Meet Matthew Cooper | Cooper’s Furs and 6th Day Creations – Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Matthew Cooper and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Matthew, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
From a young age (8), I knew I was being called to a job in the outdoor industry. At that time in 1990 all I could imagine was a Fisheries and Wildlife Biologist for the State of Oklahoma. In my late teen years I was able to volunteer and eventually work as a paid intern, all the while working on my Fisheries and Wildlife B.S. degree from Northeaster State University. As most do, my career and money goals changed and I ended up going a different route, for about 18 years, to be exact. I was growing very tired of corporate positions and “chasing the dollar” for someone else and decided to renew my love of furbearers and start trapping again, from a wildlife management perspective. That quickly turned into developing and opening a small, “mom and pop” tannery here in southeast Oklahoma. Which brings us to today. That quickly evolved into the love I once had and began doing large scale tanning for other taxidermist, mounting of a variety of animals and even tanning for large corporate companies for study skins to be used at the collegiate level and in cultural heritage museums. The thought process still today is to preserve the “Mountain Man” lifestyle, my native American Heritage (Choctaw Indian) “Chahta Sia Hoke” and be able to preserve the memories of sportsmen and women for years to come. Granted, this has provided the opportunity for me to work from home, set my hours, and ULTIMATELY create a better work/life balance. I guess you could say, I’ve made it my goal to live a quiet life, mind my own business, work with my hands as I was taught, which has won the respect of those around me and created an environment where my wife and I are not dependent on anyone.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Well, my art is more than “taxidermy”. There is a very distinct difference in a “taxidermist” and a “Wildlife Artist”. You will always get the rivalry banter back and forth; however, the end results speak for themselves. It is absolutely not about a “job” but about bringing a memory home and the memory continuing to live and tell the story of the hunt, the trip, the experience, the friendship and times gone by. This skill is not an easy one to perfect, Every animal has their own characteristics, flaws, perfections and personalities that have to be captured. I’ve often been asked, “What is the easiest animal to mount?”, the answer is, the one you know most about… You never overcome the challenges of the profession simply because, as we’ve already said, each one is different, the story is different, the sportsmen/women’s view is different and they all want to capture the 3D artistic image in an individual way. You really learn along the way how unique creation is, how unique each hunter/trapper/sportsmen/woman is and why they want to capture that 3D art the way they do. You get to see the story through their eyes and create a piece that tells THE story.

If I had to tell the world about “this” story, It’d be a simple one. Skill is important, passion is key, collaborative effort is key….

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Never been to Denver so I don’t know.

Now if you’re talking about my little town of Bokoshe, Oklahoma, well, not much here. But, I would definitely take you to the top of the “Worlds Highest Hill” in Poteau, Oklahoma, its called Cavanal Hill, then a drive about out to the Dog Creek area to see the old Butterfield Stage Coach stop over, which ran between Ft. Smith, Arkansas and San Francisco, California, and then hit several of the historic Choctaw Indian land marks from the Rock Jail, to Tuskva Homma (the capital) and everything in between.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Boy this is an easy one. My Grandpa (Joe Ben Cooper) or my papaw.. As far back as I can remember, he was the GPS system for all of our hunting and fishing trips. He had instilled in my dad and myself, an appreciation for all things OUTDOORS. Granted, he was not a perfect man, but a man who appreciated the blessings that were created for us, and had a continual drive to share that with anyone who was interested. He once told me, “joebill, (that was our nickname for all the men in our hunting camp), if you see me do it, you can do it, if you hear me say it, you can say it…” He tried his level best to set the standard for the family as the patriarch should. That put a lot of weight no his shoulders to say the least. We all knew if we bucked the system and paid the consequences for our bad choices and wrong decisions, it was on us, period… My papaw tried his level best to love Jesus, love his neighbor and serve his Lord, and that’s what I still try to do today. You see, success is how the world measures our lives, whereas excellence is how Jesus measures our lives. So I guess with all that said, I give credit to my papaw in being the middle man that introduced me to Jesus and also to Jesus himself who guides and directs me to this day. You can’t legislate morals and ethics, but you can teach them, live by them and respect them. All credit is to Him.

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