My former friend Michael B. Dougan, emeritus distinguished professor of history at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, recently tricked me into doing a program on the history of quail restoration efforts in Arkansas. He asked me to be a "humanities scholar" for a grant application to fund a summer program for teachers on quails. The next thing I know, I'm on the program to speak about how Arkansans over the past century have worked to protect the "bob white" from the same fate that befell the passenger pigeon.
There seems to be little evidence that early settlers hunted quails, perhaps because they were too busy killing bears, deer, turkeys, and a cornucopia of other animals of the field, stream, and air. Silas C. Turnbo, the colorful 19th-Century raconteur and author of The White River Chronicles: Man and Wildlife on the Ozarks Frontier (UA Press, 1994), did not mention quail hunting at all.
It took a long time before Arkansans developed a wildlife conservation ethic--and many would argue that much work remains to be done. The very richness of wildlife in early Arkansas encouraged rampant exploitation of natural resources. No state agency regulated hunting or fishing. Farmers killed every bear, panther, wolf, and hawk that came within firing range.
Newspapers were filled with reports of amazing wildlife kills. During the spring of 1869 a bear weighing 617 pounds was killed in White County, and later that year two hunters in southeast Arkansas reported killing 13 bears in one hunt.
Commercial hunters and fishermen had an impact on Arkansas wildlife statistics. In 1873 newspaper articles told of a Pope County man who sold 86 "pairs of venison hams" in Little Rock for 75 cents per pair. That same year commercial fishermen on the Saline River near Benton took more than 4,000 pounds of fish from one trap in one day. Also in 1873, a letter-writer to the Arkansas Gazette charged that "Memphis interests have no less than 300 [fish] nets in Arkansas," for which they paid no compensation to the state.
Arkansans contributed substantially to the extinction of the passenger pigeon. Almost 6,000 pigeons were killed in Prairie County on one night in December 1867, the birds being shipped to Memphis. Many pigeons were killed "for sport," such as in 1869 when trapped birds were used in a shooting match at the state fair. Waterfowl in vast numbers were killed in eastern Arkansas and shipped to St. Louis.
While Arkansas did not get around to creating a state agency to oversee and regulate hunting and fishing until 1915, earlier legislatures did periodically adopt laws to deal with specific game-related problems. The 1879 General Assembly outlawed the use of dynamite to kill fish, and in 1885 the legislature more fully addressed the growing realization that some species were in decline by adopting closed seasons when hunting was prohibited in certain areas. Quails were included in this law, the first instance I know of that was intended to protect that small bird.
By 1915 Arkansas was ready to establish a state game and fish agency, though it faced many challenges. I am amazed that the legislator behind the creation of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission was Senator Junius Marion Futrell of Paragould. Futrell is primarily known for his miserable and insensitive handling of the Great Depression during his tenure as governor, 1933-1937. He deserves credit, however, for his foresight on wildlife conservation.
Act 124 of 1915 not only authorized the creation of a state wildlife agency, it contained numerous additional provisions. Hunting and fishing seasons and bag limits were established for many species including deer, bears, and turkeys. Hunting licenses were authorized, with the deer license being $1.
Gov. George W. Hays signed Act 124 on March 11, 1915. The new law provided for a five-member commission to govern the new agency, with expenses to be paid by income from licenses and fines.
As you might expect, some Arkansans did not welcome the regulation of an activity which many viewed as a "right." Early game wardens were hamstrung with limited powers (including a lack of arresting authority), miserable pay, and generally poor public relations. Poaching was rampant, and early game wardens faced occasional death threats. Juries were reluctant to convict those charged with killing game out of season. Initially, game wardens were paid $8 per month.
One of the early programs of the Game and Fish Commission was an effort to restore quail and other game bird populations throughout the state. It would be a challenge--which continues today.
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Tom Dillard is a historian and retired archivist living near Glen Rose in rural Hot Spring County. Email him at Arktopia.td@gmail.com.
Editorial on 06/07/2015