By Roy M. Pitkin and Frederick Groat

 

Down through the ages, mink has been regarded as the most luxurious of animal furs, prized by the rich and famous of the world. For much of the 20th century, the town of Anthon, near Iowa’s western border, was the home of one of the world’s largest and most highly reputed mink ranches. It reflected the industry, insight and persistence of one remarkable man, Frank Gothier, to whom the much-used term “entrepreneur” seems especially apt.

 

Francis Calvin Gothier was born on a farm in Woodbury County on May 29, 1888, the same year the town of Anthon, where he would spend most of his life, was founded. His paternal grandfather had emigrated from France (where the name was Guadier) to Quebec and eventually to Dubuque, and his father moved across Iowa to the western edge. Frank, as he came to be called, grew up on a farm in the Lucky Valley-Wolf Creek region west of Anthon. It was, he recalled later, an idyllic place for a boy.

 

Wildlife was abundant on the farm and quite early in life Frank became fascinated with the various animals around him. By the time he was 11, he was trapping raccoons, muskrats, skunks (which he learned how to de-scent) and most importantly, mink. He kept them in wire cages and allowed them to reproduce, so his numbers grew rapidly. There was a problem, however, in that the mink occasionally escaped and killed the neighbor’s chickens. Frank’s father ordered him to get rid of the animals, so he pelted them and sold the pelts to a fur buyer in St. Louis, Mo., realizing a considerable amount of money for a young boy.

 

At 13, Frank left home to work for other farmers in the area, planting and weeding corn, cutting and stacking hay, and building barns and fences. He was tall and muscular and a good worker. He also became adept at breaking wild horses brought from the western plains and highly desired by farmers. The horses were mustangs, descended from the Arabians of the Spanish Conquistadors, and breaking them for saddle or wagon could be dangerous, but Frank avoided serious injury.

 

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