A St. Albans man’s curiosity has turned into a cottage industry of sorts.
Brett Patten, 61, of St. Albans saw a birch bark moose call a coworker had made several years ago.
The cone-shaped apparatus is used to imitate cow and bull sounds. Its shape and length help the sounds to travel a greater distance than calling in moose without one.
Patten wondered if he could make one, so he went into the woods and found a piece of birch bark to make his first moose call.
He’s been making the moose calls ever since, and his wife, April, decorates them with artwork. The hunter’s aids are gaining popularity, and he has several orders waiting for him to fill them.
Patten, who became a registered Maine guide in 2009, used his prototype moose call on the first hunt he guided for Big Mountain Outfitters in 2010. The moose hunt was successful.
“Sure, we got the big moose because of the moose call,” he said jokingly.
Patten had planned to give the hunter the moose call as a memento, but when he backed up his truck, he heard a sound like a bottle being run over. It turned out to be the moose call. He had to make a new one.
He was asked to sell his moose calls at a spring sportsmen’s show, but he declined. After that, he was asked to make a few of them for the Skowhegan State Fair’s first moose calling contest.
That idea didn’t come to fruition either, but he made some child-sized ones for the kids’ contest there anyway, and gave them to the children who participated.
It takes about five hours from log to finish coat to make a moose call, Patten said. He shapes the birch tree bark around a small traffic cone, then screws it onto another cone to dry.
He then glues the seam, drills holes on either side of the seam to add laces, glues small pieces of bark around each end and adds laces around the widest open end.
April Patten adds her artwork to the moose call and a coat of clear sealant finishes the job before it is ready for a new owner.
The calls, sold under the name Natural Creations, carry a price tag of about $150 each.
The tricky part of the process is finding the right birch bark, Brett Patten said.
Native Americans harvest the bark from a live standing tree during the two weeks that sap is running. They use just the outer layer of bark.
But Patten uses the whole bark, not just a layer, from a white birch that has fallen or been cut down. It usually takes him from 45 minutes to an hour to remove the bark from the tree.
He is still trying to figure out the best time of year to collect the bark, he said.
There are several artwork designs, including moose scenes, trees, hoofprints and antlers. Some expose the darker inside of the bark to the outside and others show the white paper side instead.
April Patten uses a stencil to draw the moose itself, but she does the rest freehand. Each piece is unique.
The moose calls also include the Pattens’ name and the year they were made. Brett Patten has a Facebook page and can be reached on Messenger.
Most people want the moose scenes, Patten said. He personally likes the white one with the trees on it.
