Bear Grease - Ep. 64: Gas Station Taxidermy Roadshow

Episode Date: July 27, 2022

On this episode of the Bear Grease Podcast, Brent Reaves and Clay Newcomb hit the two-lane highways and byways of America in search of taxidermy in gas stations. This type of public display of bucks, bears and ducks is becoming rarer - and we’re in search of why. The public display of taxidermy is something deep in the root system of American identity and symbolic of a way of life. The American gas station at one time acted as the “town square” and relational hub of small communities, but things are changing. We’ll talk with podcaster, JB Shreve about how the oil and gas industry has impacted America since World War 1, and we’ll also talk with an expert on the tangible effects of social capital on communities, but not before the crew makes finds incredible gas-station bucks and people. Get a cold fountain drink and buckle up because we’re about roll down the road – we doubt you’re going to want to miss this one. Connect with Clay and MeatEater Clay on Instagram MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube Shop Bear Grease MerchSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. First Lights fieldware collection is made for the work that happens long before opening day and continues when the season ends. Products built for early mornings, full days and real use. Hard wearing where they need to be versatile where it matters. No shortcuts. Just gear designed for the work that earns the season.

Built to perform, built to last. Check out. First Light's new field. Worldware gear at firstlight.com. And what I don't understand, Brent, is tell me why there's not a deerhead in there. I mean, this is a rural community. It's built out of laws. There's got to be a deerhead in there.

On this episode of the Bear Grease podcast, Brent Reeves and I are hitting the two-lane highways and byways of America in search of something deep in the root system of American identity. and symbolic of a way of life. We're looking for taxidermy in gas stations. Yep, that's right. We're going on a taxidermy road trip. And I've noticed the public display of bucks, bears, and ducks is becoming rarer. And I'm in search of why.

The American gas station at one time acted as the town square and relational hub of small communities, but things are changing. We'll talk with podcaster J.B. Shreve about how the oil and gas industry has impacted America since World War I. And we'll also talk with an expert on the tangible effects of social capital on communities. But not before we make some incredible stops and see some incredible bucks and meet some incredible people. Get a cold fountain drink and buckle up because we're about to roll down the road. I doubt you're going to want to miss this one. My 16-year-old daughter got this.

She's 28. Yeah, yeah. She got up that morning, putting on makeup. Now, I'm going to, what are you doing? Mom, I've got to look good in my picture when I kill the deer. She was confident. People don't do that. You just do not get deer like that.

And lo and behold, 730, they no more got out there, got the deer. My name is Clay Newcomb, and this is the Bear Grease podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant. Search for insight in unlikely places and where we'll tell the story of Americans who live their lives close to the land. Presented by FHF Gear, American-made, purpose-built, hunting and fishing gear

that's designed to be as rugged as the places we explore. We're walking up to Burroughs Country Smokehouse, Crystal Springs, Arkansas. We'll see if they have any deerheads, or bear skulls in here. You reckon they do? I hope they do. We'll see. It smells good, man.

It smells real good. Brent Reeves and I are on a road-tripping mission. We've hit the highway in search of deerheads, bear hides, fish, and ducks in public places. The public display of taxidermy, or PDT, as we'll call it, I'm convinced, is a small but important component of rural American culture. You see, in the embryonic stages of America, hunters' were the first pop culture heroes. And even going back a step further, Native Americans deeply influenced early Euro-American culture, and these people truly revered a good hunter.

Before sports figures, home improvement, Instagram, influencers, and radio stars, hunters carried the cultural flash that people were drawn to. They had all the adventure, the wild stories, the travel, all the fun, and provided some fundamentals to society. meat and furs. To be a hunter was a noble identity that carried with it an intrinsic set of American values, self-sufficiency, courage, and independence. Hunters were providers. In that world, the noble head of a buck or the hide of a bear displayed in a public space was emblematic of stability and sustenance in a wild place. It was a celebration of wild beauty as well. The arcs and undulations

of white-tail antlers couldn't be replicated by Michelangelo or the modern world's greatest sculptors. There are finest and most raw expressions of art. And there's no way around it. Antlers on the wall are symbolic of human subjugation and winning in the wilderness. And if you don't like the sound of that, try this one on. A parking lot, a building, a car are all signs of man-dominating nature. too, just not as poetic.

A deerhead is comparatively a really nice gesture. However, the world interprets deerheads in public places, I don't really care. I love them. I always have. When I walk into a business and I see a buck hanging on the wall, I feel a warming sensation in my spirit. I can't explain it. I just always have.

I can actually remember stores from my childhood that has. big deer, but most of them are gone. I feel like the march of time is taking away parts of our culture, and deerheads and gas stations and public places is one of them. They're disappearing. But why? I'm in search of the answer. Remember, we've just walked in to a smokehouse.

