Sherburne County Heritage Center Interpretive Plan Final Report 2005

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and arrows and never entirely lost the little skill acquired with them...." (Vernon Bailey, "The Hiram Bailey Family: Pioneers of America and Early Settlers of the Middle West," typescript, SCHS, 1928, 22) That's What They Said!- -Hunting Ruffed Grouse and Prairie Chickens "My earliest hunting was largely for partridges (ruffed grouse) and with my muzzle -loading shotgun I could get a rest against the side of a tree and bring one down from the branches. Then measure the powder from the old powderhorn, ram down a wad of soft paper, measure out an ounce of shot and put a cut cardboard was on top of it, clear the tube and place a percussion cap and be ready for another shot. Sometimes the birds would wait for me to load and sometimes not but if the dog barked at them or if I kept whistling they would generally wait and sometimes I would get two or three from a flock. Four made a good meal, and we generally considered that our bag limit for the day. The general location of numerous flocks was known and there was no trouble going out and getting a mess when needed, generally after supper or before breakfast in the morning. For prairie chickens we had to go farther, generally half a mile to a mile onto the more open ground where the blueberries grew and not until I was about 15 years old could I handle a gun rapidly enough to catch these splendid birds on the wing as they rose with a booming roar out of the tall grass or low bushes. My older brother with his double-barrelled shotgun was an expert shot and I generally went along with my single -barrelled [sic] gun and occasionally got a bird. A couple of these big meaty birds were a good meal for the eight of us but enough for two meals were generally brought back." (Vernon Bailey, "The Hiram Bailey Family: Pioneers of America and Early Settlers of the Middle West," typescript, SCHS, 1928, 31) That's What They Said! --Hunting Ducks "For the early part of the season before the wild rice was ripe and the migrating ducks came down from the north, wood ducks were the most abundant and most delicious of our waterfowl. A few mallards nested around the lake shores but not many were seen until fall migration began, then mallards, blue -winged and green -winged teal, gadwalls, hooded mergansers and later lesser and greater scaups came by thousands to feast on wild rice in many of the nearby lakes, and in the creek which ran through our meadows. The best hunting was along the creek when small flocks flew up in front of us[,] but by walking a mile before daylight to the nearest lake we could shoot a mess of ducks any morning on the pass as they came in or went out of the lake close to our heads on top of the ridge. The number of ducks seemed beyond all computation and the supply inexhaustible but now they are mostly gone. Even the migration brings but a few stragglers. Canada geese came spring and fall in large flocks and a few pairs remained every spring to breed. Nearly every large lake had a pair of these great birds and out in the middle of some big marsh they would build a wide Sherburne County Historical Society Heritage Center Interpretive Plan, April 21, 2005, page 34