Discovering - Deer Camp, 17 pt Buck

welcome to discovering tonight we'll pay a visit to a camp that dates back to the early 1940s in 1941 when they bought this camp this was a logging camp we'll take a look at a buck that was shot a few years back with well a lot of points but your feet up and relax it's Monday night and time for this government the secrets trees the floor beneath the cliffs colored stone force the game with birch and pine surrounded by the greatest lakes in this world has ever known the black bears awesome presence as he roams the hills and fields call of the Timberwolf Munson drilled the eagle soaring high above the trowel lies deep and still these are what I treasure the only way I measured feelings that I have for this final and there is so much to discover when your longtime lover of Noir Michigan 19:41 the average wage was just over $4,000 a new car was 850 a gallon of gas cost 12 cents and Don Johnson got together with some friends and purchased 400 acres of land in this camp for 750 bucks Victor Lydon white was the beer distributor for Budweiser in the Norway I Ramon area and he was in jake Smith tavern in their mountain one day making a delivery and as he was going about his business he overheard somebody at the bar say to the bartender do you know anybody that would be interested in buying a camp with ten 40s for 750 dollars at that time victim belongs to anybody's camp or anything but yet he was an avid hunter so he had a roundup a crew if you wanted to buy the camp so he got ahold of my dad elmer johnson and five other guys were part of camp Lindy they bought that camp in 1928 and they named it Lindy because that was the time of the year when Lindy flew across the ocean he told them what what the what the deal was well they thought it was pretty good so they decided that well they could leave camp Lindy and come to camp 41 they've got a nice new Campton Australia's a butcher Henry Ebeling was a butcher Paul who hazel was a baker Martin Anderson was a dry goods owner Vic Charley Angie Bush was a officer for mining company cliff Sharkey worked for the might work for Ford Motor Company and Joe van karakov came from Milwaukee I don't know what he did well in hell that was the nucleus of the camp in 1941 when they bought this camp this was a logging camp supposedly it was at one time on the Foster City Road I know not where but it will moved up here so I'm Dahlia was in sections so it cost each one of them 135 dollars was to their charity camp deal was there that as each person should happen to pass away their hundred and thirty five dollars would go back to the wife it went on like that for years until it got to the point where the only two left of the camp was my dad Elmer Johnson and Vic Martin wait Victor lard annoyed had a son Ernie Lara noid who was the same age as I am and I'm 91 we were the only two left so Vic said to my dad snakey he said why did instead of waiting for each one of us one of us to die why don't we just turn to camp over to the kids so they turned it over to Ernie and I before Ernie died we were in the same situation well I mean we were getting two could it avoid or we're getting worse we're gonna be done pretty quick too so we turned it over to our kids that's hard to camp has gone on for years and hopefully for many more years through the younger generation our camp Road at that time was 16 or 18 miles all on a two runt Road you couldn't get through here in wintertime you had to put chains on to get here at the Swan Petersen Road that's how bad the road was you had to make sure that you had changed with you because as you were hunting here and you got in the snow you really had to have change to get out of here it used to take us better than two hours to come to camp at the present time we do it in an hour or less but there was no such a thing as pickup trucks at that time during their days of hunting they always the first day of season whoever saw the first deer other than a buck they shot for camp meat that was a ritual then they would take it and then they would spin it out and they went hanging in the swamp and that was camp meat for the camp for the first season at that time we had the whole area to hunt there wasn't a camp in the area so they were they pretty well had a free rein here there was no such a thing of baiting or anything back then and and well at that time too you could you also got a bear license with your deer license oh and they're here and also years ago each one that came to camp brought his own bottle of whiskey or his own bottle of brandy because whoever shot the deer when they got it home at night from the heat the hunt they all stand around the table and had a shot on their particular duck Buckley got that that thing I said everybody had to bring their own bottle now we got a we got much booze there's as the buyers got we don't have to worry about that Vic was the butcher there was a man I went with him one day he shot a deer and he came in to get help and I walked out to the swamp to get him to help him well he took he had a little knife about so long a little short blade on it he took and he skinned out this deer completely skinned it out took it out of the hide open up the hide laid the deer down quartered it there wasn't one speck of hair on there you think he was a neurosurgeon and then all the deer that they shot during hunting season one season was over they would take a Devlin's grocery store cuz Henry had Berlin was the butcher and they'd had a have a night that they spent at the store and they would cut the deer up and and box it all up and each one got their equal share regardless of who shot the deer they all got a equal share of the deer that were shot nowadays whoever shoots the deer well they go home with with there's the negative it's up to them to do it but those years ago they were they went to alter the butcher shop and he did it for nothing they never came to camp before huntin season maybe a week or two weeks before that they'd come up here and the grass was two feet high on the road and it was before they got here and when they got here they had to cut the grass and the sickle is up there on the wall that they used to cut the grass with well then they would spend that whole day making wood for the camp for the upcoming huntin season then the next time they came that camp was hunting season some of them were able to spend the two weeks up here but the majority of them spent one week up here we had Paul hull hazel had hole Hazel's bakery and he had a van that used to come up here with well my dad took it home and he put false panelings in there in there inside this thing so that they could take smuggle deer out of here but in those days the dnr used to have a checkpoint as soon as you got off the Foster City Road just before you hit the highway at Waseda they had a roadblock well they'd search your vehicle make you open up your trunk and everything to make sure you didn't have any illegal deer and immoral anything but with the bakery truck with a go right through never no problem you you're gonna have running water in here and there's a spring that runs down the hill and we have some cribs made to settle out the sand and whatever and and when I was very young and came here we drank the water and we bring it in here in five gallon buckets and we would drink it I never thought anything of it though of course we don't do that anymore we bring water from home but we still haul in usually we have the younger people hauling in the buckets of water tear off the 16 year