Hunter Roark's family has owned and ran it for the last 40 years. Burrell's country smokehouse was named after. Burrell Roark, Hunter's grandfather, who passed away a few years ago. He was a well-spoken and stately man. He wore a long beard and leather boots up to his knees. Talking with him, it was hard to discern if you were talking to a backwoods trapper or a governor. I like these kind of people.

I've asked Hunter to tell me about the smokehouse. Well, Burl Smokehouse, we've been here for over 40 years, and my grandpa opened it, and we've been voted best sandwich in the state back in the 90s we smoke all of our own meats and cheeses homemade bread full of antiques and full of bear hides and elk sheds and yeah lots of like we got lots of lots of bear pictures on the wall this is your grandpa and uncle and do you know anything about this bear over here where'd that bear come from i'm pretty sure that bear came from over around you know but we always called it the hawkins lands yeah that's where that one should have came from. Now there's a nice white-tail buck hanging right there. You know anything about that

deer? Yeah, I do. Grandpa just bought it. I could make up some story for you. We walk up to a glass case filled with giant cinnamon rolls and above it are scores of stone projectile points in framed glass cases. Yeah. Now look at this. Brent, describe how big that is. That's about the size of a grizzly bear. Paul in Alaska. Yeah, you can feed a small child for a week for this right here. That's what you are famous for, huh? Man, look at those. The beef jerky and the cinnamon rolls are your two best, most popular items, you know.

Giant cinnamon rolls, bear hide, stone points, and white tails. Man, I love this place and I love America. Could this get any better? Yes, it can. We've got a big hook right here that's a blubber hook for whales whenever they are... It's probably three-foot long. with a big big ring on the end of it where it could hang and it's just a bit it looks like a huge fishing hook but yeah they use it on the boats to pull the whale blubber up into the boat but yeah they hook

that blubber on that hook and winch it up into the boats what often that's the kind of energy i came here for brent reeves a blubber hook come on now yeah that's where you want to eat that's where you want to get your beef jerky that looks like a barbarous trout hook from obi dick that's right Oak House is a bare grease podcast approved business. I love a place that isn't afraid of a little PDT. And we're on the road again. Our pokes are full of goodies, and we're headed east on Highway 270 towards Kirby, Arkansas, and we coast in on fumes into the Brady Mountain One Stop.

We go in to check it out. We're looking for some PDT, the public display of taxidivism. Dermy. So Brent and I just darn near ran out of gas. We made it to a gas station over here around Crystal Springs. And I've never been in this gas station, but it looks promising. It's kind of a log cabin looking place. I just saw a guy with Nirvana shirt. Let's walk up in here and see if there's any tax dermie, any fish, anything. Oh, look in there. A wood duck. Yep. Coming in hot. That's like a little dust on it. They look like us coming in here with a gas pump wall. There's a yoke for a mule, like a plowing yoke hanging on the wall. Here's some planters peanut.

Look at that right there. That's a mule deer. That is about a 180-inch mule deer. Yeah, pretty nice. That's pretty odd for Arkansas. Some hillbilly from Arkansas drove out west in 1960 in their granddad's Pontiac. Hald that thing back. And look, there's a big striper.

We're over here by Lake Washington. Oh, hey, this gas station gets a plus rating from the Bear Gries podcast. Yeah, you got bait, tackle, taxidermy, and fuel. Happy and slightly surprised to find some PDT on our first unscripted stop. We're on the road again. And I'll be honest, this trip hasn't been planned blindly. I know about some great gas stations with big deerheads, and we're headed to one now in Kirby.

But while in route, we cut through the back roads, and I see a country gas station and we pull in. We're in Arkansas, the little store. I have no idea if they got any deerheads in here. This is like a big log. It looks promising. We walk into the tidy, well-staffed establishment

and buy a drink as our cover. You'll have a great week in. Thank you. Thank you very much. Take care. Thank you. Struck out. So we walked in there and we didn't want to be.

rude to these sweet people so I bought a Mountain Dew and Brent bought a spry. Sprite. No. But there was not a deerhead in sight when we walked in there. And what I don't understand, Brent, is tell me why there's not a deerhead in there. I mean this is a rural community. It's built out of laws. There's got to be a deerhead in there.

But this is not a Beargruce approved business. No. It's not approved. It's not sanctioned. We can't sanction this. I can't get behind it now. I better buckle up. I'm not wishing ill on these people.

No, of course not. They had no excuse. It's motif. That's a good word. It would fit the motif. It would. There's no excuse. It was just empty walls. Slightly discouraged.

We're on the road again. We hit Highway 70, head through Glenwood into downtown Kirby. I'm looking for a place called Dunlaps. There it is, man, the Dunlap store. 399 a gallon. They're practically giving it away. No kidding. That's the cheapest gas I've seen in weeks.

So this place, we're in Kirby, Arkansas. Oh, here comes an ambulance. Better pull over. So the Dunlap store is known far and wide for having a bunch of big deer and fish. And I've never been in this store. We're looking for a woman named Sandra. Oh, yeah.

