E 62 DUCKS CAME FOR RICE, HUNTERS CAME FOR DUCKS AND THEY BOTH MET IN THE GRAND PRAIRIE

Year after year, waterfowl have followed the ancestral Mississippi Flywayand made their usual stops, where along the way they feasted abundantly in theforested White River bottomlands on acres of high-energy pinoak acorns andaquatic plants, like wild millet, Chufa, and smartweed.

Before rice production came to the Grand Prairie,ducks were found foraging in the small prairie wetlands, seasonal herbaceouswetlands, the vast flooded bottomland, hardwood forests of the White andArkansas Rivers, and other smaller meandering rivers and bayous.

Once rice had been plantedfor the first time in the first decade of the twentieth century in theeast-central part of the state, it spread rapidly throughout the Grand Prairie,mainly in the counties of Arkansas and Prairie and small sections in westernMonroe and eastern Lonoke during that decade and especially during the 1920sand the 1930s. Doing so, prairie lands, bounded by the bottomlands of four streams, the White andArkansas Rivers, Bayou Meto, and Wattensaw Bayou, could not exist and was converted tofarmland, so the prairies essentially vanished after 40 years.

Rice changed the flyway intwo ways. For one, it moved a lot of the waterfowl migration from theMississippi River westward to the rice-growing regions of Arkansas. Second, italso shifted lots of waterfowl from overflying Arkansas and going to the ricefields of Louisiana. No place in the Grand Prairie of eastern Arkansas prior tothe construction of reservoirs reaped rice’s benefit more so than the twinlakes of Jacob’s Lake and Pecan Lake in Arkansas County.

Episode Transcript

(00:12):
Hello, what a feller is this oldtimer coming to you once again
from downtown Memphis with episode 62 entitled The Ducks
Come for Food, The Hunters Come for Ducks and they meet in the
Rice Belt. I hope you all had a Happy
Father's Day. My mom and dad's my dad is dead
and passed away on up across divide into heaven mom of the

(00:33):
same thing. But anyway, all you fathers out
there, hope you had a great Father's Day.
So here's episode 60, episode 62.
The ducks come for food, the hunters come for ducks and they
meet in the rice belt. Year after year, waterfowl have
followed the ancestral Mississippi Flyway and made

(00:53):
their usual stops where along the way they feasted abundantly
in the forested White River bottom lands on acres of high
energy pin oak, acorns and aquatic plants like wild Millet,
shufa and smart weed. Before rice production came to
the Grand Prairie, ducks were found foraging into small

(01:14):
Prairie wetlands, seasonal herbaceous wetlands, the vast
flooded bottomland hardwood forest of the White and Arkansas
Rivers, and other smaller Meandian rivers and bayous.
Some 50 years before the 1st rice was planted, a Mr. Ormsby
in 1858 traveled the overland mill route from San Francisco to

(01:37):
Memphis. However, at Des Ark, Arkansas,
he decided to go to Memphis by way of a Steamboat down the
White River for the first lag oflong journey down the White
River to the Mississippi River. What he remembered best about
the voyage was the passengers amusing themselves by shooting

(01:58):
ducks, geese and a few Swans from the steamer's deck.
During this time he learned thatducks, geese and Swans were
killed by hunters as they floated down the White River by
shooting into flocks by lying down into small boats.
It was said that in December through February, ducks and
geese swarmed on the prayers. And that's the Grand Prairies

(02:21):
and in the lakes, in the lagoonsof the White and Arkansas River
bottoms and countless millions along with sandhill cranes on
the prairies who made their appearance in February.
The two largest prairies in the Grand Prairie lay on each side
of La Grue Bayou. Another large area of Prairie

(02:41):
was located just West of Bayou 2Prairie.
Several isolated patches were also present South of Carlisle,
northeast of DeWitt, and areas towards the southern tip of the
Grand Prairie. It is estimated that in the mid
1800's the largest block of prairies with nearly 150,000

(03:03):
acres hardwood forest occupied asmall portion, about 80,000
acres of the Grand Prairie, while seasonal herbaceous
wetlands covered about 6000, which were small wetlands or
waterlands and which generally occupied small isolated
depressions. Most of these wetlands were no

(03:24):
bigger than 10 acres. Prior to pre colonial
settlement, the Grand Prairie hosted elk, Buffalo, whitetail
deer, bears, Panthers, quail, Prairie chickens and every other
kind of game one can think of, including waterfowl by the
hordes multitudes. Towards the end of the 19th

(03:47):
century, the Grand Prairie saw an influx of Prairie farmers
from Illinois, Missouri, Iowa and Indiana and it wasn't too
many years before rice was introduced by these immigrants,
which was one of the two major far reaching events that changed
the Mississippi Flyway in eastern Arkansas.

(04:08):
The other was a series of earthquakes called the New
Madrid Earthquakes, which occurred from December 1811 to
the summer of 1812 and which created the sunk lands in a
large section of the northeastern part of the state.
This series of earthquakes was what really brought the ducks to
Arkansas, and hot had lots of them stay without going further

(04:31):
South to Louisiana. That was until ice drove them
southward. Once rice had been planted for
the first time in the in the first decade of the 20th century
in the East Central part of the state of Arkansas is spread
rapidly throughout the Grand Prairie, mainly in the counties
of Arkansas and Prairie and small sections in the counties

(04:54):
of Monroe and eastern Lorne Oak during that decade and
especially during the 1920s and the 1930s.
Doing so, Prairie lands bounded by the bottom lands of four
streams, the White and Arkansas Rivers, Bayoumeta and Watansaw
Bayou could not exist and was converted to farm lands.

(05:17):
So the parish essentially vanished after 40 years.
Rice changed the flyways in two ways.
For one, it moved a lot of the waterfowl migration from the
Mississippi River westward to the rice growing regions of
Arkansas. Second, it also shifted lots of
waterfowl from overflying Arkansas and going to the rice

(05:39):
fields of Louisiana. No place in the Grand Prairie of
eastern Arkansas prior to the construction of reservoirs
reaped Rice's benefit more or sothan the Twin Lakes of Jacob
Lake and Pecan Lake in Arkansas County.
Prior to rice production, there had been a few productive

(06:02):
waterfowling years on the Grand Prairie.
Perhaps the greatest back-to-back winter seasons were
18931894 and the season of 189495.
The winter season of 1890919100 was also one of the best.
In January 1899, on the railroaddepot platform waiting to go to

(06:26):
market were fourteen dozen ducks, all be in mallards except
for a few pintails, most filled with acorns, the result of 1 1/2
day of market hunting by 2 hunters.
As one old timer said, ye gods, I can only measure them by the
acre or miles. Rice made its way from Louisiana

(06:48):
to the Grand Prairie when WH Fuller, who had lived for
several years in the Grand Prairie region and who had sent
the general similarity of conditions near his new holdings
in Roanoke County, Arkansas, to those in Louisiana.
An Ohio native who came to Arkansas by way of Nebraska in

(07:08):
1895, purchased a farm just South of Carlisle.
The next year, on a duck huntingtrip to Louisiana, Fuller saw
for the first time rice being grown.
He discussed the process with farmers and later wrote, It
convinced me we had a good rice country if we just had the
water. After his first rice crop of

