Eastern Nebraska man tracks down long-lost lynx

It all started when Floyd Boies’ stepfather, the late William J. “Jim” Boies, saw an animal on Nov. 20, 1958, in Holt County near Ewing.

“He was checking trap lines when he shot the lynx,” Boies said.

Floyd “Bud” Boies was only 16 and not a hunter.

“But it was a big deal,” Boies said.

He later researched and found that lynx sightings are very rare in Nebraska.

Maybe only a handful on record.

“Bobcats are more common,” Boies added. “A bobcat has more spots and the tip of the tail is different. They don’t have tufts on their ears.”

The preserved and mounted lynx was put on display at a cousin’s gas station in Ewing.

There, the smoky gray mount began to show signs of deterioration.

“That was the worst place for it to be — around gas fumes,” Boies said.

The late Gail Boies kept the animal on display until he retired.

Then the lynx went missing.

“I lost track of it,” Boies said.

A couple years ago, Boies began hunting it down.

As it turns out, Gail Boies had given the lynx to a friend, Michael “Mike” Beelaert of Orchard.

For Beelaert, a farmer and hunter, the lynx had a history.

“I remembered the story about it — Jim Boies shot it by Willow Swamp Creek,” Beelaert said. “It really was a novelty for us kids to see it at the Conoco station. I don’t think there is anyone from the (Ewing) high school that doesn’t remember it.”

Beelaert tried to get the lynx restored.

“It was in need of repair — it looked pretty tough,” he said. “Ralph Tichota was a natural science teacher and I took it to Ralph to fix it up.”

As it turns out, Tichota also found a place to display the animal at Clearwater High School.

“We had a showroom at the school,” Tichota said. “People remarked that the paws were bigger than a bobcat — and it was more silver in color.”

Eventually, Boies found a link he was looking for.

In 2010, he heard the missing lynx might be at the high school, so he called on the science teacher Jeff Meyer of Tilden.

“We’ve got some stuffed critters,” Meyer told Boies.

The lynx was nestled in a display case with other creatures including accidentally trapped river otters, a snowy owl and an albino mink.

“A freak show of sorts,” Meyer said.

Boies had finally found his lynx.

“It was there for 20 years, until Bud wondered where it was at and began investigating,” Beelaert added.

Meyer, who graduated from Logan View High School in 1989, discovered other connections to the Boies family. The two men shared more stories over coffee.

Meyer checked with Beelaert, who was willing to return the lynx to the Boies family.

“It was a pretty rare animal for Nebraska, but it meant more to him (Boies) than to me,” Beelaert said.

Once Boies found the animal, he is determined not to let its trail go cold again.

“I wanted to get it out where people could see it,” Boies said.

He’s had it on view up high at the Nickerson Short Stop, under the watchful eye of manager Sandy Tucker of Nickerson.

“We had it displayed on the back freezer for about a year,” Tucker said. “I thought it was nice up there overlooking the place. It was quite the conversation piece.”

The search has tailed off.

Now that the missing lynx is found, Boies is keeping it in his sight.

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Information from: Fremont Tribune, http://www.fremontneb.com