The 1966 deer season on the Keweenaw Peninsula, northern Michigan’s Copper Nation, opened on November 12 and was as a result of shut on the twenty seventh, the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
As much as Thanksgiving day, our entire household had no luck. My dad, my brother Bruce, and I had hunted laborious and had seen deer virtually day by day, however nothing that we wished to shoot. Even my mother, who goes together with us on our deer hunts however makes no pretense of searching laborious, had seen deer however had no capturing.
The one household success scored was by my dad’s uncle, Invoice Anderson, from Detroit. He drove the 550 miles north to hunt with us, and went house with a great buck.
I had particular causes for feeling disenchanted about drawing a clean. I used to be born and grew up within the Copper Nation. I’m now 24, and I’ve hunted deer since I used to be 14. That yr my great-uncle Invoice offered me his outdated rifle, a .32 Particular Winchester Mannequin 94. That outdated gun had killed lots of deer and some bears earlier than I acquired it, and it went proper on being fortunate for me.
From that fall of 1956 till 1965, I killed a deer with it yearly. Then circumstances compelled me to overlook the 1965 season. I went into the Navy Reserve three years in the past, and was known as to lively responsibility within the spring of 1965. When November of 1966 rolled round, I organized for a depart to coincide with the deer season within the Higher Peninsula of Michigan, and so I used to be again once more, searching the woods and swamps the place I had been fortunate ever since I used to be a child, however not doing so effectively for a change.
To make issues worse, I needed to depart for the naval base at Norfolk, Virginia on Saturday morning, November 26. I knew, after we left house proper after breakfast on Thanksgiving day, that I had simply that day and the subsequent through which to kill a deer, or I’d wind up skunked for the primary time in my life.
We’re a Finnish household, all hunters and fishermen. My dad, Ernest Haataja, runs a refrigeration enterprise within the village of Ahmeek, about 20 miles up the Keweenaw Peninsula from Houghton, the largest metropolis within the Copper Nation. The peninsula is wild and rugged, and there should not too many roads. It’s a reasonably honest recreation space, with deer, bears, coyotes, and bobcats.
The Keweenaw juts northeast into Lake Superior like a tough and rocky finger, 50 miles lengthy and 15 to twenty broad. Within the small bays alongside the japanese shore, sheltered from the excessive winds and pounding seas of the good lake, there’s glorious fishing, largely for lake trout. The entire Haataja household likes to hunt and fish.
My brother Bruce is 2 years older than I’m. He’s married, has 4 kids, works at an area mine, and does some beaver trapping as a sideline. We now have three sisters: Vicki, 18; Carolyn, 10; and Mary Beth, 6. Pop, mother, and sister Mary Beth with the bear in Ahmeek, Mich.
One in all our favourite summer season holidays for years has been to constitution a small industrial fishing boat for per week or so and make the 50-mile journey on Lake Superior to Isle Royale Nationwide Park, the large, roadless island that lies 20 miles south of the Canadian shore. The fishing for lake trout there’s pretty much as good as any we find out about, and the ocean lampreys have made lighter inroads than they’ve alongside the south shore of Superior. We now have even seen lakers rising for flies in July and August round Gull Rocks, just a few miles off the primary island.
There may be nice pike fishing in among the 30-odd inland lakes on Isle Royale, too, however we don’t care an excessive amount of for pike and don’t usually go after them. We dwell aboard our chartered boat, cooking our meals, sleeping on cots, and shifting round as we select. Isle Royale is 50 miles lengthy, and there are many sheltered harbors to anchor in. We hike, discover, and fish, and everyone has a advantageous time.
Bruce and I’ve had another superb fishing journeys collectively, too, together with one to Lake Nipigon just a few years in the past that was an actual journey.
The bear didn’t transfer a muscle. He simply saved his eyes riveted on me as if making an attempt to determine what I used to be. Or perhaps he knew, and tried to stare me down. Apart from his head and spherical ears, he regarded like a low-slung black bull, and he was so large he surprised me.
