Volume 90, Issue 9, 2012
November 2012
- Identifier:
- nela.2012_090_09
- Title:
- Volume 90, Issue 9, 2012
- Issue Name:
- November 2012
- Date Issued:
- 2012-11-01
- year:
- 2012
- month:
- November
- Season:
- Autumn
- PDF filename:
- NL_90.09_2012_Nov_Spreads_Entire.pdf
- Publisher:
- Nebraska Game and Parks Commission
- Format:
- Periodical
- volume:
- 090
- issue:
- 09
- number:
- 090.09
- Decade:
- 2010s
- Type:
- Rights Holder:
- Copyright Nebraskaland Magazine/Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, all rights reserved.
- Extracted Text:
-
An autumn sunset provides the backdrop for roadside grasses and a barn at a farm near Bruning
in northern Thayer County. Photo by Rick Houchin.
The Northwestern School of Taxidermy 12
Mom Teaches Her Sons Hunting 22
Michael Forsberg’s Game Trail Camera Trap Photos 26
Little Red Houses 32
Volume 90, Number 9, November 2012
12 Taxidermy Taught by Mail
Founded in 1903, Omaha’s Northwestern School of
Taxidermy was a prospering business through almost all
of the 1900s. BY JON FARRAR
20 What About Bob?
A day afield among strangers becomes a trip of a lifetime
for hunters on their first pheasant foray. Not because of
the amount of birds killed, but because of the kindness of
a very generous host. TEXT AND PHOTOS BY JEFF KURRUS
22 Hunting With Mom
Despite battling stereotypes her whole life, a mom is now
teaching her sons to hunt. TEXT AND PHOTOS BY ERIC FOWLER
26 Witness in the Woods
-
A camera trap left on a game trail for almost two years
reveals a rare glimpse of our natural world.
BY MICHAEL FORSBERG
32 Little Red Houses
A family tries to enjoy its self-proclaimed suburban
“ranch” as progress threatens its future.
TEXT AND PHOTOS BY JEFF KURRUS
20
●
38 A Time for Change
As summer turns to fall, the days get shorter, the
temperatures get cooler, and the scenery often gets
prettier. Photos BY LUKE KATHOL
32
●
Comment ................................................................... 4
Mixed Bag................................................................. 6
Outdoor Update........................................................44
Nature Notes ............................................................45
Classifieds ................................................................46
Portraits from the Past .............................................48
Page 49.....................................................................49
The Last Stop ...........................................................50
38
●
Cover: Thousands of professional taxidermists learned their trade
through Omaha’s Northwestern School of Taxidermy. Novelty and craft
taxidermy was popular (see story on page 12). Photo by Tim Reigert.
Opposite: Jumped from its daytime bed, a whitetail buck deftly clears a
fence by the edge of a Thomas County lake. Photo by Bill Hager.
NEBRASKAland (VOL. 90 / NO. 9, ISSN 0028-1964) is published monthly, except for the
combined Jan./Feb. and Aug./Sept. issues, by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission,
2200 N. 33rd St., Lincoln, NE. Periodicals postage paid at Lincoln, Nebraska, and additional
mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to NEBRASKAland, P.O. Box 30370,
Lincoln, NE 68503-0370.
2 NEBRASKALAND • NOVEMBER 2012
26
●
NOVEMBER 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 3
when the time comes to put down your
faithful companion. Looking at the
picture in his article, I can see that Eric
made many wonderful memories with
Nikki. She will never be replaced, but
Eric will never hunt “alone” as long
as he has another dog by his side in the
field.
Larry L. Harre
Kearney, Nebraska
Coyote Pup Chills Out
On a sunny morning during one of
the endless days this summer above
100 degrees, my husband was walking
our dog on their regular outing when
they noticed what my husband thought
to be a large cat walking up the hill to
our house near Valentine.
He soon discovered it was a coyote
pup and followed as it “hunted” up our
lane and crossed our driveway before
slipping through an open door into our
garage.
My husband brought the dog to
the house and hollered at me to “get
the camera.” When I peeked into
the garage, the coyote was lying on
the concrete floor in front of my car,
apparently seeking cool relief from
the heat. It allowed me to snap a
quick photo before it took refuge in
the corner of the garage behind some
boxes.
On a normal day, we may have just
left the pup alone to wander out by
itself, but we were leaving for the day
and hesitated to leave the garage open
and unattended. We opened all the
garage doors, but still had a difficult
time persuading the pup to leave the
relative darkness for the hot sunshine.
When it finally did exit it trotted off
to the shade of a nearby boat. We left
the young pup in peace, and when we
returned that evening, it had gone.
Cherry Hafer
Valentine, Nebraska
One Great Dog
While reading “One Great Dog” by
Eric Fowler, I was overwhelmed with
a multitude of emotions regarding my
former and current hunting buddies.
Each one of my German shorthair
pointers was special in its own
way, and each had its own unique
personality.
It is never easy saying goodbye
Vic Tibbetts’ message plate regularly
gets dirty on the way to and from
waterfowl hunts on the Loup River near
his home in Palmer with his favorite
shotgun, a Remington SP10. Tibbetts loves to hunt geese, ducks, turkey
and deer, often accompanied by his sons, Troy and Chad; daughter, Jacy; or
his granddaughters.
If you have a unique outdoor message plate you would like to share or
know someone who does, e-mail a photo (high-resolution, JPEG format
only, please) of it to Eric.Fowler@Nebraska.gov, along with your name,
hometown and a brief description of the interests expressed on your license
plate.
4 NEBRASKALAND • NOVEMBER 2012
Self Preservation
As I was reading this month’s great
magazine I turned to page 13 and saw
this on the top of the page: “When you
see a deer with a rifle, your hunt is just
about over.”
I have been deer hunting for a long
time and have never seen a deer with a
rifle, but if I do it doesn’t matter what
type of tag I have – I’m shooting first!
Rob Mercer
Stanton, Nebraska
NEBRASKAland Visitor Letters
We want to thank all 75 readers
that sent e-mails and letters for last
issue’s visitor, a dog-day cicada that
was on page 46 (see page 11 for the
winner, rules and this issue’s hint).
Here is one of the wonderful responses
we received:
I found this month’s visitor on page
46; one of my childhood favorites, a
cicada (Tibicen pruinosa), seems to
be checking out the NEBRASKAland
Calendar special. As a young farm
kid, I loved finding the brown nymphs
crawling out of holes under our elm
trees and finding a place on the trunks
to split open and emerge with pale,
wrinkled wings. When they were dry
and ready to fly, you could pick them
up with finger and thumb on either side
and feel the tickling, buzzing vibration
of their “alarm” sound, the same sound
they make when they are being carried
off by a hungry bird. My mother’s
generation had been taught that the
dried nymph husks were poisonous,
so we delighted in hanging as many of
them as possible on our clothing and
parading around in sight of Mom. Now,
decades later, I still look forward to the
“ZeeeeeZoooou” they sing in the trees
to signal that summer is truly here.
Shirley Condon
Lincoln, Nebraska
No Nebraska summer would be
complete without the loud buzzing of
cicadas hidden in surrounding trees.
The cicada found in last month’s
issue is the dog-day cicada. The
name comes from the timing of adult
emergence in July and August – the
dog days of summer.
Males entice females by making
the familiar droning sound that
people often hear outside during the
summer months. Dog-day cicadas are
a different species than the periodical
cicada with its famed 17-year lifecycle; dog-day cicadas complete their
journey from egg to adult in a mere
two to five years.
Females lay eggs in slits in small
branches or twigs. The nymphs hatch
and drop to the ground, burrowing
into the soil. They will spend the next
several years feeding on plant roots
before digging back to the surface
and molting into their adult form,
complete with wings. You may see
their shed skin, looking like a dried
husk, clinging to the bark of a tree.
Dog-day cicadas generally cause no
significant damage, though some twig
die-back is possible around the egglaying site. Cicadas are often referred
to as locusts, but this is incorrect –
locusts are actually migratory
grasshoppers, and
are in a different
taxonomic family
than cicadas.
Special thanks to Julie Van Meter, State
Entomologist, Nebraska Department of
Agriculture. Visitor image by Chris Helzer.
www.bugguide.net is a good site for identification
Send your comments to:
Doug Carroll, Editor
NEBRASKAland Magazine
P.O. Box 30370
Lincoln, NE 68503
or e-mail Doug.Carroll@Nebraska.gov
Please include your postal address and
telephone number.
Letters may be condensed and edited
for clarity. Photographs are welcome
and will be returned.
Any program that receives federal funding from the National Park
Service, or the United States Fish and Wildlife Service prohibits unlawful
discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, age, gender, marital
status, national origin, age, disability or political affiliation. Any person
who believes he or she has been discriminated against in any program,
activity, facility, or service, should contact the Nebraska Game and
Parks Commission, Lincoln, NE 402-471-0641, the Equal Opportunity
Commission, Lincoln, NE 402-471-2024, TTY/TDD 402-471-4693;
United States Fish Wildlife Service, Civil Rights Coordinator, 4401
N. Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22203; Director, Equal Opportunity
Program, U.S. Department of Interior, National Park Service, 1849 C
Street NW, Mail Code 0008, Washington, D.C. 20240-0001.
COMMISSION
CONSERVATION OFFICERS
Director Jim Douglas
NORTHWEST
Officer
City
Jim Zimmerman (S) Gering
Commissioners
Chairman - Ron Stave, Waterloo
Vice Chairman - Norris Marshall, Kearney
2nd Vice Chairman - Jerrod Burke, Curtis
Dr. Mark Pinkerton, Wilber
Dr. Kent Forney, Lincoln
Lynn Berggren, Broken Bow
Rex Fisher, Omaha
Mark Spurgin, Paxton
Mick Jensen, Blair
MAGAZINE STAFF
Editor Doug Carroll
Associate Editor Jeff Kurrus
Art Director Tim Reigert
Senior Editor Jon Farrar
Regional Editor Eric Fowler
Contributing Editor Michael Forsberg
Regular Contributors Bill Hager, Chris Helzer,
Lisa Knopp
Photo Librarian Sarah Johnson
Circulation Donna Robinson
For address changes and questions about
your subscription, e-mail Donna.Robinson@
Nebraska.gov or call (800) 632-5263
Advertising
For advertising information contact
Donna Robinson, Circulation
Phone: (402) 471-5490
E-mail: ngpc.ads@nebraska.gov
NEBRASKAland Magazine Copyright 2012, all rights reserved.
NEBRASKAland is available on audio cassette from the Nebraska
Library Commission Talking Book and Braille Service, Suite 120, 1200 N
St., Lincoln, NE 68508. (800) 742-7691. NEBRASKAland Magazine and
the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission reserve the right to reject any
advertising not in keeping with the agency mission.
Rates: $18 for one year; $33 for two years; $44 for three years. Nebraska
recipients must add appropriate sales tax. To subscribe call
1-800-NEBLAND (632-5263), or go online to: NebraskalandMagazine.
com.
