12/20/2025
We are sharing this from the History of Idaho Preservation -1863-present Fb page
Margaret Lawrence's father, Bob "Two Gun" Limbert
Robert W. Limbert was born in Minnesota in 1885, and raised in Omaha, Nebraska. It was in Nebraska that he learned Taxidermy. After high school he went to work for the Union Pacific Railroad, working on a survey team locating routes through Utah and Wyoming. After two years, he returned to Nebraska where he began working for a local taxidermist. A year later he landed a job with the Smithsonian Institution collecting field specimens of the local animals of the south central region of Colorado.
In 1911, he moved to Boise, Idaho and found work in a taxidermy shop. By 1915 he opened his own Business. While taxidermy of the day consisted of face forward poses, Bob studied how animals moved in the wild, and mounted his animal is realistic poses.
Bob fell in love with Idaho’s backcountry, climbing mountain peaks, floating rivers, trekking the deserts. Limbert searched for Indian petroglyphs along the Snake River, canoed the Bruneau River Canyon, and roamed the Sawtooths. He designed Idaho's exhibition for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, receiving more awards than any other exhibit. He began writing about Idaho's wilderness for newspapers and magazines, his work appearing in, National Geographic Magazine, Outdoor America, Outdoor Life, and was a regular in the Idaho Statesman.
In 1919, Limbert first visited an area that would later become Craters of The moon National Monument. At the time it was 50 miles of unimproved road to get to the northern end. He explored the northern section of the lava fields where many people before him also did a little exploring, but what caught his imagination was looking south over the unexplored area the maps just called lava fields, or just left a large blank spot with no features.
May, 1920, Limbert was back for his third trip into the lava beds with Teddy, his Airedale dog, and a buddy Walter Cole. They took the train as far as Minidoka, strapped on their packs and headed north. With two weeks worth of provisions Bob’s pack came in at 55 pounds. He was also packing a large view camera, tripod, film holders, and a rifle. Grizzly bear were known to frequent the area at the time (bob photographed one). He was sorry that he took his dog along. The sharp lava sliced into his paws. Bob cut pads out of his leather jacket for dog shoes. After 80 miles of exploring in 17 days they reached the base of the Pioneer Mountains. Bob had taken over 200 photographs.
The Craters of the Moon National Monument was created on May 2,1924, after National Geographic Magazine ran Bob’s story,* *and presented President Calvin Coolidge with a scrapbook of his expedition.
In the 1920’s Limbert sold his taxidermy business in Boise to concentrate on building a lodge on some property that he bought on the shores of Red Fish Lake in the Sawtooths. He named it Red Fish Lodge, and worked at being a hunting and fishing guide. It is still in operation.
Limbert was a great speaker. When he first went on the road, he gave performances primarily in the eastern United States and felt the appropriate clothing was more formal attire—the same suit and tie worn by most of the other speakers on the city-to-city lecture circuit. But Limbert found this wasn’t going to work for him. According to Limbert:
“I learned a great deal about the west while in the east. All the leading citizens wear sombreros and chaps out here, I was told. As a matter of fact, until I adopted the garb I couldn’t make any money. Nobody would believe that I came from the west, in spite of my sunburned complexion and close acquaintance with firearms.”
He would shoot coins out of the air, from 25’ he could split a playing card side-ways with just its edge showing, shoot clay targets while standing on his head, he could hit them shooting behind him with a mirror, he could hit them with his guns turned upside down pulling the trigger with his little fingers. His daughter Margaret Limbert Lawrence (think Hollywood Market on 8th street in Boise) said he practiced every day. That if you dug up the shore of Red Fish Lake you’d probably come up with several hundred pounds of lead.
In June of 1933 Bob Limbert was in Chicago putting on a presentation when he received a phone call that his mother was gravely ill. Bob headed home driving cross country. He only made it as far as Cheyenne, Wyoming. On June 15, 1933 Robert Limbert died from either a heart attack, or brain hemorrhage, depending on the source. He was 48 years old. His Mother died the next morning. In a double funeral they were interred in Morris Hill Cemetery.
Source: IDAHO’S TWO-GUN BOB LIMBERT by David Clark.
