December 25, 2024 • 45 mins
We step back in time in this episode of the Bear Grease Podcast as host Clay Newcomb highlights some of his most memorable moments in the history of Bear Grease. Relive interviews from Warner Glenn from Arizona, Brit Davis from eastern Tennessee, Stoney Edwards from Arkansas, Donnie Baker from Missouri, and a story from long hunter and author Frederick Gerstäcker on the tragic death of his friend and hunting companion Erskine.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
On this episode released on Christmas Day twenty twenty four,
We're going back to revisit some iconic moments in the
last three and a half years of the Bear Grease podcast.
When I thought about what moments stood out to me,
I quickly just rattled off five right in a row
without really even thinking about it. So today we're gonna
(00:25):
hear clips from Arizona cowboy Warner Glenn. We're gonna hear
from ninety year old East Tennessee bear hunter Britt Davis.
It's number two. We're gonna hear the account of Erskine's
death in eighteen forty one from a bear attack. The
fourth one, we're gonna hear from Stony Edwards talking about
(00:46):
the murder of his great uncle Carl Edwards. And lastly,
we're gonna hear a clip from the Donnie Baker episode
Donnie's from Missouri, and it's him talking about the moment
that he is legally killed a two hundred and nine
inch white tail. It's like the Bear Grease time machine.
(01:07):
We're gonna go back and it's gonna be a lot
of fun. And I really doubt that you're gonna want
to miss this one. And while you're listening, I'd like
to ask a favor of you. Email us at bear
Grease at the Meat Eater dot com and tell us
your favorite bear Grease moment. My name is Klay Nukem
(01:35):
and this is the bear Grease Podcast, where we'll explore
things forgotten but relevant, search for insight and unlikely places,
and where we'll tell the story of Americans who live
their lives close to the land. Presented by FHF Gear,
American made purpose built hunting and fishing gear that's designed
(01:58):
to be as rugged as the place that's we explore.
Warner Glenn is an eighty nine year old rancher from
southeast Arizona who's made his living as a cattleman on
his Malpie ranch, of which his southern fence line is
(02:20):
the US Mexican border. No kidding. Warner Glenn is also
a houndsman and a legendary dry ground mountain lion hunter.
Dry ground meaning they're hunting in the desert without snow.
That's why I knew him. He's got to be one
of the oldest still working line hunters and cowboys left
in America, known to put on twenty five hundred plus
(02:41):
miles per year on his mule. Even today, Warner is
one of the most humble, toughest, and hardest working men
that I have ever interfaced with, and you kind of
just get that sense when you're around him for a
few hours. This clip is from twenty twenty one, when
I asked him about a turning point in his life
(03:02):
when he got into some trouble with the law. This
clip was pulled out of episode twenty two titled American
Cowboy in Open Country Warner Glenn Part one. The fruit
of success almost always grows from the seed of failure,
(03:22):
and sometimes that part of the journey is overlooked. An
influential event in mister Warner's life took place in the
early nineteen eighties, long before the success of the Malpi
Borderlands Group, and I want to see if mister Warner
is open to talking about it. You got in a
tussle with one of the border agents.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Yeah, I did.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Did that change the way you saw that you needed
to deal with people? Can you talk to me about that?
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Well? Sure, you bet that did.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
The kind of tell me the story and then tell
me how it affects.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
I had a pretty pretty volatile temper when I was younger,
and a lot of stuff. But I did them that
I wouldn't do that day. I did my butt take
down anyway, I.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Don't know, you still look pretty wiry.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
That fellow was. That fellow was out of line, no
doubt about it. He told me what he could do
in anywhere he wanted on my feet land and I had.
I couldn't do anything about it, and I told him
I thought it could, and he said, well, you sure can.
So I did. But anyway, it got me in a
big trouble. Yet, one thing about it. He was a
(04:31):
federal uniformed officer. My docture took him to the ground
and rubbed his head in the dirt.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
I mean, it was just a how old were you,
mister Warner?
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Probably forty seven, forty eight? Okay, Well I could go
on and on about that, but that, of course, that's
a felony. Anytime you had touch a federal officer in
assault a federal officer, that's a fellay charged. And there's
no doubt about it. I did it, There wasn't and
I never made any excuse. I just told him why
(05:05):
I did it. And I didn't go to prison, but
I came that close. And also if you have a
fellow in charge, you can't have a fire on him
for so many years, and it affects your way of life.
So just taught me, big boy, you better be careful
what you're doing. And they told me some of the agents.
They had an agent that dealt with things like that,
and they came and talked to me, and they said,
(05:26):
wonder what you should have done is gone to his
supervisor and let them take care of it. And I said, well,
now I can see that. At the time, I was hot,
I was tired, and this guy was telling me one
and he was standing on my private land and we
were talking about the effect of vehicle traffic over my
private land where there was no roads. I just figured
(05:51):
that in my way of thinking, right then I had
a right to protect my problem too. But he was
but he wasn't a federal. I wasn't wrong, no doubt,
but so was he. And well, the way it turned out,
I didn't go to prison and they shipped him out
of here. Yeah, and it was, but it was a
(06:12):
thing that I wished I had gone about it well.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
But what I take away from it is that later
you became very skillful in dealing with these people, and
that that event changed the course of kind of how
you were and how you worked with these Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Yeah, And really I respect the law enforcement. I mean,
there are some guys in law enforcement that probably don't
deserve to be there, but by and large I had
backed those guys, and part of that's just I kind
of learned. You know, they've got a they've got a
(06:49):
job to do, and it's a tough one. I'm not
ashamed that that happened, but it taught me a good lesson.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
You know, I deeply value that you can say that,
because a lot of times negative things happen to people
and it shapes them and makes them bitter and changes
their life for the negative. But what I respect about
your character is that that you know you can own
up to it. But I think it I think it
changed you for the better.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
I'll tell you a little. I went and told Daddy
because I knew he was gonna he was gonna play out.
And he sat there and listen. After I through telling me,
he said, I didn't know, as you get a lot
to hit one of those best.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Man, your dad, he was taking your side, wouldn't he.
That's all good. Dad's supposed to do. I hope you
don't get the wrong idea about Warner. If you listen
to the series, you'd see why this was such a
wild moment because it was so out of character for
him to beat up a federal officer. But it highlights
(07:55):
the gritty underbelly of Western ranchers and especially those on
the Mexican border. I'll never interview another man like Warner.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Glenn.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
I was forever impacted by his character, and for that reason,
he's in the Bear Grease Hall of Fame. Warner series
was episodes twenty two through twenty six. In this next clip,
I want to go back to East Tennessee in Cock County,
in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains. This was just
(08:25):
a short interview. It wasn't even the main interview, but
we're speaking with eighty nine year old Britt Davis, who
is the father in law Bear Grease Hall of Famer
plot hound bear hunter Roy Clark, who you may remember.
This is on episode eight. It's way back in the
beginning in a podcast titled fifty Years in the Backer Field,
(08:49):
where Britt talks about his upbringing and chokes up when
he talks about his father's death. Mister Britt, how old
are you?
Speaker 2 (08:58):
If I lived the second dead June, i'll.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Be ninety ninety. What year were you born?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Thirty one?
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Nineteen thirty one, so you grew up you were? Were
you born in this hollow?
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Yeah? Right up a little there, about two miles.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Now what kind of work did you do your whole life?
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Well? I farmed some, I log some, and I worked
about a year on this interstate down here, and then
I went to work for the county Road Department and
stayed dead, little retard.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Have you ever have you traveled much out of Appalachia? No,
you've stayed right here.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
I went to Texas one time whenever Roy was an
army out there, and that's on the trip I ever made. Really,
I lived on up in the Gulf up third Well,
I'd say we was up for about four or five years.
So my daddy got killed up there, and I enjoyed
dead up our lord?
Speaker 1 (09:58):
How did your father get killed?
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Of the log? The log rolled over?
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Really? How old were you?
Speaker 2 (10:03):
I was about twelve year old?
Speaker 4 (10:05):
Wow?
Speaker 1 (10:06):
How did that impact your life?
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Well, it made it rough on me for a while. Yeah,
it was up there whenever they about the time it
started logging it, but he got killed. We left at
(10:29):
a long time before the gut loom.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
So did you have to kind of were you the
oldest son his illness son, so you kind of had
to take care of your family?
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Really, so was that a lot of responsibility for you then?
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Yeah? We moved back home here up here, and my
grandparents hit me with it and I raised a crop
of the bicker and boughket a place where I lived.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
M How old were you?
Speaker 2 (11:00):
I'd say I was about thirteen?
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Really, So you you raised a crop of tobacco when
you were thirteen? Yeah, and bought a piece of property.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
And that's the property that we went to earlier today
up at the head of this holler.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
She gonna pull out here.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Yeah, so you.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Bought that place when you were thirteen. Yeah, I'll be daring.
And so you've lived you've lived there your whole life, Yeah,
whole life. What What are your earliest memories, mister Britton?
