THE BIG WILD: Jimmy Carter in Michigan’s Pigeon River Country

As an avid outdoorsman from childhood, one of Jimmy Carter’s favorite pastimes was to enjoy all that nature had to offer. After a canceled trip freed up the former president’s weekend, Carter journeyed up to the Pigeon River Country State Forest, seeking to finally capture a trophy that had long eluded him—the ruffed grouse. The hunt was successful, but more than that, Carter and his hunting crew left with a newfound appreciation for “The Big Wild” of Northern Michigan.

Jimmy Carter made a handful of trips to Michigan, both before and after he served as the 39th President of the United States (January 20, 1977, to January 20, 1981), but one could surmise that his visit to “The Big Wild” of northern Michigan in 1986 was his most down-to-earth visit.

James Earl “Jimmy” Carter Jr. was born on October 1, 1924, to Earl and Bessie “Lillian” Carter, peanut farmers living on the outskirts of Plains, Georgia. As a child, when he wasn’t working in the fields or helping at his father’s store, young Jimmy was exploring the nearby woods and waters around his home where he hunted, fished and enjoyed the reflective solitude that nature provided.  This outdoor lifestyle shaped Jimmy’s life and throughout his political and social career, he furthered various conservation efforts.

October 1986 was a busy month for the former President, who celebrated his sixty-second birthday by dedicating the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, Georgia. Ten days later, at the request of longtime friend Jack Crockford, he boarded a commercial airplane bound for Michigan.

Carter’s Hunting Partner

A native of Woodland, Michigan—a small agricultural town in northeastern Barry County—Crockford earned one of the first wildlife biology degrees from Michigan State University (MSU) in 1947 and was almost immediately hired by the Georgia Game and Fish Commission—now called the Wildlife Resources Division of the Department of Natural Resources. Crockford is credited with developing the “Cap-Chur” tranquilizer dart gun used to immobilize deer without killing them. The “flying syringe,” as it was also known, was a vital component of a deer restoration project that he initiated in Georgia during the 1950s.

Working up the ranks over the years, Crockford was the Georgia DNR director from 1972 to 1978, overlapping the time Carter was the state’s seventy-sixth governor. A reputed craftsman of knives and muzzleloaders, Crockford gifted a flintlock gun to Carter which hung the oval office during his presidency.

In late summer 1986, Crockford invited Carter to join him on a grouse hunting trip that fall in northern Michigan’s Pigeon River Country State Forest. Established in 1919 with just 6,468 acres, that state forest has grown to over 105,000 acres measuring twelve miles wide by twenty miles long making it the largest block of contiguous undeveloped land in the lower peninsula. The annual ruffed grouse hunting season runs from September 15 through November 14, pauses for firearm deer season, and picks up again December 1 through January 1.

At first, Carter passed on the opportunity as he was scheduled to be in Japan, but when those plans were cancelled, he called Crockford back and told him he was in for the trip.

Into “The Big Wild”

On Friday, October 10, Carter, Crockford, and their friend with Don Carter—no relation to Jimmy Carter—flew into Detroit, Michigan with about six Secret Service agents and then drove 250 miles north along I-75 to Gaylord, Michigan, in two GMC Suburban station wagons. The first stop was the grocery store in town. The visit was a surprise to almost everyone in the community, with only local police agencies and a few DNR staff in the know. After purchasing some groceries totaling $147, Carter stopped for a couple of photos and accepted an autographed copy of The Pigeon River Country by local author and former newspaper editor Dale Franz. The group was then off to Fred Snook’s Alphorn Sport Shop at 137 W. Main Street where Carter provided his driver’s license and social security card to purchase a three-day small game license for $21.25 by credit card.

Traveling another 20 miles northeast, the group arrived at its destination the Pigeon River Country State Forest in Vanderbilt, Michigan. They settled into the historic log cabins built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) along the banks of the Pigeon River. Ernest Hemingway, who referred to the area as the “Pine Barrens” frequently trekked over from his family’ summer cottage on Walloon Lake to hunt and fish in the early 1900s.

Carter and company were greeted by 43-year-old Ned Caveney, who was the first area forester of the Pigeon River Country State Forest, hired in January 1974. Caveney had worked for the Michigan DNR since 1966 and began grouse hunting as a forestry student at MSU years before. His extensive knowledge of the local hunting landscape made him the perfect person to lead the group of dignitaries.

Caveney and Crockford had met in early 1977 at the Tall Timbers Research Station in Tallahassee, Florida. As grouse hunters in their respective states of residence, the two became friends. Caveney invited Crockford to the Pigeon River Country for his first northern Michigan hunt in 1981. Crockford returned several times over the years, which led him to join the trip with Carter.

That first night, Caveney introduced Carter and his entourage to the Pigeon River Country’s most distinguished residents: the elk. From a bluff known as Inspiration Point, Caveney explained to the group that there were 1,200 elk within a 120,000-acre area in Northern Michigan—the largest free-range herd east of the Mississippi. At one point, he called out and two bull elk returned the bugle. A Detroit Free Press article noted that about ten other cars were at the viewing site that evening, and one person even loaned Carter their binoculars for a better view. Caveny later noted the scrutiny by the chief of Carter’s Secret Service, who accompanied the group of hunters on the first day to ensure Carter’s safety, armed with a shoulder-holstered handgun.

On the Hunt

Ruffed grouse live in 34 of the 49 continental states and in all Canadian provinces. They thrive in young aspen forests and brushlands, although in the absence of such, they will settle in oak, lowland brush, and dense stands of trees. Clear-cut logging also provides prime habitat with both cover and ample food sources. The Pigeon River Country is considered one of the prime grouse hunting locales in Northern Michigan, drawing hunters from around the country.

