Attention Hunters; This article ran after last year's hunting seasons. I thought some of you surfing in to the website might get a grin out of it.
True Confession of a Not So Macho Man
Norm Vance | Nov 14, 2006
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Now, don’t click away because this article is about hunting -because it isn’t really. It’s more about a subculture that shares our area once a year and our reaction to it. But first, the confession part.
I’m constantly amazed at the variety and types of local people who listen to the Big Game Hunter’s Radio Show on KWUF. From he-man types to little elderly ladies with purplish hair and a twinkle in their eye, I get all sorts of responses. Most newcomers or people who don’t know me well seem to think I am the macho-manly-hunter type. I have to explain frequently and daily during the hunting seasons that this isn’t so. The line I usually use is, “I’m not really a hunter nor a manly-macho type, this is “show-biz.” Some folks seem almost disappointed!
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A candid shot of a tired Norm. Yes, it's a lot of fun but after a few days or weeks on a dirt bike it is a bit tiring. I work up a big smile when I get to camps, another part of the show biz! |
Twenty some years ago I began publishing The San Juan Adventure Guide magazine. The first issue was a fall/hunting edition. I had 10,000 issues and a motorbike and I set out to give issues to hunters along the access roads and jeep trails. A few years later I began the KWUF hunter show currently in its seventeenth year on the air. I continue riding and visiting hunters to do the show.
Hunters have long brought big money to the area, but the local Chamber of Commerce of that time wasn’t doing promotion or events for them... so I took it up as a cause. Over a few years it became very big with dozens of Pagosans involved and good money made for my favorite charity, the Dr. Mary Fisher Clinic. We promoted it as “The Largest Hunter Hospitality Event in the Country” because it was!
The State changed the season’s structure and costs a few years ago, reducing the number of hunters to the point that some of the events ended; but the radio show and some contests continue.
So, the confession is I learned to talk the talk but I don’t walk the walk! Not so macho!
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These great guys had no licenses or guns, they came just for the fun ot it! |
It was a very good year for the hunters and for Pagosa Springs in 2006. Many shops seemed busy; many cash registers rang.
I do several contest with prizes based on preaching care for the forest and trash removal. One contest is just for fun. This is “The Dirtiest Hunter in the San Juan Contest.” It is big fun for the hunters when I ask, with radio recorder in hand, “who is the dirtiest hunter in camp?” Sometimes it is obvious as I often run into hunters who have just processed a deer or elk and look like they just stepped out of the movie Deliverance.
In camp everyone usually points to one guy who is standing there with a sheepish grin. You should hear some of the things they say, or… may be you shouldn’t. There is a lot of male bonding going on out there and it quickly reverts to little boy attitudes and humor when the subject of dirt and smells comes up.
The prize is a pass to The Springs Hot Spring Resort for a good soak and bath. This year, as I recorded an interview with a camp leader, I mentioned the dirtiest hunter contest and watched as a hunter named Russell picked up a shovel, scooped it into the ground where many horses and mules had been tethered and poured the dirt over his head. He wanted to win the pass with that much passion and he did.
It is a long tradition for hunters to use the hot springs while in the Pagosa area. I’ve heard reports from a half century ago of lines of hunters building up for that hot bath. When Welch Nossaman arrived to first start settlement of Pagosa Springs, the area was a hunting camp for Indians.
To continue that tradition and to say thanks to The Springs for fifteen years of passes, I promote them heavily on the show and in person. It seems to work as the tubs often fill with hunters. One fellow in my tub looked around at pools of smiling, laughing and animated men and said that it looked like Brokeback Mountain Day at The Springs!
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Even if you aren’t a hunter you might look at the hunter’s photos on this website. They are a proud lot who have fun and a great experience, even if they don’t take an animal. Three quarters of them don’t, every year, and they keep coming back. And, yes, while in our area they really do look like the bad guys in the movie but back home they are clean, shaved and good people with families and all the best of Americana.
Dick Ray points out that they are an unusually decent and honest group of people. I agree, as I go into hundreds of unpopulated camps with thousands of dollars of rifles, optics and gear lying around and I’ve never heard a complaint of theft. Dick notes that it is doubtful that, even in civic and church groups, you can find that many people, numbering in the thousands, who have absolutely zero felony-criminal convictions among them. In Colorado you cannot get a hunting license with a criminal record!
I am proud to have welcomed them to our area over the years and to have provided a bit of entertainment and enhancement to their Pagosa Country experience.