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Oh low, I can I can remember things back then,
buttering again now, really, I can remember a carrying me
and us is stopping and talking to our neighbors. That
was before we moved the good.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
So that was in the nineteen thirties. Did your family
have a car that had an automobile?
Speaker 2 (11:52):
No?
Speaker 1 (11:53):
No, what how did you get around?
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Walked? Walked?
Speaker 1 (11:58):
You didn't everything you needed you could walk to get.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Yeah, this little stores all around here, M three or four.
Well of the first I'd say it was in the
late thirties of the early forties. Before that, there's there
was a car in this country, Is that right? Yeah?
The doctor lived right up the older.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
He had to first tell me about how the doctor
worked in this community.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
He'd go around in the and he's with his horse
and people wanted to be doctored that tie read or
a white flag on the mail walks, and.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Each he'd ride his horse up to your house and
knock on the door and say what's wrong.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
And then he finally got a car, and it didn't
they do the same thing.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Do you ever remember being sick and him having to
come to your house, the doctor on you?
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Really, what would you have been sick from?
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Maybe the strip the old or something like.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
That, and he'd come give you some penicillin maybe or something.
That's what he doctored with penicillin.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
When did electricity come back in here?
Speaker 2 (13:09):
I'd say it was about fifty two or fifty three
before I got it.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
So you were in your twenties before you had electricity. Yeah,
do you remember those days?
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Oh? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (13:20):
What would what would you do? Once it got dark?
Would you light the house with.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Lamp?
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Or what kind of lamp? Was the coal burning? And
you would what would you do? You would sit around
with the family.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
We'd just sit around and go to bed. I guess
that's they finally got a radio.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Mister Britt. Do you remember when John F. Kennedy died President?
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Do you remember where you were? Was that a significant
where I was at where we are we enter.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
I was running the road rider over on Tom's Creek,
and I just fardy got a paste an old man's house,
and he come out and run up a little behind
me and hollered at me and told me about.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Do you hear what they're saying, mister Britt? They're saying,
because because you were the only child, you've been spoiled
your whole life. Do you agree with that?
Speaker 2 (14:20):
I wouldn't hardly say that.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
I've never forgotten that. When Britt was thirteen years old,
he raised a crop of tobacco and bought a place
for him and his mother to live after his father died. Today,
mister Britt is ninety two years old and still drives
the roads listening to bear races in the fall. I'll
never forget that moment. This next clip is a little different.
(14:53):
It wasn't an interview, but it's a reading of the
first hand account of the German immigrant to America Gershtalker,
recounting the death of his hunting partner Erskine in eighteen
forty one. It's a wild story from episode four titled
Death of a Bear Hunter. There are too many of
(15:16):
Gershtalker's incredible stories to tell on this podcast, but I
want to tell you one that cut me to the
quick when I first read it. It involved a man
being killed by a bear in a creek drainage less
than twenty miles from where I live. I was shocked
and slightly offended that nobody ever told me this story.
(15:36):
I want you to hear the first hand account from
Gershtoker of the death of his friend Erskine. This is
an excerpt from the book Wild Sports, published in eighteen
fifty four. This story is taken out of context, so
(15:57):
there are some characters you'll need to know well as
Gershtalker's older American hunting partner and friend with hair as
white as snow. He said, Conwell lived in Arkansas. Wachiga
is a Cherokee that became a trusted friend and hunting
partner of Gershtalker. And you'll be introduced to young Erskine,
(16:18):
who Gershtalker had met some years before in the back country.
So we were off again before noon and gain the
source of the hurricane. Rode across the Devil's stepping path,
a narrow rock with a precipice on each side, left
the pilot rock on our left, and came towards evening
(16:40):
into the pine forest where we were sure of finding kindlers.
Descending the steep side of a mountain, we observed a
thin column of blue smoke by the side of the stream,
showing that some hunters were in camp there. We went
straight towards it and found it to be an Indian
camp in our former acquaintance young Erskine. Among them they
(17:02):
were Cherokees with three young chop tawls. These two tribes
being on good terms like ourselves, They were out bear hunting,
but it had better luck. A quantity of bear meat
was hanging about the camp and even the dogs would
eat no more. Casting ourselves down by the fire, one
of the squalls, for there were several women in the camp,
immediately cooked for us some bear, which we duly regaled ourselves.
(17:28):
Night came on, and soon we were all sunk in
deep repose. Early in the morning we began to move,
dividing into two parties for the better chance of finding game.
Conwell went with some of the Indians, amongst whom he
had found an old acquaintance, to make a circuit round
the pilot Rock, while Erskine and I, with three Cherokees,
(17:50):
proceeded to the sources of the frog Bayou. Knight found
us far from our camp, so we made one for ourselves.
Where we were on the morning of February first, we
had hardly started ere we heard the dogs, which he could,
declared instantly that they were his brothers, and disappeared behind
the rocks without another word. As we stood listening, the
sound seemed to take a different direction. We ascended the
(18:13):
mountain as fast as we could to cut off the chase,
but found that we must have been mistaken, for in
a few minutes all was as silent as a grave.
Once we thought we heard a shot, but we couldn't
be certain. We ascended to the highest terrace and walked
slowly on, looking out for fresh signs, and listening to
catch the sound of the dog below. Amongst the broken
(18:34):
masses of rock, they might be near without being heard.
Along the mountaintops, they are audible at a great distance.
It may have been two in the afternoon, and we
had seen nothing when bears grease raised his nose in
the air, remained for an instant or two in a
fixed position, then given a short smothered howl, dashed down
(18:54):
the mountain side. Listening attentively, we heard the chase coming
down the Hurricane River. Erskine and called out triumphantly, we
shall have plenty of bear this evening, and dashed after
the dog. I was soon by his side. I must
observe by the way that we were both very hungry. Presently,
a bear broke through the bushes. A projecting rock stopped
(19:15):
him for an instant when Erskine saluted him with a ball.
He received mine. As he rushed past and disappeared. The dogs,
encouraged to greater efforts by our shots, and the stronger
scent followed him out. Bear's grease, who was quite fresh
leading the van. Soon they came upon him and stopped him.
We rushed to the spot, without waiting to reload, and
(19:35):
arriving in time to see the beast, excited to the
greatest fury, kill four of our best dogs with as
many blows of his paws. But the others threw themselves
on him with greater animosity, and if our rifles had
been loaded, we could not have used them. Just as
a large, powerful brown dog, which had furiously attacked the bear,
was knocked over, bleeding and howling, Erskine called out, Oh
(19:59):
save the dog, threw down his rifle and rushed on
with his knife among the furious group. I followed on
the instant. When the bear saws coming, he exerted still
more force to beat off the dogs and meet us.
Seizing his opportunity, my comrade ran his steel into his side.
The bear turned on him like lightning and seized him,
(20:22):
and he uttered a shrill, piercing shriek. Driven to desperation
by the sight, I plunged my knife three times into
the monster's body with all my force, without thinking of
jumping back. At the third thrust, the bear turned upon me,
seeing as Paul coming. I attempted to evade the blow,
felt a sharp pang, and sunk senseless to the ground.
(20:47):
When I recovered my senses, bear's grease was licking the
blood from my face. On attempting to rise, I felt
a severe pain in my left side and was unable
to move my left arm. On making a fresh effort,
I succeeded in sitting up. The bear was close to me,
and less than three feet from him, lay erskine, stiff
(21:08):
and cold. I sprang up with a cry of horror
and rushed towards him. It was too true. He was
bathed in blood, his face torn to pieces, his right
shoulder almost wrenched away from his body, and five of
the best dogs ripped up with broken limbs, lying beside him.
The bear was so covered with blood that his color
(21:30):
was hardly discernible. My left arm appeared to be out
of socket, but I could feel that no bones were broken.
The sun had gone down, and I'd hoped that the
other hunters might have heard our shots and the barking
and howling of the dogs. It grew dark.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
No one came.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
I roared and shouted like mad, but no one heard me.
I tried to light a fire, but my left arm
was so swelled that I gave up the attempt. But
as it would have been certain death to pass the
night under the circums dances without a fire, I tore
away part of the back of my hunting shirt, and
the fore part, being saturated with blood, sprinkled some powder
(22:08):
on it, rubbed it well, and with my right hand
I shook a little powder into my rifle. Placing the
muzzle on the rag, I fired, blowing it up to
a flame. I piled on dry leaves and twigs, and
succeeded in making a good fire, though with great pain
and trouble. Now it was dark, I went to my
dead comrade, who was lying about five yards from the fire.
(22:30):
He was already stiff, and it was with great difficulty
that I could pull down his arms and lay him straight,
Nor could I keep his eyes closed, though I laid
small stones on them. The dogs were very hungry, but
it was impossible for me to break up the bear,
only ripped him up and fed them with his entrols.
(22:50):
Bear's grease laid himself down by the corpse, looking steadfastly
in his face, and went no more near the bear
and hoping of obtaining help, I loaded and fired twice,
but nothing moved. The forest appeared one enormous grave. I
(23:10):
felt very ill, vomited several times as well as I could.