Hello. Are you Sandra? I'm Clay. Thank you for meeting Liz. This is Brent Reeves. How are you doing, ma'am? Reeds. Reeves.

Dunlap sits on the southeast corner of the crossing of Highway 84 and 27. It's the crossroads at the center of town. There are a couple of gas pumps outside, but it feels like you're walking into a small grocery store. They've got some serious PDT. How long have you had this store? This is your business? Yes, 1992. September the 1st will be 30 years. We've been here. Excellent. That's great. Ernie Dunlap started it in about 1935, 36. He had it for 50 plus years. Another man had it for three years. And then we came back from Texas. I've worked for Mr. Dunlap my whole life here. I had my 15th birthday in this store.

Oh, really, right. So every time I'd go to, I went to Henderson State University, and when I'd go, he'd want me to come back and work in the summers, told me I'd pick my hours, whatever I wanted to work and all. So I just lived here practically. As we talk to Ms. Sandra, directly to our left is a string of big White Tailed shoulder mounts. I try not to be distracted, maintaining the eye contact that's important when you first

meet someone, but I'm ready to talk White Tails. Will you give us a tour of your, of Brent, what kind of duck is that, Brian? Is that another wood duck? That is. That's a Drakewood duck. And he's coming in hot on a squirrel. There's a squirrel right about it. So was all this stuff here when you got the store saying?

No, no. Ms. Madison Vaughn, a young man, he's about 22 right now. He started taxidermis when he was about 16. Okay. And so that's one of it needs dusted. I'm not taking real good care of it. Oh, yeah. Mad dog taxidermy.

If you need anything, call Madison. Madison Vaughn is his name. And then we have an elder. Hi, Billy Don. How are you? I know. Yeah, so these deer, man, there are some big deer. So I'm looking at, let me count them.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Ten bucks. Brent, I'm going to say that deer right there is a hundred and probably 160, 170-inch deer, no doubt. No, actually. You know the score. 76 because it is severe. She knows the score.

We had a plaque on it up here. This was Severe County's leading deer. Jimmy Kersey killed it. 20 years before that, he got this deer. I'm very impressed, Sandra, that you knew the score of that. I heard it from him and nephew. He was telling me, I'm pretty sure. I mean, I've heard him.

No, it looks every bit of it. I've heard him talk about it, but it is Severe counties. It's the leading of all time because it won it in 2015, but he said 20 years. Before he killed that deer at Gillum, said he was at home and he'd drive in and said his neighbor's told and said he'd look at it every day. And said, this neighbor said, you better get that deer. Somebody's going to get that deer. So he got it and can you, oh, that thing's a monster.

Do you see the devil horns? I've never saw this. Do you see the devil horns on it? Right, yeah. I never knew about those. Now what you're calling devil horn is just split. No, down here on the bottom, right above its eyeballs. See where they stick out them little.

Little bird points. Yeah. Okay. Kickers, whatever. Okay, I like it. And this, oh, I took her, I took her picture down. Oh, my goodness. My 16-year-old daughter got this.

She's 28, yeah, yeah. She will be Dr. Carly in December 3rd of this year. She graduates from Dr. Chiropractic in Dallas, Texas. When she was 16, she killed this deer. She got up that morning. Her and her brother argued, he said, no, no, you can go, you can go. He was like nine. And she said, no, Carly, you go.

He didn't want to get up. He didn't want to get up. So she's up putting on me. makeup. Now, I'm a, what are you doing? Mom, I've got to look good in my picture when I kill the deer. I said, honey, honey, people don't do that. You just do not get deer like that. And low and behold, 730, they no more got out there, got the deer. She calls back. I go in and tell her little brother, and he, and he never does this. He had a meltdown. Jerk that cover up over his head, had a squall and fit. I said, you get your butt out of that bed and you go be proud for your sister. I said,

she would be proud for you. So when he got together next time, he got the squarliest looking little horns, but he was tickled the day. And that buck isn't hanging in the gas station, is it? He was tickled. Do you know the score of that deer your daughter killed? Carly's, I do not know.

I mean, I'm going to... It's probably half of that one. Well, I'm going to guess it's a high 130s, 148 point. I am very impressed that she knows all the stories about these deer. Miss Sandra doesn't know it, but she's ascended to the ranks of some of the best storytellers of the Bear Grease podcast. But she isn't through yet. My brother killed this one, and Carly had got hers first,

and then Shane got his, like, a couple years later. My husband had hunted daylight till dark all week long. Did not see anything. He went to our lease at Pike City, Pike City Arkansas all down here. And so my brother watched NASCAR racing all day, decided then he was going to run over and hunt kills this deer calls me and he's a nervous wreck he said I think it's big no I don't know maybe it's not yeah I think it's big no maybe it's not so he said got a flashlight he came to get me and my little son my little son at that time was about

two has a Barney flashlight that's all we had and we back it and he backed up to it and the tell lights hit it and I said big my foot Shane yes it was it was gigantic the horns were turned and it was standing up it was great and my niece wants to come get that she's His daughter has just had a baby and she wants to put it in the nursery. So we may be losing. Okay, you might lose that one. How could this place get any better? These people want to put this deerhead in their kids' nursery.

