HunterHarry
Long Time Member
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This envelope contained clippings of the same articles that Whittaker had sent me. Also enclosed was a typewritten letter.
"To Whom It May Concern," the letter read. "I have learned that a photo was sent to you of a man and a buck that supposedly resembles one of Kirt Darner's bucks. Is the question credibility? Here is definite evidence of Householder's (sic) questionable credibility. Thank you for taking the time to read and consider this."
Why the letter had not been signed was a mystery. I still needed to learn more about the Housholder photo.
Seeing the picture had reminded me of something I had seen that spring when I had been promoting my hunting consultant service at a sport show. That's where I met George Cook, a serious hunter and a representative for Sage, a fly rod company that was only four years old at the time. George unfolded a photocopy of an article that had appeared in the September 1949 issue American Rifleman magazine, the National Rifle Association's official publication. The photocopy was made on a machine that did a poor job of reproducing photographs or screened pictures. This was a common problem among photocopiers made before the early 1980s. Grays became blacks, and groups of black or gray dots would be represented by black splotches.
A deer in one of the 2 1/2-inch by 4-inch illustrations still looked suspiciously like the same buck that had appeared on the cover of How to Find Giant Bucks.
I had a copy of the book with me at the time, so George and I studied the rack shown in photocopy and compared it with the antlers pictured on the book. There were some obvious differences. The magazine photo, as fuzzy as it wa
s, showed a forked main beam on the deer's right antler, but on Darner's buck, the right main beam was not forked and bent down at an odd angle. The right antler in the photocopy also didn't appear to carry as many long points as the Darner buck. At the time I concluded the deer were two different animals, but because the photocopy was so poor, a little doubt had stayed with me.
Somehow the date of the magazine had stuck in my head, and so I decided to try to find an original copy of the September 1949 issue. First I tried an old gentleman who had been a member of the NRA for years and used to lend me copies of the magazine when I was a kid. He had discarded his collection years earlier. Then I tried the library at Utah State University. USU didn't collect American Rifleman magazines. Then I tried to the University of Utah library -- its collection went back only to 1951. The Brigham Young University library also went back to 1951. Finally I asked Kim Bonnett if he had any ideas. Soon he called back.
"I found a shop in Michigan that sells old magazines," he said. "And they said they have lots of old American Rifleman issues. Give them a call, and they can probably find the issue you need."
(continued)
So I phoned the Highwood Bookshop in Traverse City, Michigan, and spoke with the owner. I told him I wasn't sure which issue I needed, but I thought it was the September 1949 American Rifleman.
"If I recall, the picture I'm looking for was used to illustrate an article about venison care," I said. "Would you mind looking in that issue to see if that's the one, and if so, I want a copy.
"Call me back in a few minutes," he said.
When I called back, he said, "I think I have your magazine. Send me $5 for the magazine and $1.50 for shipping, and it's yours."
I also ordered a copy of an old Outdoor Life that had its most famous cover ever, a GI painting that was actually a collage of outdoor scenes. When I worked for Outdoor Life, somebody had stolen that particular issue from the company's collection of back issues and even the original painting had come up missing. For another $5 I could get that magazine, too.
A few days later I received the September 1949 American Hunter magazine, which contained an article by Charles C. Niehuis, "Harvesting a Prime Buck," about proper game care. The piece was illustrated by 13 photographs, and one of them was the picture I wanted. It much clearer in the magazine than it had appeared in the photocopy, but the screening necessary for publishing was too coarse to make a positive ID of the buck. And there were still apparent differences. I sent a good copy of the article to Kim Bonnett, whose partner Jeff Warren quickly realized that the picture in the magazine had been flopped -- the negative had been placed upside down in the enlarger to make a reversed print.
In a mirror the magazine photograph made it obvious that this buck and the Darner buck looked identical. The picture wasn't clear enough that a person could say with 100% certainty that the pictures showed the exact same deer
"If we had original negatives or prints," I told Kim, "I would bet they would show this is the exact same deer that Darner claimed to have killed in the '70s. I've already called American Hunter, and the editor said they don't have manuscripts or photos from that far back. I wonder if Niehuis is still alive. I'm right in the middle of my busy season and can't take time to do research right now. But wouldn't that be something if Niehuis were still alive and could track down the photos that went with his article?"
A few days later Kim phoned.
"You're not going to believe this," he said. "Niehuis is still alive and living in California."
I could not find a phone number to match the address that Kim gave me, so I wrote a letter explaining my interest in the photographs and asked Niehuis to call me. A few weeks later the phone rang.
"This is Charley Niehuis," a voice said. "I'm the guy who wrote that article in 1949, and I think I might still have the negatives to the photo you want. I took several photographs of that deer. It was in 1948 when I was working for the Arizona fish and game department on their Kaibab study. A guy named Dean Naylor killed that buck."
