Long before miners arrived in Crested Butte, before Utes hunted among these peaks and valleys, giants roamed free, far and wide. This is the story of one such giant that has captivated hearts and minds in Crested Butte, and throughout the West, for more than 125 years.
By all accounts, John Plute was a man of impressive stature, standing at around six feet four inches. Despite his intimidating size, he was known as a quiet, soft-spoken man with a wild streak when it came to his love of riding untamed horses. He was a miner who was reportedly often in debt to someone because he didn’t much enjoy mining, or working any more than he absolutely had to. But he did love to hunt, and he often traded game meat for room and board — and the occasional bar tab.
“He was a kind man, was single, kept to himself, liked to hunt, ride horses — the wilder the better — and he liked to drink… in those days everybody did,” recalled Mary (Gallowich) Sedmak. Her account is one of several first-person histories found in The Rozman Family History by Julie Guire, a copy of which is held at the Crested Butte Museum. Together, these stories chronicle the 1899 hunt that etched Plute’s name into the annals of Crested Butte and beyond.
In 1899, Plute ventured alone into the wildest reaches of Dark Canyon, 12 miles west of Crested Butte. In this land of giants, he harvested a monumental, now-infamous bull elk with his .30-40 Krag rifle. There, the legend of the Plute Elk began.
Decades later, that legend was recounted in a September 1975 special hunting insert of Empire Magazine. The full-spread feature included interviews with Crested Butte locals and was anchored by a cover painting depicting the moment just before Plute pulled the trigger on what would become the largest bull elk on record.
But back in the late 1890s and the early 1900s, hunters didn’t value antlers much. From Empire:
“There wasn’t as much hunting done back in those days as you might think,” said Tony Mihelich, who was born in 1904 and owned the Crested Butte Hardware Store, “Tony’s Conoco,” when the article was published. “There were only four or five guys… and John Plute was one of them… that hunted at all. There were no hunters from outside or other states like come now.”
Ed Rozman, who inherited the antlers in 1953, traced their history back to Plute’s infamous hunt. “Back in those days they didn’t hunt elk for the antlers,” he said. “Antlers were common and considered worthless. But these were so huge that Plute, after making two trips to bring the meat in, went all the way back out there to bring them in to show the boys at the saloon.”
As Ed recalled, “The next thing I learned was that my stepdad, John Rozich, took those antlers from Plute as settlement for a bar bill of $104. When you figure you could buy a pair of shoes then for $1.50, that was one helluva bar bill! But, what is more important, it showed that those horns were recognized as being pretty special, even then.”
Sadly, Plute’s life ended in 1920 after he was thrown from one of his notoriously wild horses in Washington Gulch. “The thing I remember about Plute was his horses,” Mihelich said. “He fancied himself as a broncobuster, and he could really ride. But he always had the wildest horse he could find… that’s what finally got him, you know?”
It was an unfortunate demise for Plute, who was around 50 years old at the time, but the story of his iconic elk continued to spread. The antlers hung in Rozich’s Saloon (now the Public House) beginning around 1900. When Rozich died in 1948, his stepsons, Ed and Tony Rozman, inherited the saloon and, with it, Plute’s antlers. They began to wonder whether the rack might be among the largest ever harvested, maybe even a record.
When Ed took over operations of the saloon in 1953, he began the complex and costly process of certifying the antlers. He and Tony submitted an official measurement form to the Boone and Crockett Club. Founded by Theodore Roosevelt in 1887, the club has remained the gold standard for big- game records for more than 130 years.
On March 19, 1961, the Plute antlers were certified as a new world record, scoring 442 ⅜. They have since been on display throughout Colorado, from the Gunnison Valley to Hotchkiss, Pueblo, and Denver; in New York after the certification by Boone and Crockett; and elsewhere around the West, including Salt Lake City, Seattle, Dallas, Oregon, and multiple stops in, of all places, Reno, Nevada.
From the 1980s on, the Plute antlers have for the most part been displayed at 331 Elk Avenue in Crested Butte, formerly Tony’s Conoco, and now the home of the Crested Butte Museum. According to the museum’s executive director, Elise Park, “I believe in part because there are only so many places you can display a rack of this size.” Tony’s also sold hunting permits and outdoor equipment and served as a gathering place for old-timers and newcomers, so Plute was a perfect fit.
The antlers were eventually put up for auction, changing owners and locations several times. After a long absence and another change in ownership, it became unclear if the antlers would ever return to the museum — or to Crested Butte at all.
But in 2025, an anonymous buyer acquired the antlers to ensure they remained on permanent public display. Today, they once again dominate the museum’s front room. Losing the legend would have been a major blow, Park explained, noting that the rack draws everyone from seasoned hunters familiar with Plute’s story to surprised tourists who often ask the staff, “Is that a moose?”
Since Plute’s recent and triumphant return, which included a “Welcome Home Plute” community celebration, Park and the museum’s curator, Heather Seekatz, have expanded the museum’s programming to include a dedicated hunting history exhibit. Visitors can now handle a real antler while learning about the mighty elk’s legacy. What began as a singular story about the harvesting of a legendary animal continues to grow, as people learn that Plute’s majesty reflects the awe-inspiring beauty that surrounds us.
In addition to the museum’s history of mountain biking exhibit, Park says, “Plute really adds depth to our collection, and to the public’s awareness and appreciation of how incredible our little valley is…. This was a mining town that was a crucial supplier of steel production during the Industrial Revolution. And it’s been the home of the world’s largest elk for many decades. When you start to add those up, it’s like, wow, the magnitude maybe starts to measure up to the mountains.”