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Speaker 1: their podcast. My name is Clay Nukeleman. I'm the host
Speaker 1: of the Bear Hunting Magazine podcast. I'll also be your
Speaker 1: host into the world of hunting the icon of the
Speaker 1: North American wilderness. Prepare. We'll talk about tactics, gear conservation.
Speaker 1: We will also bring you into some of the wildest
Speaker 1: country off the planet chasing bear. Well. In our family,
Speaker 1: when my grandfather there died, we started a tradition that
Speaker 1: anybody in our family that was a hound hunter, when
Speaker 1: they die, we bring the hunting horn to the graveside
Speaker 1: service and the last thing we do before we bury
Speaker 1: them a is my son blows that horn, and it's
Speaker 1: symbolic to us that as we lay them the rest
Speaker 1: that we're calling their dogs in the last time. I
Speaker 1: recently had the opportunity to travel to East Tennessee and
Speaker 1: to sit down with my friend Tracy Jones. Tracy Jones
Speaker 1: is a houndsman, a longtime houndsman, and Tracy took me
Speaker 1: over to a man's house that he deeply respects and
Speaker 1: uh and I do, how as well. After I met him,
Speaker 1: an older gentleman eight five years old by the name
Speaker 1: of Eldridge cuts you off. Eldridge is a long time
Speaker 1: Tennessee mountain bear hunter and we we had a conversation
Speaker 1: with Eldridge. So the way this podcast lays out is
Speaker 1: a little bit different than most in that there's a
Speaker 1: Tracy and I will have a conversation privately before that
Speaker 1: that that starts the podcast off, and then we'd go
Speaker 1: into about a thirty two minute interview with Eldridge. This
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Speaker 1: your hound related needs. So check out W Hunting Supply
Speaker 1: for any of your dog related stuff that you're gonna need. Hey,
Speaker 1: there's also something pretty cool that happened First Light. Our
Speaker 1: buddies at First Light the clothing company produced a film
Speaker 1: called New Cam. Yeah, they came to Arkansas and they
Speaker 1: made a film about me. And in the film, we
Speaker 1: squirrel hunt on mules, we coon hunt, and we uh
Speaker 1: we deer hunt a little bit. And they they kind
Speaker 1: of introduced my family. It's just a super well done film.
Speaker 1: I mean, like the quality of the film, it's incredible.
Speaker 1: It's done by Jordan Riley Taylor Coleman of Captured Creative
Speaker 1: And you can check all you can check that film out.
Speaker 1: It's it's up right now at first light dot com
Speaker 1: or first Light's YouTube channel. And uh, yeah, you could.
Speaker 1: You could support what we're doing here at Bare Hunting
Speaker 1: Magazine by checking out that film leaving some comments on it.
Speaker 1: And uh, I was I thought it was pretty pretty important,
Speaker 1: pretty cool that that we got a hat tip from
Speaker 1: a big national company like first Light. I mean there's
Speaker 1: hound stuff inside of there, and and uh and and
Speaker 1: I hope the film just represents the the hunting lifestyle
Speaker 1: that a lot of us lead that that listen to
Speaker 1: this podcast. So check out our buddies at first light
Speaker 1: dot com. We just got back from Eldridge Cutshaw's house.
Speaker 1: Eldridge is eighty five, and uh, a guy like him
Speaker 1: would have just had a He would have had to
Speaker 1: have been an incredible athlete. Really, is that a good
Speaker 1: way to describe it? To hunt these mountains like he
Speaker 1: had to? Tracy, Yes, sir, I think so. Eldridge. Uh,
Speaker 1: Like I told you before, I was too young to
Speaker 1: get to hunt with him and some of the other
Speaker 1: a whole lot up until you know, I became a teenager.
Speaker 1: But my grandpa, my dad, and a lot of other
Speaker 1: men around here hunted with him, and I always had
Speaker 1: a great deal of respect for him. So when we
Speaker 1: talked to month or so ago and you were telling
Speaker 1: me you weren't want to do some podcasts with some
Speaker 1: of the old Mountain bar hunters that were the real deal,
Speaker 1: I was very glad that you were able to get
Speaker 1: over today and talk to Eldridge, because he he was
Speaker 1: a real deal. When you say that, what do you mean, Well,
Speaker 1: I mean he knew what he was doing and he
Speaker 1: did it. Yeah. Yeah, he was just good at what
Speaker 1: he did. Yeah, you a minute ago, he said, I mean,
Speaker 1: Eldridge was a humble man. He didn't you know, he's
Speaker 1: getting up in years that he didn't. He he wasn't
Speaker 1: trying to tell us what a great bear hunter. He
Speaker 1: was humble man. And uh, you know, a guy like
Speaker 1: that probably never knew even how unique his life was
Speaker 1: inside of what he did and how he focused on
Speaker 1: on bear hunting and and the toughness that it took.
Speaker 1: And I mean some of these guys probably never even
Speaker 1: knew that what they did wasn't normal. Is that a
Speaker 1: good way to describe it. Well, he was raised in
Speaker 1: the mountains, so what other people would consider to be extraordinary?
Speaker 1: And I believe the average person if they followed a
Speaker 1: man like Eldridge cut y'all, or Layman Rice or another
Speaker 1: man I knew the name of Carson Landers and other
Speaker 1: men that I could name who were exceptionally hard goers
Speaker 1: in the mountains, if they followed them for a day, Um,
Speaker 1: I believe they would come away understanding that these were
Speaker 1: extraordinary men in the environments that they grew up in. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But those men grew up in the environment and it
Speaker 1: was an extraordinary to them. Yeah. I mean the elder
Speaker 1: and said his dad took them to the top of
Speaker 1: h Can't Creek bald what a lot of people call
Speaker 1: a Viking mountain and dropped them off, and they were boys,
Speaker 1: and they coon hunted out the mountain, out the Appalachian
Speaker 1: Trail and down off the side of the mountain to
Speaker 1: their home place. I mean that's rough country through there, Yeah,
Speaker 1: no doubt. I like what you said there that they
Speaker 1: they were tough men. I escaped me. What you just
Speaker 1: said that they that that for the area. They they
Speaker 1: did what it took to be successful, and they were
Speaker 1: and they and they they took it serious. And um yeah,
Speaker 1: well I always have the utmost respect for some of
Speaker 1: these men, because everybody ought to be honest with themselves.