COMMISSION OFFICES
Headquarters/Southeast District Office
2200 N. 33rd Street Lincoln, NE 68503
Phone (402) 471-0641
Northeast District Office
2201 N. 13th St. Norfolk, NE 68701
Phone (402) 370-3374
Southwest District Office
301 E. State Farm Rd. North Platte, NE 69101
Phone (308) 535-8025
Northwest District Office
East Hwy. 2, Box 725 Alliance, NE 69301
Phone (308) 763-2940
Bassett Office
524 Panzer St., Box 508 Bassett, NE 68714
Phone (402) 684-2921
Greg Hesse
Scott Brandt
Heath Packett
Dan Kling
Frank Miller
Phone (308)
(office) 763-2940
(cell) 641-6138
Alliance
760-3647
Gering
631-0663
Gordon
360-0682
Harrison
430-0572
Valentine (402) 389-0444
SOUTHWEST
Officer
City
Phone (308)
Roger Thompson (S) N. Platte (office) 535-8025
(cell) 530-3097
Ray Dierking
Brkn. Bow
870-0322
George Sund
Cambridge
655-0028
Michael Thome
Cozad
529-8146
Terry Brentzel
Doniphan (402) 469-5795
Matt Andrews
Elwood
746-2418
Dirk Greene
Imperial
882-0015
ale Johnson
Kearney
440-3847
Brian Piernicky
McCook
340-6627
Dudley Sorensen
N. Platte
530-0016
Nicholas Fix
Ogallala
289-0427
Dennis Thompson
Ogallala
289-0755
Rich Routh
Rep. City
920-0367
NORTHEAST
Officer
City
Tom Zimmer (Sup.) Norfolk
Dale Davis
Steve Oberg
Daniel Roberts
Randy Pomplun
Jeff Jones
Jon Reeves
Tim Williams
Pat George
Doug Pollard
Cory Krause
Phone (402)
(office) 370-3374
(cell) 649-8053
Bassett
760-0712
Columbus
910-3366
Fremont
719-1108
Fullerton (308) 550-0489
Hartington
762-5022
Kennard
889-8508
Neligh
929-0051
O’Neill
340-0787
Ord
(308) 778-7101
West Point
380-6410
SOUTHEAST
Officer
Sean McKeehan
William Krause
Mike Luben
Dan Zuehlke
Darin Gress
Douglas Kramer
Dina Barta
Stacey Lewton
Levi Krause
Robert Finke
Russell Mort
Dan Evasco
City
Ashland
Auburn
Colon
Cortland
Hebron
Lincoln
Lincoln
Lincoln
Louisville
Milford
Nebr. City
Papillion
Phone (402)
521-0159
274-8063
443-6392
806-9084
768-8665
890-6465
890-6463
890-7140
949-0593
947-1363
209-1506
616-5961
ADMINISTRATION
Officer
Craig Stover (Adm.)
Duane Arp (Ass.)
Jeff Clauson (Ass.)
City
Lincoln
Lincoln
Lincoln
Phone (402)
471-5531
471-5532
471-0480
Kearney Office
1617 First Ave. Kearney, NE 68847
Phone (308) 865-5310
Omaha Office
1212 Bob Gibson Blvd. Omaha, NE 68108
Phone (402) 595-2144
Nebraska Wildlife Crimestoppers 1-800-742-7627
Ak-Sar-Ben Aquarium
21502 W. Highway 31 Gretna, NE 68028
Phone (402) 332-3901
NOVEMBER 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 5
Here is a list of
upcoming outdoor
events across
Nebraska.
For more
information
about these
and other
events, visit the
calendar page at
www.OutdoorNebraska.org.
Wild and Scenic Winner
A photo entered by Laura Springer of Grand Island won the Wild and Scenic
division of this year’s Nebraska State Fair photography competition after being
chosen the best from among several other entries.
A 17-year-old junior at Grand Island Northwest High School, Springer captured
the photo in early August during a team retreat and team bonding event at her
softball coach’s house near Cairo. Springer said she loves capturing sunset photos
and was taking photos at a pond near her coach’s house when three ducks landed
on the water.
“It was perfect timing and I took pictures until someone called me back up to
the house to eat s’mores,” she said. “All in all, it was a great day!”
Spear Gun Record
This past September, Sean Morgan, a
junior majoring in wildlife biology at the
University of Nebraska-Kearney, used a
spear gun to harvest a new state-record
grass carp that may also be a new world
record.
Morgan was free diving in a private
Buffalo County sandpit when he
shot the massive fish, which was
later recorded by the Nebraska
Game and Parks Commission
as weighing 49 pounds, 10.5
ounces. Ironically, this record
fish smashed his own pending
state-record fish – nine days
earlier he had shot a grass
carp in the same sandpit that
weighed just over 24 pounds,
breaking the previous state
record of 6 pounds, 4 ounces.
The current recognized
world record fish weighed 31
pounds, 14 ounces.
6 NEBRASKALAND • NOVEMBER 2012
November 3
Bird Banding Workshop
Held at the Ak-Sar-Ben Aquarium
from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., participants in
this free workshop will get up-close
lessons on field identification and
learn other information about many
of Nebraska’s songbirds.
For more information, call (402) 3323901
November 5
Ft. Robinson Christmas Dinner
Tickets Go On Sale
Fort Robinson’s 18th Annual
Historical Christmas Dinner will
be held December 1 this year and
tickets sell out fast.
For more information, call (308) 6652900
November 17
Fly Tie-in
Hosted by the Cornhusker Fly
Fishers club, a “Fly Tie-in” will be
held at the Ak-Sar-Ben Aquarium
Outdoor Education Center on
November 24.
Expert club members will be meeting at the aquarium from 10 a.m. to
2 p.m. to tie fishing flies and answer
questions from the public. Other
tie-ins will be held the Saturday
following the third Wednesday of
the month in January, February and
March.
For more information, call (402) 3323901
November 18
Ft. Robinson Longhorn and Buffalo
Sale
Fort Robinson’s annual longhorn
and buffalo sale will be held
November 18 at the Crawford
Livestock Market. Both potential
buyers and the general public are
welcome to attend.
For more information, call (308) 6652900
NOVEMBER 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 7
Deer Hides Needed
by Jeff Kurrus
b
Lincoln, NE
A Sports Weekend
BOBBI OLSON
PHOTO BY STEVE AND
11/9/12
4:00 PM – Arrive at the Branched Oak, Pawnee
Lake, Conestoga Lake or Bluestem SRA
campsite after leaving work early. Walk-up
reservations only. Prices range from $7-$24
per campsite.
5:30 PM – Eat dinner at Misty’s in Havelock. At least
one person at your table should order the
prime rib.
7:00 PM – Watch Lincoln Stars Hockey vs. Cedar
Rapids at the Ice Box. Tickets range from
$16-$25.
10:00 PM – Return to campsite for nightcap of s’mores
and stories.
11/10/12
9:00 AM – Eat a campfire breakfast.
10:00 AM – Drive into Lincoln and look for football tickets
at Stubhub.com or from street vendors.
TBA – Watch Nebraska vs. Penn State football game
at Memorial Stadium.
5:00 PM – Eat dinner at Buzzard Billy’s in the Haymarket. Be predictable and
order the Cajun combo. Or be whimsical and order the seafood
eggplant pirogue.
The Benevolent and Protective Order
of Elks, known as the local Elks Lodge
in most small towns, is again accepting
donated deer hides from the beginning
of the November firearm deer season
through the end of the January antlerless
deer season. Donated hides will be
shipped to a tannery to be turned into
soft leather and made into gloves for
wheelchair-bound veterans or used for
craft kits that are distributed to veterans
at VA Medical Centers across the
world as part of the Elks “Help a Vet”
program.
Before the hides can be shipped,
they have to have all excess fat, flesh
and both heads and tails removed,
then table or stock salt must be rubbed
into all fleshy surfaces. Volunteers
at the drop-off locations do most of
this work, but hunters are welcome to
do it themselves before dropping off
the hides. Care must be taken in the
skinning process, however, as even
small holes can result in the hide being
ruined during the tanning process.
7:00 PM – Watch Nebraska volleyball vs. Purdue at
NU Coliseum. Again, check Stubhub.com and
street vendors.
10:00 PM – Return to campsite, pass on the nightcap,
and go straight to bed because your family is
exhausted.
8:00 AM, Sunday morning – Head to the house.
W
hile this a dream weekend for any Nebraska sports
fan, there is one important thing to consider: $$$.
Because of how expensive this trip could be, alterations
can definitely be made. However, if you’ve never seen a
hockey game, I’d make it a point to. In person, hockey is
unbelievable to watch. It’s fast, has constant action, and
is very different from what you see on television.
If tickets to the football game are too pricey, hang
out in the Haymarket for the game day experience.
The game can be viewed on the big screen in multiple
restaurants in the
Haymarket, and the ocean of red can’t
be replicated. And if a day at the market has rendered a
trip to the NU Coliseum for volleyball too tiring, a nature walk before
sunset and a campfire dinner at Branched Oak or other local SRA is
also a perfect way to finish your weekend trip to Lincoln.
8 NEBRASKALAND • NOVEMBER 2012
NOVEMBER 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 9
Duck Speeds
Jon Farrar
10 NEBRASKALAND • NOVEMBER 2012
PHOTO BY ERIC FOWLER
Gauging speed in miles-per-hour
(mph) began in the 1700s when stage
coaches established timetables, then
came into common usage with the
arrival of railroads and even more so
when automobiles appeared on the
scene. Estimating the speed of ducks by
hunters could not have been far behind,
as missing a shot at a duck crossing
at 60 mph sounds more accurate that
“pretty darn fast” or “zoomed by like a
meteor.” But it was not until airplanes
became more common that there really
was much written about how fast
birds fly, ducks in particular. In the
early years of such reporting there was
often no distinction made between the
speed of a mallard being pursued by an
airplane and one flying parallel to an
airplane at a comfortable distance – the
difference between burst speeds and
sustained speeds. Outdoor magazines
were filled with articles about how fast
this duck or that duck could fly.
One of the most reliable sources
for waterfowl information in its time,
and still mostly accurate today, was
Francis Kortright’s The Ducks, Geese
and Swans of North America, first
published in 1942.
“There is a wide-spread
misconception concerning the speed
at which birds normally fly, and
even regarding the speed they can
attain when occasion demands, as
when closely pursued by an enemy,”
Kortright wrote. “It is not unusual to
hear accounts of birds flying ‘a mile a
minute’ While undoubtedly some birds
can and do attain a speed even greater
when pressed, few can develop an air
speed of 60 miles an hour.”
Kortright wrote that in the past some
sportsmen overestimated the speed at
which ducks and geese fly by using
“mathematical calculations” based
on the velocity of a charge of shot,
estimated distance to the bird, and
how long a lead was required to hit the
duck or goose. If all elements of the
equation were known with certainty,
he wrote, the speed of flight could
be “determined with a fair degree of
accuracy,” but noted that most hunters
tended to overestimate the distance at
which they shot birds.
Pintails achieve their fastest “burst speeds” during spring courtship flights.
Kortright listed a number of
waterfowl species and their estimated
flight speeds under different
circumstances. Those estimates have
not changed all that much since
Kortright’s time, even though more
scientific methods are now used,
including radar or flying alongside a
family of migrating cranes in an ultralight. The fastest duck ever reported
was a red-breasted merganser that
topped out at 100 mph when pursued
by an airplane. Top speed for a
canvasback is around 70 mph. Most
waterfowl species fly at speeds from
40 to 55 mph. The peregrine falcon,
which may reach or exceed 200 mph in
a dive, is reported to be the fastest of
all birds.