Hashtag, winning. And we haven't even mentioned the bear hide hanging on the back wall of this store. Hey, I'm very impressed that you know all these stories. Oh, I know all these stories. Excellent. And Vincent, I wish we had George McWhorter. George McWhorter, if you're listening, you better get your deer back up here. Come on, George.

We had to hang George's down. See where that one's hung down. Right. So those horns didn't touch the ceiling? Oh, they went through it. And then, I mean, literally when we hung it down, they still touched the ceiling. That deer was just a freak of nature. And he took it.

He won, I think it was state of Arkansas. What is it, non-typical? Yep. But, oh, it was unbelievable. Before we leave, here's a little bit more about the store. This is such a neat store. So you got quite a bit of fishing tackle over here. You got pretty good, I mean, it's...

We do ribos days. Hand-cut ribbons. I have some ribs. Yeah, I have ribs. I have everything. We have deli meat. All your people love our Cajun turkey. We do deli sandwiches.

We run our own hamburger, but hand-dipped ice cream. We have hand-dipped ice cream. That's 80-plus years. It's been here. Oh, really? Yes. Well, I got to say, Sandra, when I walk into a gas station like this, I absolutely love it. Because there's just, they're used to these community stores like this were like the hub of the community,

which it feels like this still is, but it's kind of rare. Did you see it? On the front of display up there, there's kindergartners pictures, there's kids. I'm sure of no relation to y'all are just part of this community. Well, we are. We're all like family. Yeah, everybody's like family. Wow, and then I love coming in here and seeing deerheads.

I mean, I really do. It's just kind of who we are as Arkansasans. Dunlap store and Miss Sandra are going to be hard to top, and this place is certainly Bear Grease podcast approved. But our trip isn't over yet. We're just getting started. I want to understand why gas stations like Dunlaps are becoming more rare. J.B. Shreve is the host of the...

End of History podcast. He's an author and just a smart dude. I go to him when I need answers, and I want to learn now about how the ups and downs of the oil and gas industry have affected American culture, specifically mom and pop gas stations. Here's J.B. So the U.S. is really an oil economy. Like there's probably never been an economy like this in the history of the world. There hasn't, in fact, because the globe went to oil right after World War I. and the British changed their Navy over from coal to oil, and that's where the story really picks up as far as when oil went mainstream in the global economy.

Well, after World War II, what happened is the U.S. comes back, and a lot of this stuff had already started to occur in the 1920s, but then the Great Depression hit, World War II hits, and everything gets put on pause as far as economic development. We come back from World War II, and everybody's got money in hand. There's this economic boom that's unfolding, and it kept on unfolding, until the latter half of the 1960s. In that economic boom, it's really a story of oil.

At the bottom of everything, you see oil rising, and it's easy access oil for the United States. And it really changed the way the U.S. economy worked so that it really changed our society, our culture. Well, in the 1950s, you get an interstate system built, and so people are driving more. And the interstate system came from Dwight Eisenhower, came back from Germany, he saw the Audubon. He sees all this things. He's anticipating, you know, we could have World War III. And so they want to build an interstate system that's going to connect all the military bases around the country. That was the original inception.

But, of course, it turned into something that connected trade all over the country. And so people started driving, and we became a driving culture. You have the rise of fast food in the 1950s. You have the rise, and that's people just eating in their car on their way to somewhere. And the automobile industry just took off. And there were all these lots of days. different models of cars and it became fashionable. Yeah.

And it's like it's not. Gas guzzlers. Yeah, exactly gas guzzlers. I remember on the movie Back to the Future where at one point they've got a car that's flying or something and he says, don't hit that. It'll just rip into you because it's built like a tank. Cars were built differently back then because they were heavier. We had the oil.

It was cheap. It was easy to access. And so who cares about how much it costs to fill it up because it was cheap at that time. So you've got all of this going on. It's changing the shape of the economy. economy, and one of the big things, all these gas stations start to develop. Because people are traveling across the country. With gas guzzlers.

So they've got to stop pretty frequently to fill up the gas. Every 25, 30 miles, there's probably a gas station. Yeah, exactly. And so you could only get the price of gas so cheap as far as that was. There would be price wars throughout the 1950s between these gas companies, the mom and pop shops, as well as the big corporations. But they decided, you know what, what we're going to have to do is build some other kind of competitive edge.

So if you watch like the Andy Griffith show or any show from back during that time, you see guys come out of the gas station. They're wearing a uniform. They're going to wash your windows. They're going to check your oil. They're going to check your lights. Do all of this stuff. And don't you dare pump your own gas.