I laid myself down beside the fire and lost all
consciousness of my wretched situation. Whether I slept or fainted
is more than I can tell, but I know that
I dreamed that I was at home in my bed,
and my mother brought me some tea and laid her
hand on my breast. Such an awakening as I had,
(23:37):
was worse than I could wish. To my bitterest enemy,
Bear's greased had pressed close to my side, lying his
head on my breast. The fire was almost out, and
I was shivering with cold, and the wolves were howling
fearfully around the dead, keeping at a distance for fear
of the living, but by no means disposed to lose
their prey. I rose with difficulty and laid more wood
(23:59):
on the fire. As it burned up, the face of
the corpse seemed to brighten. I started, but found it
was only an optical delusion. Louder and fiercer howled the
wolves and the dogs, of whom five were alive. Besides
bear grease answered them. But the answer was by no
means one of defiance, rather a lament for the dead,
(24:20):
partly to scare away the wolves, and partly in hope
of finding help. I loaded and fired three times. My
delight was inexpressible as I heard three shots in return,
I loaded and fired until all my powder was expended.
As morning broke, I heard two shots not far off,
and soon after a third. A shipwrecked mariner hanging to
(24:42):
the side of a plank could not raise his voice
more lustily to hail a passing ship than I did,
and joy upon joy, I heard a human voice and answer.
The bark of the dogs announced a stranger, and Wachiga
advanced out of the bush wall, he exclaimed. Staring at
the shocking spectacle, he felt poor erskine and shook his
(25:04):
head mournfully. He turned to me. I showed him my
swollen arm, which he examined attentively. Without speaking, Forming a
hollow with his two hands and placing into his lips,
he gave a loud, piercing shout. The answer came from
no great distance, and in a few minutes my old
dear friend Conwell and most of the Indians were at
my side. I grasped Conwell's hands sorrowfully and told him
(25:28):
in few words how it all had happened. The old
man scolded and said, it served us right. There's no
greater danger in sticking a knife into a bear's paunch
when he's falling with the dogs upon him. But if
he has been thrown and then catches the sight of
his greatest enemy man, he exerts all his force to
attack him, and woe to him who comes within reach
(25:49):
of his paws. It was all very well talking. He
had not been present and seeing one dog after another
knocked over, never to rise again, five minutes more and
not one would have been saved. And who knows whether
the enraged beasts would not have attacked us. Then meanwhile,
the Indians had been digging a grave with their tomahawks,
(26:12):
wrapping the body in a blanket. They laid him in
it and covered him with earth and heavy stones. Conwell
cut down some young stems and made a fence around
the solitary grave. I could not avoid a shudder at
the quiet coolness of the whole proceeding, as the thought
struck me that the same persons under the same circumstances
(26:33):
would have treated me in the same cool way had
I fallen instead of Erskine. Like me, he was a
lonely stranger in a foreign land, having left England some
years before, and his friends and relations will probably never
know what became of him. Thousands perish in this way
in America, of whom nothing more is heard, and perhaps
(26:55):
in a few months the remembrance of them was entirely
passed away.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
To the dead was.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Quietly laid in the grave. Wachiga came with an elderly
Indian to look at my arm. Wachiga moved it while
the other looked steadfastly in my face. The pain was
enough to drive me mad, but I would not utter
a sound. Next, the Indian took hold of my arm,
laying his left hand on my shoulder, and while Wachiga
suddenly seized me round the body from behind, the other
(27:22):
pulled with all his force. The pain at first was
so great that I almost feinted, but it gradually diminished.
In spite of my resolve to show no signs of it,
I could not suppress a shriek. Conwell soon after asked
if I could ride on my answering yes, he helped
me on a horse, then throwing the bear's skin and
(27:42):
some of the meat on his own, we moved slowly homewards.
My sufferings on the way were very great, but I
uttered no murmur. I only longed for repose. That's one
of my favorite stories of all time. I get chills
(28:04):
listening to parts of it, and for that reason, Frederick
Gershtacker is also in the Beargreas Hall of Fame. We
did a series in twenty twenty two that was meaningful
to me called Genuine Outlaws. It was about two men
(28:27):
from my hometown in western Arkansas named Blue Dell and
Charlie Edwards. They both passed on now but were notorious
turkey poachers, but also beloved people in our community. As
a kid, I was always a little bit confused by this.
You know, did we like them or did we not?
Were they dangerous or were they friends? But this story
(28:49):
explores a bigger question of America's fascination with outlaws through
the story of these two brothers. This clip is from
episode fifty two and starts with game warden Jimmy Martin,
who chased the brothers his whole career, but the story
transitions to Stony Edwards, Charlie's son, talking about some deep
family history that might have helped tip their tendencies towards outlaw.
Speaker 5 (29:16):
There are old time poachers that grew up in hard times.
Most of them did the ones that I ran across,
the hardcore matters that used mets and the rivers and
on the lakes, the hard time night hunters for deer,
you know, the bad turkey poachers, the bad daytime deer hunters.
They were all from old times when times was tough,
(29:40):
meat was hard to come by, and outlaw and was
just a way of life. Most of the old hard, hard,
hardcore poachers came from moonshiner families.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Old time poachers and moonshiners, remember those two things. The
first family member that I went to and I got
permission with Stony Edwards, the son of Charlie. I drove
out to the Big Fort community and found him at
the Big Fort Mall, which is a small gas station
that he and his wife run. I told him I
(30:14):
wanted to tell the whole story his dad and uncle,
and he agreed. He began by showing me a story
from nineteen twenty six. That's an interesting puzzle piece. Tragedy
literally struck the Edwards family. I'm reading from a laminated
newspaper clipping bound in a three ring binder. So this
(30:36):
is nineteen twenty six and it says officers shoot Carl
Edwards in Polk County. Carl Edwards was killed in Montgomery
County Sunday afternoon by a bullet fired by some member
of a posse that had just arrested two alleged moonshiners
and probably were searching for more or for anyone connected
with the illicit traffic. Edwards, twenty three year old resident
(30:58):
of Heath Valley, which is right in Polk County, was
shot and instantly killed as he drove his Ford car
homeward from a hunting trip in Montgomery County. A single
bullet fired by one of the posse's six officers and
said to have wounded Edwards's brother, kill the dog, and
then given Carl Edwards a mortal womb as he set
at the steering wheel. The tragedy occurred the Government Road
(31:20):
between Big Fok and Norman. So who was Carl Edwards?
To you?
Speaker 6 (31:26):
He would have been my dad's uncle, Okay, my grandfather's brother.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
So what were they doing? They were trying to get
away from No.
Speaker 6 (31:35):
In all actuality, uncle Landy was only I think he
was only like ten. They had been coon hunting. They
had coon dog in the car and Uncle Landy was
in the car and they were coming back and the
officers hollered for him to stop, and Carl hollered a
will at the bottom of the hill. Car didn't having brakes.
But you got to take the previous history into account
(31:59):
because they had been trying to catch him for years
and hadn't been able to so when he didn't stop
on command, they opened fire. And of course this ad
came from the newspaper, which I'm gonna say his bias
towards law enforcement at the time. It wasn't because those
men loaded my uncle up, drove him to my great grandparents'
(32:22):
house and dropped him on the porch when he was
shot dead. Yeah, they left him dead on the front porch.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
Wow.
Speaker 6 (32:29):
Uncle Andy was shot through the ear.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
He was just a kid.
Speaker 6 (32:32):
He was ten years old. He was shot through the ear,
and of course it.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
Killed his dad and his son in the car with
a coon dog.
Speaker 6 (32:39):
No, it was two brothers, two brothers. Yeah, they were
thirteen years apart.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
Oh, I see, I see.
Speaker 6 (32:44):
And the coon dog in the car and it.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
Was a coon dog. Okay, no, it did say it
killed the dog.
Speaker 6 (32:51):
It killed the dog, killed Carl and wounded in So Carl.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Was a known moonshiner and they'd been trying to catch him.
Speaker 6 (32:58):
Well, you got to consider his His dad went to
Levenworth Prison for moonshining. So basically the whole family was
in the business. There's no way around it. Yeah, my
great grandfather had seven sons.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
And they all lived out here in the valley.
Speaker 6 (33:13):
Yeah, right over there where I live now. We're still
on the original Edward's home plush.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
The whole family was quote in the business of moonshining,
and the killing of Carl Edwards and his coon dog
in nineteen twenty six was a tough pill for the
family to swallow, and Uncle Andy, who was just a
child at the time, had a partly shot off ears
whole life. A week after the shooting. The six officers
(33:44):
involved would be charged with murder. Carl Edwards was Louis
Dell and Charlie's uncle, though he died before they were
ever born. This is another newspaper clipping. Charges of murder
have been made against six officers who were the posse
that caused the death of Carl Edwards in Montgomery County
last Sunday afternoon. The six were Sheriff George how it
(34:07):
names all their names. Ruben Edwards, a brother of the
man killed, was in Mina Tuesday, and stated that the
accused officers had been summoned to court. I just wanted
to say this was a murder case, and I mean
that in and of itself could lead to a family
having some bad taste in their mouth for the law.