(07:30):
three acres felled in 19. I'm Sorry in 1897 due to
irrigation problems, Fuller returned to Louisiana in 1898
for four years, learning the basics of rice farming,
including irrigation in 19 O3. He came back to Carlisle and one
year later he grew what is generally considered Arkansas's

(07:53):
first successful commercial ricecrop near Hazen, producing 5225
bushels on 70 acres in 19 O 4. The State experimental station
cooperated actively with Fuller and so doing established a
branch station in the region. This success story would change

(08:15):
the entire nature of the Grand Prairie, for shortly thereafter
rice forming spread throughout the Grand Prairie.
During the harvest, fields were drained, the grain was cut and
bound into sheaves with binding machines, and then these sheaves
were placed in shocks to awaiting threshing.
In 1900, there was an estimated 150 migrating waterfowl in North

(08:40):
America. As just mentioned, the first
rice was planted in 19 O 4 on the Grand Prairie.
Arkansas's conditions proved favorable for rice culture.
Production, which had reached 1.2 million bushels in 19 O 9
harvested from 27,000 acres, hadincreased more than fivefold by

(09:01):
1919, and in 1925, due in part to a decline in Texas rice
output, Arkansas had attained a position of the second most
important rice producing State of the Union behind Louisiana.
Enough rice was planted in 1912 that with it being a wet fall

(09:21):
which slowed down harvesting, the duck hunting season of
19/12/1913 was an indication of things to come for the Grand
Prairie. The Illustrated Outdoor World
and Recreation magazine reportedMay 1913 about the slaughter of
mile or ducks during the season of 19121913.

(09:45):
They reported the existence of an abnormal quantity of duck
food in Arkansas, coupled with an unusually mild winter,
induced an extraordinary number of inland ducks to winter there,
and the Arkansas pot hunters rushed in at the commencement of
the season on their mission of extermination.
Hundreds of thousands of ducks have been ruthlessly slaughtered

(10:09):
and shipped out of that state. End of quote.
One year later the Arkansas Democrat reported November the
22nd, 1913, a very successful duck hunt was had in the
vicinity of Gillette during Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday by
FM Peters, AN Peters and Walter Turner, so 3 hunters.

(10:34):
They succeeded in killing a total of 130 ducks of all kinds
and returned to Little Rock on Wednesday loaded down with
ducks. The increase in acreage devoted
to rice was steady until 1917 when the acreage and rice
production had reached a point where it had progressed more
rapidly than means for threshinghad been provided.

(10:56):
The estimate for rice productionfor 19/17 was 2,000,000 bushels.
In addition, the spring of 1917 was late and farmers were
hindered in planting and unfavorable weather in the fall
delayed the time of rice cutting.
These delays with the lack of sufficient threshing facilities
through the time of threshing late in many cases.

(11:18):
This was especially true near the Wit and Stuttgart, where
there were considerable shocked rice in the fields as late as
November the 10th. Gillette, a short distance South
of DeWitt, was in somewhat better condition and the farmers
there were able to get a lot of their rice thrushed.
Every year. Farmers made every attempt to

(11:38):
get their rice out prior to November the 15th, as migratory
ducks usually arrived about November the 20th.
However, their arrival in 1917 occurred when 2/3 of the
Arkansas rice crop was still in shocks as wet weather had
delayed harvesting. With the marked fall and
temperature and very cold weather, ducks began arriving in

(12:02):
Mass on November the 23rd. With their arrival from the
north, Mallards came into the cafeteria and fed night after
night on rice filled shocks, arriving about dusk and leaving
before daylight. The only real recourse was night
shooting as they came in hordes.It was said that it was no trick

(12:22):
at all to begin shooting at duskand into the early night and
kill a wagon load of ducks, mostly mallards.
However some fed in the daytime,especially those arriving from
the north, which offered some excellent day shooting. 1 farmer
said the ducks come to harvest. I feel Suarez there were so many

(12:43):
one had to blink his eyes to make sure that he was not
suffering from some kind of illusion.
As harvesters of rice, they haveno equal and can rent a crop
overnight. In 1917 at 4 fields at Stuttgart
and 12 fields at De Witt, Mallards destroyed 20,000
bushels of rice worth $40,000. As for Gillette, the farmers

(13:08):
there were able to get their rice out in the first part of
November, so they didn't suffer as much damage.
The Gillette region was a more popular destination for ducks in
the older days than Suttgart of Dewint, and many sports and
market hunters came to Gillette by train in the 1920s from far
away as Chicago, New York and Kansas.

(13:31):
With World War One of the Great War in progress, the United
States was an increasingly important food supplier,
especially rice, to not only thesoldiers but to to the
population at large. From November through December
of 1917, many complaints received of damages by ducks to
the rice crops of the Grand Prairie county of Arkansas and

(13:54):
some damage in the adjoining counties of Prairie, Monroe and
Lorinook. And after mallards had come into
rice fields and large flocks to feed, especially on moonlit
nights, Arkansas waterfowlers were expecting a great hunting
season as the advance guard of acold winter appeared the second
week of August. Which was followed by a series

(14:16):
of highs which occurred in September and October.
With freezing temperatures covering Arkansas during the
first week of October and even astronger series of three
enforcing high pressure systems during October, the 18th, 20th
and 22nd, the climax of the fallweather 1917 came from October

(14:37):
the 28th to 31. During the first half of
November the weather moderated somewhat, but that soon changed
and the Grand Prairie Ducks began arriving day before the
wet cold front arrival and afterhis passage.
With November the 21st, 3rd and 24th being below freezing, the

(14:57):
front resulted in wetter fields and some fields around
Stuttgart. The Wet and six Gillette were
flooded, but not frozen. As one reclined in a bed under
warm blankets, one heard the passings of great armies of
waterfowl throughout the night as the winged wayfarers poured
into the region. The arrival of new northern

(15:19):
flights day after day were sights to witness and which
stirred the blood. Not merely a few thousand, but
10s of the thousands. They filled the heavens.
The roar of their wings was likeRolling Thunder.
They came in endless processions, flock after flock,
as far as the eye could see. When they finally gathered in
the region, they covered acres and acres and the sounds they

(15:43):
made were deafening. The besieging birds, mostly
mallards, were so thick they pulled or trampled down the
shocks while the straw was trampled into the mud.
Other shocks had their cap sheaves pulled off with their
heads being entirely stripped bythe ducks.
Feathers and duck dung. The latter composed almost
entirely of the rough hulls of the rice ground up during the

(16:06):
process of digestion, were scattered about everywhere in
each field. Past had been worn in the mud
about the flattened bases of theshocks as the birds worked about
them. Furthermore, the ducks had
burrowed in between the bases ofthe sheaves and many shocks in
order to get to the grain inside.
What they didn't eat, they put out of use.

(16:28):
Feathers and piles of manure were scattered everywhere in the
fields. Some shocks in the wet fields
where ice had frozen. The shocks in place had been
trampled over or pulled over until they were flattened down
so that the grain had been exposed and eaten.
Many farmers began threshing as soon as the ducks invaded their
fields, but it had very little effect.

(16:50):
In most cases, ducks would arrive shortly after the rice
had been cut, and shocked farmers resorted to allowing
hunters to shoot at night in their fields, but it had little
effect. So eager were they for food that
only those within a few yards would rise of a shot and would
only alight immediately, while others flew just out of gunshot

(17:11):
range to light again. In one 125 acre field, 15
shooters hired by a farmer when they exhausted their ammunition,
the bag limit of 25 being ignored, resorted to yelling to
scare them away. Farmers paid as high as $5 a gun
per night and furnished free ammunition.