On average, diving ducks are faster
than puddle ducks because their
relatively shorter and narrower wings
are designed for speed, like a fighter
jet. Some hunters will be surprised to
know among the slowest of ducks are
the teal. Blue-winged and green-winged
teal are usually thought of as moving
at the speed of light, but that is based
more on their highly maneuverable
flight – able to turn-on-a-dime and then
instantly do it again. Sustained straight
flight for teal is about 30 mph. All of
these speeds are influenced by strength
of the wind and the bird’s course
relative to its direction. Some birds,
such as pintails, attain their fastest
“burst speeds” during spring courtship
flights. ■
NEBRASKAland Visitor
Winner and Hint
Last issue’s winner of
the Visitor drawing was
Bryan Danburg, of
Axtell, Nebraska, who
found the dog-day cicada on page
46. Readers are encouraged to
contact NEBRASKAland within 10
days after this issue’s publication
with the correct page number and
name of this issue’s “Visitor” – a
bug found in Nebraska that just
happened to find its way onto one of
the pages.
We will then gather the correct
entries and draw one to win a
NEBRASKAland Magazine mug.
To enter each month, write:
NEBRASKAland Visitor
2200 North 33rd Street,
Lincoln, NE 68503.
Or e-mail:
Tim.Reigert@Nebraska.gov
with “Visitor” in the subject line of
the message.
HINT: This issue’s visitor is not
on page 4, 5, or 7.
NOVEMBER 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 11
Few letterheads, envelopes or postcards
in the early-1900s rivaled Northwestern School
of Taxidermy’s in elaborateness, amount
of illustration and use of color.
The Northwestern School of Taxidermy
By Jon Farrar
he Northwestern School of
Taxidermy in Omaha was
founded by J.W. Elwood in
1903. It was a prospering
business through almost all
of the 1900s, selling an inexpensive
correspondence taxidermy course
as well as taxidermy supplies. The
company’s six-story building at 12th
and Howard Street (sometimes given
as Harney and 12th St.) in downtown
Omaha housed business offices,
dozens of employees attending to
course mailings, taxidermy supplies
and taxidermists on staff who mounted
animals for those not wanting to learn
to do it themselves. Promotional
advertising during the 1930s claimed:
“Our school is one of the most
famous Taxidermy institutions in the
world,” and is “…the only school of
Taxidermy in the world,” a “worldwide institution with students in
practically all countries.”
Promotional booklets state Elwood
was a superintendent of public schools
in Iowa but resigned to start the
taxidermy school. Elwood was quoted
as saying: “I learned Taxidermy when
a boy. I had to earn my own way
through high school and college. My
knowledge of Taxidermy made this
possible. I tended furnaces
and waited on tables
occasionally, but it
was profit from
Taxidermy
that brought
in the
cash that
carried me
through.”
Elwood
stated
he
as 12,000.” It is nearly impossible to
place Northwestern’s catalogs and
brochures in time, as they were not
dated – no doubt so the supply printed
could be used until depleted.
T
12 NEBRASKALAND • NOVEMBER 2012
ABOVE: J.W. Elwood was never shy
promoting himself in brochures as the
founder of popular taxidermy.
BELOW: Deer-hoof ashtrays were one
of many “craft taxidermy” projects
suggested in the lessons. This one by
John Reigert Jr. was made in the 1960s.
taught the “art” to many of his
sportsmen friends before recognizing
the tremendous interest and need for
an inexpensive taxidermy school.
Seeing an opportunity and the need
for a service and supplies not readily
available, Elwood gambled and created
a profitable business. He was never shy
about tooting his own horn, and there
is no denying there was a hint of a
huckster about him.
“The cost of preparing the courses,
the time spent in making up models
for lesson diagrams, the expenses
of printing and advertising, took all
of his savings,” the booklet states.
“Within a few months, when people
found out about his course, the picture
changed. The first year brought an
enrollment of 200 students, the second
year 1,000. Since then some single
year enrollments have been as high
The interest in mounting wild
animals for display swelled in the
opening years of the 1900s and even
earlier, in part because of the publicity
lavished on prominent sportsmen such
as Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt
had an insatiable appetite for big
game hunting and having his trophies
mounted, and did taxidermy work
both as a boy and while president.
Another pioneer in American
taxidermy was Dr. William T.
Hornaday, who founded the
National Society of American
Taxidermists in 1880, and two
years later was named chief
taxidermist of the National
Museum (now the Smithsonian).
Hornady is credited with being
the first to place mounted
animals in natural settings,
often elaborate dioramas.
Most taxidermists in those
years learned the trade by
serving as apprentices. Enter
“Prof. J.W. Elwood, B.S.”
Elwood’s claims of being
trained as a taxidermist as
a boy, having developed
the correspondence
lessons himself, and
being a lifelong
sportsmen are a topic
of lively dispute on
some Internet sites.
Some writers accuse
Elwood of being a fraud on all
counts. It is likely he did not prepare
Northwestern’s taxidermy lessons
from scratch, but acquired the rights to
use information and illustrations from
two significant American books on
NOVEMBER 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 13
taxidermy –
Taxidermy and Zoological
Collecting by W.J. Holland and
William T. Hornaday, published
in 1891; and Methods in the Art of
Taxidermy by Oliver Davie, published
in 1894.
Northwestern promotional claims
that “Mr. Elwood has hunted in the
wilds of America, in Canada, in
Mexican jungles and in the Islands
of the Sea” cannot be definitively
substantiated or refuted, but he
apparently was something of a hunter
and angler in Nebraska at the least.
“J.W. Elwood of the Walter G. Clark
Sporting Goods Co. has just returned
from a sort of investigating trip in
the sand hills and around the western
Nebraska lakes,” Omaha WorldHerald outdoor writer Sandy Griswold
wrote in his August 22, 1915, outdoor
column. “He was visiting his ranch, but
the principal object of his trip was to
size up the game situation, especially
the matter of native hatched wild
ducks.”
As Griswold noted, in addition to
owning the Northwestern School of
14 NEBRASKALAND • NOVEMBER 2012
Taxidermy, Elwood was a partner
(and elsewhere said to be the sole
owner) in the Clark Sporting Goods
Co., an Omaha concern that Griswold
described as “one of Omaha’s most
prosperous sporting goods stores.” So
it was no coincidence that the streetside
window displays of the sporting
goods store were frequently decorated
with mounted animals put up by
Northwestern taxidermists.
Elwood was a deputy game warden
“and hence keeps a close watch on the
game conditions,” Griswold wrote. He
was one of 16 charter member of the
Dewey Lake Club established in 1915
on the lake of the same name, now a
part of the Valentine National Wildlife
Refuge.
From 1913 to 1923, Griswold
frequently mentioned Elwood and the
Northwestern School of Taxidermy,
writing in March 28, 1915: “Elwood is
perhaps the best known of present day
taxidermists and his work is featured in
the Smithsonian, American, and other
museums in this country. Indeed, he
was selected to do the task of preparing
and mounting collections for some
of the most valuable Washington and
New York institutions.” … “All his
life, Elwood has been studying and
modeling animals and birds. He has
even spent months in the wilds to
become familiar with the denizens
there. As a result of this constant study
he has been able to construct hundreds
of perfect animals and birds without
even a single measurement to guide
him.”
In addition to promoting him as
a lifelong enthusiastic sportsman,
Northwestern print material seldom
failed to mention: “Mr. Elwood is
an ardent sportsman and naturalist
and an advocate of strict game
protection. He was the leader in the
movement, years ago, in preventing
the extinction of wild-game. He with
other vast influences, including Ducks
Unlimited, stopped the slaughter of
the disappearing wild fowl.” He was
also said to devote some time lecturing
and writing. Griswold noted: “He is
a member of some of the best-known
sportsmen’s clubs in America, and
is frequently called upon by these
organizations to deliver lectures of a
semi-scientific nature.”
All of Elwood’s claims to being a
sportsman of substance and active
conservationist could have very well
been true, or only somewhat true,
but they were often diminished in
authenticity as they contained a
plug for taxidermy, noting that
with “…dwindling numbers of
game animals the sportsmen
could kill less and enjoy
his trophies more if they
were mounted and on
display.”
At the core of the Northwestern School of
Taxidermy’s correspondence course was nine
pamplets containing two to five lessons each.
Elwood or
a talented
copywriter
churned out
sales pitches
rivaling
a carnival
hawker.
Their selfendorsement
and claims
were not to be
equaled until
Herter’s catalogs
for outdoor
equipment came
along in the 1940s.
Herter was called
the “P.T. Barnum
of decoys” and that
title extended to
every other item they
sold – all were the
best ever, not to be
equaled, field tested
by Jacque Herter in
the wilds of Alaska and
sold at unimaginably
low prices. And so it
was with Elwood two
decades earlier. For
example, before World
War II, the company sold
only the “highest quality
glass eyes” from Germany,
where the “best glass eyes in the
world” were made. When Germanmade eyes were no longer available,
and after the war when they probably
were again, Northwestern sold only
eyes made in the U.S.A., “the world’s
highest quality.”
Elwood advertised extensively in
national sporting magazines, as well
as other men’s magazines such as
Popular Mechanics. Such advertising
ranged in size from only a column
wide to a full
page, to four, full-pages
in magazines having less expensive
advertising rates, such as HunterTrader-Trapper. His pitch promoted
learning taxidermy for fun, for profit
and to conserve wildlife.
“It’s like going to school without
paying board and room or high tuition
costs,” Elwood pitched. “And, there’s
no drudgery of apprenticeship, no
dry lectures. You start doing actual
Taxidermy with your first lessons.”
Throughout the company’s advertising
history it particularly targeted boys.
“We confidently believe that any
average man or boy
who takes our course, studies and
practices the lessons until he can mount
specimens creditably, is ALMOST
CERTAIN to find ways of turning his
knowledge into CASH. Others DO
earn fine profits, why not you?” A
special, half-priced tuition rate was
available for boys 16 years of age and
younger. And during the Depression
of the 1930s, when a quarter in a boy’s
pocket was big money, Elwood even
suggested two boys enroll together to
cut the instruction costs by half.
Northwestern’s advertising was
lavishly illustrated with specimens
mounted by students, sometimes a
taxidermist surrounded by dozens of
animal
mounts,
sometimes
photos of a
particularly
good display,
such as a snarling
wildcat on a rock
with a recently killed
rooster pheasant in its
mouth. Few letterheads, envelopes
or postcards in the early-1900s could
rival Northwestern’s in elaborateness,
amount of illustration and use of color.
Endorsements were an important
component of promoting the
Northwestern School of Taxidermy –
from boys to housewives to average
sportsmen who had taken the course;
to graduates who mounted animals
for the president of the United States,
an Indian maharajah and the prince of
Wales. Elwood never missed a chance
to make advertising hay by publishing
letters from curators and chief
taxidermists of prestigious museums
such as the Field Museum in Chicago,
NOVEMBER 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 15
Kits containing the basic taxidermy tools were
sold in either leather or wooden cases, and in
later years vinyl cases.
particularly
if they
mentioned
that their
skilled assistants learned their trade
from his correspondence classes.
Northwestern promotional booklets
always contained letters of praise and
thanks from former students who had
given up their old jobs to make more
money in taxidermy, such as L.J.
Loomis of New York who during the
1930s wrote he had made more than
$500 in one month: “Although I have
long since passed the amateur stage,
I find your course of lessons a very
valuable guide and reference and they
have a very prominent place in my
shop. To anyone who loves nature and
is willing to study hard, there is no
finer profession to take up and with
your course as a guide, anyone with a
reasonable amount of practice and hard
16 NEBRASKALAND • NOVEMBER 2012
work can
turn out work
that will not only give
him a great deal of pleasure, but
will benefit him financially as well.”
But it was the average amateur
taxidermist who was Elwood’s breadand-butter, not just in taking the course
but in subsequently buying supplies.