Speaker 6 (34:28):
If it hadn't been for Rube at that time, the
other brothers would have killed all six officers. Rube stopped
it and said that it would go to court.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
And it'd be better off taking them to court than
killing them.
Speaker 6 (34:40):
But the brothers would have killed them, and they're lucky
that they didn't.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Later on, lucky is probably a good descriptor, because all
six officers would be acquitted of the murder charges they
got off. None of them were convicted, nor was there
any recompense for the coon dog. This isn't the best
way to gain the trust of the government's law men.
(35:06):
I'd known Louis Dell and Charlie my whole life but
this was the first time I'd heard this story of
their families past. Sometimes the reasons why people are the
way they are go way back, and I don't view
that as an excuse for breaking the law. We've all
got things in our past that shape us that we
have to overcome. But the redemption in this story that
(35:29):
I see today is that the Edwards clan do their
best to follow the law Outlaw and has kind of
faded into the past for them coming from where they did.
I respect that The genuine Outlaw series was episode fifty
two through fifty six. My buddy Steve Ranella says that
it's his favorite Beargary series. Lastly, I'd like to go
(35:53):
back to January to episode one eight, titled the Donnie
Baker Story Mayor. It was our most listened to episode
in twenty twenty four and many people were struck by
Donnie's fourth right and it's about a dark time in
his life when he illegally killed a two hundred and
nine inch buck on the military base Fort leonard Wood
(36:15):
in Central Missouri. Here's Donnie talking about the moment he
saw the buck from his truck.
Speaker 7 (36:24):
So as I as I kind of hit my brakes
and it spooks him a little bit and he hops
down to the timberline. But when he gets to the timberline,
in front of him are two really good bucks. It
was a massive, huge eight point with a little bitty
brow tines and a really nice ten. So I pulled down.
There's a running track there in some porta potties. So
I pulled down to those porta potties and I thought, right,
(36:45):
I thought I could kill it deer right there.
Speaker 4 (36:47):
And like I.
Speaker 7 (36:48):
Said, it was just kind of I don't know if
you ever when you was a kid shot at a
bird on a setting in a tree or something, just
kind of and then when you do kill it, you think, oh, man,
that's kind of what I went through there. But I
knew it was an on hunting area. So I grabbed
my bow and just jeans and boots and well behind
the porta potties up this little rise and there was
(37:09):
a big old red oak that had died and fell over.
And when I got to that red oak, I was
considering if I should hunker down there or climb over it.
Speaker 4 (37:15):
And as I'm as I'm contemplating that.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
So I mean, at this point, you've made a decision
you're illegally kill this.
Speaker 4 (37:21):
Yeah, and let me ask you this.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
I mean, I think every human has experienced a moral
dilemma of being given an opportunity that they know is
wrong and them not taking it.
Speaker 4 (37:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
But then there's like this this suck, this drawl, that
something happens that all of a sudden you cross into
a red zone and it's something flips.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (37:48):
Well was at this time, Clay I had I had
seen I'd had twenty two in my truck multiple times
from from squirrel hunting. When I've seen this deer. You know,
if if I had set out to poach this deer,
I mean, I could have shot it many times. But
when I saw that deer for the first time, I said,
I've got to kill that deer. I mean, it just
felt like that was almost a rite of passage for
(38:10):
people who think that I was a good quality bow hunters.
Speaker 4 (38:12):
I was going to have killed this monster deer.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
There's some profoundness in Donnie's honest, simple conclusion of his motivation.
He was a twenty six year old man hungry for
validation from the world around him, and killing a big
deer with his bow was a pathway to gain respect.
I get it. I remember when the picture of the
(38:38):
first decent deer that I killed hung on the wall
at the local bow shop, and I soaked up any
validation that I could get from anywhere. Validation for grand
feats are important in a young man's life or a
young woman's life, but when they're stolen, the system is
cheated and it produces the opposite of what it's supposed to.
(38:59):
It's supposed to identity and self confidence and a sense
of worth, but what it actually creates is insecurity when
it's stolen. But let's get back to Donnie. Here's what happened.
Speaker 7 (39:11):
So when I knew where that deer was going to go,
I knew it was illegal, but never really give that
a consideration. Just the only thing I was saying about
is wanting to kill it deer. I needed to kill
that deer some reason. I just thought that that's something
I had to do. And as they get to that
red oak, I'm considered, if I need to climb over
(39:33):
to hunker down there, and it's just a few yards
off of it's a high line, and it's kind of
it's pretty clean.
Speaker 4 (39:38):
There's a little brush there.
Speaker 7 (39:40):
As I'm I'm sure I'm moving around and I look
up in that big ten is twenty five yards from me,
staring at me. Well, he blows and takes off running,
and I thought, gosh, dang, I mean I blew that up,
still not thinking, you know, hope nobody's seen me or whatever.
And as I watched them cross Army Street, I look
back where they were, and a probably thirty five yards
(40:01):
behind him, that bucks stand there staring right at me,
wide open between he and I. I really believe if
he was a National Force wild deer, he'd have been gone.
Speaker 4 (40:11):
To you know.
Speaker 7 (40:12):
I shoot a single pin hha side and I had
had an arrow knock. I knocked narrow forore. I set
my bow on that red oak, trying to side where
I was going to try to get. So I draw
my bow back and he's still just standing there. I mean,
he's looking right at me. I know that if I
can fall it into his front end, high success rate
killing him. And I put that pen right underneath his nose,
just right about the top of his white patch and
(40:34):
turn it blues.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
I wonder how long it took Adam, after sinking his
teeth through the skin of the forbidden apple, to regret
his decision, the bite initiated a sequence of unretractable consequences.
Man's always had a problem with laws, breaking them, that is,
But laws are the guideposts of societal security, designed for
(41:01):
the well being of us. All the truth is is
that everybody wants some form of law in their life
to protect them and their interests, even in a time
in America where we're talking about liberty and freedom and
laws take away all this stuff which I am generally
absolutely in agreement with. However, I'm telling you we all
(41:22):
love laws, but we like to cherry pick. The ones
that we'd like to break are the ones that infringe
upon our personal freedom. And it's kind of bizarre. Human
life is complex, society's complex. As I'm sitting here with
Donnie hearing this story for the first time, I am
(41:42):
struck with a palpable sense of remorse as the arrow
drifts through the air and hits the buck just below
the throat patch. Later we'll learn that as a society,
we demand remorse from the people who've cheated the system
ahead of myself. The buck has just been shot.
Speaker 7 (42:03):
The first thing I think is I shot him right
in the front leg, and that was the first sick
feeling I got in bout. I thought, oh my gosh,
I just win that monster, dear, and shouldn't he been
doing this? And that's still running through my mind when
I hear him crash, and then reality starts setting in
good and grief. So I set my bow down, ease
up to the eye, look around, make sure there's no
(42:24):
cars coming down the highway, and there's nobody really in
that area at that time. Nobody had to run and
trap where I was parking with him, So I instead
of blood trailing him, I kind of stay out of sight,
and I sneak down there where I thought I heard
him crash and he's laying there dead, and to walk up.
Speaker 4 (42:39):
On him and grab his antlers.
Speaker 7 (42:41):
You should feel the most excitement you've ever had in
your life, other than like one of your kids being
born or something. And I kind of had the opposite feeling,
and I immediately I thought, there's no way that I'm
going to get away with this.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
The Donnie Baker series is one that you just have
to listen to understand. The crescendo of the final episode,
number one eighty two left a lot of grown men
in tears. How could a poaching story do that. It
surprised me too. As I analyze these stories that stood
out to me, there's kind of an odd theme at
(43:17):
least in three of them, and that is people breaking
the law. And I can see how it might be
possible to miss the point. I don't claim to be perfect.
I was raised by Gary Bilivernukam, who taught me to
be a law Biden Feller, and to the best of
my ability, I've lived by that code. But really, what
(43:37):
I'm interested in these stories is the redemption. All these
stories have a heavy dose of redemption. I can't thank
you enough for listening to Bear Grease as we close
the year. I'm truly grateful for every one of you
that listen and support Brent and I on this Bear
Grease feet. Every Bear Grease episode feels like it takes
(44:00):
shape on its own. It kind of forms up like
a cloud as I explore and research something I don't understand,
and it honestly feels like it's out of my control.
Sometimes people view creating content as something that they can
completely control just by the decisions they make and what
they do. This doesn't feel like that to me. I
(44:21):
couldn't have scripted meeting Warner Glenn, or blindly walking into
Donnie Baker's home and watching and hearing that story unfold
before me just like it did, y'all. I couldn't have
scripted the hair on my neck raising up as I
read the one hundred and eighty year old text of
Gershtok talking about erskin dying. Can I guarantee compelling stories
(44:44):
that give us insight into human nature and our powerful
connection to wild places. I don't think I can, because
it's not coming from me. I didn't generate it. But
I think these stories are fueled by something bigger, and
that give me faith that in twenty twenty five, the
stories are just going to get better. Thank you again,
(45:07):
really truly, thank you so much for listening to Bear
Grease and Brent's This Country Life podcast. Hope everyone has
a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Keep the
wild places wild, because that's where the bears live.
