COLO, IOWA -- Ralph Handsaker is his name.
Most of us didn't know him, and we never will. He was born in 1886; he died 1969.
In the years between his birth and death, Ralph Handsaker cut a remarkable trail through life, ranging from hard working farmer to wood carver to cabinet maker to outdoorsman to taxidermist and, in addition, a loving father and husband.
Yet, the real passion in this Iowa farmer's life went beyond milking cows or running a sawmill.
Ralph Handsaker was fascinated by wild bird eggs. There's a name for that, oology, the study of eggs.
It's said he collected his first wild eggs (house wren) in about 1898 and his last eggs (upland sandpiper) in 1963. By the time he died, Ralph had collected roughly 850 sets of eggs representing roughly 500 bird species from around the world. Such a collection never could be assembled today, due to laws protecting migratory birds, endangered species and the like.
However, Ralph left behind more than drawers full of wild egg shells.
His legacy is also an intriguing tale that went untold for decades until the details were ... aah, cracked open by a Minnesota man.
At Department of Natural Resources headquarters in St. Paul, Carrol Henderson has led the state's non-game program since 1977. In that time, Henderson has become one of Minnesota's most learned ornithologists, with an endless curiousity about anything having to do with wild birds of any ilk.
Carrol Henderson also grew up near Zearing, Iowa, on a small farm that, ironically, is only about 10 miles from the big white farm house where Ralph lived and kept his egg collection.
"I can't believe I never heard about him," Henderson recalled the other day.
But, understandably, their lives never crossed although both were bird fanatics.
Decades passed.
When Ralph died in 1969, his family simply decided to close up the farm house.
For more than 30 years, the big white farm house stood like it was the day Ralph died, including a pair of hand-made cabinets that held Ralph's egg collection -- one that still is perfectly preserved along with the data on who, when and where.
Fast forward to the spring of 2003.
Henderson received a call from his brother Don, who told him about a young man named John Handsaker, who was getting married and planned to move into his great-grandfather's century-old farm house.
And, oh by the way, the grandson says, there's quite a collection of wild bird eggs in his great grandfather's house.
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