(17:32):
Rivalry was queen keen as to whocould could kill the greatest
number of ducks with a specifiednumber of shells.
Bags of 200 or more per gun in anight were common.
Another farmer said they came inoverwhelming numbers and did so
much damage that he felt oppressed by the multitude, as

(17:52):
though something was weighing onhim.
He hired 30 hunters to keep themoff his 100 acres, but According
to him, they were unable to keepthe ducks out by shooting
mercifully and yelling. In other fields farmers tried to
fight them away by sirens, railroad lanterns, flare
torches, tractors with lights, or by setting dogs on them.

(18:15):
In a 60 acre filled with a heavyload of rice, which was all
destroyed, the conservative estimate of loss was 12,000
dollars, 5000 bushels valued at $2.00 per bushel.
Efforts were made to thresh the shocks where the ducks had fed,
but so little of the grain remained that the temp was
abandoned. Threshing at night or day also

(18:37):
had little effect of keeping theoverwhelming hordes of ducks out
of the field. In one field, 4000 bushels were
lost to the feeding hordes in three nights.
An attempt to thresh afterwards yielded only 10 bushels of rice.
So Harsten was abandoned and thehogs and the hogs turned loose
in the duck harvested field on aquiet winter night.

(18:59):
From all over the rice fields, the sullen boom of shotguns
could be heard for several nights.
Shooters were at work throughoutthe season.
Shooting through the day was excellent also, as newly
arriving mallards feasted on shocked rice fields.
Are the few harvested fields full of waste gain?
For the latter, the mallards competed with the hogs that had

(19:21):
been turned loose into the fieldto eat up the shattered rice
grain and red rice. Some 20 to 30% of grain was left
in the field after being harvested by inefficient
machinery or manual labor. The cold weather did not let up
as mid to late December of 1917 and into January of 1918 were

(19:44):
extremely severe cold months, but this did not slow the
feeding of ducks, which fed mostly on waste grain, but also
in some fields with shocks stillavailable.
The weather was so severe in thestates north of Arkansas that it
drove the remaining ducks southward, and Stuttgart, DeWitt
and Gillette were the beneficiaries.

(20:05):
However, duck hunting on the White and Arkansas rivers and
smaller rivers and bayous were the greatest beneficiaries as
they did not freeze up. The season of 1917 was repeated
in 1919. To shoot a night in 1919 it was
necessary to get a special orderunder the regulations of the

(20:26):
Migratory Merged Treaty Act fromthe United States Department of
Agriculture, which was granted for the 20 very first time for
Arkansas under the following stipulations.
This was 1919, and the stipulation said effective
during November the 14th throughDecember the 31st, inclusive,

(20:47):
permitting under certain restrictions the shooting at
night of wild ducks which have become seriously injurious to
rice crops in Arkansas Loan Oak and Prairie counties.
The ducks may be killed by persons owning or leasing the
rice lands or by agents from sunset to 1/2 hour before

(21:08):
sunrise. None of the ducks so killed may
be sold, offered for sale, or shipped for purposes of sale,
and no more than 25 can be killed during the night.
I might add here that was not very effective because it
didn't, it didn't limit anybody continuing on.
This led to considerable infractions which I just

(21:31):
mentioned as the market hunters paid no attention in particular
near Gillette, which was much more devoted to market hunting
here. Many thousands were thus shot
illegally both during the day and night.
Each season was a boom year. In the 1920's, the Malvern Times
New Paper of Malvern, AR reported that 3 hunters from

(21:54):
Malvern visited the Grand Prairie and said that the Grand
Prairie was full of ducks hunting for three days.
They killed 256. Once rice made its appearance in
the Grand Prairie before rice reservoirs, the two premier duck
shooting spots in the olden times from 19 O 7 to 1930s were

(22:15):
the sister lakes of Jacobs Lake and Pecan Lake, located between
Gillette and De Witt. Numerous duck bands banded by
Jack Manor of Kingsville, ON were retrieved in the first part
of the 1920s in the Grand Prairie.
In January 1920, a Drake Mallardwas killed near Holly Grove,

(22:36):
Monroe County. On one side of the band was
inscribed Right Box 48, KingstonON, and on the other side, with
God, all things are Possible. Mark 10/27, a female black duck,
was killed 6 miles from Oma, Perry County on December 27th,

(22:58):
1921. A black male black duck, banded
in 1924, was killed near Stuttgart on January the 25th,
1926. A Drake banded in the fall of
1925 was killed at Flag Lake, 3 miles from Gillette on December
the 4th, 1925. The two lakes were incomparably

(23:21):
better than anything in Arkansasand that's saying something.
Those who live near Jacobs and Pecan Lake said there was never
a day during the three months open season in the 1920s that
hunters were not booming away atto harass birds.
They said on the opening day of November the 1st, 1921 that

(23:44):
thousands of ducks were killed on the 2 lakes.
It was a rare occasion when lessthan 100 ducks were killed on
each of the lakes at night by a hunter.
An average of 100 ducks for eachlake for 90 days, November
through January is 18,000 birds for the season.
According to Stuttgart hunters, this was a very low average,

(24:07):
some estimated as high as 30,000miles of season killed on the
two bodies of water. These lakes were only two of the
many shooting places in the vicinity.
One of the best spots on Jacob'sLake was an arm of the lake
known as the Willow Hole. One reason for the swarms of
ducks at these two lakes was thesurrounding rice fields, which

(24:30):
covered a good portion of the Arkansas Grand Prairie.
In the rice fields there were small puddles of water in the
fields where the ducks congregated by the millions to
eat. The grain that was wasted during
the harvest are the shocks of rice stacked up in the fields.
As the fields were cut and as there was no cover but to
stubble, it was extremely difficult to approach within the

(24:52):
shooting distance of the birds when they were feeding.
For that reason it was more difficult to hunt with much
success on the rice fields, but were greeted with hot lead
whenever they attempted to lightin the two lakes.
Jacobs Lake was about 1/2 mile long and a quarter mile wide
which much overflow water spreadout into the thick timber.

