Mississippi Hunting Camps: a Way of Life

By Bill R. Lea

In Mississippi Hunting Camps: A Way of Life author Bill R. Lea vividly captures with words and photographs the unique phenomenon of hunting camp life that prevails in the Magnolia State, a way of life that involves family, fellowship, food, fun and faith. Traveling several years to numerous camps—a privilege rarely given to outsiders—Lea was afforded an insiders look at camps ranging from the exclusive “high dollar” to the “Bubba” camps, from large to small, from new to historic and from white to black where he found commonalities among all, allowing him to give the reader a rare insight into why hunting camps in Mississippi are truly “A Way of Life.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 20, 2007
• ISBN: 9781477167540

Bill R. Lea

Lea, a popular outdoor writer, also published Tales of Old Rocky Hill Vol I, a fictitious hunting camp with a memorable cast of real-life characters. He has been published in Mississippi Woods & Waters, Mossy Oak’s Hunting The Country, Whitetail Journal, Dakota Outdoors, Sportsman’s BuckSaver and others.

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Copyright © 2007 by Bill R. Lea. 576321

ISBN:   Softcover            978-1-4257-6408-1

             Hardcover          978-1-4257-6833-1

             EBook                978-1-4771-6754-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Rev. date: 03/23/2019

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Mississippi Hunting Camps: A Way of Life

by

Bill R. Lea

I       General Introduction

II      Introduction to Section One: Hunting Camps: A Mississipp Tradition

A. Topattala How ‘Bout Them Dogs

B. Crooked Creek Hunting Club A Family Affair

C. Ben Lomand Atkins Family Hunting Land

D. The John Henry Camp Old Friendships Never Die

E. Turkey Creek Hunt Club Opening Day Excitement

III     Introduction to Section Two: Lifestyles Of The Rich Camps

A. Greasy Bayou Hunting Club Delta Big

B. Fitler Farm Hunting Club Onward with Teddy

C. Mystery Deer Camp Really Roughing it

D. Double L Living The Dream

IV    Introduction to Section Three Small, But Good Camps

A. Different Strokes

B. Free Run Hunting The Old Home Place

C. Crump Family Land Taking Big Deer in Small Woods

D. Hall Family Land Hunting at The ‘Zoo

V      Introduction to Section Four African-American Hunting Camps

A. Montgomery Hunting Club A History & Heritage

B. Christian Brothers Hunting Club Living Up To The Name

VI     Introduction to Section Five Mississippi Pay-Hunt Camps

A. McKenna Ranch Pay-hunting in Mississippi

VII   Introduction to Section Six Hunting Camps With Historical Significance

A. Where Legends are Born

B. Mt. Serratt Plantation Hunting Club 185 Years!

C. Rawhide Hunting Club Blending Old and New

D. Grant’s Back Door

VIII  Introduction to Section Seven Camps with Unusual Connections

A. Seals Hunting Club Ole Bennie and Cajun Coon-Asses

B. Possum Creek Hunting Club Out of Africa

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Introduction

Mississippi Hunting Camps: A Way of Life

by

Bill R. Lea

Copyright 2007

I t was a Mississippi Friday in mid-November, fall, the time of year when dying leaves on Mississippi hardwoods were laying down their lives in a brilliant blaze of glory. At bustling hunting camps in almost every hidden byway and non-descript back road of the Magnolia State’s eighty-two counties, several hundred thousand deer hunters were laying out warm clothing, cramming fanny packs with bottled water, Vienna sausage and candy bars. Rifles were being given a last minute sighting-in, shotguns were being cleaned, and four wheelers were being topped off with gas. Most of all, faces were broad with smile as old friends were being re-greeted, familiar hands were again being shaken, and the old yarns were being prepared for their annual enhancement. In general, everyone had a bit more spring to his step since tomorrow was the opening of another Mississippi Whitetail deer season. In one camp a rustic cabin had a sign posted prominently over the front door boldly stating—

Hunting isn’t a matter of life or death; it’s more important than that.

As an outdoor writer in an agrarian state where obituaries in daily newspapers frequently name the particular hunting camp where the deceased had been a member, I can testify that the above sign was not entirely in jest because, for generations, Mississippians have had a longstanding love affair with their friends, their families, and their outdoors way of life, all intertwined into one. I would learn just how much during my travels all over the Magnolia State where I visited as a temporary member at numerous hunting camps, ranging from the high-dollar kind to the Bubba kind, while compiling Deer Camps of Mississippi, a Mississippi Woods & Waters feature.