Niehuis explained that his negatives were in an office he maintained in Colorado and that he would be happy to provide prints. He gave me his phone number and mentioned that he was 83 years old.
to be continued tomorrow
"To Whom It May Concern," the letter read. "I have learned that a photo was sent to you of a man and a buck that supposedly resembles one of Kirt Darner's bucks. Is the question credibility? Here is definite evidence of Householder's (sic) questionable credibility. Thank you for taking the time to read and consider this."
Why the letter had not been signed was a mystery. I still needed to learn more about the Housholder photo.
Seeing the picture had reminded me of something I had seen that spring when I had been promoting my hunting consultant service at a sport show. That's where I met George Cook, a serious hunter and a representative for Sage, a fly rod company that was only four years old at the time. George unfolded a photocopy of an article that had appeared in the September 1949 issue American Rifleman magazine, the National Rifle Association's official publication. The photocopy was made on a machine that did a poor job of reproducing photographs or screened pictures. This was a common problem among photocopiers made before the early 1980s. Grays became blacks, and groups of black or gray dots would be represented by black splotches.
A deer in one of the 2 1/2-inch by 4-inch illustrations still looked suspiciously like the same buck that had appeared on the cover of How to Find Giant Bucks.
I had a copy of the book with me at the time, so George and I studied the rack shown in photocopy and compared it with the antlers pictured on the book. There were some obvious differences. The magazine photo, as fuzzy as it wa
s, showed a forked main beam on the deer's right antler, but on Darner's buck, the right main beam was not forked and bent down at an odd angle. The right antler in the photocopy also didn't appear to carry as many long points as the Darner buck. At the time I concluded the deer were two different animals, but because the photocopy was so poor, a little doubt had stayed with me.
Somehow the date of the magazine had stuck in my head, and so I decided to try to find an original copy of the September 1949 issue. First I tried an old gentleman who had been a member of the NRA for years and used to lend me copies of the magazine when I was a kid. He had discarded his collection years earlier. Then I tried the library at Utah State University. USU didn't collect American Rifleman magazines. Then I tried to the University of Utah library -- its collection went back only to 1951. The Brigham Young University library also went back to 1951. Finally I asked Kim Bonnett if he had any ideas. Soon he called back.
"I found a shop in Michigan that sells old magazines," he said. "And they said they have lots of old American Rifleman issues. Give them a call, and they can probably find the issue you need."
(continued)
So I phoned the Highwood Bookshop in Traverse City, Michigan, and spoke with the owner. I told him I wasn't sure which issue I needed, but I thought it was the September 1949 American Rifleman.
"If I recall, the picture I'm looking for was used to illustrate an article about venison care," I said. "Would you mind looking in that issue to see if that's the one, and if so, I want a copy.
"Call me back in a few minutes," he said.
When I called back, he said, "I think I have your magazine. Send me $5 for the magazine and $1.50 for shipping, and it's yours."
I also ordered a copy of an old Outdoor Life that had its most famous cover ever, a GI painting that was actually a collage of outdoor scenes. When I worked for Outdoor Life, somebody had stolen that particular issue from the company's collection of back issues and even the original painting had come up missing. For another $5 I could get that magazine, too.
A few days later I received the September 1949 American Hunter magazine, which contained an article by Charles C. Niehuis, "Harvesting a Prime Buck," about proper game care. The piece was illustrated by 13 photographs, and one of them was the picture I wanted. It much clearer in the magazine than it had appeared in the photocopy, but the screening necessary for publishing was too coarse to make a positive ID of the buck. And there were still apparent differences. I sent a good copy of the article to Kim Bonnett, whose partner Jeff Warren quickly realized that the picture in the magazine had been flopped -- the negative had been placed upside down in the enlarger to make a reversed print.
In a mirror the magazine photograph made it obvious that this buck and the Darner buck looked identical. The picture wasn't clear enough that a person could say with 100% certainty that the pictures showed the exact same deer
"If we had original negatives or prints," I told Kim, "I would bet they would show this is the exact same deer that Darner claimed to have killed in the '70s. I've already called American Hunter, and the editor said they don't have manuscripts or photos from that far back. I wonder if Niehuis is still alive. I'm right in the middle of my busy season and can't take time to do research right now. But wouldn't that be something if Niehuis were still alive and could track down the photos that went with his article?"
A few days later Kim phoned.
"You're not going to believe this," he said. "Niehuis is still alive and living in California."
I could not find a phone number to match the address that Kim gave me, so I wrote a letter explaining my interest in the photographs and asked Niehuis to call me. A few weeks later the phone rang.
"This is Charley Niehuis," a voice said. "I'm the guy who wrote that article in 1949, and I think I might still have the negatives to the photo you want. I took several photographs of that deer. It was in 1948 when I was working for the Arizona fish and game department on their Kaibab study. A guy named Dean Naylor killed that buck."
Niehuis explained that his negatives were in an office he maintained in Colorado and that he would be happy to provide prints. He gave me his phone number and mentioned that he was 83 years old.
to be continued tomorrow
