Author Archives: docfoster2

Another example of an attempt to pass local game laws. This one was in 1901. The argument against these laws stemmed from their prohibition of certain people from hunting but not all people. So, in essence, these laws discriminated. The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled against these laws.

Arkansas Governor Jeff Davis, Wild Ass of the Ozarks, pardoned Clay County Resident J. E. Eagan on May 23, 1906. A Clay County court had found Eagan guilty of violating the game and fish laws and fined him $50, a large sum in 1906.

Arkansas State legislators have a long history of passing county-specific game and fish laws. They only pertained to single counties. In other examples, if statewide laws passed, they exempted their county from the law. As observers can imagine, this was incredibly confusing for early Arkansas outdoorsmen. What was legal in one county, was not inContinue reading “Today in Arkansas Wildlife History: May 20 County Laws”

Sometimes poachers moonshined and moonshiners poached. In many cases, people who broke game and fish laws also broke other laws. After prohibition, several illegal liquor smugglers used the same routes to smuggle game and fish. In 1910, authorities broke up raided Warren resident J. N. Tracey’s place, and found gambling tables, liquor, and banned fishingContinue reading “Today in Arkansas Wildlife History: May 18 Whiskey and Fish”

By the 1920s, market hunters had almost exterminated the snowy aigrette. They killed them for their plumes to sell to the millinery or the hat-making industry. Walker Lake in Arkansas served as a rookery for aigrettes. It became Arkansas’s first Federal bird refuge. Unfortunately, it did not last long. Drainage efforts in the area toContinue reading “Today in Arkansas Wildlife History: May 17 Anne’s Aigrette”

As the Conservationist Movement grew in Arkansas, several county and local organizations appeared. Most of them were sporting organizations, like the Phillips County Club in Helena. However, several women’s organizations popped up too. Additionally, national organizations like the Izaak Walton League and the Audubon Society started chapters in Arkansas during this period. However, hundreds ofContinue reading “Today in Arkansas Wildlife History: May 16 County Organizations”

On May 13, 1907, a Fort Smith newspaper reported that a shipping company received a fine for shipping fish illegally out of Arkansas to St. Louis. Authorities arrested the fellow who had shipped the fish from an Arkansas fishing trip to his hometown of St. Louis… just after his wedding.

In 1923, a Berryville resident fished alone. He caught 55 fish. This number of fish was not uncommon before 1925. Anyone who dropped a line in Arkansas waterways could catch fish. Good-sized fish and lots of them. However, dynamiting, pollution, and overfishing destroyed Arkansas’s aquatic population. Even as early as the 1890s, some Arkansawyers startedContinue reading “Today in Arkansas Wildlife History May 11 Lots of Fish”

Although the Arkansas Legislature created the AGFC in 1915, they did not properly fund the organization. However, the State Treasurer did not make this clear until the new wardens tried to obtain their travel expenses. Several lawsuits followed to force the State Treasurer to release the funds in the general state fund.

Throughout the fight for Arkansas wildlife conservation, opponents existed. Some people believed that the right to kill game and fish was a God-given right. Others believed it was a right as an American citizen, and yet others still, believed it was their right as a citizen of the state of Arkansas. Every time a newContinue reading “Today in Arkansas Wildlife History: May 9 Opposition”