The household additionally has a cottage on Little Traverse Bay, about 15 miles from house, that we use for fishing headquarters in the summertime and searching within the fall. And from the time Rabbit Bay, close by, freezes over till it breaks up within the spring, dad spends a justifiable share of his time fishing by means of the ice for lake trout. Fishermen are nonetheless catching trout on the market with dwell lampreys hooked up to them, however some heavy stocking has been executed, and the fishing continues to be honest.
Till I left house to enter the service, I by no means missed an opportunity to go alongside on these winter journeys, and Bruce nonetheless goes as usually as he can. Dad has constructed a set of sunshine runners for a small boat, and if a tough wind is blowing offshore and there’s hazard that the ice might break free and drift out into the open water of Keweenaw Bay, they take that outfit alongside. It’s so mild that one or two males, going onto the ice on foot the way in which we do, can drag it simply. In an emergency, the runners could be taken off shortly, and the boat is prepared to be used within the water.
I’m telling all this that will help you perceive how I felt about getting shut out on that 1966 deer hunt. I didn’t have any superb alibi, both. The climate was chilly and clear, and searching circumstances weren’t unhealthy though we had solely a bit of snow-hardly sufficient for tracking_ The Keweenaw Peninsula generally will get as a lot as 20 toes of snow earlier than winter is over. We had 234 inches by the top of March this yr. However I had killed deer on naked floor loads of occasions earlier than, and thought I ought to have the ability to do it once more.
Deer, nevertheless, should not so plentiful there as they have been just a few years in the past. Many native individuals blame it on the opening of doe seasons, underneath particular allow, by the Michigan conservation division. Whether or not or not that’s the reason, we don’t see almost so many deer as we used to, and we don’t see horns so usually. However I knew that if I had to return to Norfolk with out filling my license, all that may be fairly chilly consolation.
Thanksgiving morning dawned clear and chilly with hardly any wind. The leaves can be dry and noisy underfoot, but it surely promised to be a reasonably good day for searching. We had been placing in most of our time in an space round Mud Lake, not too removed from our cottage, however that morning we determined to strive one other location. We deliberate to drive out past Fort Wilkins State Park virtually to the top of the peninsula. That’s as far north as you may go with out getting your toes moist in Lake Superior.
Bruce drove our four-wheel-drive car, and I rode up entrance with him. Dad and mother have been within the again seat. Mother had packed lunch for the 4 of us. We’d keep within the woods till evening. We normally begin our deer searching earlier than daylight and hunt till darkish.
Past Fort Wilkins we took a muddy logging highway after which turned again towards Hoar Lake. A second logging highway took us into distant, wild nation miles from anyplace and close to sufficient to the Superior seaside in order that we might faintly hear the noise of surf. We knew the place was a great space for deer, and even on Thanksgiving Day, there wasn’t a lot likelihood different hunters would discover their approach up to now into again nation.
On foot, we skirted a thick cedar swamp that lay between us and Superior, and we cut up up. Mother stayed behind. She discovered a spot the place she might regulate a runway alongside the sting of the swamp and introduced that she thought she’d have as a lot likelihood of killing a deer there as anyplace.
Realizing her habits, we suspected that she’d watch the runway for an hour or so, work across the finish of the swamp, hike right down to the seaside, and search for agates. That was about what she did, too, however the swamp proved an excessive amount of for her and for as soon as she turned again and joined us for lunch with out sighting Lake Superior.
Bruce and pa headed down into the swamp. I turned to the fitting, into large, pretty open hardwood timber. There have been excessive ridges operating all by means of it with numerous oak on the slopes. That meant acorns, and they’re more likely to imply deer.
The day had stayed brilliant and crisp. The bottom was naked, and the leaves have been actually noisy underfoot, so I moved slowly, strolling just a few steps after which stopping to look in all instructions. stepped rigorously from one tree to a different, making an attempt to be as quiet as a cat and hoping I’d see a deer earlier than me.
I discovered a bit of deer signal, however not a lot as I had anticipated, and I used to be starting to wonder if I had picked the fitting place, in any case. Then I cam over an increase, and a wierd naked spot simply forward caught my eyes.
Throughout me within the timber, lifeless leaves lay in a thick carpet, however in entrance of me was a naked patch some 75 toes sq.. ln on a regular basis I had spent within the woods I had by no means seen something like that, and I stood there trying it over rigorously, making an attempt to puzzle it out. It appeared as if an enormous vacuum cleaner had been at work.
