The elk antler arch at the southwest corner of Town Square fetched more than $50,000 during an auction and will get a new home at a Jackson Hole hotel.

At Saturday’s Boy Scout Antler Auction, Jerry Johnson, whose holdings here include the Best Western Inn, outbid a Salt Lake City interior designer for the arch with an offer of $51,000.

“I’ll put it back up in town,” Johnson said afterward.

With auctioneer Jim Loose keeping things moving, offers for the arch quickly escalated, and the competition came down to a duel between Johnson and Amy Pearce of AG Interior Design.

Pearce sat in the bleachers, cell phone pressed to her ear as she took instructions from her boss, who was getting feedback from a client who had just bought a house in Park City, Utah, and wanted the arch for the grounds.

At one point, it looked as though Pearce would be the high bidder.

“Don’t let her have it for $50,000,” Loose called good-naturedly to Johnson, and Johnson made the final bid.

When it was over, the final two contenders both seemed stunned at the dollar amounts.

“I just sat there thinking ‘fifty thousand dollars,’” Pearce said.

Johnson said of his last bid: “That was probably way higher than I planned.”

Loose was more than satisfied at how the auction went.

“I’m just tickled,” he said.

So was Pete Karns, chairman of a Rotary Club committee raising money to replace four Town Square arches. The arch auction will help Rotary buy more antlers to replace a second arch in the square.

“It was very surprising and very delightful, and certainly above what I expected,” Karns said of Johnson’s bid.