The Bear Hunter

[TDM]

This is a relatively obscure book that I stumbled upon several years ago. It's non-fiction and describes the Mississippi Delta in the days of the earliest settlers. The author, James McCafferty, has written a few other books but they aren't published in great numbers. It's a great hunting and historical book. I believe it can still be purchased at Amazon.

 

[JEBMs]

I’ve been meaning to get that book, they were selling it at our excuse for a newspaper. Mr. Bobo is from the town I live in. We don’t have any bears any more except one every now and then that comes over from Arkansas. Funny thing, you wouldn’t think of a bear being much of a swimmer but they swim the Mississippi River to get here. Teddy Roosevelt got his nickname about 60 miles south of here. See the Great Bear Affair in Rolling Fork, Ms. More useless facts than you were looking for I bet.

 

[TDM]

@JEBMs you really need to read this. It's good reading for anybody. But if you were born and raised in the Delta like I was the book is amazing. I actually bought my first copy at the general store in Onward. Wife and I used to stop there to eat on our way to Clarksdale we're both my Sisters lived. I later contacted the author directly and got a signed copy for each of my Sons.

 

[JEBMs]

Where were you raised? I grew up in the little town of Coahoma but spent most of my time at and in Moon Lake

 

[Rifleman1776]

I’ve been meaning to get that book, they were selling it at our excuse for a newspaper. Mr. Bobo is from the town I live in. We don’t have any bears any more except one every now and then that comes over from Arkansas. Funny thing, you wouldn’t think of a bear being much of a swimmer but they swim the Mississippi River to get here. Teddy Roosevelt got his nickname about 60 miles south of here. See the Great Bear Affair in Rolling Fork, Ms. More useless facts than you were looking for I bet.

Arkansas used to be called the Bear State. Hunting them was big business back in the day. I have a copy of an article published many years ago where a hunter says he had his dogs tree the bear then he went in with a knife to kill it. Personally, I'm skeeptikal. But it's a good story.

 

[JEBMs]

Some people (you notice I didn’t say I) do that around here with wild hogs. The dogs hold them and you cautiously slit their throats. A buddy of mine’s sister (a nice looking pharmaceutical saleswoman) had a huge black and white boar mounted in their game room. I asked her about it and she said she took some doctors on a boar hunt and when the dogs pinned the hog she handed them the knife. They passed it to each other and then back to her and she waded in and dispatched the critter. Now days the dogs wear Kevlar

 

[TDM]

Where were you raised? I grew up in the little town of Coahoma but spent most of my time at and in Moon Lake

Born and raised in Lake Village, AR right across the river from Greenville. My Sisters, both gone now, married and settled in and around Clarksdale. I have fished Moon Lake several times and hunted around Duncan. Still have some nieces and a nephew there that farm that I stay in touch with.

 

[chorizo]

This fellow claims he did just that. Killed more bears with a knife than he did with his musket​

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Forty-Four Years, the Life of a Hunter: Being Reminiscences of Meshach Browning, a Maryland Hunter and Trapper​

https://www.amazon.com/Forty-four-Y.../ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

 

[1950DAVE]

Did you ever read "The Bear" by William Faulkner, the godfather of Mississippi fiction.

 

[TDM]

Did you ever read "The Bear" by William Faulkner, the godfather of Mississippi fiction.

I haven't read that one, but I love Faulkner.

 

[chorizo]

I haven't read that one, but I love Faulkner.

My English Lit prof in College during the 70's was one of Faulkner's nieces or so she claimed.

She said she used to go as a young girl to his "hunting" camps where he would drink heavily and then pass out. Said they would prop him up against a tree and let him sleep it off.

Needless to say we received a heavy indoctrination of Faulkner

 

[TDM]

Ha!, yes, always heard that Faulkner was very fond of his totties!

 

[chorizo]

Ha!, yes, always heard that Faulkner was very fond of his totties!

Mint Juleps, we were told, was his concoction of choice. Being a Westerner, had never heard of them until then.

 

[TDM]

I have had Mint Juleps a number of times, but I'm more of a straight bourbon man myself. My oldest Son is more locked in the past than I am. He loves to make drinks popular in the 1800's to early 1900's.