists fool around. But he didn't know they would get so popular. I know he didn't know."

Herrick gave his first jackalope to the late Roy Ball, who placed it in the LaBonte Hotel in Douglas. The town has become the official home of the jackalope, with an 8-foot statue gracing Center Street greeting entrants to the Wyoming State Fair.

Taxidermy runs in the Herrick family. Mike owns Antler Taxidermy on CY Ave. His uncle and cousin run a shop in Douglas - where they still make jackalopes. The jackalope is sure seller, and even though Mike doesn't have much time to make them these days, he knows that the minute he does, they will sell.

"I have sold a lot of them," he said. "I know that the minute I have one up on that wall, it's as good as money in the bank."

While he never patented his invention, Herrick was cited in a 1985 proclamation from former Gov. Ed Herschler claiming Wyoming as the animal's home. The influence of Herrick's work has stretched across the country, and across the world.

"I have a lot of people come in here thinking that they are real," Mike laughed. "They ask me where they can go to see one. I tell them that the bucks are hard to find, but I can show them a bunch of does."

Growing up, Mike never thought of himself as a brother to the jackalope.

"They were just always around," he said. "Us kids never really thought anything of it."

After a while, Herrick quit the professional taxidermy life and went to work for Amoco. But he still did a little work on the side.

"He lived the way he wanted to," Mike recalled. "He loved to take us fishing and hunting. He still kept doing taxidermy as a hobby. That's how I learned it."

Mike continued teaching the value of wildlife and sportsmanship to his children. His son, Tyler, works with the sculptor, Chris Navarro, making realistic bronze statues which feature wildlife.

"It's a really good thing for him," he said. "To be 19 and have his foot in the door some place."

While Douglas Herrick's grandson is getting his foot in that door, Herrick himself has a place in Wyoming history.

So the next time you see a stuffed jackalope, listen for the song of its brethren and know where it started out.