We've got that for you. It was this real customer service-oriented ideal when you go to the gas station. Now we're seeing why gas stations needed a custom gas purchasing experience. I remember a gas station that was in business in my life. lifetime in Oklahoma that had a live mountain lion. Not kidding. Now that gives a man a reason to stop, but you know what else will get me to do a U-turn and fill up my tank? Deerhorns. This idea of the mom-and-pop, like, custom gas station. I don't know how to say it in the other way than that. Because today, I would say most of our gas stations are anything but

custom and have like unique signatures of it being like a mom-and-pop store. Right. Back then, that would have been common. Right, right. Yeah, the mom and pop thing, but also it was really built around appealing to the customer to bring them in. So like what you're talking about with these gas stations in the rural areas, of course, I'm looking at the big landscape, but in the rural areas, they're going to appeal to the rural community. Right. This is where, this is the town square.

We want you to stop here. And even the little town I grew up in, it wasn't a nice gas station, but I remember guys coming in there and they would measure their big bucks at Don's gas station right next to the single cafe that was in town there. That was still a thing. It wasn't a nice place to hang out. Yeah. But that was something that started back in the 1950s with the surge of the oil economy in the U.S. Remember that, the surge of the oil economy. I asked J.B., what broke up the mom and pop gas station craze? So the economy is booming up until the early 1970s. And there's this OPEC oil embargo. That's where basically a lot of the Middle East countries got together and they're going to restrict the amount of oil they were releasing to the Western world.

With that, all of a sudden, that's when you start seeing gas lines. You start seeing, there's a limit to gas. So the price of gas is... When you say gas lines, like lines at gas station. There were people in lines at gas station trying to fill up. And that was a big thing throughout the 1970s. And so the price of gas suddenly became higher. When the gas prices went up, you see, again, changes happen in society.

The type of cars we drove started to change. The muscle cars of the 1960s. You still had some of the 1970s, but the smaller vehicles became more prominent because it was more affordable to drive. You got the Pinto, you got the Gremlin. You've got all these little cars, even the muscle car, like the Ford Mustang, like compared to a charger or a Lamonts. The Mustang was a lot smaller. You know, that was the way it was Lee I. Coco pitched that. It's going to be an affordable muscle car.

And yet these gas stations, they had to find some way of bringing people. in and they started sacrificing the service at the pump stuff and it was more we're going to make it as cheap as we can and get you in and out as fast as we can because people were tired of waiting in lines yeah they didn't want to pay more than they had to for gas and so the guy with a little hat disappeared that all of that started to fade out and so you trickle that down they valued efficiency and price exactly making it as cheap as you could and so you trickle that down to the rural communities and a lot of that it just became faster people were coming through and I would assume that's where a lot of the town square feel that you're talking about in these rural

communities didn't disappear completely. But that's really where it started to be hit. Yeah. And when you think about, used to you go to the gas station and it was kind of a little bit of an event. Yeah. Man comes out. You might go in the store and it just took a long time. Then it became about efficiency and price, not service. And that goes right back to my deerheads. The reason that these store owners to this day have a deerhead in their store is people want to come and see it. Right. It's something that the community can kind of get around and there's stories about these deer and it initiates conversation.

And it feels like today most of our gas station experiences anyway, it's about efficiency. Yeah, the community aspect really got lost. And we're talking about gas stations. You can trickle up throughout the whole economy. The pleasant social experience of buying gas was traded for efficiency. cheaper prices. Now that sounds like America. And now with prepay fuel, the idea is you don't even have to go into the store. You don't even have to interface with another human to buy gas. I'd be the first to want to pay less for something. But when you really think about it, what did we

lose by paying less? And what did we gain? Later in this episode, we'll talk with an expert on the idea of social capital, which is basically our networks of relationships, will learn about the tangible contributions of this thing called social capital. Would it be true? This is anecdotal, but it feels like it would be correct, is that when it became about price and not service, not a unique experience going to a mom and pop gas station that might have some attractions, then the big corporations, the big franchises, were able to win in the gas station war because they could have a thousand XX gas station. And then the mom and pop store got priced out.

And that's why when you drive around rural Arkansas, Oklahoma, rural anywhere, it's littered with old gas stations. It's like ghost towns. I mean, and so am I right in that that's what happened? It really is because it became more efficient. And even regionally, if you go into the northeastern United States, you're going to see different chains that dominate in the northeastern United States. In the western U.S., there's different chains than what we see in the southern U.S.

But those chains took over, and that's really what it is. J.B., I want to make an appeal to the people in power that own gas stations. In rural America, you know, if you're in an urban place and you don't think your customer base would identify with this, that's okay. But it bothers me to go into a rural gas station. station and not see a deerhead, J.B. Or a fish. Just give me a fish.

