Foster's Bighorn - Rio Vista, California

DATE:  July 12, 2015

SITE:  Foster's Bighorn

LOCATION:  143 Main St., Rio Vista, Solano Co., California

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS: 

I have to say…I love this place! I’ve been here a handful of times and I’m blown away every time I walk in. The number of animals is amazing but memory tends to minimize the effect so when you walk in after not being here for some time, you get the same “whoa”!

Foster’sBighorn really is the story of Bill Foster. Sometimes I wonder if Foster’s biography is true to fact or gets embellished as time goes on, but it is a fascinating story all the same.

In 1918, Foster was an apprentice to a big game hunter who was bringing some of the first wildlife movies to the U.S., but he had other “interests”. It is said that he was involved in bootlegging during the 20’s and, on the run from the law, moved to Rio Vista, California.

Rio Vista is a little town on the Sacramento River. Little now so it must have been relatively unknown and distant from any big city back in the 20’s.

Foster loved traveling and starting in 1928, he made 8 trips to Africa and 10 to Canada and Alaska.

The results of those trips are all over the walls at the restaurant. There are over 250 “heads” from his kills in Africa and North America. This place is covered with his trophies. The elephant, with its truck soaring over the restaurant, is one of very few in existence. And the giraffe is extremely rare.

But he was also into photography, so where there isn’t a prized trophy, there are pictures hung. Pictures of "tribesmen", places he went and the kills he was involved in. AND each picture has a small typed description that was prepared by Foster himself.

Foster retired from hunting in 1953 and worked in the bar. He died in 1963 but his legacy lives on with the continuance of the bar/restaurant.

I had to laugh over some of the reviews I read about this place. One person wrote “place of murder and greed” and another said “stuffed dead animal heads”…oh  come on folks,…you didn’t know this before you went in? Would this be acceptable in today's world? No, but it was a different time in history and I try to be careful not to judge people from yesterday based on our values today. 

If you’re squeamish, don’t bother coming in. But I can tell you, everyone seems to love this place and you should see how kids react. I think Dirk was pretty impressed!

I don’t think I would normally do an entire blog on a bar/restaurant but this place is so interesting that I’d like to get the word out that if you are ever in the area; this is a place you should stop in at.