Sherburne County Heritage Center Interpretive Plan Final Report 2005

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required only the cutting and feeding to our rapidly increasing stock of cattle, horses and later sheep. It was in the best of the deer country of that part of the state, there were few bears, and what seemed an inexhaustible supply of small game. Fish were abundant in the streams and lakes, the beavers were all gone, but there were other forbearers, muskrats, mink, otter, raccoon, and great yellow foxes in their primitive abundance. Wild bees and honey were found in the woods, and a great variety of berries and wild fruits. Was it any wonder such a country should appeal to a hunter and pioneer with a large family to raise and a home to carve out of the wilderness with only skillful hands for capital...." (Vernon Bailey, "The Hiram Bailey Family: Pioneers of America and Early Settlers of the Middle West," typescript, SCHS, 1928, 16) As the snow melted halfway down and a few bare spots of earth came through, the maple trees were tapped and maple syrup and sugar were made in the big brass kettle on the stove, a rare treat to all of us youngsters. Soon the ducks and geese arrived and added variety to our winter fare, and the pickerel came up the creek or out on the flooded marshes in great numbers and their delicious white meat was another feast. A little later the passenger pigeons arrived in vast flocks, millions of them, so that a few loads of fine shot into a flock brought down enough for huge pigeon pies which mother knew how to make in greatest perfection. But soon the pigeons and game birds were nesting and there was no more hunting or fresh meat until August when the young prairie chickens were big enough to shoot. (Vernon Bailey, "The Hiram Bailey Family: Pioneers of America and Early Settlers of the Middle West," typescript, SCHS, 1928, 21) Early Hunting in Sherburne Coup That's What They Said! --My First Gun "Shep our bob -tailed Collie, would scare all the prairie chickens we needed along the road and scatter a flock so Father and Charles could easily flush them again and shoot as many as needed, never more. There were no game laws in those days, but like the Indians before us we never wasted game nor killed more than actually needed and never hunted any kind of game in the breeding season. When the young grouse were half-grown we began to kill a few but did not kill many until later when nearly full-grown and in prime condition. The great care was always not to kill the old grouse so long as the flocks were together and she was needed by the inexperienced young. ... This was my tenth year and not until the following winter did I acquire my first gun, an old-fashioned, long -barreled, sixteen gauge, muzzle -loading shotgun. It was longer than I was so Father [sic] thought I could not shoot myself with it, and decided greatly to my joy and pride, that it was time for me to become a hunter too. My bow and arrows had been my hunting weapons so far but I had killed nothing larger than a pickerel and a muskrat with them. These were shot from the banks of the creek at rather close quarters but I never developed archery to a practical use, mainly because the shot gun [sic] took its place at so early an age. Still I always kept my bows Sherburne County Historical Society Heritage Center Interpretive Plan, April 21, 2005, page 33