Pages of testimonials, including
photographs of the writer (usually a
young man), were always included in
promotional booklets: “Many years
ago, when I saw mounted specimens
for the first time, I had a great desire to
become a taxidermist,” were Nebraskan
Charles H. Bratt’s words under his
photograph. “When I enrolled in your
school it was with a firm determination
to learn the art thoroughly and
completely, and I want to tell you that
through your course of lessons I have
been able to realize my ambition.”
While Elwood’s advertising was
particularly
aimed at boys and
young men, anyone with an
interest in trying his correspondence
course was invited. He listed some
of the professions represented among
the school’s students as lawyers,
doctors, mechanics, teachers, trappers,
artists, farmers, barbers, office girls,
merchants, poultry men, woodsmen,
clerks, fur breeders and housewives.
Elwood did not ignore the possibility
women might be interested in
taxidermy, writing “I especially invite
all ladies to join the School.”
“I wish I had the space in this book
to publish all the fine pictures and
enthusiastic letters that we have in our
files from women and girls who have
become taxidermists by taking our
course of lessons,” Elwood wrote. “Of
course most of our students are men
and boys, since they are naturally more
interested in hunting and outdoor life
than most women and girls.”
“It is with great pleasure that we
write to thank you for your splendid
service,” Mrs. George Carr and Mrs.
W.P. Spence from Kansas City wrote.
“We have never had anything in which
we could invest such a small amount
and receive so much value. Enclosed
find pictures and a write up on our
work from the local newspaper. We
owe our entire success to your fine
institution, and will recommend it on
every occasion.”
Elwood was a master at making
every student feel they were special
and a member of a select group. The
salutation of a seemingly personal
letter from Elwood to young potential
enrollees began with “My Dear Young
Friend” and ended with the sentence: “I
shall await your enrollment with great
interest.” Such letters were general in
content and never dated, suggesting the
same letter was sent to many enrollees.
The pitch was successful and solicited
glowing responses, such as a letter
from Henry C. Rosicky, Nebraska:
“I have been greatly pleased with the
careful attention you have given me
and the interest shown in my progress.”
“Your personal letters have been
very helpful and are so friendly that I
feel that I am really acquainted with
Mr. Elwood and other members of the
faculty,” C.D. Gregory of Menatonh,
California wrote. Fifteen-year-old W.B.
McWha from Arkansas wrote: “It is a
great pleasure to be a member of such
a great institution as the Northwestern
School….” Arthur W. Keller of New
York wrote: “I want to repay you in
some measure for the real interest you
have taken in my success….” and sent
photographs of his taxidermy work
“which you can use in your advertising
along with my full and complete
endorsement of the Northwestern
School.”
It seems unlikely J.W. Elwood
personally showered as much
individual attention on students as
was implied. One 1930s promotional
booklet showed photographs of the
clerical staff (all women) seated eight
to a table fulfilling what must have
been thousands of mailings each day.
A caption noted Northwestern had 75
full-time employees and occasionally
as many as 100 when needed. Another
photograph showed a truck leaving the
building, piled high with “over 200
sacks” of outgoing mail. Among the
most important item mailed to students
must have been the “fine lithographed
At age 15, John Reigert Jr. (NEBRASKAland designer Tim Reigert’s father) began
taxidermy work through the Northwestern correspondence course, as did many
professional taxidermists across the country. He continued it as a second job until his
death in 1972. He is shown here in his shop in about 1969.
diploma” if they completed the course
work. Completion of the course was on
the honor system.
At the core of the Northwestern
School of Taxidermy correspondence
course was nine pamphlets containing
from two to five lessons in each,
160 pages in total. One was mailed
monthly. A black, pebbled, hard-cover
binder for the pamphlets was sold, with
lettering on the cover “raised in relief,
and heavily embossed in bronze.”
Book One started with the basics –
collecting specimens, recommended
guns and ammunition, setting up a
workbench, care of specimens, killing
live birds and materials needed, It
recommended practicing with a pigeon
and explained with words and drawings
how to skin a bird and prepare the
skin for mounting. Book Two covered
tools and materials needed such as
different sized wires for the armature
around which the body of excelsior
(slender wood shavings) and tow
(fine flax or hemp shavings) would be
fashioned, selecting the proper artificial
eyes, and pinning and wrapping the
bird to hold feathers in the desired
positions until the skin dried. Book
Three explained similar procedures for
mounting small mammals and novelty
taxidermy – the mounting of animals
“in human situations” that promised to
be “amusing and comical.” Squirrels,
rabbits and frogs were favorite subjects.
Typically the mounted animals were
placed in settings either hand-fashioned
or using doll house furniture. Illustrated
NOVEMBER 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 17
LEFT: Upon completion of the taxidermy
course students received a “fine lithographed
diploma.”
BELOW LEFT: A black, pebbled hard-cover
binder for the lesson pamphlets was sold.
It had cover lettering “raised in relief and
heavily embossed in bronze.”
Taxidermy, you are in a position to do
this work yourself and to preserve such
specimens just as they were in life.”
Subsequent lessons took budding
taxidermists through mounting large
mammals up to the size of bison;
mounting game heads; fish, “serpents”
and turtles; tanning skins, both hairon and hair-off; displaying horns and
antlers; and building artificial rocks
of paper-mache. The final book of
lessons covered preserving insects,
bird eggs and nests (even though it
was illegal for nearly all species except
exotic nuisance species such as house
sparrows and starlings).
examples
included boxing squirrels
(complete with boxing gloves and
trunks and set in a miniature boxing
ring); bullfrogs playing musical
instruments or sitting in chairs around
a table playing poker or musical
instruments; or rabbits shooting
billiard. Budding taxidermists could
even order specimens of “horned toads”
18 NEBRASKALAND • NOVEMBER 2012
and frogs from Northwestern’s catalog.
Such taxidermy works were especially
popular in the first half of the 1900s.
How to use small mounted animals
for “craft taxidermy” was also
explained, along with photographs
of ideas. Among the suggestions
were deer foot ashtrays, deer leg
thermometers and bookends with two
quail on one end and a small pointing
dog figurine on the other. Supplies
for such mounts, of course, could
be ordered from Elwood’s Chieftain
Brand supply catalog, featuring an
Indian wearing a ceremonial headdress
on the cover. A favorite was deer feet
mounted on a backboard to serve as a
gun rack.
Perhaps the most bizarre taxidermy
field was mounting pets. “Almost all
families have some favorite pet such as
a cat, dog, canary, parrot, etc., to which
they become greatly attached and
would like much to preserve it when it
dies,” the course noted. “By knowing
It is likely most of the Northwestern
School of Taxidermy’s profit did not
come from selling the instructional
booklets, but from the sale of supplies.
The company sold every glass eye
imaginable. Charts provided the
right size, type and color for gila
monsters, moles and even pink eyes
for albinos, as well as more commonly
mounted species. Every instrument
a taxidermist might require could be
found in Elwood’s catalog, always
the “highest grade” and at the lowest
price – assortments of forceps, scissors
and scalpels, along with brain spoons,
paint brushes, cartilage knives, curved
needles and fleshing knives. Kits with
the basic instruments were sold in
either a leather or wooden case and in
later years in vinyl cases.
In addition, the materials required
for taxidermy were sold – Calorax (a
preservative that replaced the arsenic
that had long been used to protect
feather, hair and skin from insect
damage); artificial leaves, berries and
moss; assorted glues, paints, waxes
and wood wool; wooden plaques
for mounting game heads, tanning
solutions, furrier combs and celluloid
claws for fur stoles (usually fox or
mink) popular in women’s fashion in
the 1920s, and advertised as: “More
attractive for trimming than natural
paws.”
In the 1950s, taxidermy supplies
were entering a new period. Papermache ears for head mounts of larger
game animals like deer, elk and moose
replaced the formerly hand-fashioned
interior support made of thin sheet lead
or galvanized hardware cloth. Rather
than building their own head forms
from excelsior and tow wrapped with
string, Elwood’s taxidermy supply
house introduced pre-made head forms
of “thick, strong, 8-ply waterproof
mache paper for big game head/neck
mounts, and for the heads of animal
rugs for everything from badgers to
leopards to polar bears. Northwestern
advertising pointed out that papermache heads were more durable than
those made of plaster of Paris; and
that “teeth hand carved from solid
celluloid” were superior or other
products on the market. By the 1960s,
ABOVE: Elwood advertised extensively in outdoor magazines, the size of his ads
apparently varying with the cost – usually one-column wide in major magazines like
Field and Stream, as many as four full pages in magazines like Hunter-Trader-Trapper.
LEFT: A nattily attired J.W. Elwood from one of his promotional brochures.
Elwood was selling pre-made excelsior
bodies for a wide variety of birds; and
eventually pre-formed plastic heads
and bodies.
Even though some label J.W.
Elwood as no more than a clever
shyster and opportunistic entrepreneur,
perhaps never much of a taxidermist
himself and perhaps not even much
of a sportsman, the more important
aspect was that most men who became
professional taxidermists during
the 1900s had their start with his
correspondence course, and thousands
and thousands of others learned the
craft only for their own enjoyment.
Two sons had entered the business
by the 1940s. Northwestern School
of Taxidermy, Inc. incorporated in
1965, and was probably finished
as a functioning business by 1998.
The Nebraska Secretary of State’s
office records show the business was
“administratively dissolved” on
April 16, 1999. ■
NOVEMBER 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 19
What About
Bob?
Text and Photos by Jeff Kurrus
A day afield among strangers becomes a trip of a lifetime for
hunters on their first wild pheasant foray. Not because of the amount
of birds killed, but because of the kindness of a very generous host.
H
igh-fences and pen-raised
birds will forever be a part
of the hunting experience.
With less time for many to
hunt, and more cash being spent at the
pump than ever before, looking for a
that,” Elwood added, again referring
to their paid experience. “Not what I’d
call a hunt at all.”
What they were looking for was
a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to
experience something that Gretna
resident Bob Schweikert does two to
three times a week each fall – a tried
and true Nebraska pheasant hunt. So
when Bob was introduced to the Gulf
Coast natives and saw their interest
in a morning rooster foray, it was a
no-brainer. “When are we going?” Bob
said, and the hunting date was set.
It was an easy request to answer
for Schweikert, a construction
business owner in
“We had to kick the birds up Omaha who was
a self-described
with our feet in grass that workaholic
for
looked like my front yard. 25 years before
I was looking for something beginning
his second
different than that.”
occupational
career as bookkeeper,
bidder and beneficiary of “old man
yet had always
labor,” those tasks befitting one whose
had a lifelong
desire for long work days had been
dream to kill a
supplanted by long days afield. But
pheasant. Like
he’s also in full support of a good
many hunters
honest day’s labor being paid for with
living outside of
pheasant range, cash, check or permission to hunt –
perhaps a new shelving system for a
crisp Plains
couple of mornings chasing longbeards
mornings are
the following spring or some sheetrock
a bucket list
work for keys to the gate. “You got a
opportunity
deal,” the client will say, feeling they
for those
got the better of the negotiation. But
having
Bob knows better, and it can be seen
never seen
on his face as he moves through the
a rooster
Bob Schweikert of Gretna
field – dog whistle in mouth and a
rise.
moves through a field
concentrated, contented look on his
“But
of pheasants, over-andunder firmly in his hands.
not like face.
guarantee while afield is here to stay.
But it wasn’t exactly what a Navy
commander by the name of Chad West
had on his mind when taking Elwood
Vick, his 73-year-old father-in-law, on
their first pheasant hunt. “We had to
kick the birds up with our feet,” West
said about his first rooster experience,
“in grass that looked like my front
yard. I was looking for something a bit
different than that.”
