It's late September, but the temperature is in the 90s and the humidity is high. It's too hot to be in a canoe or kayak. Indeed, there's no one on Big Lake on a Tuesday afternoon as I ride through the Big Lake National Wildlife Refuge with a couple of Manila residents. The water is still, and the huge lily pads have turned brown.
There's nothing else in Arkansas quite like Big Lake in Mississippi County. The area was filled with free-flowing rivers, creeks and bayous until the New Madrid Earthquakes of late 1811 and early 1812. Those earthquakes, in essence, transformed this region into a giant swamp.
"Early Arkansas maps labeled the sparsely populated area between Crowley's Ridge and the Mississippi River as the Great Swamp," the late outdoors journalist Joe Mosby wrote. "After the Civil War, the railroad boom included the building of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway from St. Louis to Texarkana, as well as the construction of the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway. Both railroads built branch lines in northeastern Arkansas to haul timber from the vast hardwood forests to meet the building needs of the nation. The post-Civil War period also spawned hunting excursions as a pastime for the well-to-do. Groups, some formed into hunting clubs, chartered railroad cars to travel to the Big Lake area for extended hunts in a time when there were no regulations, state or federal, on the taking of game."
Local residents made a good living hunting and fishing, and steamboats ran at the time between Hornersville, Mo., and Marked Tree to haul out what they shot and caught.
"During the early 1900s, Ed Daugherty and Jake Rice had a fish camp at Buffalo Creek above Rivervale," Donna Brewer Jackson writes in her book Manila: 1901-2001, A Centennial Celebration. "At times they caught as much as 10,000 pounds of fish per day using nets. Capt. W.C. Marshall picked up fish the men had iced down and put them on barges to take to market. The first barge shipment held 50 barrels containing about 200 pounds of fish in each barrel. The captain paid the men a cent and half per pound for game fish and a single cent for buffalo and catfish. He furnished the fishing tackle, half the men's provisions and paid them $20 per month. According to Marshall's wife, Mable, he also bought ducks from market hunters at Big Lake and sold them in St. Louis for $3.50 to $6.50 per dozen."
Laws passed by the Legislature had little effect at Big Lake. Several laws prohibited out-of-state residents from hunting in certain areas of the state. Wealthy hunters from St. Louis simply paid fines and went about their business.
"With the advent of the railroads and modern ice-making equipment, market hunters and sportsmen came to the region to hunt and fish," Jackson writes. "The game, especially ducks and geese, seemed so abundant that it was difficult for anyone to believe they would ever disappear. For example, a group of city sportsmen reportedly shot more than 1,000 ducks in one week, and five market hunters at Big Lake killed between 2,800 and 3,500 ducks during that period. ... It seemed as if the ducks and geese in the swamps of the sunken lands around Big Lake would last forever. In 1910, ducks brought about 50 cents each. The average worker at that time earned about $1 per day. It was clear that there was money to be made."
The weekly Rod & Gun column in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat heralded the huge numbers of ducks, geese and fish in the Big Lake area. The column encouraged businessmen to take the train to Arkansas to hunt and fish. The railroads published their own pamphlets to encourage travel.
"One line advertised special rates, good for 30 days, and 150 pounds of free baggage, including guns and dogs," Lynn Morrow writes for the Southeast Missouri State University Press. "Groups chartered a car that had a kitchen and cook and then sidetracked the car at a designated point to serve as temporary quarters. ... At the same time, the Iron Mountain Railway offered refrigerated cars for the transport of commercial game and fish. City hotels featured wild game menus as iced barrels of fresh meat arrived in all seasons. Market hunters and fisherman, often traveling on the same train going to the same backcountry as city sportsmen, earned profits in exporting their kill."
One ad noted that "a sportsman residing in St. Louis can leave his office at the close of business hours, and after a leisurely supper, seek refreshing slumber in the luxurious berth of a Pullman coach, to awaken the next morning in the hunting grounds of Arkansas."
Rich St. Louis residents began leasing land, and that created friction. Mosby wrote that the disputes "flared into fights, shootings and beatings. Some clubhouses and lodges, which were constructed with the readily available hardwood timber, were burned. Local residents regarded the watery Big Lake country as theirs to hunt. Clubs signed leases and bought land, and lumber companies bought the timber rights. Titles to the land, however, were sometimes questionable if not fraudulent. Numerous court actions resulted."
These incidents became known as the Big Lake Wars. The federal government stepped in, establishing Big Lake in August 1915 as a 3,000-acre nature preserve through an executive order by President Woodrow Wilson. The refuge now covers 11,038 acres. In the early 1950s, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission created the Big Lake Wildlife Management Area on the east side of Big Lake National Wildlife Refuge.
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Senior Editor Rex Nelson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.
Editorial on 10/06/2018