Former ZHS biology teacher Todd Koenig's lifelong love of taxidermy inspired him to start taxidermy business – hometownsource.com

Todd Koenig, a former Zimmerman High School wildlife biology teacher, founded his taxidermy business, Creek Bottom Taxidermy, after leaving his old job with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, a book company based in Boston. Koenig said that while he enjoyed traveling the world, he spent 80 percent of his time in airports and wanted to get back to his childhood hobby of taxidermy. Koenig has won awards for his taxidermy artwork at Game Fair, and Game Fair guests can visit him during the last two days of the Fair on Saturday, Aug. 15, and Sunday, Aug. 16, at Armstrong Ranch Kennels in Ramsey.
Todd Koenig won 1st place in the taxidermy art contest at the 2023 edition of Game Fair for this deer-themed piece. Koenig, a former Zimmerman High School wildlife biology teacher who now lives in Milaca, also took first place in 2022 for a black bear-themed piece. He is the owner and operator of Creek Bottom Taxidermy, an online taxidermy business.
Todd Koenig (left) is engaged to his fiancee, Kaila Carroll. The couple met via social media.

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Todd Koenig, a former Zimmerman High School wildlife biology teacher, founded his taxidermy business, Creek Bottom Taxidermy, after leaving his old job with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, a book company based in Boston. Koenig said that while he enjoyed traveling the world, he spent 80 percent of his time in airports and wanted to get back to his childhood hobby of taxidermy. Koenig has won awards for his taxidermy artwork at Game Fair, and Game Fair guests can visit him during the last two days of the Fair on Saturday, Aug. 15, and Sunday, Aug. 16, at Armstrong Ranch Kennels in Ramsey.
Todd Koenig won 1st place in the taxidermy art contest at the 2023 edition of Game Fair for this deer-themed piece. Koenig, a former Zimmerman High School wildlife biology teacher who now lives in Milaca, also took first place in 2022 for a black bear-themed piece. He is the owner and operator of Creek Bottom Taxidermy, an online taxidermy business.
Todd Koenig (left) is engaged to his fiancee, Kaila Carroll. The couple met via social media.
Even before he became a wildlife biology teacher and a full-time taxidermist, Todd Koenig of Milaca was fascinated with wildlife.
Koenig is a former teacher at Zimmerman High School. He taught wildlife biology for 17 years. Now, he’s the owner and operator of his own small business, Creek Bottom Taxidermy.
After teaching, he worked in sales for the Boston-based book company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. He said he loved teaching, but that this job gave him an opportunity to travel and see the world. However, he got tired of it and wanted to channel his passion for taxidermy into a business.
“It was a natural fit at that point,” Koenig said. “When I looked at priorities, spending 80 percent of my time at airports wasn’t what I signed up for. So, I decided to go into this. Taxidermy has always been a passion of mine.”
Koenig’s passion for taxidermy began as an elementary school student in the early 1980s. He collected animal skeletons and spent a lot of his childhood outside hunting and fishing.
During his 17 years as a wildlife biology teacher at ZHS, Koenig learned about human interaction, which helped him understand what customers want.
“A lot of times, they come here with an idea but no vision,” Koenig said. “I usually go through and share different ideas with them. Sometimes, my best customers are the ones that say, ‘Do something creative or do something cool.’ Most people are always helpful. Some people are very specific.”
Koenig created the website for Creek Bottom Taxidermy and does all marketing, promotions and photography. He and his fiancée, Kaila Carroll, came up with the name for the business after spending time near the backwaters of the Rum River in Princeton. They looked for a name that could be trademarked and wasn’t already in use by another business.
“Whether it’s a fish, a deer [or] a duck, there’s something about a creek bottom,” he said. “It was a natural fit for the name.”
Carroll is an avid hunter. She met Koenig through social media, and they are now engaged.
While she isn’t part of Creek Bottom Taxidermy’s operations, she gives Koenig emotional support.
“I think it [taxidermy] is amazing,” Carroll said. “It’s something not everyone can do. Even though it’s taxidermy and he’s mounting dead animals, I know it sounds weird to some; it is an art. When you look at some of the work. It’s fun to see the story of the creativity a mount can tell depending on the scene that he creates or recreating whatever a hunter wants to see. It’s neat to see.”
Koenig is an exhibitor at Game Fair in Ramsey. Visitors can see him at his booth on the last two days of the fair on Saturday, Aug. 15, and Sunday, Aug. 16. He loves Game Fair because it’s a place where families can bring their kids and their dogs. He is friends with Ron Hustvedt, who works for Game Fair. Both knew each other when they were teachers in Independent School District 728.
“Depending on what you want to do, they’ve got everything there,” Koenig said. “It’s a great place to be.”
Koenig said taxidermy is evolving from shoulder mounts of animals to items that tell a story visually. He’s won several awards for his taxidermy-themed artwork at Game Fair. In 2022, he won first place for his design featuring an American black bear. Several of his pieces are in his display room next to his house in Milaca. Koenig also took a few art and photography courses in college in addition to his biology courses.
“Every one of these tells a story,” he said. “That’s what I feel like connects with people. When they look at taxidermy, it’s not boring, but every one of them is something unique.”
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