Speaker 1: And I think I can say that I probably enjoy
Speaker 1: bar hunting as about as much as anybody, but I
Speaker 1: don't consider myself on the same level or anywhere close
Speaker 1: to it as some of the people that I had
Speaker 1: the opportunity to grow up around. I mean a man
Speaker 1: like Eldridge and again I mentioned Layman Rice and Carson
Speaker 1: Lander's and my dad was pretty tough. And I mean
Speaker 1: I could name other people. I mean, I there's a
Speaker 1: long list I could name. I hate to do that.
Speaker 1: I just named a few people that a lot of
Speaker 1: people around here would say, yeah, they were, they were
Speaker 1: really tough in the woods. Why. I never put myself
Speaker 1: in that category, because that would be a lie. But
Speaker 1: I recognize that when I see it, right, Yeah, what
Speaker 1: you know, what I think is is unique. Is a
Speaker 1: guy like Mr Elders is truly the last of a breed.
Speaker 1: There will never be another generation of people barring and
Speaker 1: apocalypse and we lose our technology. I mean, he grew
Speaker 1: up before GPS. He told us that he didn't have
Speaker 1: electricity in his house. He grew up running through these
Speaker 1: mountain mountains chasing these dogs on foot, and that produced
Speaker 1: a certain skill level that you can't attain unless you
Speaker 1: have to do that. I mean, I have no problem
Speaker 1: I coon hunt in Arkansas. I have no problem saying that.
Speaker 1: If it weren't for garments, I probably wouldn't be a
Speaker 1: coon hunter. I mean, we coon hunted without those when
Speaker 1: I was in high school, and we didn't know any different.
Speaker 1: But today it's changed me, you know, And and in
Speaker 1: some ways there's some positive of that, but in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways there's there's negative. So what we're just
Speaker 1: saying is that these guys were a different breed and
Speaker 1: there's there's not a lot of them left. Well, I
Speaker 1: think we're in a position right now, at least here
Speaker 1: in the area where we live where the old timers,
Speaker 1: they're real what I call the real hardcore bear hunters
Speaker 1: that you know, lived and breathed in the mountains and
Speaker 1: that was their sort of their natural environment. They're fading away,
Speaker 1: which is why I thought it was important for you
Speaker 1: to go talk to Eldridge. And I know maybe another
Speaker 1: manner too that I'd like for you to be able
Speaker 1: to talk to along those lines. And then there's some
Speaker 1: men that I know personally now and I'll hold off
Speaker 1: on missing the names. They probably wouldn't want me to
Speaker 1: mention their names. That I grew up with those people,
Speaker 1: and they're really were really tough, I mean really tough
Speaker 1: in the mountains, but they're now hitting their late sixties,
Speaker 1: early seventies, and not not too many men can really
Speaker 1: handle the mountains outside of their late fifties, the sixties
Speaker 1: and mid sixties at really point. I'm not that you
Speaker 1: can't go to the three, but there's a difference between
Speaker 1: a man in his peak when he's thirty five versus
Speaker 1: time you get sixty in his mountains. Like you can
Speaker 1: go someplace where it's flat, like you know, Wisconsin or
Speaker 1: Michigan and other places, and it's really great hunting, but
Speaker 1: you don't have the elevation climbs. Yeah, and it's the
Speaker 1: elevation wires on you, I think when you get older. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: what do you what do you think The big takeaway
Speaker 1: from all this is because you know, I think about it,
Speaker 1: I've I've always appreciated older people. I mean ever since
Speaker 1: I was a little kid. I I just appreciate it.
Speaker 1: I think I got I think my dad instilled that
Speaker 1: in me. He he turned our gaze towards older people
Speaker 1: and I saw him give them respect. And so, aside
Speaker 1: from just a hat tip to an older man that's
Speaker 1: been there before, what can we take away from these
Speaker 1: guys lives, Tracy? Aside from just yes they were Yes,
Speaker 1: they were tough. Yes they had to endure hardship. We're
Speaker 1: not gonna go back and hunt the way they did.
Speaker 1: Just like I said, I mean, nobody's gonna get rid
Speaker 1: of their garments and nobody's gonna So what's what's the
Speaker 1: what's the takeaway like for for us? Well, I think
Speaker 1: the only thing that makes life worth living is for
Speaker 1: some things to be sacred. Like the relationship between a
Speaker 1: man and his wife is sacred, So that makes life
Speaker 1: worth living if that relationship isn't sacred and takes the
Speaker 1: value out of it. Um, your relationship with God, if
Speaker 1: you have a personal relationship with him that's sacred to you.
Speaker 1: That's why you don't want to dishonor that relationship with
Speaker 1: God and Uh. I think part of the sacredness of
Speaker 1: life is honoring your elders. Any society that doesn't have
Speaker 1: a huge respect for its ancients is basically doomed because
Speaker 1: you you learned neither from their successes, nor you you
Speaker 1: you don't learn from their failures. Mhm. So you're gonna
Speaker 1: have the same problems that they had without any recourse.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're not gonna learn from them whatsoever. Last night,
Speaker 1: last night I was dealing with at church. I was
Speaker 1: in a passage where David was running from Saul and Uh.
