Wisconsin community remembers life of 15-year-old albino deer known as "The King"

SPOONER, Wis. — People around Spooner, Wisconsin are remembering the life of a local legend. 

An albino buck known to many as "The King" passed away a couple of weeks ago and locals estimate that he was about 15 years old.

"Around 2009 is the first time we saw him in the area. My dad actually saw him down the road a couple miles when he was a fawn," Brian Danielsen said. 

Growing up hunting and fishing near Spooner, Wisconsin, Brian and Megan Danielson thought they'd seen it all. But that was before "The King" came strolling through their property.

"It was really exciting and then we just started carrying a camera all the time. Because as soon as we would see him everybody would call, 'Oh, he's over here. He's over here,'" Megan Danielson said. 

Over the years, the couple and their kids would take pictures of the buck whenever he passed through. He was like a friendly neighbor they got used to seeing. And because albino deer are protected in Wisconsin, this is one buck hunters couldn't touch. In the end, the king died of old age.

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"Driving up the driveway, look there's the albino buck. It wasn't moving and so we went up and found it was the end of an era. It was pretty sad to see," Brian Danielson said. 

"I was thankful that he had a peaceful death. It wasn't poaching or getting hit by a car," Megan Danielson said. 

Since he was found on their property, the Danielsons took the buck to a taxidermist and they've been thinking of ways to keep the legend going.

The plan is to put the buck's full body mount on display at a Spooner restaurant or business so both locals and tourists can see him.

In the meantime, they have a lifetime's worth of deer stories to tell, and in this case, all of them are true.

"It's really special this is part of a process that our kids are growing up with. And it also teaches them conservation," Megan Danielson said. "And it teaches them appreciation for what we live in and what we have locally here."

Locals estimate that at his peak, the albino buck was a 12-pointer who weighed close to 300 pounds. He was given the nickname "The King" by a Spooner newspaper reporter. About one in 30,000 deer are albino.