Then, on the downhill aspect of the naked place, I noticed an enormous mound of heaped-up leaves, and squatting in them was a black bear greater than any I had ever anticipated to see. He noticed me in the identical immediate, and we stood and stared at one another.
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My eyes should have bugged all the way in which out of my head. The bear was lower than 75 toes from me in open timber, not hidden by something besides his personal leaf pile, and that fell far wanting concealing him. Why I hadn’t seen him within the first immediate after I came to visit the rise, I nonetheless don’t know, however I assume I simply wasn’t searching for a bear. It was that bald spot, raked away from leaves, that caught my consideration and held it these first few seconds.
The bear didn’t transfer a muscle. He simply saved his eyes riveted on me as if making an attempt to determine what I used to be. Or perhaps he knew, and tried to stare me down. Apart from his head and spherical ears, he regarded like a low-slung black bull, and he was so large he surprised me.
For a second I didn’t know whether or not to shoot or attempt to sneak away, however I made up my thoughts on that rating in a rush. I had seen bears within the woods a couple of times throughout earlier searching seasons, however nothing like this one. I had by no means anticipated to have such luck, and I wasn’t going to go it up.
I don’t understand how lengthy we checked out one another. It was most likely solely 10 or 15 seconds, but it surely appeared like a full minute. I’ll say one factor: I didn’t get buck fever.
I didn’t transfer a muscle both, till I raised my gun. The outdated rifle was not scoped, however at that quick vary, I didn’t want a scope. I introduced my rifle up slowly and took cautious purpose. The bear standing partly sideways to me, I clouted him just under his left ear. The 170-grain softpoint knocked him as flat as a flapjack. He didn’t kick a lot, however he was an terrible lot of bear, and he regarded even greater mendacity on the bottom than when he was on his toes. So I walked near him and put one other shot into his shoulder to ensure.
Then I began trying issues over. The bear had raked all of the leaves downhill into one large pile, and solely eight toes farther down the slope, I discovered a gap dug underneath an enormous cedar windfall. It was about 4 toes throughout and three toes deep and appeared freshly dug. If it had been used earlier than, he had enlarged it and cleaned it out. Sand and gravel had been thrown in each course.
With out a lot query, the bear had supposed to make use of the pile of leaves for his winter mattress. If I hadn’t come alongside, he most likely would have dragged sufficient of them into the outlet to line it earlier than crawling in, raking the remaining over himself, and curling up till spring. He would have had dry, comfortable quarters. The slope of the hill supplied good drainage, and the windfall would have saved the worst of the snow off him. The leaves he had gathered would have been sufficient to cowl three or 4 bears.
He was quite a bit too large for me to decorate with out assist, so I headed again to the automotive. Dad and Bruce have been there after I arrived, and mother got here alongside a bit of later. That they had heard my two photographs, and their first query was whether or not I had killed a deer. I stated no, and tried to string them alongside, however I assume my pleasure should have proven.
“Effectively,” Bruce stated immediately, “perhaps you didn’t get your buck, however from the way in which you look you positive acquired one thing. What was it?”
“It was a bear,” I blurted. “It’s the largest bear I’ve ever seen. It’s so darned large it appears to be like like a grizzly!”
“Did you kill it?” dad demanded.
“Deader than a salt herring,” I assured him.
We hurried by means of chow, after which began again to the bear. Once we acquired there, it was all of the three of us might do to roll him over for dressing.
As we labored, we debated whether or not we might drag him out to the closest logging highway. It didn’t appear very doubtless, for we had virtually three miles to go on naked floor. It was plain that this bear was an enormous factor for 3 males to deal with, however we agreed to strive.
That turned out to be an enormous joke. We took maintain of his head and forefeet, however we discovered that by tugging and grunting for all we have been value we might transfer him just a few inches at a time. We couldn’t have dragged him out of the woods in a month of Sundays.