Speaker 1: In that passage, one of the things that David referred
Speaker 1: back to was something he had learned from one of
Speaker 1: the ancients. He had an opportunity to kill Saul and
Speaker 1: didn't take it, and he said one of the things
Speaker 1: that stopped him was specifically something he had been taught
Speaker 1: by the ancients that had to do with not taking vengeance.
Speaker 1: And I really made a big deal out of that
Speaker 1: church because I think as a society we need to
Speaker 1: slow down and reintroduce our young people to their elders.
Speaker 1: They need to know their grandfather and their grandmother, and
Speaker 1: if they have one of great grandfather and grandmother. They
Speaker 1: need to know their older uncles and their older aunts,
Speaker 1: and they need to know the older people in their community,
Speaker 1: in their church, and they need to be taught that
Speaker 1: those people are valuable, that they're not just old people
Speaker 1: that can't do anything anymore, and they need to learn
Speaker 1: what those people have done and have respect for what
Speaker 1: they've done in the difficulty. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I think the what I heard elders say, I kept
Speaker 1: prodding them, saying, hey, can you think of a story
Speaker 1: or can you think of a uh what was the
Speaker 1: most meaningful parts of your bear hunting? That he said
Speaker 1: he wouldn't trade anything for what he learned. That was
Speaker 1: what he said. I mean, you know, you can tell
Speaker 1: elder just getting to the point where life's kind of becoming,
Speaker 1: it's kind of distilling down into the essentials. And he
Speaker 1: kept going back to the relationships that he built inside
Speaker 1: of hunting. Did you notice that it did? I did
Speaker 1: that kind of surprised. Nine out of ten, how people
Speaker 1: you talk to you asking why you hunt, they're gonna
Speaker 1: say the dogs. Some of them wouldn't even hunt if
Speaker 1: if it wasn't for the dogs. But elders kept saying
Speaker 1: his friends, his buddies, and and naming them, and the
Speaker 1: and the friendships and the joy he had with those people.
Speaker 1: And I think that's what I think that's a little
Speaker 1: different about elders from a lot of folks well, But
Speaker 1: I think what he tapped into there is something that
Speaker 1: is sometimes wrongly skewed inside of people where rather and
Speaker 1: those relationships being healthy, those relationships become competitive or there's
Speaker 1: jealousy or something. But I was talking with a gentleman
Speaker 1: yesterday right here in Tennessee, and essentially we came to
Speaker 1: the same place, was that the relationships that were built
Speaker 1: through whatever medium you know, I mean inside of the
Speaker 1: bare hound world. You can't do it on your own.
Speaker 1: No man is an island if he's gonna be successful.
Speaker 1: And last we talked about that with hounds and breeding
Speaker 1: stuff and and you depend on people, you can't. You
Speaker 1: can have the best dogs in the country, the truck
Speaker 1: full of them and go out in these mountains just
Speaker 1: you and your gun and that truck full of dogs,
Speaker 1: and you're not probably gonna kill very many bear, Am
Speaker 1: I right? I mean it takes it takes a lot
Speaker 1: of people. In in what we distilled down and what
Speaker 1: I saw inside of this this gentleman I was talking to,
Speaker 1: was that he valued those people. He actually teared up.
Speaker 1: He shed a tear on our podcast talking about some
Speaker 1: of the men that he'd hunted with. When he was
Speaker 1: thinking about the ones that we're already gone, he he said,
Speaker 1: a couple of times I miss them. Yeah, the elders
Speaker 1: didn't the yeah yeah. Well to me, what that does
Speaker 1: as a middle aged man here a few years ago,
Speaker 1: I would have thought I was young, but now I'm
Speaker 1: officially in the middle age. In the middle is that
Speaker 1: we can get so focused on on the on the fruit,
Speaker 1: on the product of what we're doing, you know which
Speaker 1: obviously I'm here because I like bear dogs and bear hunting.
Speaker 1: That's what drew me and you together. That's the reason
Speaker 1: I'm in East Tennessee. So that there there always is
Speaker 1: a thing that you're after. But what it makes me
Speaker 1: do is I want to slow down and pay more
Speaker 1: attention to the to the relationships that I've got with people,
Speaker 1: and make sure that I'm not burning over stuff in
Speaker 1: pursuit of and in goal. And then when I'm eighty five,
Speaker 1: I look back and realized I had a lot of
Speaker 1: burned bridges or or I hadn't fostered a relationship, because
Speaker 1: ultimately those people are what give value to what you do.
Speaker 1: I mean, in my bare hunting, if I could tell
Speaker 1: no one what I did, I probably I don't know
Speaker 1: if I would do it or not. I mean, as
Speaker 1: much as there's an inner desire and this native desire
Speaker 1: to hunt, a lot of the value that comes from
Speaker 1: hunting comes from sharing it with people. You know. I
Speaker 1: think one of the most important things out of listening
Speaker 1: to him today is not something he said, and it's
Speaker 1: something that your listeners won't be able to see. And
Speaker 1: that was the joy on his face when he was
Speaker 1: talking about it. I mean you could tell that there.
Speaker 1: His face just was like gonna glow because of how
Speaker 1: much he and Alder, how fun it was him. And
Speaker 1: he said, if you can't have fun, stay home. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, his face really did light up. He had
Speaker 1: he had bright blue eyes, didn't he and he uh,
Speaker 1: when he smiled, you could it was almost like he
Speaker 1: was young. You It's like he he was kind of
Speaker 1: this old man and then when he smiled, he just
Speaker 1: kinda he kind of lit up. But well, I think
Speaker 1: there's I'm continuing to search for for why I have
Speaker 1: why I placed value on guys like him. Well, I
Speaker 1: think one of the difficult things about being middle aged,
Speaker 1: like you're you were talking about earlier is the men
Speaker 1: that you grew up with and that you respected, and
Speaker 1: that that you think a lot of some of them
Speaker 1: have passed away, and some of them are nearing that place,
Speaker 1: and you're finally old enough to realize what a privilege
Speaker 1: it was to grow up around these men, and that
Speaker 1: kind of been because they're they're scarce in our society,
Speaker 1: and those kinds of men are scarce. Yeah, And I
Speaker 1: think about it, and I think about you know, it's
Speaker 1: hard to watch the old bulls go down. It's hard
Speaker 1: to watch the old lines go down. But then again,
Speaker 1: what a privilege it was to live with them. And
Speaker 1: we may never be exactly the kind of men they are,
Speaker 1: but at least we knew them. Mm hmmm mm hmm.