On this episode released on Christmas Day twenty twenty four,
We're going back to revisit some iconic moments in the
last three and a half years of the Bear Grease podcast.
When I thought about what moments stood out to me,
I quickly just rattled off five right in a row
without really even thinking about it. So today we're gonna
(00:25):
hear clips from Arizona cowboy Warner Glenn. We're gonna hear
from ninety year old East Tennessee bear hunter Britt Davis.
It's number two. We're gonna hear the account of Erskine's
death in eighteen forty one from a bear attack. The
fourth one, we're gonna hear from Stony Edwards talking about
(00:46):
the murder of his great uncle Carl Edwards. And lastly,
we're gonna hear a clip from the Donnie Baker episode
Donnie's from Missouri, and it's him talking about the moment
that he is legally killed a two hundred and nine
inch white tail. It's like the Bear Grease time machine.
(01:07):
We're gonna go back and it's gonna be a lot
of fun. And I really doubt that you're gonna want
to miss this one. And while you're listening, I'd like
to ask a favor of you. Email us at bear
Grease at the Meat Eater dot com and tell us
your favorite bear Grease moment. My name is Klay Nukem
(01:35):
and this is the bear Grease Podcast, where we'll explore
things forgotten but relevant, search for insight and unlikely places,
and where we'll tell the story of Americans who live
their lives close to the land. Presented by FHF Gear,
American made purpose built hunting and fishing gear that's designed
(01:58):
to be as rugged as the place that's we explore.
Warner Glenn is an eighty nine year old rancher from
southeast Arizona who's made his living as a cattleman on
his Malpie ranch, of which his southern fence line is
(02:20):
the US Mexican border. No kidding. Warner Glenn is also
a houndsman and a legendary dry ground mountain lion hunter.
Dry ground meaning they're hunting in the desert without snow.
That's why I knew him. He's got to be one
of the oldest still working line hunters and cowboys left
in America, known to put on twenty five hundred plus
(02:41):
miles per year on his mule. Even today, Warner is
one of the most humble, toughest, and hardest working men
that I have ever interfaced with, and you kind of
just get that sense when you're around him for a
few hours. This clip is from twenty twenty one, when
I asked him about a turning point in his life
(03:02):
when he got into some trouble with the law. This
clip was pulled out of episode twenty two titled American
Cowboy in Open Country Warner Glenn Part one. The fruit
of success almost always grows from the seed of failure,
(03:22):
and sometimes that part of the journey is overlooked. An
influential event in mister Warner's life took place in the
early nineteen eighties, long before the success of the Malpi
Borderlands Group, and I want to see if mister Warner
is open to talking about it. You got in a
tussle with one of the border agents.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Yeah, I did.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Did that change the way you saw that you needed
to deal with people? Can you talk to me about that?
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Well? Sure, you bet that did.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
The kind of tell me the story and then tell
me how it affects.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
I had a pretty pretty volatile temper when I was younger,
and a lot of stuff. But I did them that
I wouldn't do that day. I did my butt take
down anyway, I.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Don't know, you still look pretty wiry.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
That fellow was. That fellow was out of line, no
doubt about it. He told me what he could do
in anywhere he wanted on my feet land and I had.
I couldn't do anything about it, and I told him
I thought it could, and he said, well, you sure can.
So I did. But anyway, it got me in a
big trouble. Yet, one thing about it. He was a
(04:31):
federal uniformed officer. My docture took him to the ground
and rubbed his head in the dirt.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
I mean, it was just a how old were you,
mister Warner?
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Probably forty seven, forty eight? Okay, Well I could go
on and on about that, but that, of course, that's
a felony. Anytime you had touch a federal officer in
assault a federal officer, that's a fellay charged. And there's
no doubt about it. I did it, There wasn't and
I never made any excuse. I just told him why
(05:05):
I did it. And I didn't go to prison, but
I came that close. And also if you have a
fellow in charge, you can't have a fire on him
for so many years, and it affects your way of life.
So just taught me, big boy, you better be careful
what you're doing. And they told me some of the agents.
They had an agent that dealt with things like that,
and they came and talked to me, and they said,
(05:26):
wonder what you should have done is gone to his
supervisor and let them take care of it. And I said, well,
now I can see that. At the time, I was hot,
I was tired, and this guy was telling me one
and he was standing on my private land and we
were talking about the effect of vehicle traffic over my
private land where there was no roads. I just figured
(05:51):
that in my way of thinking, right then I had
a right to protect my problem too. But he was
but he wasn't a federal. I wasn't wrong, no doubt,
but so was he. And well, the way it turned out,
I didn't go to prison and they shipped him out
of here. Yeah, and it was, but it was a
(06:12):
thing that I wished I had gone about it well.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
But what I take away from it is that later
you became very skillful in dealing with these people, and
that that event changed the course of kind of how
you were and how you worked with these Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Yeah, And really I respect the law enforcement. I mean,
there are some guys in law enforcement that probably don't
deserve to be there, but by and large I had
backed those guys, and part of that's just I kind
of learned. You know, they've got a they've got a
(06:49):
job to do, and it's a tough one. I'm not
ashamed that that happened, but it taught me a good lesson.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
You know, I deeply value that you can say that,
because a lot of times negative things happen to people
and it shapes them and makes them bitter and changes
their life for the negative. But what I respect about
your character is that that you know you can own
up to it. But I think it I think it
changed you for the better.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
I'll tell you a little. I went and told Daddy
because I knew he was gonna he was gonna play out.
And he sat there and listen. After I through telling me,
he said, I didn't know, as you get a lot
to hit one of those best.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Man, your dad, he was taking your side, wouldn't he.
That's all good. Dad's supposed to do. I hope you
don't get the wrong idea about Warner. If you listen
to the series, you'd see why this was such a
wild moment because it was so out of character for
him to beat up a federal officer. But it highlights
(07:55):
the gritty underbelly of Western ranchers and especially those on
the Mexican border. I'll never interview another man like Warner.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Glenn.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
I was forever impacted by his character, and for that reason,
he's in the Bear Grease Hall of Fame. Warner series
was episodes twenty two through twenty six. In this next clip,
I want to go back to East Tennessee in Cock County,
in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains. This was just
(08:25):
a short interview. It wasn't even the main interview, but
we're speaking with eighty nine year old Britt Davis, who
is the father in law Bear Grease Hall of Famer
plot hound bear hunter Roy Clark, who you may remember.
This is on episode eight. It's way back in the
beginning in a podcast titled fifty Years in the Backer Field,
(08:49):
where Britt talks about his upbringing and chokes up when
he talks about his father's death. Mister Britt, how old
are you?
Speaker 2 (08:58):
If I lived the second dead June, i'll.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Be ninety ninety. What year were you born?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Thirty one?
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Nineteen thirty one, so you grew up you were? Were
you born in this hollow?
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Yeah? Right up a little there, about two miles.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Now what kind of work did you do your whole life?
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Well? I farmed some, I log some, and I worked
about a year on this interstate down here, and then
I went to work for the county Road Department and
stayed dead, little retard.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Have you ever have you traveled much out of Appalachia? No,
you've stayed right here.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
I went to Texas one time whenever Roy was an
army out there, and that's on the trip I ever made. Really,
I lived on up in the Gulf up third Well,
I'd say we was up for about four or five years.
So my daddy got killed up there, and I enjoyed
dead up our lord?
Speaker 1 (09:58):
How did your father get killed?
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Of the log? The log rolled over?
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Really? How old were you?
Speaker 2 (10:03):
I was about twelve year old?
Speaker 4 (10:05):
Wow?
Speaker 1 (10:06):
How did that impact your life?
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Well, it made it rough on me for a while. Yeah,
it was up there whenever they about the time it
started logging it, but he got killed. We left at
(10:29):
a long time before the gut loom.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
So did you have to kind of were you the
oldest son his illness son, so you kind of had
to take care of your family?
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Really, so was that a lot of responsibility for you then?
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Yeah? We moved back home here up here, and my
grandparents hit me with it and I raised a crop
of the bicker and boughket a place where I lived.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
M How old were you?
Speaker 2 (11:00):
I'd say I was about thirteen?
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Really, So you you raised a crop of tobacco when
you were thirteen? Yeah, and bought a piece of property.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
And that's the property that we went to earlier today
up at the head of this holler.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
She gonna pull out here.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Yeah, so you.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Bought that place when you were thirteen. Yeah, I'll be daring.
And so you've lived you've lived there your whole life, Yeah,
whole life. What What are your earliest memories, mister Britton?
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Oh low, I can I can remember things back then,
buttering again now, really, I can remember a carrying me
and us is stopping and talking to our neighbors. That
was before we moved the good.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
So that was in the nineteen thirties. Did your family
have a car that had an automobile?
Speaker 2 (11:52):
No?
Speaker 1 (11:53):
No, what how did you get around?