(25:15):
It was a natural depression surrounded by rice fields.
Hundreds of thousands of ducks, mostly mallards, were not
unusual to see flying about as they pass from 1 rice field to
another. It was nothing to see a flock
that contained the last 20,000 birds hovering Old Pecan Lake or
Jacob's Lake and no one who everhaunted either lake, which

(25:37):
instead of that number greatly exaggerated.
The native said the best daytimeshooting was in the morning.
In 1923, the owners of Jacob's Lake built a rough hued camp
with mess hall, buckhouse and outdoor facilities known as a
Jacob Lake Lodge. The owners charged $5 a day for
lodging and shooting rights. It was not the first commercial

(26:01):
duck shooting place in Arkansas,but in the Grand Prairie was
hunters flocked there from across the country.
The advertising newspaper of Lexington, KY, published
November the 8th, 1828 reported that three Lexingtonians fill
their bags with ducks during a week of hunting.
During the rice horrors when therice was being put up in shocks,

(26:24):
ducks by the thousands proved almost a piss in destroying the
rice and hunters from all over the South are on hand to enjoy
the sports along with helping the farmers against the damage
of ducks that feed up on the crops.
That's the end of dictation. From 1912 to 1930, Gillette was

(26:44):
the duck capital as ducks came to the rice fields in the
thousands with Pecan and Jacobs Lake being the epicenter.
It's hard to say which year was the best, but 1924 and 1925
would be two of the best for the1924 season.
Investigation of dead ducks in the Pecan and Jacobs Lake area

(27:06):
during January 1925 revealed that many ducks died from lead
poisoning for the 192526 duck season.
The ducks had eaten all of the shocked rice and wasted rice, so
much so that mid mid-december the ducks had completely left
the area. Nothing compared to the 2 lakes

(27:27):
in its surrounding area, as the two lakes were such hot spots
for duck hunting that many ducksdied from lead poisoning in
January 1925 as a result of the rice boom in the Grand Prairie.
4 duck hunting clubs organized, followed by others.
The first to organize was the Pecan Lake Hunting Club in

(27:48):
October 1919. It was immediately fenced and
posted and patrolled by a caretaker.
No one was allowed to hunt unless accompanied by a member.
The hunting was so good here that it was often poached.
In fact, the club's caretaker and deputy game warden, Joe
Rosso, was killed by Chester Hobart and Eddie LaRue, 2

(28:10):
poachers from Pine Bluff, AR in December 1930.
Next club formed was Belcher Lake Hunting and Fishing Club,
organized in 1921 by a group of men connected with the American
Southern Trust Company. They purchased 240 acres around
the lake in Loronoke and Prairiecounties from the Belcher

(28:33):
family. It was about 10 miles northwest
of Stuttgart. The third club was Joe Mccraw
Surround Club, organized one year later in southeastern
Arkansas County. The 4th was Cooper Lake Club,
organized in 1922, with the clubbuying land around Smoke Hole
territory of Prairie County. Smoke Hole encompassed

(28:57):
approximately 3 miles of 2 Prairie Bayou, which is a
tributary to Bayou Mita and is located South of Carlisle.
On December the 3rd, 1925, the Saint Louis Post Dispatch
reported hunters having best season.
In half a century. Wild ducks, millions of them,
have swarmed the lakes of Arkansas and Tennessee, flying

(29:21):
in such vast numbers that small boars are killing them with
sticks in some feeding places. Never in the memory of veteran
hunters have there been so many ducks.
Realfoot Lake, that's in Tennessee is covered with them.
The fowl. Fowl there in great numbers from
the Arkansas rice fields and around Stuttgart.

(29:42):
That's the end of dictation. About five years later, 1930,
the Stuttgart area became the capital due to all of the
reservoirs then existing and themany that followed, along with
ever expanding rice production in the surrounding area.
The drought years of the early 30's, the critical decline in in

(30:03):
waterfowl populations, and an increased emphasis on
conservation brought a rapid expansion of the refuge system.
The federal government negotiated with the lumber
companies owning the land, whichthe federal government bought.
In 1934, the US Biological Survey had Miffian Nash

(30:24):
Buckingham make a preliminary investigation of the suitability
of prospective waterfowl refugeesites.
Buckingham was well familiar with the Grand Prairie after
having been taken there by his father on Prairie chicken, snipe
and duck hunts when he was just 10 years old and even older.
As he grew up and for a number of years thereafter, he

(30:47):
witnessed the ancient sandhill cranes disappear and watched the
Prairie chickens be exterminated.
He saw some of the first rice crops in commercial day shooting
operations. He had a special love for the
White River and Grand Prairie. He studied that the White River
area makes an ideal refuge in food supply.

(31:08):
This kind of land makes the mostperfect kind of waterfowl
project. It should not be overlooked that
this refuge will result result in the saving of an enormous
number of birds from slaughter growing out of the illegal and
marking shooting which is prevalent in this region.
After his investigation and recommendation, the federal

(31:30):
government then required an initial 45,000 acres for the
White River Refuge at the end of1934, with options on thousands
of additional acres. The federal government
considered it a super refuge, and that's a quotation.
A super refuge protecting one ofthe greatest winter

(31:51):
concentration areas of mallards in the United States.
And Super Refuge referred to here is a large acreage refuge
where waterfowl congregated in large numbers during the winter
and duck season. When the White River National
Refuge was created September the5th 1935, primarily for the

(32:14):
preservation of habitat for Miller ducks and Canada geese,
the refuge consisted of 112,399 acres.
One year later, 2.1 million acres had been set aside
nationwide for ducks and geese to use as hiding places from
hunters. In its first throughout the

(32:35):
refuge is forest that's of the White River National Wildlife
Wildlife Refuge were between 10,000 and 15,000 acres of
natural lakes, bayous sloughs and impoundments with slightly
more than 12,000 acres of farm lands which on average hosted
300,000 migrating and wintering ducks and 2000 Canada.

(32:58):
East to the east was the Mississippi River and to the
West was the Grand Prairie of East Central Arkansas where rice
was a primary crop. Over 80% of the refuge was used
extensively by waterfowl when flooding occurred before rice
became the dominant foods from the surrounding fields for
ducks, acorns, smart wood, smartweed, and wild Millet furnished

(33:22):
the food in the forested wetlands which became the
refuge. A waterfowl census was taken
during January 24th through the 26th, 1936 that covered the
White River Refuge in its vicinity.
Some 161 localities were inspected in the three counties
of Arkansas, Monroe and Deshart,with the most census localities

(33:46):
being in the county of Arkansas,which also had by far the most
ducks, 1,292,987, while Deshart County had 11,750 in Monroe,
11,136 The refuge, composed of 45,000 acres, when the census

(34:06):
was taken, contained 85,145 ducks, of which 84,000 and 35
were mileage. 12,190 were on Southern Lake, and 12,000 and
sixty were on Snubgrass Bayou, which was at the very southern
end of the refuge. The next most common duck was

(34:27):
the Black Duck at 562, followed closely by the Wood duck 540.
In Arkansas County only seven places not only refuge had more
than 50,000 ducks in order. The 608 acre Lumsdon Reservoir
was #1 it had the most ducks 283,495, then Jacobs Lake

(34:54):
233,506, Pecan Lake Hunting Club42,546, Pinchback Tailor Club
209,941, Frank Freudenberg Reservoir 113,332, White River

(35:15):
National Wildlife Refuge 85,145,Wilcox Lake 78,500, and Wilcox
Lake hosted the most black ducksand in 7th place was Ash
Reservoir 77,666. In total for the seven,

(35:35):
1,377,000 were mallards, 12,325 were black ducks, 8935 were
pintails, 1273 were green wingedteal wood ducks, 2355
canvasbacks, 5 Lumpston Reservoir which was #1 which had

(35:57):
283,495 ducks. It came in number one.
It was located just South of Pecan Lake and just northwest of
Gillette. While Pecan Lake stepped between
the Lumpston Reservoir on the South and Jacob Lakes to its NE
just on the West side of Bayou Mita.
Other places in Arkansas which hosted a large number of ducks

(36:21):
where Warner's Lake 25,000 and 40 Dilday Lake 25,533, Friedman
Reservoir 12,000. During the census there were
several commercial duck shootingoperations.
Wilcox Lake, which I mentioned, Jacobs Lake and then this one,
Clarence Elmer, Tippy Lacotts and I think most Arkansas duck

(36:44):
hunters and certainly the Mid South Memphians here know Tippy
Lacotts place in Deshart County.Shipley's Island held the most
ducks 3250 while Monroe County'sleader was Big Round Pond at
10,000. Prior to Christmas of 1935, the

(37:05):
duck count was very low due to warm weather and low water
levels. During Christmas and in early
January 1936, before the census was taken, a heavy concentration
of waterfowl was present on the refuge and in the surrounding
areas better than 1,000,000 ducks, principally mallards,
pintails till shovelers and bluebells.