Speaker 1: And I think for for our time though, we can be,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, we we live in a whole
Speaker 1: different set of challenges, Tracy, and you know it, we've
Speaker 1: talked about it than they did. I mean, so inside
Speaker 1: of the challenges that you know, they challenged, they were
Speaker 1: challenged by the physics coal elements and the toughness of
Speaker 1: life and poverty and and big mountains and and our
Speaker 1: challenge is now different, but we still have the opportunity
Speaker 1: to walk through life in a noble way. And you know, so,
Speaker 1: I mean, I see I see these old guys, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, I want to be like them. Not I
Speaker 1: won't be. I won't. I won't be just like them
Speaker 1: because my life was different. I grew up in a
Speaker 1: different time. But I wanna. I want to be honorable
Speaker 1: when I'm old. I want to have given my best.
Speaker 1: I want to have, you know, lived ultimately lived a
Speaker 1: life that I felt like was pleasing to God. Well,
Speaker 1: I like the the series or whatever you call that
Speaker 1: you're doing here where you're finding these older men and
Speaker 1: getting them recorded so that we have them have it saved. Yep. Well, hey,
Speaker 1: thank you for thank you for for hosting today. I
Speaker 1: really appreciate it. You're welcome. I joined it. Yeah, as
Speaker 1: you walk into Mr Eldridge's house, he's got some bear mounts,
Speaker 1: he's got bare hides, he's got some old, old, tarnished
Speaker 1: deer antlers around. It's a place where you know you're
Speaker 1: walking into the house of somebody who's dedicated their life
Speaker 1: to the outdoors. When you look off his front porch,
Speaker 1: you can look about about eight miles and you can
Speaker 1: see big Appalachian mountains. One of the mountains, this Viking mountains,
Speaker 1: and those are the mountains that Eldridge hunter. And uh.
Speaker 1: He said that he could blow his horn off his
Speaker 1: front porch and those dogs could hear him from eight
Speaker 1: to ten miles away blowing his hunter's horn, and those
Speaker 1: dogs would come back. You're gonna appreciate Eldridge cut you
Speaker 1: off well. In our family, when my grandfather died, we
Speaker 1: started a tradition that anybody in our family that was
Speaker 1: a hound hunter, when they die, we bring the hunting
Speaker 1: horn to the graveside service, and the last thing we
Speaker 1: do before we bury them is my son blows that horn.
Speaker 1: And it's symbolic to us that as we lay them
Speaker 1: the rest that we're calling their dogs in for the
Speaker 1: last time. So you could hear it for a long ways.
Speaker 1: Huh ten miles you think you can? Wow? Did you
Speaker 1: use you use one of those to call your dog? Yeah? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Tell me about these horns? What did people use them for? Well?
Speaker 1: Mostly it was back years ago as fox hunters that
Speaker 1: used them, and they use them to call their dogs
Speaker 1: in whenever they was done hunting. You know, no GPS,
Speaker 1: no telemetry, and they could blow their horn and call
Speaker 1: the dogs in, just like Eldridge just said that from
Speaker 1: his yard. You could hear this, he said, all the
Speaker 1: way to Old Forge. And that's what ten mile across
Speaker 1: their Old Forge. Really you could hear that for ten miles. Well,
Speaker 1: they carry through the mountains. Mm hmm. Right, what what
Speaker 1: county are we in? Are we in Greene County? Greene County, Tennessee,
Speaker 1: which borders North Carolina. Yeah, it's across the chepd Well
Speaker 1: shut that door. Just across the top of that mountain's
Speaker 1: North Carolina and North Carolina. So we're in Greene County, Tennessee,
Speaker 1: near Greenville, and I'm here with with Mr Eldridge, Cutshall
Speaker 1: and Tracy Jones. Uh. Tracy has been on the podcast before.
Speaker 1: We we talked with him last year. But thank you
Speaker 1: so much for letting us come and visit with you,
Speaker 1: Mr Eldridge. Really a pleasure you come. You come, highly
Speaker 1: spoken of. Bye bye Tracy for sure. Tracy, Why don't
Speaker 1: will you tell me how you know Mr Eldridge? Well,
Speaker 1: I know Eldridge through my Papal and my daddy. They
Speaker 1: hunted together back years ago and for a long time. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so you told me something on the way here
Speaker 1: that most of the people that would have bear hunted
Speaker 1: with hounds and this part of in this part of
Speaker 1: the country, in this county, would have would have learned
Speaker 1: to bear hunt from from from Barry Tarlton, your grandfather,
Speaker 1: and uh Industry, Eldridge and who else. Well, I'm putting
Speaker 1: words in your mouth. Yeah. Yeah, I wouldn't say everybody,
Speaker 1: but I think a lot of people around here would
Speaker 1: say they got to start with Eldridge or Layman Rice
Speaker 1: or very Trout and one of the three. Yeah, not everybody,
Speaker 1: but a lot, wouldn't you say a lot of them
Speaker 1: didn't care. Yeah. When did you start bear hunting back
Speaker 1: when early twenties? Yeah? Yeah, I was about twenty one
Speaker 1: years old. Were there many people bear hunting at that time? Say? Well, people,
Speaker 1: but there wasn't many. Bar Yeah, if you found one,
Speaker 1: your mister stafters or somebody else to get him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I've killed it with I've killed bar with a stick,
Speaker 1: m the pole out t smoke cost and boys put
Speaker 1: it and brought it back from Canada. I want to
Speaker 1: knocked to death on the more green liquor bottles and
Speaker 1: put up. I put a rope on it to drag
Speaker 1: it out, and they come back to I got that
Speaker 1: pole and he didn't get up in a more Oh man,
Speaker 1: So did did you not have a gun with you?