“It was like shooting ducks
on water,” added Elwood,
a Mississippi native who
had long since stopped
hunting quail back home
20 NEBRASKALAND • NOVEMBER 2012
So three days later, when this group
of hunters got together for the first
time, they were greeted by a frostcovered tallgrass field near Wilbur.
They loaded their guns, unloaded
Bob’s two Brittany spaniels, Chevy
and Sally, and continued a Nebraska
tradition. As they walked, their sinuses
clearing with each step, the newcomers
tried to keep up with their veteran host,
who always took the outside loop and
was always a few paces ahead. Sounds
erupted from below as they moved, the
echoing repetition of “Hen” ringing
through the air.
When the first shot was fired, it was
from Bob’s over-and-under, another
fixture of a Great Plains pheasant hunt.
When the second shot was fired, it was
also from Bob’s gun. Very quickly
Chad and Bob silently hoped that
the next flush came near the end of
Elwood’s gun muzzle. But it didn’t – at
least not for awhile.
Elwood could have cared less.
Grass field here, ditch row there, and
hens continued to rise, delighting him
each time. “I used to bird hunt a lot,”
Elwood said later, “had pointers and
everything. Nowadays the quail aren’t
around back home like they were
many years ago, so bird hunting has
become a void in my life.” Not on that
day, however. The wind was absent,
the action was steady, and there
wasn’t a complaint in the
world.
“Rooster!”
Chad yelled
shortly after
arriving
at the
group’s
second
locale of
the day.
Elwood
raised,
fired, and
his first
Nebraska
pheasant crumpled
in the tallgrass.
Moments later, the group of
hunters who had known each other for
less than a day were posing for photos,
each picture capturing a moment in
TOP: Chad West (left), Bob Schweikert, and Elwood Vick pose for a photo with a mixed
bag of quail and pheasants from their hunt in eastern Nebraska.
BOTTOM: Chevy, Schweikert’s Brittany spaniel, moves through a grass field toward a
ditch row in search of upland game.
time that all would remember for years.
“That hunt was one of the thrills of
my life,” Elwood said recently, “even
though I had muscles hurting on
me the next day that I’d
never felt before.”
“We had
never heard
that
cackle,”
added
Chad.
“There
isn’t
anything
better
than
that.”
Except for
after the hunt.
“Oh, yeah,” Chad
added, “when we
got home we used a little
pheasant ka-bob recipe that I got from
one of those outdoor shows. Man, was
it good. I’ll tell you this – if anyone in
my neighborhood had a pheasant coop
nearby, I’d be cutting that fence every
night.”
“He’s got that right,” Bob laughed,
hearing Chad’s idea, “I was cooking
birds that night myself.”
And they continue to speak fondly of
the morning. About the covey of quail
that Chad emptied his gun on, drawing
little more than a single feather; the
rooster that Elwood knocked down and
the entire group tracked into a deadfall
to retrieve; and the fun that Bob had
introducing someone else to the joys of
a Nebraska pheasant hunt.
“It was definitely a blast,” Bob said
during a recent conversation, ideas
forming in his head. “When can you
hunt next? How about tomorrow?” ■
Interested in pheasant hunting?
Visit www.OutdoorNebraska.org and
click on Hunting, Upland Game, then
Pheasant. A small game permit will
cost you $14 and you’ll need a Habitat
Stamp for $20.
NOVEMBER 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 21
Hunting with Mom
Photos and text by Eric Fowler
L
ike many kids, J.J. Hall caught
the hunting bug at an early age,
tagging along with dad just to
watch, and is now passing that interest
on to her family.
Yes, her family.
J.J. is short for Jennifer Jo. “That’s
why I’m J.J. – he wanted a boy,”
she said of her father, John Coles of
Omaha. “I’ve been a tomboy from the
very beginning. I don’t think I had a
chance.”
John got a boy as his second child,
but before her brother came along,
J.J.’s path was set and she was well
on her way to being a die-hard deer
hunter. The Nebraska City woman, a
hospice nurse with a concealed carry
permit and vanity plates that read
“HNTN CHC” on her pickup, has since
dabbled in upland game bird hunting,
albeit with no success. Three years ago,
she taught herself to turkey hunt.
That she is a woman who hunts
does not make her unique: Each
year more and more women head to
the field in pursuit of game big and
small. In Nebraska, one in 10 deer
hunters is female, a number that is
growing thanks in part to programs like
Becoming an Outdoors – Woman. One
day J.J. hopes to find time to help with
that program. “I think more women
should be in the sport,” she said.
For now, she’s teaching her own
classes in Becoming an Outdoors Man.
She’s teaching her sons, 12-year-old
Trevor and 8-year-old Max, to hunt.
She taught her first husband to hunt
before they divorced. She recently
remarried. Her new husband, Kevin
isn’t a hunter yet, but “He’s going to
be. This will be his first year. We have
to go get him a rifle.”
A woman who wants her husband
to get a new rifle? It would be hard
to argue that she is not unique on that
front.
Bow ready, Trevor scans the woods from a blind while spring turkey hunting with his mom, J.J..
Start ‘Em Young
J.J. Hall and her son, Trevor Kahland, leave the field after an evening deer hunt near
Auburn last November.
22 NEBRASKALAND • NOVEMBER 2012
J.J. was just two when her father
took her hunting for the first time.
“Then it was just, of course, watching
and sitting and tracking,” she said.
“Dad taught me from the beginning
how to hunt, how to stalk.”
When she got older, J.J. joined her
dad and others on annual deer hunting
trips to Fort Robinson State Park near
Crawford. “I got my first deer when I
was 12. It was an 11-point buck and
it was the biggest of the year for the
group. Back then we had a group of
about 30 of us going and we’d stay
in the big officers’ quarters. It was
my first year hunting, I was the only
female and I got the biggest deer – they
weren’t sure they wanted me to come
back the next year.”
Those trips continued until J.J. got
married and moved away with her
first husband, who was in the Navy,
but resumed when they returned to
Nebraska in 2003.
J.J. and her dad started deer hunting
closer to home three years ago,
which is also when she decided to
try turkey hunting, something her
father never did. Unsuccessful her
first fall, she bagged a gobbler with
her grandfather’s Montgomery Ward
20-gauge side-by-side during her first
spring season.
J.J. and her dad hope to head back to
Fort Robinson soon, possibly as soon
as Trevor is ready for that next step. So
far, the boy has had trouble deciding
if he really wants to hunt and, as every
parent should, mom is letting him
decide.
Both Trevor and Max started tagging
along on hunts when they were only
a few years old – J.J. has a picture of
Trevor in an orange Bob the Builder
vest from one of his early hunts; Max
still has a rock with a speck of blood
on it that he found while helping track
a deer J.J.’s stepmother shot. Both boys
started shooting BB guns about age 4,
.22s around age 6, and hunting rabbits
and squirrels shortly thereafter.
But as many parents discover, there
are challenges when it’s time to move
to the next level of hunting, when the
game gets bigger.
Patience, My Boy
Trevor’s first foray into turkey
hunting lasted one morning. Shortly
before sunrise, he and mom walked to
a blind on the edge of the creekbottom.
Like most kids, he was smiling with
anticipation, full of questions and short
on patience. Unlike most he carried a
bow, still not crazy about the recoil that
NOVEMBER 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 23
came with the
pull of a shotgun’s trigger.
They had heard turkeys gobbling
before they left the house and
heard them often up and down the
creekbottom for the first hour or so.
“I hear them,” Trevor said. “They’re
so close it’s like they’re right behind
that tree.”
But the birds didn’t come. Trevor
scratched on his mom’s knee and
whispered, “Do it.” – his way of asking
her to work her slate call again.
“Relax,” his mom would say. “Be
patient.”
A little more than an hour into the
hunt, Trevor was obviously losing what
little patience he had, asking more
than once why the turkeys weren’t
coming. It took two full hours before
he exclaimed: “I’m getting bored.”
Mom’s reply was one parents have
been using for eons. “That’s why they
call it hunting. Otherwise they would
call it shooting.”
“I’ve had about five people tell me
that,” Trevor said.
Soon after, he asked: “Do you think
we’re going to get anything today.”
“That depends on how long you can
hunt,” J.J. answered.
By then, Trevor’s smile had
disappeared
“You act like you’re done,” J.J. said.
“I want to get one,” he replied.
Nearly three hours into the hunt,
Trevor was almost rewarded for
sticking it out, but a gobbler snuck
through his shooting lane before they
saw it and neither he nor the two hens
following him returned J.J.’s calls.
But Trevor’s smile had returned,
which brought a big smile to mom’s
face as well. “Let’s go after them,” he
said. “I can stalk them. It’s been done
before.”
So they stepped from the blind and
over the hill. Of course the birds were
nowhere to be found, but J.J. knew that
24 NEBRASKALAND • NOVEMBER 2012
letting Trevor
stretch his legs
would allow
him to sit still
for at least a
while longer.
The
questions continued. “I
don’t know anything about turkey
hunting,” J.J. confessed. “Ask me
about deer hunting.”
Trevor closed his eyes and bowed his
head.
“What are you doing, praying?” J.J.
asked.
“Yes, that’s how I got my bass,” the
boy replied, referring to the big fish
he’d caught earlier that spring.
Soon after, they heard a hen cluck
in a distant draw. When turkeys were
around, Trevor was hopping all over
the blind.
Four hours into the hunt, Trevor
decided he’d had enough and took the
archery release off his wrist. No sooner
than he had, a jake and two hens
appeared to the left of the blind and
just 15 yards away. He got the release
back on, but while knocking an arrow,
it hit against the metal folding chair he
was sitting on and the resulting ping
sent the birds running. The jake didn’t
run far and Trevor let an arrow fly, but
missed.
The smile was gone, replaced by a
pout. “Why am I so stupid?” he said
with tears in his eyes.
“I think that’s telling us it’s just not
our day today,” his mother replied,
leaning over to kiss his forehead.
“I know it’s frustrating, but it’ll be
okay. Remember all of those times I
went out deer hunting and came back
with nothing? You just keep trying.”
Now Trevor was done. They picked
up his arrow and walked back to the
house. The tears dried but the pout
remained the entire way.
Don’t Push It
Women should be better at teaching
people to hunt and possibly be even
better hunters than men, said J.J. – “I
think we have more patience.”
That said, J.J. admits that she has
A.D.H.D and has trouble sitting still.
Partly for that reason, she’s
never hunted whitetails from
a tree stand, but will try it this
fall. She would rather stay on
the move, which is why she
always enjoyed the trips to
northwestern Nebraska and the
spot-and-stalk opportunities
allowed by the wide-open
spaces there.
Trevor, like most kids, is no
different. Sure, they can sit still
in front of a video game or the
television for hours on end, but
then there’s much more to keep
their mind busy.
That factor, combined with
the disappointment Trevor took
from that first unsuccessful
turkey hunt, also made it his
last. He just wasn’t interested.
Last fall, he hunted deer
twice. “I didn’t really want to
at first because the gun kicks
and it sort of hurt me at first,”
said Trevor, “but then I decided
to get over it and hunt.”
The first day in the field, he
wasn’t able to get a shot off at
a buck that gave him an honest
chance. They didn’t see a deer
on the second hunt. After that trip,
Trevor told his mom he didn’t want to
go anymore. Too boring, he said. Mom
was disappointed, but understood and
didn’t push him.
“They don’t like to sit and wait,”
she said. “Trying to find ways to keep
him interested until he does get into it
is the hardest thing. I’ve been trying to
switch it up a little bit and try to walk
a little more with him. I’d really like to
get him out west. Hopefully next year I
can, so we can walk and stalk more.”