(37:27):
That year was noted for its increase in pintails in the
area. In February 1936, at a time of
extremely low temperatures and heavy snowfall, the freeze
caused the ducks to head furtherSouth to Louisiana before Rice,
when the ducks tended to head for the rice fields.
Louisiana. The main stopover point was what

(37:48):
is today the White River National Wildlife Refuge in the
large area where the White and Arkansas River snaked down close
together to empty into the Mississippi River.
This was the Narius middle section of the migratory neck of
the hourglass of the MississippiFlyway.
In the olden days. Here they fed on Pin Oak Acre

(38:10):
and Smart Weed and wild Millet, and here they rested and
depending on the weather, many spent the winter in the area.
Gillette, being the nearest to this area, was the duck hunting
Center for sportsmen and market hunters and remained so for
several years even even after rice planting was increasingly
going northward. Many out of state sportsmen made

(38:33):
their way to Gillette in the 1920s by train and many from
Stuttgart made their way South of Gillette by the automobiles,
a three hour trip for the 26 miles.
Then came another change just asradical as New Madrid,
Earthquakes and the planting of rice and that being rice
reservoirs which were used to irrigate the rice crops.

(38:55):
But it had an unintended benefit.
The waterfowl loved it. The only downside was after five
to seven years the flooded treesbegan dying in these reservoirs,
so this led to green trees reservoirs where water was put
on and water was taken off afterthe duck season.
It must be remembered that sincethe lean years of the Dust Bowl

(39:18):
years in the early 30s, several large reservoirs were
constructed, the first being burned and Arc Tyndall's
Reservoir, which was completed in the latter part of 1926 and
was located 6 miles southeast ofStuttgart.
He began rice growing in 1921 on1840 acres of his brother's

(39:39):
Arsland and that's Art Tyndall, which named his place Sunset
Farms. The same year he graduated and
received 2° in electrical engineering from Stanford
University in California. But 1936 he owned 3000 acre rice
farm in Arkansas County. Varne Tyndall said about his

(40:03):
reservoir. The first few years it seemed as
if all of the ducks in the country tried to get into it,
Tyndall told the Stuttgart DailyLeader newspaper.
It was quite a sight to see. 8 to 10 acres of the reservoir
would be a mass of ducks, a hunter remarked.
The ducks concentrated on the prairies around Stuttgart and it

(40:25):
looked like millions and millions.
For the 1927 to 1928 duck season, Art Tyndall leased the
duck hunting rice to 3 hunters. After that he began a commercial
hunting business. The Stuttgart area in 1931 had
so many ducks for opening week that Grantland Rice shot moving

(40:46):
pitchers of the ducks and the hunters for distribution.
Reporting on such was the Stuttgart Daily Leader, which
reported opening morning of a duck hunt at Tyndall's Reservoir
in 1931, in which Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Heineke Meineke
was a guest. And I don't know, I don't know.

(41:08):
This Pittsburgh Pirates missed way before my time, but he must
have been quite famous quoting the newspaper.
The duck hunting season in Arkansas opened Monday, November
the 16th at noon, and Heine Miny's gun errors arrived at
Tyndall's Lake about 11:30 o'clock, and as the automobiles

(41:30):
stopped at the point selected for entry into the shooting
grounds, a great roar could be heard in the swamps.
Do you all want to see some ducks?
Grover, who is a constable of Stuttgart, said, and that's BC
Glover. He drawled the Gunners aloud is
how they did, and Grover clappedhis hands up when a cloud of

(41:52):
birds a few 100 yards away. He clapped again and there was
another whirl wings as another swarm took flight and moved a
few 100 feet, only to sell in the swamp again.
Just then a green head Mallard soared over one of the shooters
and his gun barked. It was like the signal for the
opening of a war. Up went the ducks in great
swarms, wings roaring, and in two minutes the sky was dark

(42:16):
with birds. It was a duck Hunter's dream, a
duck Hunter's sympathy with wings whirring and guns barking.
Birds within range, birds higherup and higher up.
Big Miley drakes had looked likegeese, so close were they and
other birds, so far up in the sky they looked like insects.
The first shot was fired at 12:15 and at 1:00 30.

(42:37):
Most of the shooters had their limits or had used up all of
their ammunition. Oh, so I could have been on that
Hut. The next reservoir was built in
1931 by Frank Freudenberg. 20 ormore were built between then and
1945, mostly during the height of the Duck Depression, which

(42:57):
was from 1930 to 1935. And that was the Dust Bowl
years. While the rest of the country
suffered with a shortage of ducks during this time of the
Dust Bowl years, the Grand Prairie enjoyed some of the best
shooting to be had as a drought did not affect them so much.
One of the best reservoirs was the Lost Island Reservoir at a

(43:22):
cost of $45,000. It began June the 4th, 1937
which construction of 1060 acre reservoir to supply water for
approximately 1500 acres of ricein Prairie County, about 6 miles
northeast of Stuttgart. After its completion, when the
ducks began leaving at dusk for the rice fields, they blackened

(43:45):
the sky and at dawn when they when this tremendous rush were
reversed, the air was full of the sight and sounds of ducks.
That's when the hunters did their gunning in 420 acres of
green pin oaks within the reservoir.
The remainder of the reservoir was an undisturbed rest area.
To many, this concentration of ducks defied description.

(44:08):
During normal years, there were 200,000 to 250,000 ducks on Lost
Island Reservoir for the 196364 duck season.
During the drought years of 1959to 1964, suppressed numbers of
ducks. The midwinter survey done by the

(44:28):
Arkansas Game and Fish Commission showed about 1/2 of
the mile or ducks, which were 56,000 in that state were on the
Lost Island Reservoir. Everyone who knew the place and
had shot at Lost Island and had shot at other well known places
said there's a lot of good duck hunting in Arkansas, but in my

(44:49):
opinion Lost Island is the best.An out of state duck hunter
would have thought he had died and gone to heaven.
Mallard hunting in Arkansas is the best in the United States
and those who shoot here at a Lost Island would say that we
just finished shooting the best spot in Arkansas.
That was quotations and that wasthe end of the quotation.

(45:10):
In addition to the large reservoirs, many clubs
constructed smaller ones and theeffect of these impoundments
drew ducks by the dens 10s of thousands away from the right
river bottoms in Refuge. For example, Peckerwood Lake,
which was and is a 4000 acre reservoir in Prairie County,
some 40 miles northwest of the refuge, was first inundated with

(45:35):
water for the season of 19411942.
The duck populations winning on the reservoir varied between
500,000 and 1,000,000 ducks. Many of these large reservoirs
and smaller club reservoirs werementioned earlier.
Another change which contributedto the decline of ducks winning

(45:57):
on the refuge was a fact that during the time favorable
habitat was being created by thereservoirs, the habitat within
their refuge was being destroyedby logging.
Under the White River Lumber Company and the Storks Brothers.
Logging began in 1900 and in thelate 1930's the refuge were

(46:18):
subjected to tensive logging. During World War 2, the demand
for lumber speeded up, even moreso the logging and the resulting
destruction of habitat on the White River National Wildlife
Refuge so that large areas of clear cut timber required years
to grow into favorable acorn waterfowl habitat.