Speaker 1: I didn't have it. Use the green liquor bottle. That's
Speaker 1: the first for me. How about you, Tracy? I knocked
Speaker 1: it out? So how did you? Uh? How did you
Speaker 1: get your start in bear hunting? Like? Where did you
Speaker 1: get your dogs? And and how did you get going?
Speaker 1: My dad in law all the cash I and had
Speaker 1: two walker dogs. He told me said, if you want
Speaker 1: two bar dogs, you better get to him off Junior
Speaker 1: rash my brother in law. I gave him thirty five
Speaker 1: dollars for both of them. My neighbor was burned dog.
Speaker 1: They trained her step in a reserve. M hmm. There
Speaker 1: you go on running a while and come back. What
Speaker 1: kind of dogs were they? Are? Box dogs and walkers? Yeah, rossed.
Speaker 1: A lot of guys were using just running dogs back
Speaker 1: in those days. He's running it, said, use it, yeah
Speaker 1: to me, I don't care if it's a fistfaire running
Speaker 1: barr He was a protector. I get tickled at m hm.
Speaker 1: He's want to put it in the back history fish
Speaker 1: white suld get them more wide and hare on my doll.
Speaker 1: Uh everybody him dead mm hmm. But that's part of
Speaker 1: our own fun. You didn't have a fun, You're better
Speaker 1: all home. Yeah. Yeah, So what you're describing to maybe
Speaker 1: somebody that wouldn't understand bear hunting. This that Mr Barry
Speaker 1: like hunting plothounds. He had a specific breed of dog
Speaker 1: that he liked, and and and so you guys gave
Speaker 1: each other a hard time about the different breeds. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: farm and he had done what kind of was gypsy?
Speaker 1: I don't know. She was a good dog, bar do
Speaker 1: We got her own bar right now. She'd run a deer.
Speaker 1: I told clave when we passed Lehman's house that that
Speaker 1: was one of the hardest bear hunters that I ever knew.
Speaker 1: Mr Elders what to to go back to a little
Speaker 1: bit of history on you. What kind of work did
Speaker 1: you do? Farm motion, cattle farms or what kind of farming? Really?
Speaker 1: Dairy farm right here? Yeah, so you were born and
Speaker 1: raised in Green County, So did that a lot. You
Speaker 1: a lot of time to hunt. We're we're sitting in
Speaker 1: your living room here and I'm seeing uh, mounted deer,
Speaker 1: lots of Tennessee mountain bucks, looks like bear hides you.
Speaker 1: You you got to do a lot of hunting. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what was your what were you most passionate about? Inside
Speaker 1: of inside of hunting? Hunting or forward? You like hearing
Speaker 1: those dogs run, didn't you? I still do? Yeah? I
Speaker 1: just hear him no wrong, I don't care if I
Speaker 1: never killed and he shows of dogs round. You pointed
Speaker 1: out that barrel there on the wall before Clay started
Speaker 1: talking to you there a few minutes ago, and you said,
Speaker 1: that is that the first barrier you ever killed? Them? There?
Speaker 1: What's what's the story on that one? Over fifteen and
Speaker 1: three quarter years old? M hmm, that's what the biologist
Speaker 1: told you. What year was that? Sixties? Yeah? Killed in
Speaker 1: Northern Branche find Camp Creek cool, just right up the
Speaker 1: creek from behind where the whole plot days now? Okay, okay?
Speaker 1: What was that the first bear that your dogs ever
Speaker 1: caught for you in tree and you were able to
Speaker 1: kill or did you? Did you kill that bear in
Speaker 1: a different way? Wasn't the first and I don't know
Speaker 1: how many of the treat before they treatch ovel before.
Speaker 1: I just got to the three first and heared it. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: well our northern branch spring, there's waterfall. Hey, come around
Speaker 1: into that waterfall. Come around where I was at. I
Speaker 1: shot it. He went straight down and come up. It's
Speaker 1: like it went down, and I showed it again. It
Speaker 1: went straight down. Show it three times and he stuck
Speaker 1: his head drive between each SAgs. Come and roll with
Speaker 1: me like a baseball. I thought, if you roll down
Speaker 1: here and open your mouth, I'll focus gun and you
Speaker 1: to the mouth and putrity an old sound bar. And
Speaker 1: then besides it was killed on Viking Terry mounted it.
Speaker 1: You're talking about my dad. Okay, okay, these mountains are
Speaker 1: pretty rough. You you must have been in really good
Speaker 1: shape and can move around these mountains pretty good. Yeah
Speaker 1: I could. I told him today. GPS, that's cheating. Hmm.
Speaker 1: We didn't use to album. Yeah, we went on foot. Yeah,
Speaker 1: of course the GPS is all right, my favorite using right,
Speaker 1: use them to get in front of the bar and
Speaker 1: get it. How did you use to navigate the mountains
Speaker 1: without you just you just had to know the mountains
Speaker 1: you can't beat anybody on our own land. I'll kill fit, sir.
Speaker 1: I don't care what I ever, carol or not. There's
Speaker 1: a cowts and stuff and it's gonna take over. You
Speaker 1: think they're they're hurting part of the hurting the bear.
Speaker 1: You think, yeah, hungle identifying or eating a game. My
Speaker 1: ash up from my hut, from my bar. But there everywhere.