“For the first morning’s hunt, I selected a secluded cover that required a little walk in the woods to reach,” wrote Caveney. “It was a favorite of mine for its near perfect mix of good grouse habitat and clear evidence of the past with charred pine stumps from the logging era and remnants of a failed farm.”

Carter recounted details of the trip in his 1988 memoir, An Outdoor Journal – Adventures and Reflections. “The first morning we followed either Jack’s small German shorthair or Ned’s female Brittany [spaniel] through choice grouse territory and had good luck finding the birds,” Carter recalled.

Carter also noted the conditions were more challenging than he had anticipated. The abundance of aspen was expected, but he also found the swamplands scattered stands of thick pines, steep inclines and declines, and remnant logs and stumps from past timber clearing. “Usually we were able to move abreast, slowly, about thirty yards apart, listening carefully for the bell or electronic beeper on the dog’s collar that indicated its location, and always watching careful for the grouse to flush. Without the beeper it would have been very difficult to keep track of a bird dog in the dense forest.”

Despite less than ideal weather, riddled with drizzling rain and cold temperatures, Carter wrote that the group was “remarkably successful in finding birds” in what he called “some of the most desirable territory in our land.”

That afternoon, Caveney directed Carter and Crockford to an aspen stand in the southern part of the forest—an area he had watched being clearcut a decade before. The move would prove to be a wise and successful one.

“A grouse flushed just to my right offering me a very good shot. I took it, and the bird folded in a cloud of feathers,” Caveney noted. “Immediately following, the President shot. I was not aware that two grouse had flushed and I saw another grouse go down well off to his left. I was elated, for Jimmy Carter had just bagged his first ruffed grouse. Thankfully, Ruark [Caveney’s two-year-old English pointer] was on that bird and quickly retrieved it to my hand. I proudly presented it to the president.”

Carter also recalled that first kill with great detail: “Abruptly, two grouse flushed off to my right, twenty yards away. I was quite startled but brought my 20-guage over-under to my shoulder, swung with the leading bird, and squeezed the trigger. I wasn’t doubtful about that one; it would be my first success. The other circled left and began it disappear over the top of some small aspens. I snapped off another shot and saw the bird swoop down toward the ground, beyond the knoll. Before I could get there to see whether or not I had missed, our dog came trotting up with the second grouse in his mouth.”

Afterward, the group gathered and pictures were taken of Caveney, Carter, Ruark, and the coveted birds. At the five-room staff house that evening, the group dined on grouse, after which the former president did the dishes—earning him the nickname K.P. for “kitchen patrol.”

The next day was Sunday, and Caveney changed locations for their hunt in an attempt to find more birds. The walk to the over was long, but the new location provided to be successful. In just three hours, the group captured 14 grouse and 10 woodcocks.

Gordon Guyer, the newly appointed Director of the Michigan DNR, joined the group for a dinner of grilled steak that evening. Born in Kalamazoo and raised in Augusta, Michigan, Guyer received his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in entomology from MSU, serving as director of MSU Extension from 1973 to 1985, before landing at the DNR.

The post-dinner conversation turned to issues of conservation and natural resources. Carter was curious about, if not bothered by, the Michigan practice of baiting deer.  During the drive up from Detroit, he had seen trucks loaded with carrots and apples on their way up to Northern Michigan hunting grounds. They also talked about what Carter claimed to be one of his most gratifying achievements—the signing of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act into law on December 2, 1980—which also happened to be one of the last legislative acts he made as president of the United States. The law set aside significant amounts of land in Alaska for preservation and conservation and more than doubled the acreage of the National Park system.

Monday morning afforded one last hunt. The group started out shortly after sunrise. Caveney noted they heard six grouse but took no shots and came back empty handed. The accumulative bagged count for the weekend, for the entire group, was fifteen grouse.

Out of the Woods

“Despite the often meager results, severe weather conditions, and strenuous physical exertion, the beauty of the forest, companionship of other sportsmen, incredible performances of highly trained hunting dogs, encounters with many kinds of wild game, and the contest of wits with this elusive bird all make me determined to try again—as often as I can,” Carter concluded of his Michigan trip.

Just days after the hunting group returned to Georgia, Caveney received a thank-you note from the Carter, dated October 16, reading “‘It was a real pleasure to be with you at Pigeon River. Thanks to you, Ruark, & Little Bit, we had an excellent hunt and your forests were delightful to visit. It’s gratifying to see the results of professional management.”

Nearly forty years after his time with the president, Caveney happily recounts the experience when asked. For him, it was much more than just spending time with a former president; it was also about the mutual respect the group had for each other—the people, the dogs, the wildlife—and the conversation and camaraderie they all shared.

“The real story is about the woods, the wild place where the grouse live. The place where guns are fired, men still quest for sustenance from the Earth,” Caveney wrote. “I guess this is how you tell your grandkids about the woods through stories of people and maybe good dogs that were there with us. Like us, the woods are always changing but at the heart are always the same.”

While Carter never returned the Michigan forests, he remained an active hunter until he was 94 years old. In 2019, he traveled to Columbus, Georgia, and bagged a wild turkey with Bill and Tyler Jordan from the show Realtree Outdoors.

Caveney, who still lives in Northern Michigan, retired from the DNR in 1998 after 31 years. He remains an active bird hunter and outdoorsman, serves on the board of Huron Pines, and was recognized by the Society of American Foresters for 50 years of membership

 

Reprinted from the Fall issue of Michigan History Magazine, the official publication of the Historical Society of Michigan.

 

Footnote: For those who want to learn more about this area where authors and presidents have hunted, fished and walked, the Pigeon River Discovery Center provides a great resource. It is open weekends, from the end of April to the end of October. www.pigeonriverdiscoverycenter.org