The hunts she went on as a girl were
family vacations, said J.J., who got
out of school to go but had to bring
homework with her. They would
sightsee during the down times, hunt
grouse – “flying footballs” her dad
calls them – or ride four wheelers.
Back at the cabin, they would play
cards. “It was a big family thing,” she
said.
Trevor has kept shooting, as has
Max. Both are involved in 4-H
shooting sports and won their age
Above: Sitting next to a tree waiting for a deer to walk from the woods in the creekbottom below gives J.J. and Trevor plenty of time
to talk and share a laugh on a hunt last November. Left: J.J.’s vanity plate is short for “Hunting Chick.”
divisions in archery at the county fair.
Trevor added a reserve champion
ribbon in the BB gun competition.
Max “can’t wait” to hunt and already
is hounding mom for a new compound
bow to replace his kid-sized recurve.
It appears Trevor is ready to give
turkey hunting another shot this
fall. While visiting a friend near
Brownville, where J.J. shot her first
turkey three years ago, Trevor saw five
big gobblers and told mom he wanted
to hunt again. Fine, she said, as long as
he passed the Hunter Education course,
which was now required for him.
That will reinforce the safety aspect
of what J.J. is trying to teach her boys,
a challenge everyone faces when
teaching kids to shoot and hunt. “They
tend to forget how dangerous guns can
be,” said J.J. “so it’s just constantly
reiterating – point the gun up or hold
the gun down, keep your finger off
the trigger ... trying to get it so it’s
habit for them. They get so tired of me
hounding them, but I say ‘No, you have
to learn. I know what can happen.’”
To Heck With Stereotypes
While more women than ever are
hunting now, many still have to deal
with age-old stereotypes, whether it’s
in the gun shop where salesmen assume
they are shopping for their husbands
and not themselves, or in the field.
“I deal with the ‘Bambi killer’
stereotype all the time, maybe even
more than men, because I am supposed
to be the caring, nurturing person.
People ask how can I do that, hunt
innocent animals. What I tell them
is how much I love nature and feel a
part of it. I love to go out and listen to
the birds or watch the beauty of deer
playing in a field, but I also explain
that part of my hunting is to help the
animal population, because too many
of something can turn bad.
“Nature seems to be in my blood. If I
have had a bad day or week, I can just
walk through the woods for an hour
or so and feel completely relaxed and
renewed. I’m out there enjoying the
surroundings or being with my family
and hopefully providing food for the
table. Don’t get me wrong, I love buck
fever and bagging a large deer, but
the process is what keeps me coming
back.”
Being able to take her boys along
is another reason. She and Kevin are
expecting their first child this fall. It
will be a boy. J.J. had hoped for a girl.
“I was hoping I could teach her and
teach more women to hunt,” she said.
Again, J.J. ignores the stereotypes:
“Girls, don’t be shy – ask someone
to go hunting. And fathers, don’t be
shy to take your girl. It’s definitely
something that can be a family thing if
you make it that way.” ■
NOVEMBER 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 25
Witness
in the
Woods
A camera trap intended to be left
up for a week instead remained for
almost two full years and recorded
more than 700 images.
Photos and text by Michael Forsberg
M
ost of us spend a good
share of our lives on
the move. We tend to
engage nature in the
same way – if we hunt,
we walk fields or stalk through the
woods. When we fish we troll, drift or
wade a shoreline. Even when we pause
to sit in a blind or drop an anchor from
the boat, we stay in place only briefly
until our other world calls us home.
Wildlife photography is no different.
With camera in hand we wander
through a landscape searching for
subject and scene and quality of light.
We may sit for hours in a blind or go
back to a favorite spot season after
season, but we are only temporary
visitors in the natural world.
But what would happen if you could
pick a spot and set up a camera that
would stay in place wired to capture
action whenever it occurs, even when
we are not there? What would it
reveal?
26 NEBRASKALAND • NOVEMBER 2012
In October 2009, I set up a camera
trap system on a well-worn game trail
along the Platte River to see what
wildlife might pass by. At the time my
goal was to leave the camera in place
for a week. It stayed almost two years.
From one small spot of earth in the
middle of the woods, this stationary
camera recorded the natural world in
motion beyond my wildest dreams.
Every time I came back the camera had
captured something else interesting in
the frame. Soon this game trail became
a street in a busy neighborhood and
the camera became witness to both the
wild citizenry that lived there and the
cycle of seasons unfolding.
The camera revealed rainstorms,
blizzards and autumn color. Flocks
of turkeys displayed in front of it in
springtime. Raccoon families used the
fallen tree in the frame like monkey
bars during the winter. Coyotes,
bobcats and skunks used the ground as
marking posts year-round.
This bobcat was captured along the game trail one night past a full moon on January 1, 2010, at 9:39 p.m.
Over time I began to recognize
certain individual animals and their
families. In one instance, the camera
captured a spotted fawn in early
summer. Later, it captured that same
fawn in nearly the same pose, but this
time all grown up.
When the river would freeze up the
game trail would go cold, because an
iced-up river meant more travel options
for wildlife. Trail traffic was also low
in late spring, when most animals were
staying close to home tending to their
newborn young. But the trail became
most active during late fall when deer
were in the rut, the nearby cropfields
were being harvested, and the young
of the year from all these species were
striking out on their own.
The last picture from the camera
trap was taken in June 2011 during a
rainstorm, when rising water levels
in the Platte due to snowmelt in the
Rockies and persistent rains in the
plains began to kiss the woodland’s
edge. I pulled the camera just in time.
Through its stay, rodents chewed
through camera cords, ants infested
electronic flashes, deer noses smudged
lenses and a bobcat repeatedly sprayed
the camera box. But in the end it was
all worth it.
What it affirmed was that there is
no empty space in nature. Like each
creature, every tiny piece of space
nestled within a habitat has value and,
if we watch closely, its own unique
story to tell. ■
A regular contributor to
NEBRASKAland Magazine, Lincolnbased wildlife photographer Michael
Forsberg’s work has appeared in
publications such as Audubon, National
Geographic and National Wildlife. He
is seen here checking out the camera
trap setup written about in this story.
www.michaelforsberg.com
NOVEMBER 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 27
Tom Turkey, 4/4/2010, 5:48 p.m.
Hen Turkey, 4/21/2010, 12:29 p.m.
Tom Turkey, 5/4/2010, 10:12 a.m.
White-tailed Deer, 6/8/2010, 11:02 p.m.
White-tailed Buck, 11/09/2009, 6:42 a.m.
Striped Skunk, 11/09/2009, 11:48 p.m.
White-tailed Buck, 11/27/2009, 7:04 a.m.
White-tailed Fawn, 7/5/2010, 9:58 a.m.
Raccoons, 8/28/2010, 12:17 a.m.
White-tailed Deer, 12/12/2009, 9:56 a.m.
Raccoon 1/17/2010, 3:51 a.m.
White-tailed Fawn, 9/8/2010, 7:17 a.m.
Bobcat, 9/13/2010, 11:24 p.m.
28 NEBRASKALAND • NOVEMBER 2012
NOVEMBER 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 29
Raccoon, 9/17/2010, 9:36 a.m.
Striped Skunk, 10/18/2010, 3:02 a.m.
Fox Squirrel, 12/27/2010, 2:31 p.m.
White-tailed Deer, 1/1/2011, 8:39 a.m.
White-tailed Deer, 10/20/2010, 7:07 a.m.
Raccoon, 10/20/2010, 6:49 p.m.
Coyote, 3/9/2011, 1:53 a.m.
Tom Turkey, 5/2/2011, 9:57 a.m.
White-tailed, 10/22/2010, 1:12 a.m.
Raccoon, 10/22/2010, 6:29 a.m.
Raccoon, 10/28/2010, 6:04 p.m.
White-tailed, 11/1/2010, 5:35 a.m.
30 NEBRASKALAND • NOVEMBER 2012
Rainstorm, 6/02/2011, 9:56 a.m.
NOVEMBER 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 31
Little Red Houses
Photos and text by Jeff Kurrus
Above: A photo from the
1950s reveals when the red
barns weren’t so red.
Background: A contemporary
aerial view of the property shows
the Polenz family’s red barns and
Platteview Road.
T
hey are actually barns – four of them to be exact – holding the
h
memories of more than 70 years that the Polenz family has lived
m
on their
th self-proclaimed “ranch.” The land, originally a gift to Otto
Polenz in the 1940s, is 135 acres of row crop and hardwood timber
that has an ever-busier road running nearly through its front yard.
“Just 10 years ago when I’d pull onto Platteview Road, I’d seldom
see a car,” said Chris Polenz. “Now, I seldom pull onto the road
without having cars coming from both directions.”
This two-lane blacktop that carries speeders from Highway 6
south of Gretna to Highway 75 south of Bellevue may
be expanded into a four-lane thoroughfare
to accommodate Sarpy County’s growth
projection of 150,000 by 2050. If
that development occurs, multiple
landowners will be forced to move
their families for the advancement
of civilization, including the
Polenzes. “I’ve been told one of
the proposals splits my acreage,
eliminating all the barns; one just
bulldozes one barn and my home;
and the third goes through my
son Luke’s deer stand where his
19-pointer was shot,” said Chris.
“While I fully understand the
need for growth, I hate to
see family farms and cool
Nebraska barns uprooted.”
Opposite: Chris Polenz and son Luke enjoy the view and
their time together hunting turkeys.
NOVEMBER 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 33
AERIAL PHOTO BY ERIC FOWLER
32 NEBRASKALAND • NOVEMBER 2012
A
d
dvancement,
and the conveniences that often stand with
iit, is always double-edged. While it is nice that 7th grader
Grant and 10th grader Luke attend Platteview Jr/Sr High School
less than two miles from the ranch and that shopping is minutes
away for mom Jennifer and the rest of the Polenzes, these same
conveniences can close down peripheral farms as nearby towns
like Bellevue, Papillion and Springfield expand their boundaries.
But this isn’t a new story.
Ask any resident that has lived in an area for a number of
years and the memories are similar – cityscapes are bigger,
landscapes are smaller. It’s a notion that’s accepted by the
masses. Until that new shopping center or road is built right
through your covey of quail.
“Right now, there’s not much
along the road other than homes,
farmland and livelihood,”
read a recent Omaha.com
story on the expansion of
Platteview Road. Isn’t
that enough? Polenz
and his family sure
think so, but they’re
not going to dwell
on this possible
expansion too much
Left: Otto Polenz was gifted
the family land in the 1940s.
This heirloom portrait of him
hangs in one of the red barns.
Opposite, top: The “big red
barn” as it appears today.
Right: Inside the barns, tools,
signs (like this Farmers Union
shown), artifacts and remnants of
70 years connect the Polenzes to this
place.
34 NEBRASKALAND • NOVEMBER 2012
NOVEMBER 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 35
because they’d miss life happening
everyday around them.
“All we can do is enjoy every
evening, every hunting season, and
every opportunity to stack up as many
memories as we can until they pave
four lanes of traffic through my front
yard,” said Chris. “Yes, we’ll miss our
home, but maybe our new one would be
built better, more energy-efficient. Our
barns, however, those are a different
story. Using tongue and groove Douglas
fir and cedar siding, they are some
of the last of the hand-made wooden
barns, and it’s hard to duplicate work
like that any more.
“And we won’t try to. Instead, we’ll
just find a way to move the barns and
their precious memories with us.” ■
36 NEBRASKALAND • NOVEMBER 2012
Below: Chris sits in the barn, the
history of five generations on this
land filling the walls around him.