Speaker 1: Now bar is out in the country everywhere. How how
Speaker 1: did you used to find a bear track? Now? Now
Speaker 1: there's so many bears, it's it's a little bit easier
Speaker 1: to to find a track. How would you guys hunt?
Speaker 1: Just get us a dog and hit that trail? So
Speaker 1: just on foot, free casting the dogs, leading, leading that dog,
Speaker 1: leading the dog. You're don't on the track directly, sometimes
Speaker 1: you wouldn't, So you would you'd take a good trail
Speaker 1: dog or cold nosed dog or a couple and just
Speaker 1: head off in an area that you felt like was good. Yep.
Speaker 1: What would you do after you found the track? Eldridge,
Speaker 1: Bring some more dogs, turn them all those you're a
Speaker 1: racketan m h. And then you'd have to follow him
Speaker 1: just by by sound? Is that right? See the byre
Speaker 1: Sensual worries just on the left, right up that road,
Speaker 1: die Horse Creek, n Squib Creek, cash in on and
Speaker 1: we have turned the dolld loos and Green Mountain and
Speaker 1: pick them up rocking for same day. How far is
Speaker 1: that long way? How many miles on foot would you
Speaker 1: walk on a in a day on a bear hunt
Speaker 1: in these mountains? I'd say five or six mile anyway? Yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe more. I bet it was more, but I wouldn't
Speaker 1: take nothing. I wanted to learn. Were up bur in Canada.
Speaker 1: Me and Malvin i Am went around on backside of Downe.
Speaker 1: You just take your dogs up burning, turning loose, and
Speaker 1: they don't know what they come out are with. He
Speaker 1: turned them loose and calling them all, all of them
Speaker 1: but one as burries. Hey run out built by. It's
Speaker 1: hard to catch them all. Mm hmm. I told him,
Speaker 1: I said, I'll catch you. I called it. I went
Speaker 1: to the spanisyard. I come out. Why I didn't come
Speaker 1: back out the way I went in. But that Federal
Speaker 1: was a giving burry down the road. He was a
Speaker 1: customer going on, but they didn't boiler burry. And he
Speaker 1: just ain't gonna be cooled off a little. He ain't
Speaker 1: eating a hand before we left. That's kind of man
Speaker 1: burnt out. What was that doubt running her faults? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's true, red talk. Mm hmm. What what are some
Speaker 1: of your favorite memories of bear hunting are? Yes, being
Speaker 1: around my buddies. Yeah, I mean, Sam, you know, I
Speaker 1: hear inside of the hound hunting community, there's a there's
Speaker 1: a unique thing that's not in all of big game hunting,
Speaker 1: and that is there's a lot of deep relationships that
Speaker 1: are built between people. I mean. And not to say
Speaker 1: that there's not those friendships built and other kinds of hunting,
Speaker 1: but to be a successful bear hunter, you're you usually
Speaker 1: hunting with other people. And if you're hunting with those people,
Speaker 1: they're gonna be like minded people with you. They're gonna
Speaker 1: be people you trust. There's gonna be people that you value.
Speaker 1: And yesterday we were talking to an older gentleman that
Speaker 1: was a bear hunter, and after talking to him for
Speaker 1: an hour, that's the conclusion that I came to was
Speaker 1: just hearing him talk was a lot of the value
Speaker 1: inside the hunting was was his buddies as the people
Speaker 1: that he spent his life, you know, breeding dogs with
Speaker 1: and and hunting with. And would you would you agree
Speaker 1: with that. Yeah, yeah, what was your favorite? Now you
Speaker 1: ever had eldrie? I guess that I've had some good dogs.
Speaker 1: H walk dog. Hey, folks, he as you catch it?
Speaker 1: Is this him right here? When you're called rock? He
Speaker 1: bought you. He bought me if I whipped another dog
Speaker 1: and he could get to me, he bought me. He
Speaker 1: took up for read bassies? Is that right? What did
Speaker 1: you like best in a good bear dog? What would
Speaker 1: be how would you describe one? If you were describing
Speaker 1: a dog to somebody that didn't know anything about bear
Speaker 1: hunting with hounds? What would you describe the traits that
Speaker 1: you'd want to see in a good bear dog? And
Speaker 1: stick with you? I had a red tick one head
Speaker 1: or busted or inside through the vet, and they sold
Speaker 1: it up and that told me, he said, now you
Speaker 1: may go get that dog and are being land are
Speaker 1: dead And that's what will happen under one day. I
Speaker 1: want to get her next day start and she's laying
Speaker 1: her dead. Hmm, she's really all. It takes a lot
Speaker 1: of a lot of drive these dogs have to have,
Speaker 1: isn't it. I come to her quitting that time, not
Speaker 1: all that red tick? Do you think the dogs that
Speaker 1: folks are hunting today are as good as the ones
Speaker 1: that you used to hunt? Or do you think the
Speaker 1: older dogs are better than what they're hunting now? Elder?
Speaker 1: The ones now are better? No older? I guess because
Speaker 1: they're honey more. I ain't got long enough season here
Speaker 1: game Morton says, we're not killing enough bar but to
Speaker 1: see Nat long enough and he's a mountains of getting
Speaker 1: ticket her. So you think that people used to hunt more,
Speaker 1: They used to hunt for longer periods of time, so
Speaker 1: their dogs dogs had a chance to be better. Yeah,
Speaker 1: more you hunting, the better do they get? Yeah? How
Speaker 1: did you? Was talking about your buddies a few minutes ago?
Speaker 1: Who were some of the people you hunted with? It?
Speaker 1: You really had a good time with your daddy, all right,
Speaker 1: I've only with a lot of good people. You ain't
Speaker 1: gonna agree all time. When when is the last time
Speaker 1: you hunted? Did you? Did you keep dogs and hunt
Speaker 1: until just recently? I got rid of my dogs? Is
Speaker 1: that right? I've got one? Somebody run over broke both
Speaker 1: fine lads courting there the two thou dollar red bill?