I hated to depart him, but it surely was getting late within the afternoon, and there was no alternative. We have been positive no animal would molest him, and the world was distant sufficient in order that there was little or no likelihood different hunters would discover him. Even when they did, he was so large that no one would make off with him. We hiked out to the automotive, laying plans to retrieve my bear within the morning.
We did some phoning that evening and early the subsequent day and discovered {that a} logging outfit, the Kilpela Brothers from the city of Mohawk, was working not removed from the place I had killed the bear. We contacted them, and to our nice aid they stated they’d hitch a dray behind one among their tractors and go in with us and convey him out. It was after darkish earlier than the job was executed.
I had taken a advantageous trophy. My bear was not solely a record-setter for measurement, but in addition he had a thick, shiny, black pelt in good situation. There wasn’t a rubbed spot or blemish on it anyplace. It made as stunning a rug as any hunter ever took. There wasn’t even one claw lacking from the toes. That’s most likely as a result of there is no such thing as a bear trapping in Michigan anymore. If there had been traps within the woods, he would virtually definitely have blundered into one throughout his lengthy life.
We took him to Rinne’s Gas Firm in Ahmeek and weighed him on licensed scales there within the presence of witnesses. We have been all a bit of stunned at what the scales revealed. I had killed a black bear that weighed 570 kilos area dressed, the heaviest ever recorded in Michigan. He was 15 kilos over the earlier state report holder. That one was shot within the 1950’s close to Newberry farther east on the Higher Peninsula by Dean Loveless, a bowhunter from the downstate metropolis of Hamtramck.
Michigan recreation males estimated that my bear had weighed not lower than 650 kilos alive. His dressed weight was 82 kilos beneath that of the enormous black killed in Wisconsin in 1963 by Otto Hedbany of suburban Milwaukee. That one dressed 652, and its dwell weight should have been round 725. Hedbany’s bear was described in “Greatest Black Ever Killed,” OUTDOOR LIFE, Might 1964.
Though I shot mine within the head, I didn’t harm the cranium. My shot went in on the butt of an ear, and the bullet from the .32 Particular opened up sufficient to kill him in his tracks. However it lodged someplace within the mind cavity and didn’t come out. In consequence, the cranium was intact for measuring. I intend to enter it within the present Boone and Crockett Membership competitors, and the state recreation males inform me there’s little or no doubt that it’s going to go into the report guide, perhaps not too removed from the highest. The Hedbany bear, by the way in which, was not eligible for entry, as a result of the cranium was shattered when it was killed.
A photographer for the Houghton Mining Gazette got here to Ahmeek that evening, Friday, and took an image of me with my bear. That was the one one I acquired of myself with the bear. It was too darkish that evening for us to make use of our digicam, and I boarded a airplane to return to Norfolk early Saturday, so there was no time to consider extra photos. There have been loads taken after I left, however I wasn’t in them. That’s not too uncommon for me. I’m the one in our household who takes the photographs more often than not, so I don’t seem in lots of.
I’ve promised myself one factor: If I ought to ever take one other bear pretty much as good as that one, I’ll get some shade photos of myself with it, simply to remind myself of my luck.
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After we had gotten my bear into city and had weighed him, I had an opportunity to suppose the entire thing over. I couldn’t assist feeling virtually sorry I had shot him, but when I have been doing it over once more, I’d do the identical factor. He was an excessive amount of trophy to go up. and I’m positive I’ll by no means in my life see one other bear like him. But I did understand how lengthy he had lived there in that wild nation. He wasn’t doing any hurt, and it appeared virtually too unhealthy that I got here alongside that Thanksgiving morning when he was making his winter mattress. He was my first bear, and far as I like searching, if he also needs to transform my final, I don’t consider I’d be disenchanted.
Alternatively, capturing him was essentially the most thrilling factor that ever occurred to me. I went again to the naval base with out getting a deer, however I didn’t thoughts. That bear was all of the Thanksgiving current any hunter might ask for.
This story, “Bear to Be Grateful For,” appeared within the Sept. 1967 problem of Outside Life. The present Michigan state-record black bear, based on Boone and Crockett Membership, is bear whose cranium measured 22 11/16 inches and was killed in Newaygo County in 2009 by Donald R. Corrigan. Haataja’s bear is just not listed within the B&C data.
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