Opposite: Whitetails stop near a
hunting blind on the Polenz family
property.
Background: Newspapers
chronicling Nebraska football
cover the walls.
NOVEMBER 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 37
A Time for Change
Photos by Luke Kathol
As the days grow shorter and
the nights get chillier, autumn
portends the coming cold
weather of winter. This period,
however, is often one of the
prettiest times of the year –
gone is the mostly green color
scheme of summer as a vast
combination of colors take over
the Nebraska landscape.
A cottonwood leaf floats lightly on
the surface of a calm pond as the
water reflects autumn’s colors.
Above: Red-winged blackbirds and
grackles gather together at an evening
roost during their annual migration
south for the winter.
Left: Dew drops battle the force of
gravity as they hang from a lateremaining spider web strand.
Right: A tight photograph of rooster
pheasant feathers shows the intricate
patterns and vibrant colors on one of
Nebraska’s prettiest birds.
40 NEBRASKALAND • NOVEMBER 2009
NOVEMBER 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 41
Left: A fall cold front passes over
the badlands, allowing the glow of
late evening sunlight to brighten the
landscape for a brief moment.
Above: An early fall frost lightly
glazes fallen cottonwood leaves.
42 NEBRASKALAND • NOVEMBER 2009
Luke Kathol has been a
nature photographer for
eight years and works
out of Kearney. His
photography emphasis
has been on landscapes,
birds and macro
photography.
He has been contributing
to NEBRASKAland
Magazine since 2010.
NOVEMBER 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 43
Season of Wildfires
The good and the bad of fire.
By Chris Helzer, Ecologist for The Nature Conservancy
T
he hot dry summer of 2012 was a season of wildfires
across Nebraska. Particularly large wildfires burned
in the Pine Ridge and Middle Niobrara River Valley.
One of the larger wildfires was the Fairfield Creek
fire, which was started by lightning and burned more
than 74,000 acres, including approximately 30,000 acres of
The Nature Conservancy’s Niobrara Valley Preserve.
The wildfires destroyed a number of houses and other
buildings, many miles of fence, and did other physical
damage to private properties. Those damages are real and
substantial, especially for people who lost their homes.
Ecologically, however, it’s more difficult to categorize the
effects of the wildfires because fire is such an important
component of ecosystem function in grassland and woodland
communities. In fact, many natural areas across the state are
suffering losses in habitat quality as a result of many years
of fire suppression. One of the most obvious and important
consequences of that fire suppression is an overabundance
of eastern red cedar and other trees and shrubs. In both
grasslands and woodlands, that thick growth of brush and
trees shades out other plant species, reduces habitat quality
for most wildlife species, and facilitates the spread of
invasive plants that thrive in cool and shady conditions.
At the Niobrara Valley Preserve, we are in the process
of assessing the ecological effects of the Fairfield Creek
44 NEBRASKALAND • NOVEMBER 2012
fire and making response plans. Most of the Conservancy
land that burned was grassland, so the our major economic
impacts are the short-term loss of forage for our bison and
cattle herds, and the need to rebuild more than 40 miles
of fences. The grasslands themselves, however, will be
fine – summer fires typically trigger abundant growth of
wildflowers and “opportunistic” plants the following year,
and the drought will probably have a stronger impact on our
decisions about grazing plans for next year than the fire will.
The best news is that we got a huge and immediate boost in
our cedar tree control efforts!
The impacts to the woodland portions of the valley are
more complicated. While large areas of woodlands burned,
much larger areas didn’t and will continue to support
woodland wildlife and provide seeds to the burned areas as
they recover. Some of the burned woodlands got hot enough
that the vast majority of the trees are now dead. Those areas
will be dramatically different for the coming decades, but not
necessarily in a bad way. There the grasses and wildflowers
should colonize quickly, followed by scattered shrubs and
– eventually – pine and oak trees again. In other woodland
areas the fire was less intense, allowing many trees to
survive. In those woodlands, the removal of cedar trees and
thick layers of leaves and/or needles will allow grasses and
wildflowers to flourish beneath the remaining trees.
This wildfire has created a valuable learning opportunity,
and we’re already working with the University of
Nebraska to evaluate and measure various aspects of the
fire’s aftermath, including soil erosion, invasive species
colonization, and native species and community recovery.
We will also look at how the numerous controlled burns
conducted locally in recent years affected those areas
impacted by this year’s wildfire – several large areas burned
in the spring of 2012 did not reburn during the wildfire,
providing natural firebreaks for firefighter to utilize and
safe harbors for wildlife and insect species both before and
after the fire. In addition, previous controlled burns may
have decreased cedar density enough that the 2012 wildfire
burned less intensely in some places.
Along the Middle Niobrara Valley, we and our neighbors
will continue to use controlled burns to maintain biological
diversity and suppress encroachment of eastern red cedar and
other aggressive species. The ecological impacts of the 2012
wildfires will be mostly positive, but those benefits come at
a huge cost – including the loss of homes and even lives. By
incorporating fire into regular land management practices,
we hope to avoid large wildfires in the future. ■
Preventing Pronghorn Problems
Wintering herds drawn to Panhandle crops.
By Eric Fowler
T
he seasonal migration of
Wyoming pronghorn between
their winter range in the Green
River Basin and summer range
in Grand Teton National Park,
covering 150 miles each direction, is
the longest land migration of mammals
in the United States.
Pronghorns in Nebraska migrate
too, more than 100 miles in some
cases, and that movement is leaving
Nebraska Game and Parks Commission
wildlife managers in a bind. Large
winter concentrations of pronghorns
in the northern Panhandle are raising
the ire of some landowners, who are
concerned about damage the animals
may be causing to their winter wheat or
alfalfa crops.
The largest pronghorn concentrations
are in an area where cropland and
prairie meet between Alliance and Hay
Springs, and along the White River
between Chadron and Crawford. Up to
1,500 pronghorn have wintered in each
region in recent years, with individual
herds commonly holding 100 to 200
animals, sometimes more. Most have
come from the surrounding grassland,
but some have moved into Nebraska
from South Dakota. While pronghorn
have wintered in these areas for years,
problems with their presence is a
relatively new issue. “We had some
pretty low numbers in 2005 and they’ve
climbed back up and now we’re seeing
more winter migration and increased
numbers [on the winter range],”
said Todd Nordeen, district wildlife
manager for the Commission.
Some landowners don’t mind having
that many pronghorn around. Others
would just as soon the Commission
declared open season on the wintering
herds, but that might lead to the harvest
of animals that spend the rest of the
year 100 miles away, where another
landowner enjoys watching and hunting
the few he has. By the time the fall
migration occurs, pronghorn already
have been pursued by hunters during
archery, muzzleloader and center-fire
rifle seasons set by biologists to keep
herds at levels appropriate for their
summer ranges.
Late-season hunts for doe and fawn
pronghorn were launched in 2011 in
two Panhandle management units to
address the problem. Unlike other late
pronghorn seasons in north-central
Nebraska, which are set mainly to
reduce the overall population, these
seasons are longer by design to
extend hunting pressure and keep the
herds moving so they don’t get too
comfortable on one property. A late
hunt was added in a third unit this year,
and the start of the late season moved
up to November 1.
The Commission also spends
countless hours hazing the animals
away from crop fields, both from the
ground with noise makers and from
above with aircraft. “We’re out there
almost every day,” said Nordeen.
Such is the plight of the pronghorn,
adored by few and despised by many
for the perceived damage they do to
crops and fences. Nordeen believes the
animals have a bad rap simply because
they are active during the day and
landowners can see them feeding on
crops. Deer and elk, on the other hand,
are active mostly at night: Out of sight,
out of mind.
Whether pronghorn are causing
yield loss to the wheat is not certain.
A Colorado State University study in
the 1980s found no appreciable yield
loss in fields where tame pronghorn
were wintered and in some parts of the
country farmers graze cattle on green
wheat in the winter.
“We’re trying to address some of
the concerns where there is some
real damage, but again part of that
is perception,” said Nordeen. “Some
landowners would like us to wipe them
off the face of the earth. That’s the
challenge – we can’t just decimate the
winter herds because they eventually
spread out and are not a problem.”
The challenge may be bigger this
winter: With little grass in pastures and
next year’s wheat crop behind schedule
due to limited soil moisture, pronghorn
may be drawn even more to the few
patches of green that remain.
“We’re expecting depredation to be
much worse all the way around, not
just with pronghorn, but with deer and
elk. We’re already getting the calls
that we usually don’t get until later in
the year,” Nordeen said in September.
“They’re already moving in on hay
bales and stack yards.
“It’s going to be a tough year for
wildlife. It’s tough enough for the
farmers and ranchers, but wildlife is
going to pay a price too.” ■
NOVEMBER 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 45
BOOKS/PUBLICATIONS/VIDEOS
NEBRASKA WILDFLOWERS. It’s baaack ... ! Out of
print for 21 years, the second edition of NEBRASKAland
senior editor Jon Farrar’s Field Guide to Wildflowers of
Nebraska and the Great Plains is now available. This 6 by
91/8-inch paperback is a must have for anyone interested in
learning more about Nebraska’s wildflowers and makes
a great gift. To order this publication or to learn about
other great gift ideas, visit NebraskalandGifts.com or call
(800) 742-0056.
MAKES A WONDERFUL GIFT! – Published since
1926, NEBRASKAland Magazine is a nationally
recognized, award-winning magazine of choice
for thousands of readers throughout the nation.
For those loved ones here and away, give the gift that
keeps giving year-round. Order a gift subscription today
– only $18 for one year (10 issues), or save by ordering
two- or three-year subscriptions. Call 1-800-632-5263 or
subscribe online at NebraskalandMagazine.com.
EXPLORE NEBRASKA art, history, culture and the
great outdoors with a subscription to Nebraska Life
Magazine. One year (six issues) for $21 or two years
(12 issues) just $38. Phone (800) 777-6159, write us at
206 W Norfolk Ave, Norfolk NE 68702-0819 or visit
www.NebraskaLife.com. Makes a great gift.
retrievers, spaniels, pointing Labradors and all gundog
pointing breeds. Dale-Kris Taylor (402) 787-2048, www.
premiergundogs.com.
FLATLANDER KENNELS INC, Scottsbluff, Ne.
Nebraska’s premier full-time retriever training facility for
the serious hunter or AKC and HRC hunt tester. Trainer
of NE, CO, KS and SD’s first and only GRHRCH’s!
Training, puppies and stud dogs available for all levels of
hunt tests and gun dogs. Chris Jobman (308) 249-0707,
www.Flatlanderkennels.com.
GERMAN SHORTHAIRS AND BRITTANYS:
Very close-working hunters that point and retrieve
naturally. Awesome stud dog service available. Puppies
occasionally. We “HUNT” our dogs on “WILD” birds.
We can train your dog. Plum Thicket Kennels for
40 years. Elm Creek, NE. Doc & Jared Nelson:
308-987-2294
FISH/FISHING
FISH FOR SALE. Catfish, largemouth bass, smallmouth
bass, perch, crappie, bluegill, walleye, rainbow trout,
grass carp, minnows. Pleasant Valley Fish Farm, 72645
U.S. Highway 83, McCook, NE 69001. (308) 345-6599.
NIOBRARA RIVER FILMS. Buy Niobrara: Jewel of the
North. Watch Floaters: A Niobrara River Adventure free!
www.malmoea.com.
NEBRASKA LAKE MANAGEMENT. Biological lake
surveys, fish stocking, rough fish control, lake aeration,
algae control, aquatic weed control. Rob Hofpar, Aquatic
Biologist, licensed, insured and qualified. (402) 784-6005
Valparaiso - (888) 850-2460 www.nelakes.net.