Speaker 1: M hm. So you stay around though, Okay, so you
Speaker 1: still got one? You still like to get out and
Speaker 1: listen to when you feel like it. So you're still
Speaker 1: getting out and driving around, listen to some of the
Speaker 1: races around five, I can get out, I wire. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you coon hound a lot too, didn't you on a coon?
Speaker 1: Would you use the same dogs or different dogs? I
Speaker 1: am not learned it. Do you think they know when
Speaker 1: you turn them loose at night? The tricon? Yeah? No,
Speaker 1: smarter than people think there are. Yeah, I've walked from
Speaker 1: Viking down to the old home place, just hitting best
Speaker 1: a little before day line and get up marking next day.
Speaker 1: You walk from your home place up to backing back.
Speaker 1: My dad takes the where and let us out. We
Speaker 1: coon up back from the top down, from the top down.
Speaker 1: Would you go out to the Apple Lachian Trail and
Speaker 1: then go down Jenn's Creek helf? Is that well by miles?
Speaker 1: It ain't that many miles a minute? Be pretty red
Speaker 1: climbing up and down them? Rege? How many coons would
Speaker 1: he get on a hunt like that? One? Really? Just
Speaker 1: maybe just get one stay out all night long? That
Speaker 1: was the coon worth quite a bit? Back down a
Speaker 1: coon hide? Oh it wasn't. What kind of lights would
Speaker 1: you use? Lantern? M you carry a rival with you
Speaker 1: old cone here, gould on Greek chill another they travel
Speaker 1: wrong way? Bob, Bob, catch horse? Thing you get after
Speaker 1: hard to tree, you jump out when you get down there.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm. Did you ever catch any I crost to
Speaker 1: in my life? Mm hmm. How did your deer hunt?
Speaker 1: All these deer? Did these deer come off public land
Speaker 1: around here? Just go and sit down, be quiet and
Speaker 1: be still? Yeah? Pretty simple. Yeah. Did you like to hunt?
Speaker 1: What kind of areas were you looking for? Would you
Speaker 1: hunting gaps on top of the mountain or most time
Speaker 1: by hey for you? Mm hmm. What kind of rifle
Speaker 1: did you carry bar hunting the l did you raymond
Speaker 1: like two twenty grain bullet that's like throwing them be
Speaker 1: grock and a little wrong. Did you use a lever
Speaker 1: action or a bolt action? Automatic? Automatic? Stay up? God? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Did you carry the same rifle deer hunting? Iron sights? Yeah? Well,
Speaker 1: h but the scope on it's look too if it's
Speaker 1: got orange or not? And I had to see through
Speaker 1: mounts drop down. Mm hmm. What was the story you
Speaker 1: told me that time, elder you about the bargains kill
Speaker 1: back on the lake. Oh? We went to Parama. Your
Speaker 1: papa had left, can come home. May ain't killing and
Speaker 1: everybody we turned loose something run off and leave us.
Speaker 1: I told Bill Carner, I said, now take him old
Speaker 1: dogs or turn them loose first, and I'll take him
Speaker 1: one to don't pack good when they're getting here, and
Speaker 1: I'll turn them loose. And I did, and we got
Speaker 1: to kill him. Heard have me would kill and the
Speaker 1: person they run we got away from us. There's no
Speaker 1: rock quarry there. I cleaned up on top that rock quarry.
Speaker 1: I thought I heard my head downs from the siret.
Speaker 1: I told him hard on radio and told him I
Speaker 1: believe I've found him. I went on to the next
Speaker 1: to the ridge, sat down from me another siarette. Now
Speaker 1: here I'm playing. When I got there, laden dog dead
Speaker 1: and Bill Carter's dog. I couldn't find that in mine.
Speaker 1: I'd drive back a candy and get him. And all right,
Speaker 1: I started down the side of the lower I shout
Speaker 1: that one out. I started down the side of the
Speaker 1: lake and the beaver day I'm gonna get across on
Speaker 1: and he knowing that nick away down as a maker doll.
Speaker 1: My walk where you jump at it me a shit
Speaker 1: And he blue Gratt in that lake. He going and
Speaker 1: saw him back out. He run that neck down just
Speaker 1: to trying to get him a dog. When he did,
Speaker 1: I'll let him have it. He fell in the lake hard.
Speaker 1: He didn't sink much, pretty shadow. Did you hunt anywhere
Speaker 1: outside of here except other than can Did you go
Speaker 1: to New Mexico or out there? One time? They're off
Speaker 1: left hand Mexico City? How how did that happen? Well?
Speaker 1: I drove, but one of the I told him, I said,
Speaker 1: don't run off and let me it's it's carry the
Speaker 1: hype brother. I took it out to she really place
Speaker 1: to fix it, and rests are gonna wait. Start that store,
Speaker 1: I thought. While I I was out there, I went
Speaker 1: to the bathroom and they just come out and got
Speaker 1: in the vehicle left. I got on some night pull
Speaker 1: inn I how to say be? I got on that
Speaker 1: radio now horror hoop to holler. Finally Burry here and
Speaker 1: me and he said, who you know here? Knows us?
Speaker 1: So and Layman come back and got me. So they
Speaker 1: y'all went out there bear hunting, and you're you were
Speaker 1: driving two separate vehicles. And but but they they left
Speaker 1: and your car was broke down they took her privately,
Speaker 1: investigators trying to trap us into settle them buire parts
Speaker 1: their car. Can you tell me about that? They come
Speaker 1: here and rid me my right? I said, I don't
Speaker 1: care you right my rights. I ain't got nothing, ain't
Speaker 1: done nothing. I never did hear tailor them no more.