(46:38):
Again, 1930 would be a gut duck hunting season in the Grand
Prairie as the duck came early, arriving in the third week of
October. A Memphis Commercial Appeal
newspaper reported that on a drive of less than 30 miles near
Stuttgart, 72 strings of ducks were seen each with no less than
200 in each. The air was filled throughout

(47:01):
the day with the long, thin lines of darkish colors which
were arriving ducks. During the quieter moments
through the night there plenty of quack, quack in the more
resonant honking of Canada geesecould be heard.
In 1930, Herbert Caldwell, sports writer for the Memphis
Commercial Appeal, haunted at George Wilcox Commercial

(47:22):
Establishment at Mount Adam's Landing on the White River.
He and seven others at one of the three ponds just off the
White River killed 127 mallards in 20 minutes, each paying $10
to do so. 1933 would be another very good year on the Grand
Prairie. And remember, this is the during

(47:43):
the Dusk Bowl years. So 1933 would be another very
good year on the Grand Prairie. So much so that the Saint Louis
Post Dispatch published an almost full page display of
ducks on one of George Wilcox's three lakes on December the
31st, 1933. Wildlife authorities estimated

(48:04):
that nearly 4 million ducks wereconcentrated on the 120 acre
lake. Wilcox lived at Mount Adams
Landing on the White River. The drought, which started in
1930, came in earnest in three major ways, 19341936 and 1939

(48:24):
through 1940. But some regions experienced
drought conditions for as long as eight years.
During the Dust Bowl years, the duck population plummeted.
Arkansas hunters and the Grand Prairie suffered somewhat but
but but not nearly as did other states.
The reason being that the drought limited their feeding
conditions in in the northern States and in Canada, which

(48:47):
limited their hunting so that more ducks would be in the
Prairie area of Arkansas to it having a good crop of rice and
good water in the reservoirs andlakes of the White River
National Wildlife Refuge. And when extreme cold weather
drove the ducks South or drove them down from the north or
Grand Prairie experienced exceptional great duck seasons.

(49:10):
Such a duck season occurred during 1935 and 1936.
The Southeast Missouri newspaperreported January the 12th, 1936,
that more than 1,300,000 ducks spent the winter in Arkansas
County. Officials of the Arkansas Game
and Commission estimate other counties of Monroe Prairie and

(49:33):
Desert also had a large population of ducks.
Some 1,400,000 ducks came to theWhite River region of Arkansas,
although some species usually continued their flight to warmer
regions of Louisiana and Mexico.However, the Mallards fidelity
to his winter home brings him back year after year to the same

(49:55):
area to stay in the Grand Prairie region.
During a Mallards winter migratory flight it usually has
one or two stops for refuelling depending on the distance it
must travel from starting point to their end point.
If one stop is made then it stays to refuel for about 21 to
28 days depending on the food available in the area and the

(50:18):
weather conditions. Another exceptional year was the
hunting season of 194041 when anextremely cold front up north
caused a grand passage which drove 10s of thousands of ducks
into Arkansas in the first part of November.
Due to the duck population increase for the last five
years, the season was lengthenedto 60 days instead of 45, with a

(50:43):
limit remaining the same at 10. The peak concentration of ducks
during the hunting season of 1940 was upwards of 2 million,
mostly mallards. The White River was full of
ducks all the way across in several places with a lot of
black ducks which the houseboat residents had never seen so many

(51:04):
before and those were houseboat residents who lived on the White
River. During the Refuges census of
January 24th through the 26th, 1941, some 620,000 mileage were
counted along with 199,900 Pintails, the largest ever

(51:25):
annual recording number for Pintails for the state of
Arkansas ever. The census count for Mallard for
the 1941 duck season which was done January the 24th through
the 26th was 283,200 while Pintails were 18,150.

(51:47):
The Mallard count for 1939 census was 228,000, with
Pintails being 25,000 nationwide.
It would be 1942 before the duckpopulation recovered in large
numbers from the Dust Bowl years.
The duck seasons of 194041 and 42 were considered three of the

(52:09):
best duck seasons ever in Arkansas, at least since 1929
when the Dust Bowl years set in.Because of this, the 1942 season
was extended 10 extra days, witha nationwide duck population
estimated at 100 million, 30 million more than 1937.

(52:30):
Then came World War 2, which America entered in 1942, the
year the Grand Prairie had a great duck season.
It would be the last for a whileas ammunition, tires,
automobiles and other things were in short supply due to the
impact of the war. With its end in 1945, the

(52:50):
country would recover as more reservoirs were constructed and
more rice was planted and logging was continued.
Ducks were drawn northward away from Gillette to a great extent
that then duck capital of Arkansas.
That's Gillette. So that by 1940 the rice and
duck capital was Stuttgart. It was stated in 1947 that

(53:13):
Pinnock acreage cannot be classified as an important food
on the refuge now and for many years to come.
While in the areas away from therefuge, Pin Oak flats along LA
grew Bayou, Bayou Mill and BayouMita had an excellent crop of
acreage where thousands of duckscongregated on the flats.

(53:34):
So what what I'm saying here is that they the Pin O Acre and the
cause of the timber had been cuton the White River Refuge.
Pin Oakens wasn't there anymore for them.
So they went to the places in Arkansas.
It was nearby by nearby. The places dotting the prairies
in the olden days were numerous timber depressions known as
islands or pin oak flats, at least two dozen of which were

(53:58):
used as rice reservoirs or as green tree reservoirs.
Green tree reservoirs were builtlike rice reservoirs, but used
more specifically for duck hunting.
After the hunting seeds in the water was released so that the
timber did not drown and die off.
Speaking of 1947, some 17 years after the start of the Dust Bowl

(54:20):
years which almost gave the coupe de grace for the duck
population, Ralph Coughlin, editor of the Saint Louis Post
Dispatch, wrote a column on December the 21st, 1947 stating
that. Let me say that over a hunting
experience of many years, I havenever seen more ducks than dark

(54:41):
in the Arkansas skies. This year I can cheerfully
report that the magnificent Mallard is in no longer in
danger of extension. I watched mallards setting in
vast and solid rafts on the Arkansas reservoirs, quacking
raucously and happily, and at dusk saw them start for the rice
fields. They took off in successive

(55:03):
wars, and for half an hour or more the whole sky was alive
with ducks. Whether you watch from Tyndall
Reservoir at or at Frank Wardenburg or Peckerwood or Lost
Island, the site was the same. And then at Don, wave after wave
of mallards got up like thundering aerial herds from
reservoirs. As rice production increased and

(55:27):
as more reservoirs were built starting in the late 1930s
through the 1940s, large numbersof mallards restored on
reservoirs during the daytime and fed in the adjacent rice
fields at night, most only returning to the White River
bottoms during periods when highwater from flooding rivers
covered the rice fields or the hunting pressure got too hot, or