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Walked? Walked?
Speaker 1 (11:58):
You didn't everything you needed you could walk to get.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Yeah, this little stores all around here, M three or four.
Well of the first I'd say it was in the
late thirties of the early forties. Before that, there's there
was a car in this country, Is that right? Yeah?
The doctor lived right up the older.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
He had to first tell me about how the doctor
worked in this community.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
He'd go around in the and he's with his horse
and people wanted to be doctored that tie read or
a white flag on the mail walks, and.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Each he'd ride his horse up to your house and
knock on the door and say what's wrong.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
And then he finally got a car, and it didn't
they do the same thing.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Do you ever remember being sick and him having to
come to your house, the doctor on you?
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Really, what would you have been sick from?
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Maybe the strip the old or something like.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
That, and he'd come give you some penicillin maybe or something.
That's what he doctored with penicillin.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
When did electricity come back in here?
Speaker 2 (13:09):
I'd say it was about fifty two or fifty three
before I got it.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
So you were in your twenties before you had electricity. Yeah,
do you remember those days?
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Oh? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (13:20):
What would what would you do? Once it got dark?
Would you light the house with.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Lamp?
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Or what kind of lamp? Was the coal burning? And
you would what would you do? You would sit around
with the family.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
We'd just sit around and go to bed. I guess
that's they finally got a radio.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Mister Britt. Do you remember when John F. Kennedy died President?
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Do you remember where you were? Was that a significant
where I was at where we are we enter.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
I was running the road rider over on Tom's Creek,
and I just fardy got a paste an old man's house,
and he come out and run up a little behind
me and hollered at me and told me about.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Do you hear what they're saying, mister Britt? They're saying,
because because you were the only child, you've been spoiled
your whole life. Do you agree with that?
Speaker 2 (14:20):
I wouldn't hardly say that.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
I've never forgotten that. When Britt was thirteen years old,
he raised a crop of tobacco and bought a place
for him and his mother to live after his father died. Today,
mister Britt is ninety two years old and still drives
the roads listening to bear races in the fall. I'll
never forget that moment. This next clip is a little different.
(14:53):
It wasn't an interview, but it's a reading of the
first hand account of the German immigrant to America Gershtalker,
recounting the death of his hunting partner Erskine in eighteen
forty one. It's a wild story from episode four titled
Death of a Bear Hunter. There are too many of
(15:16):
Gershtalker's incredible stories to tell on this podcast, but I
want to tell you one that cut me to the
quick when I first read it. It involved a man
being killed by a bear in a creek drainage less
than twenty miles from where I live. I was shocked
and slightly offended that nobody ever told me this story.
(15:36):
I want you to hear the first hand account from
Gershtoker of the death of his friend Erskine. This is
an excerpt from the book Wild Sports, published in eighteen
fifty four. This story is taken out of context, so
(15:57):
there are some characters you'll need to know well as
Gershtalker's older American hunting partner and friend with hair as
white as snow. He said, Conwell lived in Arkansas. Wachiga
is a Cherokee that became a trusted friend and hunting
partner of Gershtalker. And you'll be introduced to young Erskine,
(16:18):
who Gershtalker had met some years before in the back country.
So we were off again before noon and gain the
source of the hurricane. Rode across the Devil's stepping path,
a narrow rock with a precipice on each side, left
the pilot rock on our left, and came towards evening
(16:40):
into the pine forest where we were sure of finding kindlers.
Descending the steep side of a mountain, we observed a
thin column of blue smoke by the side of the stream,
showing that some hunters were in camp there. We went
straight towards it and found it to be an Indian
camp in our former acquaintance young Erskine. Among them they
(17:02):
were Cherokees with three young chop tawls. These two tribes
being on good terms like ourselves, They were out bear hunting,
but it had better luck. A quantity of bear meat
was hanging about the camp and even the dogs would
eat no more. Casting ourselves down by the fire, one
of the squalls, for there were several women in the camp,
immediately cooked for us some bear, which we duly regaled ourselves.
(17:28):
Night came on, and soon we were all sunk in
deep repose. Early in the morning we began to move,
dividing into two parties for the better chance of finding game.
Conwell went with some of the Indians, amongst whom he
had found an old acquaintance, to make a circuit round
the pilot Rock, while Erskine and I, with three Cherokees,
(17:50):
proceeded to the sources of the frog Bayou. Knight found
us far from our camp, so we made one for ourselves.
Where we were on the morning of February first, we
had hardly started ere we heard the dogs, which he could,
declared instantly that they were his brothers, and disappeared behind
the rocks without another word. As we stood listening, the
sound seemed to take a different direction. We ascended the
(18:13):
mountain as fast as we could to cut off the chase,
but found that we must have been mistaken, for in
a few minutes all was as silent as a grave.
Once we thought we heard a shot, but we couldn't
be certain. We ascended to the highest terrace and walked
slowly on, looking out for fresh signs, and listening to
catch the sound of the dog below. Amongst the broken
(18:34):
masses of rock, they might be near without being heard.
Along the mountaintops, they are audible at a great distance.
It may have been two in the afternoon, and we
had seen nothing when bears grease raised his nose in
the air, remained for an instant or two in a
fixed position, then given a short smothered howl, dashed down
(18:54):
the mountain side. Listening attentively, we heard the chase coming
down the Hurricane River. Erskine and called out triumphantly, we
shall have plenty of bear this evening, and dashed after
the dog. I was soon by his side. I must
observe by the way that we were both very hungry. Presently,
a bear broke through the bushes. A projecting rock stopped
(19:15):
him for an instant when Erskine saluted him with a ball.
He received mine. As he rushed past and disappeared. The dogs,
encouraged to greater efforts by our shots, and the stronger
scent followed him out. Bear's grease, who was quite fresh
leading the van. Soon they came upon him and stopped him.
We rushed to the spot, without waiting to reload, and
(19:35):
arriving in time to see the beast, excited to the
greatest fury, kill four of our best dogs with as
many blows of his paws. But the others threw themselves
on him with greater animosity, and if our rifles had
been loaded, we could not have used them. Just as
a large, powerful brown dog, which had furiously attacked the bear,
was knocked over, bleeding and howling, Erskine called out, Oh
(19:59):
save the dog, threw down his rifle and rushed on
with his knife among the furious group. I followed on
the instant. When the bear saws coming, he exerted still
more force to beat off the dogs and meet us.
Seizing his opportunity, my comrade ran his steel into his side.
The bear turned on him like lightning and seized him,
(20:22):
and he uttered a shrill, piercing shriek. Driven to desperation
by the sight, I plunged my knife three times into
the monster's body with all my force, without thinking of
jumping back. At the third thrust, the bear turned upon me,
seeing as Paul coming. I attempted to evade the blow,
felt a sharp pang, and sunk senseless to the ground.
(20:47):
When I recovered my senses, bear's grease was licking the
blood from my face. On attempting to rise, I felt
a severe pain in my left side and was unable
to move my left arm. On making a fresh effort,
I succeeded in sitting up. The bear was close to me,
and less than three feet from him, lay erskine, stiff
(21:08):
and cold. I sprang up with a cry of horror
and rushed towards him. It was too true. He was
bathed in blood, his face torn to pieces, his right
shoulder almost wrenched away from his body, and five of
the best dogs ripped up with broken limbs, lying beside him.
The bear was so covered with blood that his color
(21:30):
was hardly discernible. My left arm appeared to be out
of socket, but I could feel that no bones were broken.
The sun had gone down, and I'd hoped that the
other hunters might have heard our shots and the barking
and howling of the dogs. It grew dark.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
No one came.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
I roared and shouted like mad, but no one heard me.
I tried to light a fire, but my left arm
was so swelled that I gave up the attempt. But
as it would have been certain death to pass the
night under the circums dances without a fire, I tore
away part of the back of my hunting shirt, and
the fore part, being saturated with blood, sprinkled some powder
(22:08):
on it, rubbed it well, and with my right hand
I shook a little powder into my rifle. Placing the
muzzle on the rag, I fired, blowing it up to
a flame. I piled on dry leaves and twigs, and
succeeded in making a good fire, though with great pain
and trouble. Now it was dark, I went to my
dead comrade, who was lying about five yards from the fire.
(22:30):
He was already stiff, and it was with great difficulty
that I could pull down his arms and lay him straight,
Nor could I keep his eyes closed, though I laid
small stones on them. The dogs were very hungry, but
it was impossible for me to break up the bear,
only ripped him up and fed them with his entrols.
(22:50):
Bear's grease laid himself down by the corpse, looking steadfastly
in his face, and went no more near the bear
and hoping of obtaining help, I loaded and fired twice,
but nothing moved. The forest appeared one enormous grave. I
(23:10):
felt very ill, vomited several times as well as I could.