Speaker 1: They sort of trickings into getting out there and then
Speaker 1: trying to set you up. Didn't yeah done. And that
Speaker 1: was during the time when they were trying to tracy
Speaker 1: what they were. They were trying to catch people selling
Speaker 1: bare parts, and so they sent private like undercover guys
Speaker 1: into some of these areas call bladders, and so this
Speaker 1: guy kind of became your friend here. I didn't trust
Speaker 1: him really right off the bat. You didn't trust him.
Speaker 1: You can tell hey, get drunk, come in drunk everything.
Speaker 1: And then so once you got out there, what did
Speaker 1: he how How did you guys know that he was
Speaker 1: trying to set you up? All right? Taylor? Now he
Speaker 1: was acting blood You can't tell mhm. But I never
Speaker 1: did saying it or nothing. You didn't have anything to hide.
Speaker 1: I stayed all night in their car had tore up
Speaker 1: on top of that mountain. I stayed all night and
Speaker 1: that time slept under two sleeping bays and then them
Speaker 1: do it that way. That that was coming back in
Speaker 1: years ago where they would catch some people, you know,
Speaker 1: like they ought to from, you know, doing something that
Speaker 1: was illegal. Then a lot they did would just set
Speaker 1: people up and trap them. I am, and he got
Speaker 1: lost up our candle was I need give up? He
Speaker 1: just give up. Pull that sweater down over his head
Speaker 1: to keep them flows o head. Finally got we finally
Speaker 1: got him. He got lost. You get turned around very careful.
Speaker 1: There's no GPS back then or nothing. You have a compass,
Speaker 1: wasn't it. We didn't need our compass all right? That
Speaker 1: peeddlers wore. We stayed. He's a German or partner or
Speaker 1: some kind. He told us to get us to take guide.
Speaker 1: He always he The next day he left, which somewhere
Speaker 1: when you come back, I didn't know. We got a
Speaker 1: rug that made out how did hang up in the tree,
Speaker 1: and I know, naming them kill He looked at us
Speaker 1: and he said, well you crazy. He's something to beaches.
Speaker 1: I'll never forget it, baby, and people wearing irish theyver
Speaker 1: come out. He couldn't believe y'all went back in that
Speaker 1: could he he couldn't believe it. M I never did
Speaker 1: worry about getting lost. If you're keeping pictured in your mind,
Speaker 1: you turn right and left turns. I'm in. You know
Speaker 1: you won't get lost from back way went. So you
Speaker 1: never had any trouble with directions like that. So you
Speaker 1: just you envisioned, you just kind of kept track of
Speaker 1: what you did. It was that simple. Huh, you're looking
Speaker 1: at Matt first. I didn't have him ap you earlier.
Speaker 1: You said you wouldn't. You wouldn't trade anything for the
Speaker 1: For what you've learned out bear hunting? What what was
Speaker 1: your favorite part of it all? Listen to people, don't
Speaker 1: car I guess really just enjoying yourself. I had a
Speaker 1: good bunch hunt with. What did you learn about a bear?
Speaker 1: Be careful watching your flights of bar If you get
Speaker 1: him down, don't let him up. We will hurt you.
Speaker 1: Did you ever get hurt by a bear? No? And
Speaker 1: I have shot him just I'm shot him more that
Speaker 1: there's big gutting down here. I don't know how many
Speaker 1: I've killed That way seem like when you shoot one,
Speaker 1: don't get it right there. It had come towards you
Speaker 1: every time. What would you say to young bear hunters
Speaker 1: these days. What advius would you give them? You learned
Speaker 1: by listening with a lot of stuff. Pay attention to
Speaker 1: your dogs. It's good advice for him. Dogs can smell
Speaker 1: that barn, you can't. Yeah, and check and make sure
Speaker 1: you drive from bar mm hmm. Well, any are there
Speaker 1: any other stories you'd like to tell us? Can thank you? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure they are if I can thank yeah. Yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: thank you for letting us come and talk to you today.
Speaker 1: You're welcome, appreciate it. Tracy, can you can you think
Speaker 1: of anything? Yes? Yeah, we've killed barn? The hell bind
Speaker 1: that bar? Mhm, Well, thank you so much for letting
Speaker 1: us come in our pleasure to talk with you. And uh,
Speaker 1: you're what you did as a young man and was
Speaker 1: just throughout your life was it was something that not
Speaker 1: a lot of people, not a lot of people have
Speaker 1: done hunting these mountains in this part of the country,
Speaker 1: rough country. A real bear hunter, that's that's that's a
Speaker 1: valuable thing. I think was you. Was your dad a
Speaker 1: dog hunter too, elder Yeah, he like couna I've been
Speaker 1: hunting with. Started out with ms little retread possum down right.
Speaker 1: Now we'll blow old home play he climbatory and put
Speaker 1: the postum in shack and not let the dogs buy it.
Speaker 1: You know on TI I secured the death read something
Speaker 1: to get me? Mm hmm. That's how little? When you
Speaker 1: were growing up? Did you have electricity? And uh what
Speaker 1: year were you born in? Did you have electricity at
Speaker 1: your house when you were born? No? Ready to put in?
Speaker 1: Did you have an indoor bathroom or our house? Would
Speaker 1: your daddy a farmer? Two? Is that how you may
Speaker 1: live in? Yeah? And here's an all time sriff And
Speaker 1: like Burie, I didn't know it. And Bury's big buddies.
Speaker 1: What was your daddy's name? He love Joy? Love Joy?
Speaker 1: Really that's one word two two together. I mean hello
Speaker 1: Joy mh. I'll be darn. He's party Indian jerkey. I
Speaker 1: don't know, just partying. And all I know she said
Speaker 1: your daddy used to hunt down moonshine steels and you
Speaker 1: used to make it, so I guess, uh yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: thank you for taking the time to talk to us today.
Speaker 1: I really do. Thank you. Thank you,