Is that too much to ask? One that doesn't sing. Well, I mean, even a singing fish is a hat tip. We're singing deer. There you go. Last spring, Clay Newcomb and I collaborated with Jason Phelps at Phelps game calls in building each of our own favorite turkey diaphragms called prime cuts. Now, I'm going to tell you, I love mine because it's easy to use.

I'm not going to go, I'm not going to win a turkey calling contest. It's just not going to happen. But when I run this call, I get the sounds that gobblers are looking for. I have a great turkey hunting track record. If you go listen to real turkeys out in the woods, they're not going to win calling contests, right? That's who I listen to. I can make those sounds on my cut. I also hunt with Phelps's cut, and I hunt with Clay's cut because they're all three great cuts.

Check out Prime Cuts at Phelpsgamecalls.com. I think you'll be glad you did. And you'll find out that the Steve Ronella cut is an easy-to-use cut for beginning callers who just want to start making good turkey noises and getting action. This is all making sense. It's making me appreciate more of the places like Dunlaps that are still in business. But now we're on the road again, headed to Dirks, Arkansas, to meet up with Mr. Clifton Ward. He's 77 years old, and he's got a wall full of deer and turkeys hanging in the VP

quick track gas station. The highway beneath us feels good and I can't wait to see these deer. So we're at the VP gas station in Dirks, Arkansas. We're fixing to go in here and meet Clifton Ward. Let's do it. You got your money? Brent's been buying me stuff at every gas station. Are you, are you Mr. Clifton? Clay Newcomb. Pleasure to meet you. Brent Reeves. Thank you for meeting us. So you used to own this gas station. Is that right?

We built it, yes, sir. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 96, opened it, 96. 96. Well, show us your deer in here. I will. We walk in the door of a modern gas station. Honestly, it's not one you'd expect to see a bunch of deerheads hanging in, but we are pleasantly surprised. Mr. Clifton doesn't own this store anymore, but his deer are still here.

The new owner, he didn't mind the mount stand on the wall, and I haven't tucked them down at this time. Yeah. But my wife even didn't want me to put them up. But after a while, she just couldn't believe that the interest people coming in. Oh, my goodness, oh, my goodness. So it became a draw for people to come down here to see these deer and elk and turkeys. You bet? I mean, it was a draw.

So let's see, we just walked in here. We got a couple of big elk. We got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight big deer, two full gobbler mounts, some turkey beards and spurs. It looks good in here. Oh, there's another deer over there. So, Clifton, did all these deer come from down here in this part of the world? This one is a Montana deer, but the rest of them are Howard County. I pick out the biggest buck on the wall and ask for the story.

Holly, tell me about that, deer. Well, it was way back. I'm an old-school deer hunter, I'm from a little kid up. We hunted, but it was a way of life back then. No artillery until I was grown, you know. There was 10 of us kids and the family, the first five of boys, and I was number five. So it was trickled down the line for you. I actually made your own money and bought your own weapon.

So I've still got the first weapon ever bought. Mr. Clifton hesitates as he looks at the tall-tined buck. He stares at it as if he's never seen. seen it before. And then he tells me the tactic he employed to kill it. Road hunting. We really like to road hunting this country. Used to. Not, not anymore because the way law was changed. But I drove in on a job site I was working on. He was in the clear cut that I was working on. There he was. So fortunately, I got him. I'll take an honest man any day over any other variety of man. And to clarify, there are a lot of clear cuts and pie.

plantations down here. On private land, they used to drive the roads looking for deer in cuts. Honestly, it's not a lot different than glassing for deer out west. Now, let me, I want to look, I want to describe this deer. This is a pretty tight rack, probably 14, 15 inch wide deer, but just sky, just huge tines. Do you know the any of the measurements on that deer? I don't. Never had it measured. I would imagine that deer is in the 170s. Do you? Oh, no. No. Maybe.

I think he's low ball in it. I'm an official measure, so. Okay. It doesn't mean I'm right, but. Clay. Hey. How are you, man? Well, I was down here at the request of your son to meet this guy right here.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. How you doing, Clifton? I'm good, okay. Yeah. It's a small world, and this is the biggest unscripted coincidence of our road trip. Not five seconds after we were getting it, guessing the buck's score, Jack Johnson walks in.

Jack is a veteran, official Boone and Crockett and Pope and Young score. And he doesn't even live in Dirks. He was just randomly passing through. Wild man. I want to see what Jack thinks this buck scores. Hey, this is a guy we absolutely need to. This guy is an official score big time. He's scored deer for 40 years.

Guess on this big deer. gross score. You hadn't had that measured? He's a 170, and he? That's what I told Mr. Clifton, and he shook his head. That's two to one. Hey, his guess counts, man. Mine doesn't.

His guess counts. We both agree the buck would easily gross in the 170s. That's a big pine thicket white tail. Here's Mr. Clifton giving us a little more history on deer hunting. He had just brought up one of his old hunting buddies. I always grew up with dogs, and so I had dogs, and he didn't, but we got the dog hunting quite a lot. We did a little dog running. Yeah.