I laid myself down beside the fire and lost all
consciousness of my wretched situation. Whether I slept or fainted
is more than I can tell, but I know that
I dreamed that I was at home in my bed,
and my mother brought me some tea and laid her
hand on my breast. Such an awakening as I had,
(23:37):
was worse than I could wish. To my bitterest enemy,
Bear's greased had pressed close to my side, lying his
head on my breast. The fire was almost out, and
I was shivering with cold, and the wolves were howling
fearfully around the dead, keeping at a distance for fear
of the living, but by no means disposed to lose
their prey. I rose with difficulty and laid more wood
(23:59):
on the fire. As it burned up, the face of
the corpse seemed to brighten. I started, but found it
was only an optical delusion. Louder and fiercer howled the
wolves and the dogs, of whom five were alive. Besides
bear grease answered them. But the answer was by no
means one of defiance, rather a lament for the dead,
(24:20):
partly to scare away the wolves, and partly in hope
of finding help. I loaded and fired three times. My
delight was inexpressible as I heard three shots in return,
I loaded and fired until all my powder was expended.
As morning broke, I heard two shots not far off,
and soon after a third. A shipwrecked mariner hanging to
(24:42):
the side of a plank could not raise his voice
more lustily to hail a passing ship than I did,
and joy upon joy, I heard a human voice and answer.
The bark of the dogs announced a stranger, and Wachiga
advanced out of the bush wall, he exclaimed. Staring at
the shocking spectacle, he felt poor erskine and shook his
(25:04):
head mournfully. He turned to me. I showed him my
swollen arm, which he examined attentively. Without speaking, Forming a
hollow with his two hands and placing into his lips,
he gave a loud, piercing shout. The answer came from
no great distance, and in a few minutes my old
dear friend Conwell and most of the Indians were at
my side. I grasped Conwell's hands sorrowfully and told him
(25:28):
in few words how it all had happened. The old
man scolded and said, it served us right. There's no
greater danger in sticking a knife into a bear's paunch
when he's falling with the dogs upon him. But if
he has been thrown and then catches the sight of
his greatest enemy man, he exerts all his force to
attack him, and woe to him who comes within reach
(25:49):
of his paws. It was all very well talking. He
had not been present and seeing one dog after another
knocked over, never to rise again, five minutes more and
not one would have been saved. And who knows whether
the enraged beasts would not have attacked us. Then meanwhile,
the Indians had been digging a grave with their tomahawks,
(26:12):
wrapping the body in a blanket. They laid him in
it and covered him with earth and heavy stones. Conwell
cut down some young stems and made a fence around
the solitary grave. I could not avoid a shudder at
the quiet coolness of the whole proceeding, as the thought
struck me that the same persons under the same circumstances
(26:33):
would have treated me in the same cool way had
I fallen instead of Erskine. Like me, he was a
lonely stranger in a foreign land, having left England some
years before, and his friends and relations will probably never
know what became of him. Thousands perish in this way
in America, of whom nothing more is heard, and perhaps
(26:55):
in a few months the remembrance of them was entirely
passed away.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
To the dead was.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Quietly laid in the grave. Wachiga came with an elderly
Indian to look at my arm. Wachiga moved it while
the other looked steadfastly in my face. The pain was
enough to drive me mad, but I would not utter
a sound. Next, the Indian took hold of my arm,
laying his left hand on my shoulder, and while Wachiga
suddenly seized me round the body from behind, the other
(27:22):
pulled with all his force. The pain at first was
so great that I almost feinted, but it gradually diminished.
In spite of my resolve to show no signs of it,
I could not suppress a shriek. Conwell soon after asked
if I could ride on my answering yes, he helped
me on a horse, then throwing the bear's skin and
(27:42):
some of the meat on his own, we moved slowly homewards.
My sufferings on the way were very great, but I
uttered no murmur. I only longed for repose. That's one
of my favorite stories of all time. I get chills
(28:04):
listening to parts of it, and for that reason, Frederick
Gershtacker is also in the Beargreas Hall of Fame. We
did a series in twenty twenty two that was meaningful
to me called Genuine Outlaws. It was about two men
(28:27):
from my hometown in western Arkansas named Blue Dell and
Charlie Edwards. They both passed on now but were notorious
turkey poachers, but also beloved people in our community. As
a kid, I was always a little bit confused by this.
You know, did we like them or did we not?
Were they dangerous or were they friends? But this story
(28:49):
explores a bigger question of America's fascination with outlaws through
the story of these two brothers. This clip is from
episode fifty two and starts with game warden Jimmy Martin,
who chased the brothers his whole career, but the story
transitions to Stony Edwards, Charlie's son, talking about some deep
family history that might have helped tip their tendencies towards outlaw.
Speaker 5 (29:16):
There are old time poachers that grew up in hard times.
Most of them did the ones that I ran across,
the hardcore matters that used mets and the rivers and
on the lakes, the hard time night hunters for deer,
you know, the bad turkey poachers, the bad daytime deer hunters.
They were all from old times when times was tough,
(29:40):
meat was hard to come by, and outlaw and was
just a way of life. Most of the old hard, hard,
hardcore poachers came from moonshiner families.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Old time poachers and moonshiners, remember those two things. The
first family member that I went to and I got
permission with Stony Edwards, the son of Charlie. I drove
out to the Big Fort community and found him at
the Big Fort Mall, which is a small gas station
that he and his wife run. I told him I
(30:14):
wanted to tell the whole story his dad and uncle,
and he agreed. He began by showing me a story
from nineteen twenty six. That's an interesting puzzle piece. Tragedy
literally struck the Edwards family. I'm reading from a laminated
newspaper clipping bound in a three ring binder. So this
(30:36):
is nineteen twenty six and it says officers shoot Carl
Edwards in Polk County. Carl Edwards was killed in Montgomery
County Sunday afternoon by a bullet fired by some member
of a posse that had just arrested two alleged moonshiners
and probably were searching for more or for anyone connected
with the illicit traffic. Edwards, twenty three year old resident
(30:58):
of Heath Valley, which is right in Polk County, was
shot and instantly killed as he drove his Ford car
homeward from a hunting trip in Montgomery County. A single
bullet fired by one of the posse's six officers and
said to have wounded Edwards's brother, kill the dog, and
then given Carl Edwards a mortal womb as he set
at the steering wheel. The tragedy occurred the Government Road
(31:20):
between Big Fok and Norman. So who was Carl Edwards?
To you?
Speaker 6 (31:26):
He would have been my dad's uncle, Okay, my grandfather's brother.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
So what were they doing? They were trying to get
away from No.
Speaker 6 (31:35):
In all actuality, uncle Landy was only I think he
was only like ten. They had been coon hunting. They
had coon dog in the car and Uncle Landy was
in the car and they were coming back and the
officers hollered for him to stop, and Carl hollered a
will at the bottom of the hill. Car didn't having brakes.
But you got to take the previous history into account
(31:59):
because they had been trying to catch him for years
and hadn't been able to so when he didn't stop
on command, they opened fire. And of course this ad
came from the newspaper, which I'm gonna say his bias
towards law enforcement at the time. It wasn't because those
men loaded my uncle up, drove him to my great grandparents'
(32:22):
house and dropped him on the porch when he was
shot dead. Yeah, they left him dead on the front porch.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
Wow.
Speaker 6 (32:29):
Uncle Andy was shot through the ear.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
He was just a kid.
Speaker 6 (32:32):
He was ten years old. He was shot through the ear,
and of course it.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
Killed his dad and his son in the car with
a coon dog.
Speaker 6 (32:39):
No, it was two brothers, two brothers. Yeah, they were
thirteen years apart.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
Oh, I see, I see.
Speaker 6 (32:44):
And the coon dog in the car and it.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
Was a coon dog. Okay, no, it did say it
killed the dog.
Speaker 6 (32:51):
It killed the dog, killed Carl and wounded in So Carl.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Was a known moonshiner and they'd been trying to catch him.
Speaker 6 (32:58):
Well, you got to consider his His dad went to
Levenworth Prison for moonshining. So basically the whole family was
in the business. There's no way around it. Yeah, my
great grandfather had seven sons.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
And they all lived out here in the valley.
Speaker 6 (33:13):
Yeah, right over there where I live now. We're still
on the original Edward's home plush.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
The whole family was quote in the business of moonshining,
and the killing of Carl Edwards and his coon dog
in nineteen twenty six was a tough pill for the
family to swallow, and Uncle Andy, who was just a
child at the time, had a partly shot off ears
whole life. A week after the shooting. The six officers
(33:44):
involved would be charged with murder. Carl Edwards was Louis
Dell and Charlie's uncle, though he died before they were
ever born. This is another newspaper clipping. Charges of murder
have been made against six officers who were the posse
that caused the death of Carl Edwards in Montgomery County
last Sunday afternoon. The six were Sheriff George how it
(34:07):
names all their names. Ruben Edwards, a brother of the
man killed, was in Mina Tuesday, and stated that the
accused officers had been summoned to court. I just wanted
to say this was a murder case, and I mean
that in and of itself could lead to a family
having some bad taste in their mouth for the law.
Speaker 6 (34:28):
If it hadn't been for Rube at that time, the
other brothers would have killed all six officers. Rube stopped
it and said that it would go to court.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
And it'd be better off taking them to court than
killing them.