During my multifarious visits, I gained a greater appreciation of how important hunting is in and to the State of Mississippi and a much greater awareness of its eye opening economic importance. Statistics released by the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation regarding the economic impact of hunting and fishing in Mississippi are eye-popping. According to that report, the 357,000 hunters and 586,000 anglers in Mississippi spend over $671,000,000 each year, thus supporting 12,000 Mississippi jobs with $267,000,000 in salaries and wages, $56,000,000 in state tax revenue, and a ripple effect on the state’s economy of $1,200,000,000.

The report further states that one of every four Mississippi residents hunts or fishes; that Mississippi sportsmen annually spend nearly two times more than the cash receipts from the state’s cotton crop ($671 million vs. $370 million); that Mississippi sportsmen outnumber the combined populations of the state’s 10 largest cities (720,000 vs. 548,000); that annual spending by Mississippi sportsmen is more than ten times the value of the state’s seafood landings ($671 million vs. $59 million); that sportsmen in Mississippi annually pay $55.6 million in state sales, fuel, and income taxes—this could pay 1,881 teachers’ salaries or fund the annual education expenses for 10,488 students; and, lastly, that sportsmen support more jobs in Mississippi than Ingalls Shipbuilding Corporation, one of the state’s largest employers (12,258 jobs vs. 10,000).

No knows for sure how many hunting camps exist in Mississippi’s eighty-two counties, but I agree with humorist Jeff Foxworthy’s assessment when he remarked—

In the South, if you leave an acre of land alone for more’n thirty days, some redneck’s gonna’ slap a deer stand up in it!

It would not surprise me if the camps number in the thousands. For every one camp I visited, I learned of a half-dozen more nearby. The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks has a list of six hundred camps on DMAP (a Deer Management Program). Then, when you factor in all the camps not on DMAP, the camps on private land, the private family tracts and the camps that hunt public land, the actual count could be staggering.

But numbers alone don’t tell why hunting camps are so popular in Mississippi. Knowing no sociological phenomenon can be answered in short, simplistic terms, I still posed this two-part question at every camp I visited:

What makes your camp special and why do you belong to it?

Most responses ran along these lines: We’ve got the best camp in this state; my camp’s different from those others; folks at my camp are friendlier; or, I’ve known these folks

for years.

The answers I got to Why do you belong to this particular camp? usually included something like:

1. This is where my dad, brother, or best friend belongs.

2. In my camp, a rich man and a minimum wage earner are dead even because here they aren’t judged by how much money they make, but by how good they can blood trail or cook biscuits and gravy for breakfast or skin a deer or plant a food plot or shoot a bow or position a climbing stand.

The array of governing structures in hunting camps reveals in a microcosm every conceivable attempt at government on the planet, ranging from democracies to

dictatorial rule.

As I traveled from camp to camp, I began to categorize their types of government, types of facilities, game management programs, camp rules, categories of dues and fees, types of stands, how land was acquired, and so on. Here are my observations:

1. Types of government ran the gamut at hunting camps. Some were run solely by one person who might be a benevolent dictator, a ruthless tyrant, or a toothless figurehead. Others were run by a board comprised of a president, vice president, and secretary-treasurer, similar to a small business. Many times, however, the real leader in the camp was the person whose name was on the lease or who owned the land the camp sat on.

2. Types of camp facilities also varied widely, ranging from huge lodges resembling ski resorts to average houses to old shacks to converted school buses to army tents to simply a sleeping bag beneath an open sky.

3. The camp’s land was either owned (as it usually was in high-dollar camps), or leased (as it usually was in dues-paying camps) or some combination of both.

4. Most had some type of game management program. In Mississippi, the state minimum for buck deer is four-points, but many camps had a self-imposed tougher standard of six—or eight-points. Depending upon many factors, the camp sometimes took less than the state’s allowable harvest numbers, imposing a smaller limit in an attempt to build up the quantity and quality of its local herd.

5. The cost of belonging to a camp usually depended upon its structure. If its members privately owned the camp, then each member anted up some sizeable amount of money as a joining fee (this could vary from $10,000 to $400,000). These stockholder members were also sometimes required to pay annual fees to cover the operating expenses of the camp. If the camp was a dues-paying camp, the member typically paid a one-time joining fee, for example $750, and then paid annual dues typically ranging from $500 to $3,000 per year.

6. The rules at many camps were often confusing and contradictory, depending upon whom the violator was. In my book Tales of Old Rocky Hill, I wrote a satirical story named The Rules is The Rules! Even though this story was fictitious, I’ve experienced or heard of every scenario mentioned in it.

But beyond the economic issues, I soon came understood something subtler concerning hunting camps. Most book, magazine, and newspaper articles only deal with hunting with regard to how much or how big the game was. Yes indeed, hunters do hope and pray to be fortunate enough to take a trophy animal. However, most of what went on at hunting camps on a day by day basis really had very little to do with the actual taking of game. I discovered that the hunting experience cut a much wider swath, which encompassed the hunter’s family, friends, fun,