Goose Hunting in Southern Illinois

Yasine Mogharreban
Carbondale Community High School, Carbondale

Goose and Duck Hunting: Bar Hunting $5.00 Per Day, Field Hunting $7.00 Per Day, Make reservations at Brown Bar Hunting Club.

That advertisement, which appeared in the Cairo Evening Citizen on November 26, 1930, was common at the time. Goose hunting was a very popular sport in southern Illinois during the early 1900s. Goose-hunting clubs began as a place for hunters to spend their time while on goose hunts, but they quickly became a social focal point. Their popularity and the large number of hunters that responded to the newspaper advertisements, however, led to the rapid decline of the goose population.

The first goose-hunting club formed in southern Illinois was the Egyptian Hunting and Fishing Club in 1904. It, and other clubs like it, provided opportunities for goose hunting and for many other activities. Those activities were not always in line with the general moral practices of the times. Hunting clubs around Cairo, for instance, became centers for gambling, bootlegging, and prostitution. According to Leonard Nickel of Carbondale, the hunting clubs "generally included prostitution, large consumptions of alcohol, and extensive gambling." People visited the growing number of clubs for many reasons. Big gamblers found profit, while others came merely for goose hunting. Members of such clubs included prominent politicians and celebrities. Railroad executives and coal company employees were also frequent visitors to the hunting clubs. Although the goose population dwindled, social activities surrounding the clubs continued to thrive. Cock fighting, dog fighting, and wrestling matches were also common forms of entertainment.

As the popularity of the goose-hunting clubs grew, the area experienced an economic boom. Local businesses, hotels, and restaurants expanded, and new businesses were opened. Wild geese, very popular for eating, sold for as much as twenty-five to fifty cents a piece, and there were few hunting regulations. The area of which it was part, known as the Mississippi Flyway, was a prime place for Canadian geese to winter. In fact, an April 1946 issue of the

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Metropolis News reported that "most of the ducks and geese that fly through Illinois breed in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, Canada."

Although Illinois was a prime area for Canadian geese to winter, the popularity of this sport caused a rapid decline in the goose population. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 was the first law to establish federally coordinated restrictions on the harvest of waterfowl. According to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 the bag limit on geese in Illinois from 1918 to 1929, was eight, and the season length was 107 days. However, the goose population continued to decline so quickly that by 1935 the season length was shortened to thirty days, with a bag limit of four birds.

In order to encourage an increase in the total goose population, a number of refuges were established. In 1927 the Illinois Department of Conservation purchased thirty-five hundred acres around Horseshoe Lake in Alexander County. This was an area with many hunting clubs, and the state wanted to create a safe haven to restore the geese and duck populations in southern Illinois. Although thirty thousand geese were reported to winter in the Horseshoe Lake area by 1932, many people continued to kill geese on their flight to the refuges. In fact, "the Purchase of Horseshoe Lake for a refuge in 1927 created a boom in the commercialization of goose shooting. Mediocre farm lands located near the refuge suddenly commanded fancy prices [for use by the hunters in killing the geese]", according to historians. This contrasted with what the state had hoped to accomplish, but due to abundant food and generally safe conditions, many geese still flocked to the southern Illinois refuges, and their numbers continued to increase. Other refuges such as the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge and the Union County Goose Management Area were also created in an effort to protect the Canadian geese. More laws were passed to restore the declining population. Since the 1930s the goose population has been slowly restoring itself. The population has increased from a few thousand to a few hundred thousand today, and wildlife refuges that were established in the 1920s and 1930s still flourish.

Although goose hunting clubs helped revitalize the southern Illinois economy, it also drastically reduced the population of geese. Eventually, however, those clubs led to the formation of many refuges that now protect geese and other endangered animals. They also encouraged the creation of laws that regulate the hunting and killing of geese. Indirectly, those clubs have led to a large and flourishing goose population that now migrates to the many scenic refuges in the southern Illinois region.—[From The Cairo Evening Citizen and Bulletin, Nov. 26, 1930; Harold C. Chanson and Robert H. Smith, Canada Geese of the Mississippi Flyway, with special reference to an Illinois flock; "Duck and Goose Hunting Prospects Not So Bright," Metropolis News, Apr. 1946; George B. Joselyn, "Some Aspects of the Economics of the Canada Goose in Southern Illinois," student historian's interview with Leonard Nickel; student historian's interview with Roger Priddy; Dennis Thornburg, "The Canada Goose Flock in Illinois," Selected Papers in Illinois History (1982).]

12 ILLINOIS HISTORY/DECEMBER 1996