A lot of that goes on in this country. This is part of Arkansas that's legal run dogs. Still he is. Yeah. We've meat hunters, but later years, we're trying to do better, quit dog running. I was in the Army, of course. Fortunately, made back from Vietnam, okay. But after that, I started trying.

We had a camp. started, I said, what was I start buck hunting? I tried to talk my buddy into, I told him, let's go to six point or better. He wouldn't agree to it. And I said, he said, you let a spy go? He said, I'll take him. I said, no, come on now. He and I turned the dogs loose, and they went a different way.

He ran around and picked me up, we cut them off, and it was a big clear cut that you see across. In the afternoon, sun's shining, it's a buck. He's probably 250 yards running. Look pretty big. he shoots and misses, I don't miss. We get over and it's a forking horn. You broke your own rule.

First rattled out of the box. But I did. I later went to eight-point or better and put my dogs, left them in a pen. I had 12 good running dogs, didn't turn them loose. So I started hunting eight-point or better. The idea of regulating the size of the bucks that he killed was revolutionary for the time.

Mr. Clifton was basically the Mark Kenyon of Howard County, Arkansas in the 1970s. And he's about to give us a tip for our next stop. I love it. Anytime I go into a gas station with the deer horns, I'm like, this is where I want to buy my gas. Well, I'm saying. I was traveling through Antlers, Oklahoma one day, and a gas station, I could see some antlers tax shop. Oh, yeah. I had to visit that place. Antlers. Antlers, Oklahoma. Somebody told me we needed to go there. I don't have any idea if it's still there anymore.

How far is that from here? Do you know? Right at 100 miles. 101? We got enough gas to make it to Antlers, Oklahoma. And back twice. We're in a gas station. You can buy some gas.

After the tip, we're on the road again. And the Dirk's Quick Trip Store is 100% Bear Grease podcast approved, and you guessed it. We're headed towards Antlers, Oklahoma. but not without checking out a few gas stations along the way. All right. We've driven to Hayworth, Oklahoma, from Dirks. We're in Oklahoma now. We were told that there were some big bucks at a gas station at Hayworth.

Let's go see if we can find it. Hey, are you buying drinks this time or is it? It's probably my turn, isn't it? I've been buying them every time. We walk into a small, promising-looking, rural gas station. Hello. Hello. How are you?

All right. Good. Is this your store? No. Who's that? Oh, we were told you had some big deer down here. Are these your deer? Are they really?

You killed them? Bingo. There are at least five deer on the wall, and the one in the middle is a big mainframe ten point. What do you think, Brent? It's a good man. That one in the middle. Double beams on that one right, too.

Oh, yeah. Do you know what's that deer score? No idea. Big mainframe 10 point? We had never had him scored. The one on this end was rough estimate. It was like 150 something. That one was the middle.

He was bigger. Yeah. Fantastic bucks, and the one in the middle was way bigger than the one that they thought scored 150. It's probably 165 inch deer. We approve of the PDT of this store, and we're on the road again. And as we roll through Ida Bell, Oklahoma, and route to antlers, we see a big, beautiful gas station with a marketing campaign giving a significant and odd nod to the wild.

We pull in with our fingers crossed. We're at a place called Gas Squatch. They have about a 40-foot sign out front, a big Sasquatch sign, but it's a beautiful gas station. Wood shake shingles, huge place. There's not a deer head in here. It's going to be upsetting. Let me say that again.

These boys have a 40-foot big foot as their sign on the highway. We walk through big glass doors and are hitting the face with extremely cold air. There are Sasquatches everywhere. I do give them credit for the big Sasquatch over there. Bitters made with him. Not a deerhead in sight, though, is there, brother? Nothing. I see a car in here.

Well, I'm going to give them a small amount of credit. They do have a pretty nice selection of antique cars in the gas station. Actually, a very nice selection. But you know what? That doesn't count for? It doesn't count for deerheads. This place is not sanctioned. This place is cute.

Golly, that is a sweet transam. I don't know. This place is cool. It is not Bear Greas podcast approved. They've done a nice job. We wish them the best. But you know what? You should have had a deerhead in here.

They could have been so much more. If they had one deerhead hanging right up there, even a buffalo. I'm going to take a picture of this for Gary Newcomb. It says Cougar on the car. Gas squatch is a nice place. And I'm sure somebody in Idabel, Oklahoma, would be glad to display their buck in this store. Maybe somebody can make this happen. But regardless, we're on the road again.