(55:49):
the rice fields were frozen. Night feeding led to the
depredation of rice by ducks during this time.
To counter such, some farmers resorted to the use of a moving
beam from an automobile headlight mounted on the frame
of an oscillating electric fan which was placed on top of a 15

(56:09):
foot wooden tower which could only be done where a power line
was available to supply the current.
That wasn't too much of a problem because many of the rice
fields had electric pumps. It was estimated that 850,000
ducks were on the Wright River National Wild Refuge during the
height of the 193839 season, eating even after the combine

(56:34):
appeared, the grain had to remain in the fields until dry
enough to store and northern theRaven migratory ducks often
caused tremendous damage before the grain could be harvested.
Other great years for Arkansas and the Grand Prairie were the
occurrences of back-to-back grand passages for the season of

(56:54):
the 1954 and 1955, with the latter being more spectacular
when some 2 million ducks were in Arkansas where the ones in
the White River National Wildlife feasted on acorns, wild
Millet and smart weed. In Arkansas, the ducks arrived
over the entire eastern part of the state at about the same time

(57:17):
on November the 2nd. Radio reports were received from
game wardens to the effect that large number of ducks, mostly of
mileage, were arriving. This was reported as the largest
single movement of waterfowl in the state that was ever
recorded. The next major drought to effect
Arkansas and the Grand Prairie began in 1959 and lasted some

(57:38):
five years with a duck population once again suffering.
For the duck season 1961, hunters only harvested just 4
million duck, the lowest number ever recorded before.
Since for the season of 1962, the most restrictive regulations
in the history of waterfowl money management for only 23

(58:01):
days could you shoot with a limit of two ducks?
And I remember those seasons very well.
It wouldn't have. It was probably the weakest
point in my career. You know, I, I didn't see the
Dust Bowl years of the night, 1930 obviously, but I've
certainly experienced these and they were not good years.
But 1964100 reservoirs comprisedabout 25,000 acres.

(58:26):
There were also approximately 160 duck clubs, which control
more than 60,000 acres, primarily forested lowlands in
the Grand Prairie Bayou Mita district near Stuttgart.
About two dozen of these clubs were commercial.
The Game and Fish Commission public shooting area covered
about 75,000 acres. A good idea of just how enticing

(58:50):
was the rice fields around Stuttgart comes from the Toon
Star Phoenix newspaper for September the 21st, 1964 which
stated that 13,624 young mileagewere banded over a four year
period. In the Saskatchewan, Alberta
border region, 1204 bands were recovered of which 35% was

(59:15):
killed by Canadian hunters. Except for one recovery in
Mexico, all the other birds wererecovered in the United States.
The largest kill outside of the region mentioned was as in
Arkansas. The newspaper said that millions
of mileage are attracted there to winter by the flooded oak
flats and rice fields around Stuttgart.

(59:37):
The waterfowl population in the Grand Prairie increased greatly
during the early 1900s, probablyto their highest level ever in
the region. Peak duck population through the
night 20/19/20 have been estimated at 2:00 to 3:00
million birds. During the Dust Bowl years and
the drought years of the early 1960, duck duck numbers for the

(59:59):
Grand Prairie declined and gradually increased after that
in the latter part of the 1960s.The Stuttgart Standard newspaper
reported December the 16th, 1971under the headline Duck Flight
Near Record. That's the greatest flight of
ducks into the Rice region sincea record year of 1917 was

(01:00:21):
reported this morning into the Lake and reservoir regions.
Countless thousands have been here for several days, and the
cold weather in the north brought an additional flight
yesterday. Harvey Tow, deputy game warden,
reported that on the large reservoir Frank Fordenberg that
the flight had practically doubled the number of ducks.

(01:00:41):
Midwinter survey records indicated that during the 1970s,
an average of 5.23% of all duckscounted in the nation were
reserved in Arkansas. The average count of mileage
during this period was 919,000, approximately 1/3 of the
Mississippi flyways total. For Arkansas duck hunter duck

(01:01:04):
numbers remained high for most of the 1970s and then declined
during the 1980s, with the duck season 198485 being one of the
worst in recent memory due a dueto a four year drought in Canada
and loss of wetlands on both sides of the border, with United
States losing some half million acres of wetlands yearly.

(01:01:27):
However, duck harvest began to show signs of recovery in the
early 1990s, with a total duck harvest in Arkansas in 2001
being 1,113,800 birds, but by the second-half of that decade
Horace had returned to 1970 levels.

(01:01:48):
Although ducks harvest surged through the last half of the
decades of the 1990's, the trendbegan to reverse by the end of
the decade. Today for the Grand Prairie
duck, duck numbers are estimatedat 100,000 to 200,000.
Birds, rice and Fowler waterfowl, especially ballards,
have shared a shared a long history in the Grand Prairie

(01:02:11):
regions for well over 125 years and it continues the region
around Stuttgart. The Wit and Gillette gave the
state its national and international fame for duck
hunting and as everyone knows, Stuttgart, located in the heart
of the Grand Prairie and the Mississippi Flyway, is the rice
and duck hunting capital of the world.

(01:02:33):
The White River National Wildlife Refuge consists of
160,756 acres and is located in the Mississippi River Delta and
is part of the Mississippi Alluvial Valley, which is
composed of seven states, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas,
Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

(01:02:55):
The Mississippi, Louisville Valley, and particularly the
White River National Wildlife Refuge, has historically
supported one of the largest concentrations of mallards and
other winning waterfowl in the United States.
The refuge lies within the confluence of three major river
systems, the Arkansas, White andMississippi Rivers, and is the

(01:03:17):
key winning grounds of migratorymallards.
The refuge, when combined with the Cache River ecosystem which
is north of the White River, which also has a National
Wildlife Rescues consisting of 50 thousand 55,000 acres in
eastern Arkansas, represents thelargest remaining tract of
contiguous bottomland hardwood forest in North America.

(01:03:41):
When the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge was established,
it was stated that it is the most important remaining
wintering area for mallards on the North American continent.
The importance of the White River National Wildlife Refuge
to migratory waterfowl is evident.
Specifically, the Cache Lower White River region, which

(01:04:03):
includes the White River National Wildlife Refuge and its
northerly neighbor, the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge,
is the single most important winning area for mallards in
North America. The region also annually host
and hosted numbers of other waterfowl species, especially
gadwalls, widgins, green winged tail pintails, and ring necked

(01:04:26):
ducks. The number of waterfowl that
historically used the habitats on the White River National
Wildlife River is unknown beforeits existence in 1935.
Certain old photographs and survey records suggest that more
than 1,000,000 mileage regularlypresent in the lower White River

(01:04:47):
floodplains during winter. However, an early recorded count
took place during the duck season 1938, which indicated the
peak number winning ducks were reported to be 850,000.
This figure represents a 20% increase over the season of
1937, this occurring several years after the devastating the

(01:05:09):
disaster of the dust. Both years the increase was
mainly due to mallards, but alsoto outstanding increases in
pintail and green Wing Teal. 1000 Canada geese were reported
on the refuge. Also, as recently at the 1970's,
the Cash and Lower White River ecosystems had annual average