DOGS
FOOD/GIFTS/HOME
PLUM CREEK KENNEL. German Shorthairs, stud
service, puppies and started dogs. Training for all
pointing breeds. Specialize in training the handler as well
as the dog. Wayne Clark, Percival IA 51648 (402) 3041074, 712-529-4309, clarks1@iowatelecom.net
HOMEBREWING/BEER AND WINEMAKING.
Fermenter’s Supply, 8410 K Plaza, Suite #10, Omaha,
NE 68127. Phone orders only, (888) 655-2739. Advice
line (402) 593-9171. www.fermenterssupply.com.
DUCKDAWG RETRIEVERS - Raising exceptional
yellow and black Labradors. 30 month written health
guarantee. www.duckdawg.com North Platte, NE (308)
534-3659.
PREMIER GUNDOGS TRAINING KENNEL, Inc:
Nebraska state licensed gundog training kennel specializing
in training programs for waterfowl and upland hunting
46 NEBRASKALAND • NOVEMBER 2012
GUIDES/OUTFITTERS
CANOE - KAYAK - TUBE RENTALS on the
beautiful Niobrara River with Dryland Aquatics
at Sparks, Nebraska. Your Niobrara River Specialist.
(800) 337-3119. www.drylandaquatics.com, info@
drylandaquatics.com.
OUTDOOR EQUIPMENT
IS PERFORMANCE IMPORTANT? For the finest
canoes and accessories look to Great Plains Canoe Co.,
205 Main, Springfield, NE 68059. Phone (402) 253-2000.
VACATIONS/RESORTS
THE OLDE MAIN STREET INN. A historic bed and
breakfast listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Beautiful dining room with fireplace. Headquarters for
General Nelson Miles, Wounded Knee Incident, 189091. 115 Main Street, Chadron NE 69337 (308) 432-3380.
www.chadron.com/oldemain.
BIG BLUE RANCH & LODGE – Enjoy fishing,
horseback riding, hunting, hiking and birdwatching on
working cattle ranch in southeastern Nebraska. Beautiful
log lodge with fireplaces, kitchens and big covered
porches, overlooks 20 acre lake. www.bigblueranch.com
(402) 865-4335
HUNTER AND FISHERMAN PARADISE: Located
on Elwood Reservoir. 1,300+ acres of wildlife,
trophy-size fish – wipers, walleye, muskies, perch,
catfish and crappie. Nebraska’s best kept secret for hunting
– duck, turkey, deer and quail. Cabins, rooms, tent and
camper-spot campgrounds with full hookups
(30 amp, 50 amp). Call (308) 440-4993 or visit
www.elwoodcampground.com
VISIT NEBRASKA STATE PARKS this fall and enjoy
activities such as fishing, camping and hiking. To find out
more or to make a reservation, call (402) 471-1414 or go
online at OutdoorNebraska.org and follow the Parks link.
Classified Rates: 85¢ per word, minimum $15.
Closing: First business day six weeks before issue
date. Classified ads are accepted on a first-come,
first-served, space-available basis. Classified
Ads, NEBRASKAland Magazine, P.O. Box 30370,
Lincoln, NE 68503-0370. Telephone (402) 4715473. Fax: (402) 471-1984.
E-mail: ngpc.ads@nebraska.gov.
NOVEMBER 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 47
▲
The boy on the right is me (Andy McGovern) at age 15. The other
boy is my brother, (Mike) Rich McGovern, when he was 13. The
location is west of Red Cloud in Webster County, near Inavale and
Riverton. It was a special day, as I just bagged my first rooster using
my single-shot, Savage 20-gauge and a 3-inch magnum shell loaded
with #6 shot. Four adults accompanied the group: My dad, William
J. (Bill) McGovern (who took the photo); Robert (Bob) Plembing of
Grand Island; and two of Bob’s friends from Minnesota. What made
it so special was that the bird had been shot at and clearly missed by
Bob and one of his friends. They both were using Browning 12-gauge
automatics. There was a pause of a second or two, the adults were
done firing and that gave me my chance to pull down on the rooster,
dropping him at a substantial distance – there was no question about
who had bagged that bird!
– Andy McGovern, Grand Island, Nebraska
1955, are my dad
dad,
▲ In this photo from December 1955
Marvin Seggerman and uncle Alfred Schoen, along
with some of the members of their hunting group.
From left: Norris Schoen, Richard Dux, my father,
Richard Schenrock, George Ehrett, and my uncle.
They all had enjoyed a prosperous day of duck
hunting in Jefferson County along the Big Sandy,
west of the Powell Bridge. They were all avid
hunters for many years and all, except Mr. Ehrett,
continue to reside in Fairbury.
– Marsha Seggerman Baumfalk, Beatrice, Nebraska
▲ This is a photo of my father, Carroll Saunders (right) and friends
with two catfish from the Elkhorn River in the early 1950s. One
weighed 54 pounds , the other 22. It was an exciting catch.
– Barbara Saunders Fowle, Grand island, Nebraska
Send contributions to: Portraits from the Past, NEBRASKAland Magazine, P.O. Box 30370, Lincoln, NE 68503-0370. Or e-mail to
tim.reigert@nebraska.gov. Photos should show people enjoying Nebraska outdoor activities, such as camping, boating, hunting or fishing,
and must have been taken before 1980. We will give priority to unusual photos or activities. When possible, please include a story about
the photograph and identify the people, places and approximate date it was taken. Photos will be returned.
48 NEBRASKALAND • NOVEMBER 2012
The Thunderers
Looking at tornadoes from a Plains Indian point of view.
By Roger Welsch
I
am writing this well before you read it. We have just
had several days of a horrendous tornado outbreak
that has killed scores of people and obliterated homes,
schools and entire towns across the country. Days
ago we recorded the very first February tornadoes in
Nebraska throughout its albeit brief history. Tornadoes are
one of the few things in this world I fear, right up there with
women. Those who have followed my writing history know
that while I love Nebraska and the Plains, I am not a Suzie
Sunshine and am not reluctant to talk about the tough part of
life out here – those things that have tested the people of the
Plains, sometimes to the limits. In fact, I revel in those very
extremes and trials. Which means, above all, our weather
and climate.
For years I wondered why in my extensive exploration of
Plains Indian lore I never found a reference to tornadoes.
You know the Omaha, Lakota, Ponca and Oto were familiar
with tornadoes. The Pawnee were noted for their constant,
extensive and intensive observing of celestial events. Surely
in their studies of the skies they saw tornadoes. So … why
weren’t these very distinctive and notable weather features
spoken of in their lore?
Then I was looking at some Omaha tales about The
Thunderers. These powerful, frightening, and destructive
supernatural beings strode across the Plains destroying
camps and villages, killing whole herds of bison, ravaging
the landscape. They towered in the sky, roared with
horrendous fury, and left only destruction in their wake.
Hmmm … sounds like tornadoes to me!
We can’t fault the native peoples for not knowing that
tornadoes are indeed a totally natural, if nonetheless
frightening, feature of Plains weather. We are still learning
about how tornadoes form, the dynamics of their destruction,
and how to predict and prepare for them. Even in this oh-solearned society we still stand in awe and ignorance before
the, well … Thunderers. There is also a fascination: How
many video clips have you seen on television in which a
handheld camera is capturing an approaching tornado –
twisting, tearing and throwing cars and houses in every
direction – and wondered how long the camera-wielder
would stand there in the path of this approaching giant?
(And how often have you heard the voice in the background
screaming, “Ralph, get in here now, Ralph, I mean NOW!”
Change that to “Roger” and you have an idea of every
tornado threat we’ve had out here in Howard County in the
last 30 years.)
In fact, I appreciate even more than any scientific analysis
the traditional Omaha understanding of tornadoes as beings.
Blizzards are too big to appreciate as discrete entities. They
cover huge areas and are hard to identify precisely because
they blur at the edges. (Hurricanes used to be this way until
we started seeing views of them from satellites in space, and
then once we saw
them as clearly
defined entities,
we started giving
them names. See?
The Omahas were
once again way
ahead of us!) That’s
’s
how I see tornadoes
es
and why I am in
fear of them. They
re
are things. They are
individual beings.
They seem to havee
he
life that is within the
grasp of our eyes, ears
and understanding. Their malevolence seems therefore less
general. They take this house, but not the next. Some days
here on the Plains they can be seen from dozens of miles
away, towering 60,000 feet into the sky from their Mother
Thunderhead. Yikes. Gives me goosebumps just to think
about it!
I imagine that no matter how clinical the science ever gets
in its analysis of the vortices we call “tornadoes”– Fujita
scale, Doppler radar and anemometers aside – from the time
I realized what The Thunderers were, I have not been able
to think of tornadoes as anything but The Thunderers. That
metaphor, if you prefer a literary to a mythological term (the
very word comes to us from the Latin tonare, meaning “to
thunder”), brings me closer to understanding and dealing
with them. I am still in fear of them, but now I can see
them as the Omaha, Lakota and Pawnee did – malevolent
giants stalking the Plains in search of whatever grief they
can bring down on puny, puny mankind. Ole Rolvaag in his
insightful book Giants in the Earth wrote the chilling words,
“Monsterlike the Plain lay there – sucked in her breath one
week, and the next week blew it out again. Man she scorned;
his works she would not brook …”
Yikes!
Perhaps most revealing is the title of one of the chapters
of Rolvaag’s book: “The Great Plain Drinks the Blood of
Christian Men And Is Satisfied.” Except that The Thunderers
never seem to be satisfied.
Okay. Have I cheered you up now? ■
Roger Welsch is an author, humorist and
folklorist. For years he was a regular guest
on CBS’s Sunday Morning with Charles
Kuralt. Welsch resides in Dannebrog,
Nebraska, with his wife, Linda. He has
appeared in NEBRASKAland Magazine
since 1977.
NOVEMBER 2012 • NEBRASKALAND 49
Ring of Fire
I
heard about the annular solar eclipse (often referred to as the “Ring of Fire” eclipse) from many news sources. The
Ring of Fire is a not-so-frequent passage of the moon in between the earth and sun, resulting in various degrees of
sun blockage. Depending on the location and timing of the viewer, the moon may block most of the sun except for a
luminous outer ring, hence the “Ring of Fire” moniker. News sources had spoken about the eclipse being viewable in the
areas of California, Nevada, Arizona, etc. in the evening of May 20th.
I decided to head out to Branched Oak Lake in northwestern Lancaster County in the evening to see if the eclipse was
visible. There appeared to be some interference with the normal view of the sun and I began to call some friends to let them
know it might be possible to see the eclipse. I noted there were several groups of people who had set up chairs and some had
equipment to enhance their viewing opportunity.
I settled into an area near the dam, keeping an eye on the development of the eclipse. More and more of the sun was being
blocked by the moon as time passed and the sun plummeted toward the horizon. Simultaneously, more and more people
arrived to enjoy this rare opportunity. I set up a tripod and camera and began attempting to capture a
decent image. As one might imagine, it takes some doing to obtain a sharp picture of the lake and trees
with a properly exposed eclipse. I took a number of photos and made adjustments as the moon continued
to eclipse more of the sun. I felt fortunate to capture this image that, ironically, looks quite a bit like a
crescent moon against a burnt orange sky.
In case you may have missed this Ring of Fire, another comes along in 2023. See you there!
Gordon Harrod
June 29, 2012
50 NEBRASKALAND • NOVEMBER 2012
Position: 477 (30 views)