olds instead of 69 year olds and then we have some of the 30 year olds that do it and and but we highlight in and we use that for doing dishes and washing up and that sort of thing we have outside plumbing the walls in this camp now are all paneled with coffin boxes and years ago coffins used to come in boxes and they used to get from their local Undertaker today was to go and get these boxes and this is what they lined all the walls in our camp with we still cook breakfast son that son Underwood's she'll fire that up in the morning and fry eggs and bacon and potatoes and pancakes it's quite an experience but I learned my dad was the breakfast cook until not too long ago and then I kind of took over for him and I do the breakfast cooking now but we've tried to keep the camp pretty much as it was for all these years and that's what we like about it some guys like all of the amenities and like to have nice new things and and we just think it's part of the character of this camp and you know all of the guys that have been members of this camp over these 75 years and we like to keep it pretty much as it was and I think all of us would really appreciate that and when we come to campus really coming to camp and we are kind of roughing it whenever everybody's together at camp everybody has a good time and everybody gets along and it's never been an issue here so camp has always been a place that's been have positive feelings for everybody and we do enjoy coming up here we enjoy coming up here just our family and I think Franny and Donnie do too but when all of us are together we have just as good a time it's not you know we want this you want that or we wish we had this or you know we want to do that and it's never been anything in that with any of the families it's we've always gotten along they've always had a good time yeah always you know get together and spend a week renoir together here and you know I think going out hunting here you're stuck here there's nothing else so yeah you talk you play cards you interact yeah everybody gets along and likes everybody is a personal friend as well as being a co-owner in this camp everybody everybody is a personal friend as well and I think that's what's very important about this camp as well and has always been that way as far as I know when I was a kid who used to come up here and as a kid I didn't have any concept of you know where you were kind of thing except that camp to me was here that we're out in the middle of nowhere and there were no camps anywhere near here a lot of state land and Paper Company land there was just nobody around we were the only ones four miles and it was just neat to get out here and be away from everything and my cousins would come up and we'd go out and play in the in the trees out here and and we're just awesome to come up here and and came with my grandma and my grandpa grandpa Helmer and they would be chopping wood and you know putzing around the camp and we'd be all playing around but it was just and to this day I have that feeling even though there aren't camps here just I guess because that's the way I really remember camp and what it really sunk in to me how important this was to our family I still get that same feeling like you're away from everything even though I have my cell phone with me you just seem to be out in the wilderness and be able to be communing with nature and appreciating the smells and the sound of the wind blowing through the pine trees here yeah at night when you when you lay in your bunk and the pine trees are out there and you hear that the wind kind of just whispering through the pines or you go outside and there's no ambient light you look up in the Stars or is brighter that's bright here there's they are anywhere and a few rare occasions I've seen the Northern Lights and the sky up here just gorgeous and when the moon is out and it's just a real almost spiritual feeling to be up here and relaxing and you know all their cares and and things you worry about at home seem to kind of melt away and you just you're just here and you're a part of the camp and you're part of the area and it's just so inspiring it just felt peaceful up here you're away from telephones and your way from traffic and you're just out in God's wilderness on one of my trips through the Bruce crossing area I had the chance to stop in for a look at an a 17-point buck shot back in 2011 was checking out another spot for huntin because I was bummed out of my spot covet and faithful that I know big deer tracks there and I was coming back from another spot and is sitting it there's a fawn in a clear-cut standing there so I backed up to see what it was and it was a dull font and I thought this was a mother laying by it so I got a cello in my pocket opened the pickup jumped out shot it got up to take off running a shot and went down and probably went maybe I don't know 20 yards and sell over behind a windfall and I had my car so I had to come home getting my pickup and I got Rita well that's when I called Daryl and another buddy to come help us and we went out there and Rita went to walk for it look for it and she kept telling me well it's six point for sure then she's know it's eight point and she got up to a little bit close she said she hollered back she's a no 12 point and then she said no it's a 17 point then I thought she I mean she walked up he said no got 19 points on it but it ended up being a 17 point legal 17 point this close 183 and 5/8 non-typical 227 yeah that's the second heaviest deer ever got I got one 235 muzzleloading season yeah that's a dandy I'm gonna get a bigger one yet though camp is certainly more than just a place to hang your hat the place where memories are made my dad bought Philco radio ders about this long and bought that [ __ ] about that high and it was a battery-operated radio and he brought that up here and it was just a big deal when we come up here to the radio at the camp we couldn't believe it no window was clear place where traditions are uphill where stories are told year after year turn around look better you'll run into look sweet but most importantly it's a place that brings family and friends together across the U P right now on this night before deer season there are most certainly generations of families and friends sitting around the table playing cards laughing telling old stories a couple of years ago I visited camp way - where I had the pleasure of hanging out with the Kelly crew unfortunately they lost a couple members of their family sense so I'd like to pay special tribute to Bruce and Tim Kelly I think if they could pass on any advice to us right now it would be enjoy your time at camp enjoy your time hunting enjoy your time in the woods most of all enjoy your time with each other enjoy the Nutella and no problem we had a lot of work to do because part of my with my wife and the kids oh all the years that we spent here we never had any problems whatsoever the best part of it good lot of fun not a laugh not a good thanks well that's it for tonight if you'd like to keep tabs on what's coming up on discovery or see where we've been go to 906 outdoors calm thanks for watching and we'll see you next week right here on discovering

Channel: 906 Outdoors

Views: 36,876

Rating: 4.9386501 out of 5

Keywords: discovering, up, u.p., upper, michigan, peninsula, yooper, 906, outdoors, buck, hunting, deer, whitetail, camp, Don Johnson, 41, Forty One, hunt

Id: psdUUitFtvI

Length: 22min 32sec (1352 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 14 2016