Speaker 6 (34:40):
But the brothers would have killed them, and they're lucky
that they didn't.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Later on, lucky is probably a good descriptor, because all
six officers would be acquitted of the murder charges they
got off. None of them were convicted, nor was there
any recompense for the coon dog. This isn't the best
way to gain the trust of the government's law men.
(35:06):
I'd known Louis Dell and Charlie my whole life but
this was the first time I'd heard this story of
their families past. Sometimes the reasons why people are the
way they are go way back, and I don't view
that as an excuse for breaking the law. We've all
got things in our past that shape us that we
have to overcome. But the redemption in this story that
(35:29):
I see today is that the Edwards clan do their
best to follow the law Outlaw and has kind of
faded into the past for them coming from where they did.
I respect that The genuine Outlaw series was episode fifty
two through fifty six. My buddy Steve Ranella says that
it's his favorite Beargary series. Lastly, I'd like to go
(35:53):
back to January to episode one eight, titled the Donnie
Baker Story Mayor. It was our most listened to episode
in twenty twenty four and many people were struck by
Donnie's fourth right and it's about a dark time in
his life when he illegally killed a two hundred and
nine inch buck on the military base Fort leonard Wood
(36:15):
in Central Missouri. Here's Donnie talking about the moment he
saw the buck from his truck.
Speaker 7 (36:24):
So as I as I kind of hit my brakes
and it spooks him a little bit and he hops
down to the timberline. But when he gets to the timberline,
in front of him are two really good bucks. It
was a massive, huge eight point with a little bitty
brow tines and a really nice ten. So I pulled down.
There's a running track there in some porta potties. So
I pulled down to those porta potties and I thought, right,
(36:45):
I thought I could kill it deer right there.
Speaker 4 (36:47):
And like I.
Speaker 7 (36:48):
Said, it was just kind of I don't know if
you ever when you was a kid shot at a
bird on a setting in a tree or something, just
kind of and then when you do kill it, you think, oh, man,
that's kind of what I went through there. But I
knew it was an on hunting area. So I grabbed
my bow and just jeans and boots and well behind
the porta potties up this little rise and there was
(37:09):
a big old red oak that had died and fell over.
And when I got to that red oak, I was
considering if I should hunker down there or climb over it.
Speaker 4 (37:15):
And as I'm as I'm contemplating that.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
So I mean, at this point, you've made a decision
you're illegally kill this.
Speaker 4 (37:21):
Yeah, and let me ask you this.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
I mean, I think every human has experienced a moral
dilemma of being given an opportunity that they know is
wrong and them not taking it.
Speaker 4 (37:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
But then there's like this this suck, this drawl, that
something happens that all of a sudden you cross into
a red zone and it's something flips.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (37:48):
Well was at this time, Clay I had I had
seen I'd had twenty two in my truck multiple times
from from squirrel hunting. When I've seen this deer. You know,
if if I had set out to poach this deer,
I mean, I could have shot it many times. But
when I saw that deer for the first time, I said,
I've got to kill that deer. I mean, it just
felt like that was almost a rite of passage for
(38:10):
people who think that I was a good quality bow hunters.
Speaker 4 (38:12):
I was going to have killed this monster deer.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
There's some profoundness in Donnie's honest, simple conclusion of his motivation.
He was a twenty six year old man hungry for
validation from the world around him, and killing a big
deer with his bow was a pathway to gain respect.
I get it. I remember when the picture of the
(38:38):
first decent deer that I killed hung on the wall
at the local bow shop, and I soaked up any
validation that I could get from anywhere. Validation for grand
feats are important in a young man's life or a
young woman's life, but when they're stolen, the system is
cheated and it produces the opposite of what it's supposed to.
(38:59):
It's supposed to identity and self confidence and a sense
of worth, but what it actually creates is insecurity when
it's stolen. But let's get back to Donnie. Here's what happened.
Speaker 7 (39:11):
So when I knew where that deer was going to go,
I knew it was illegal, but never really give that
a consideration. Just the only thing I was saying about
is wanting to kill it deer. I needed to kill
that deer some reason. I just thought that that's something
I had to do. And as they get to that
red oak, I'm considered, if I need to climb over
(39:33):
to hunker down there, and it's just a few yards
off of it's a high line, and it's kind of
it's pretty clean.
Speaker 4 (39:38):
There's a little brush there.
Speaker 7 (39:40):
As I'm I'm sure I'm moving around and I look
up in that big ten is twenty five yards from me,
staring at me. Well, he blows and takes off running,
and I thought, gosh, dang, I mean I blew that up,
still not thinking, you know, hope nobody's seen me or whatever.
And as I watched them cross Army Street, I look
back where they were, and a probably thirty five yards
(40:01):
behind him, that bucks stand there staring right at me,
wide open between he and I. I really believe if
he was a National Force wild deer, he'd have been gone.
Speaker 4 (40:11):
To you know.
Speaker 7 (40:12):
I shoot a single pin hha side and I had
had an arrow knock. I knocked narrow forore. I set
my bow on that red oak, trying to side where
I was going to try to get. So I draw
my bow back and he's still just standing there. I mean,
he's looking right at me. I know that if I
can fall it into his front end, high success rate
killing him. And I put that pen right underneath his nose,
just right about the top of his white patch and
(40:34):
turn it blues.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
I wonder how long it took Adam, after sinking his
teeth through the skin of the forbidden apple, to regret
his decision, the bite initiated a sequence of unretractable consequences.
Man's always had a problem with laws, breaking them, that is,
But laws are the guideposts of societal security, designed for
(41:01):
the well being of us. All the truth is is
that everybody wants some form of law in their life
to protect them and their interests, even in a time
in America where we're talking about liberty and freedom and
laws take away all this stuff which I am generally
absolutely in agreement with. However, I'm telling you we all
(41:22):
love laws, but we like to cherry pick. The ones
that we'd like to break are the ones that infringe
upon our personal freedom. And it's kind of bizarre. Human
life is complex, society's complex. As I'm sitting here with
Donnie hearing this story for the first time, I am
(41:42):
struck with a palpable sense of remorse as the arrow
drifts through the air and hits the buck just below
the throat patch. Later we'll learn that as a society,
we demand remorse from the people who've cheated the system
ahead of myself. The buck has just been shot.
Speaker 7 (42:03):
The first thing I think is I shot him right
in the front leg, and that was the first sick
feeling I got in bout. I thought, oh my gosh,
I just win that monster, dear, and shouldn't he been
doing this? And that's still running through my mind when
I hear him crash, and then reality starts setting in
good and grief. So I set my bow down, ease
up to the eye, look around, make sure there's no
(42:24):
cars coming down the highway, and there's nobody really in
that area at that time. Nobody had to run and
trap where I was parking with him, So I instead
of blood trailing him, I kind of stay out of sight,
and I sneak down there where I thought I heard
him crash and he's laying there dead, and to walk up.
Speaker 4 (42:39):
On him and grab his antlers.
Speaker 7 (42:41):
You should feel the most excitement you've ever had in
your life, other than like one of your kids being
born or something. And I kind of had the opposite feeling,
and I immediately I thought, there's no way that I'm
going to get away with this.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
The Donnie Baker series is one that you just have
to listen to understand. The crescendo of the final episode,
number one eighty two left a lot of grown men
in tears. How could a poaching story do that. It
surprised me too. As I analyze these stories that stood
out to me, there's kind of an odd theme at
(43:17):
least in three of them, and that is people breaking
the law. And I can see how it might be
possible to miss the point. I don't claim to be perfect.
I was raised by Gary Bilivernukam, who taught me to
be a law Biden Feller, and to the best of
my ability, I've lived by that code. But really, what
(43:37):
I'm interested in these stories is the redemption. All these
stories have a heavy dose of redemption. I can't thank
you enough for listening to Bear Grease as we close
the year. I'm truly grateful for every one of you
that listen and support Brent and I on this Bear
Grease feet. Every Bear Grease episode feels like it takes
(44:00):
shape on its own. It kind of forms up like
a cloud as I explore and research something I don't understand,
and it honestly feels like it's out of my control.
Sometimes people view creating content as something that they can
completely control just by the decisions they make and what
they do. This doesn't feel like that to me. I
(44:21):
couldn't have scripted meeting Warner Glenn, or blindly walking into
Donnie Baker's home and watching and hearing that story unfold
before me just like it did, y'all. I couldn't have
scripted the hair on my neck raising up as I
read the one hundred and eighty year old text of
Gershtok talking about erskin dying. Can I guarantee compelling stories
(44:44):
that give us insight into human nature and our powerful
connection to wild places. I don't think I can, because
it's not coming from me. I didn't generate it. But
I think these stories are fueled by something bigger, and
that give me faith that in twenty twenty five, the
stories are just going to get better. Thank you again,
(45:07):
really truly, thank you so much for listening to Bear
Grease and Brent's This Country Life podcast. Hope everyone has
a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Keep the
wild places wild, because that's where the bears live.
Host
Clay Newcomb
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