(01:05:30):
peak midwinter populations of almost 500,000 ducks, which was
about 45% of all ducks counted in Arkansas at that time.
Individual surveys from the 1970s also counted over
1,000,000 ducks in this area, including as many as 873,000

(01:05:51):
mallards. Other banning and migration
surveys data suggested historically up to a 50% of all
individual mallards in mid continental North America use
the White River ecosystem near White River National Wildfire
Refuge at sometime during winter.
Records indicated selected time peak numbers of winter and ducks

(01:06:13):
range from 150,000 to 350,000 inthe period from 1978 to 1992,
with an average of about 225,000.
In most years, the refuge approached peak numbers of
20,000 ducks per day on resting areas such as Dry Lake, the Farm

(01:06:33):
unit, and the demonstration areaof the refuge.
Not in four decades since the Grand Passage of 1955 had the
United States witnessed such as spectacular migration of
waterfowl has occurred with the Grand Passage during November
the 2nd through the 3rd, 1995 more even than in the Banner

(01:06:54):
Ducks season 1994. An estimated 83,000,000 ducks,
some 12,000,000 more than 1994 and 24,000,000 more than in
1993, made the trip South in early November following a
severe Blizzard and coal wave which came from Canada and
spread to Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota,

(01:07:18):
Wisconsin and Michigan, which froze ponds, lakes, marshes and
potholes in the Prairie Pothole region of Canada and the states
just mentioned, with most havingtaken off for warmer climes at
once in a large flocks. The mass migration gym radar
screens across the country and grounded flights in Omaha and

(01:07:41):
Kansas City near record rainfallduring summer of 1990.
Four 1995 fill the portholes to brimming, leading to a
remarkable increase in breeding ducks.
Nevertheless, the 1995 season for the Grand Prairie and the
Refuge held 35% fewer ducks thanthe 1994 season because the 1995

(01:08:05):
summer drought left water reservoirs too low to flood the
customary acreage of timber and rice fields.
When we went into the 21st century, there was a sniff
significant response from waterfowl using the refuge
during the wintering months, which which attributed to higher
ambient air temperatures coupledwith an increased and managed

(01:08:29):
waterfowl habitats immediately north of Arkansas which appears
to have slowed and are stopped. The migration of ducks southward
into the Stuttgart in the Grand Prairie area.
Many believe this aspect of waterfowl migration is in is a
glimpse into the long term trends of waterfowl numbers

(01:08:50):
throughout the region as global temperatures continue
increasing. This trend has also occurred to
a degree throughout Arkansas in recent years.
While this shift has been attributed to both warmer
weather and increasing food resources north north of
Arkansas, as well as to lower nest productions in the Prairie
Potho region of the continent, there has also been a slight

(01:09:13):
shift in birds stopping in the northern half of the state.
For example, the White River National Wildlife Refuge and its
vicinities Total duck populations estimate was 27%
below the 2009 through the 2019 late January long term average,

(01:09:34):
which was done the third week ofJanuary.
The census was while the Mallardcount was 3234% below the long
term average done as stated the third week of January in 2020.
During the aerial survey for January, the number of dabbling
ducks were 173,000 and 12 mostlymallards.

(01:09:56):
In 2022. The aerial survey done January
17th through the 21st showed the202122 duck season had a Mallard
estimate at 30% lower than the 2010 through the 22/20/22
average during the same period of time for the White River
National Wildlife in its vicinity.

(01:10:19):
In the final area survey of the 2023-2024 waterfowl season,
Arkansas Game and Fish Commission biologists estimated
a Delta Mallard population that was more than half a million
mallards below the 2009, 2024 late January long term average

(01:10:40):
in the lowest late January survey estimate on records since
a 2009 start of transect based surveys.
Also, total duck population estimates were nearly 480,000
birds below the long term average, largely due to the low
number of mileage. On average, mileage account for

(01:11:01):
about 55% of all ducks in the Delta during late January
surveys. During this survey period,
however, mileage made-up only 33% of the total duck estimate.
Over the past several decades ofthe 21st century, not only have
waterfowl numbers change, but also the species composition has

(01:11:22):
shifted. Mallard still comprise the
majority of all wintering waterfowl species on the refuge,
followed by cadwalls, wood ducksand ring neck ducks.
Spring and foul flights of Blue Wing till appear to have
remained rather constant from old reports and casual
observations made today, but other changes in waterfowl are

(01:11:44):
dramatic. Early reports indicate indicated
that thousands of lesser scoop American widgins and pintails
were observed, but their numbershave declined significantly in
recent years. Apart from widgins, these
species are now rare observations.
The most significant change, however, has been not only the

(01:12:04):
reduction in the number of mileage, but of particular
interest and how much later the mileage remained on the refuge
in the early 1970s. As late as March 1972, twenty
8500 miles were still on the refuge, as were 850 Canada East,
and this was down from late February when 225,000 miles were

(01:12:29):
on site. Today, mallards and all
waterfowl are essentially gone by mid February except for the
Northern Shoveler which only numbers in the hundreds.
Depending on water levels, shoulders can make up a large
portion of late winter waterfowlon the refuge.
Yet in the 1970s, their numbers rarely reached or exceeded 200

(01:12:49):
per month. Despite lower numbers of ducks
using the refuge. And even with the changes that
have occurred in lower White River ecosystem at present
compared to earlier times duringits pristine and primitive
state, this eco region still is critically important in
providing the resources needed to support the continental

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population of waterfowl, especially mallards that travel
down the ancestral migratory aerial highways to the neck of
the hourglass of the MississippiFlyway.
If you ask the old timer still living, which includes this
podcaster what were the last great duck hunting season, it

(01:13:30):
would be those between the yearsof 1954 through 1958 in the 1993
and 1994 season. The best ever duck season for
this podcaster was a 198384 season when I was hunting below
Charleston, Mississippi. But each waterfowler has its own

(01:13:51):
personal experience to what season our seasons were the last
great years. You might ask why?
19831984 were my excellent seasons for duck hunting which
occurred in Mississippi and thatwas because a series of bitter
cold Arctic air masses began penetrating the midsection

(01:14:13):
United States on December the 15th, 1983 causing record low
temperatures and extreme wind chills over much of the eastern
2/3 of the nation through the remainder of the month.
Some meteorologists call this the Great Freeze of 1983 in the
worst cold weather vent of the century in the United States.

(01:14:36):
Mississippi and Charleston, Mississippi, which is where I
was hunting during this time, experienced 19 days of freezing
temperatures, many of those dayshovering with lows at or near 0
and most days only reaching a high into the teens in the
afternoon. Most everything froze solid in
the states north of Mississippi,which drove the ducks southward

(01:14:59):
while due to heavy precipitationprior to the cold front's effect
on the Charleston area, a large amount of precipitation in the
area and to the north had flooded the Tallahatchie River,
which kept open huge blocks of feeding grounds for well over
six weeks. They seemed like every duck in
the Mississippi flyaway was in that area and stayed in that

(01:15:20):
area and it was no trouble to get a limit in no time in the
morning. It was such a spectacular
season. It's well cemented in my memory
and I hope you have had many over the years.
That's the end of this episode 62.
I hope you enjoy it and if you get a chance, look at my

(01:15:41):
website, waterfowling.net. If you see a book on there that
you interested in, give me a contact e-mail
[e-mail], [e-mail] and I'm going
to close with May God Bless.