Within a few miles, though, we do a U-turn when we see a gas station call. Hank's got a buck on the sign we walk inside we are pumped because we can see bucks from the road so there's one two three four five six seven eight deer seven freedom mounts one just buck mount yeah how big is that shoulder mount that that dear I'm guessing 140 one 45 don't forget that crazy looking bobcat oh yeah we got a I don't know about everybody else but rat-hant Oklahoma at one time was home to some big deer I see their pictures are right here a lot of deceased deer here yeah one of the ladies in the station shows us stacks of pictures of deer from

years past tell me what city we're in rat tan Oklahoma rat tan Oklahoma and so this gas station used to be a check station and then did Oklahoma start online check it all online yes and so it kind of it kind of killed the vibe at the gas station. It did. These pictures here are from 2002. Yeah, these were doing it. We got 2002. Actually, they go back, I think, in for the 1990s.

I'd say we have several hundred white-tail photos here. Oh, easily. Going all the way back 25 plus years. I've always loved gas stations with deer photos, and we're looking at a few 200-inch deer in these Polaroids. I love it. But it's time. time to head out. Hey, thank you guys. We've done what we came to do.

All right. Thank you. Tell the who, now whose deer are these? Hank. Tell him, tell him that we approve this gas station. There's two random people. Everybody always asks about them and I'm like, you're just going to have to come back and talk to the man that owns the place because I don't really know much about deer or hunting them. But yeah, we got a lot of people that come in here and they'll just walk around and look at these and look at the pictures. Sure. Yeah. Just like you did. All right, thank you. We're on the road again, and we're almost to Antlers, Oklahoma. We've been told there's something here we've got to see,

but on our way, our travel is halted in sobriety, and we pull off on the side of the road, and Brent teaches me something. So we're running down the road over here, and we came upon a funeral procession on a beautiful Friday afternoon. Yep. We pulled off the road. It's called being respectful.

I noticed you took your hat off. Yep. Well, it's just a sign of respect for the family. They mourning the loss, and I have never seen it done any other way. Really? Now, see, what you did there instructed me a little bit. I wouldn't have instinctively taken my hat off when I pulled over on the side of the road. Well, it's a sign of respect.

I like it. You take your hat off when you walk in somebody's house, when you meet in a lady. You know, you stand up, shake somebody's hand. There's little thing. You know, tells people what kind of folks you are. Where you come from. After the last car with their lights on passes, we're on the road again. And we pull into the big parking lot of the Choctaw Travel Plaza in Antlers.

We walk in and our mouths drop. Bingo. Oh, my. What do we have here, Mr. Brent? We have got a humongous. buck that is by far the biggest buck we've seen all day

yeah that's bigger than Miss Sanders right there yeah that's a Boone and Crockett that is a net typical gotta be 185 190 inch deer holy cow the deer has a

chalk tall plaza polo shirt over a live mount with its own name tag what's his name? He's called he's called Howard Bucks. But that's a real dude. That's not a replica.

I'm looking at those antlers. That is a mainframe six by six. Wow. Way to go Chalk Taal Plaza. I really wasn't expecting it because this is not a mom-in-pop place. This is like a big time. This is like mechanical sliding, motion sensor doors.

They've got a casino one out of the end. Casino, very busy place. You can buy Christmas in here. Yeah. And they have one of the finest. typical white tails I've seen in a long time. Yeah, it's huge. Here, take my picture by this deer.

After making a bit of a spectacle, we head back towards Arkansas with our spirits full. This has been an incredible road trip. The one-on-one interactions that we've had with people about these deer heads is notable. Misty Nukel, my wife, is doing her doctoral thesis research on the idea of social capital. I want to get some insight from her because I feel like this whole deerhead and the gas station thing is part of a bigger equation. Here's Misty. Miss Newcomb, talk to me about how social capital relates to us losing our town square mom and pop gas stations that always include a good deerhead or two. Okay.

Well, first I think it's important to understand what social capital is. So social capital would be like the connections that people have and the networks of connections that people have that provide value in a community in the same way that human capital, think about having people that can work at a factory. That factory might be more likely to locate in a certain area if it has people who will work for the wage that factory pays. That's a value in a commodity in that community. Social capital, it relates to the connectivity of the people inside of a community. and that also provides huge value. And economists have taken to, there's a lot of research out there that has emerged in the late 90s and onward that looks at the social capital and says, well, does it actually provide any economic benefits? Because a lot of times we judge

whether something is valuable or not in terms of economic contribution. It provides to a community. And it does. And it provides value to kids. It provides value to the economic welfare. I've studied how that's connected to academic achievement inside of communities.

And so there's all these different ways that just the presence of certain things and certain opportunities for people to connect can build a community and can increase the, not just the sense of identity that people in that community have, but identity is a huge part of it, but also can actually provide tangible benefits in terms of... So you're saying the more places that a community has where people can actually, often physically connect. Yes. Like at a gas station.

Yes. There are, that community is going to be stronger financially, academically, as opposed to a community that, for whatever reason, didn't have that social capital, didn't have those meeting places, didn't have that sense of community. It'd become more alienated. It would become more isolated. And trust, social trust would diminish in that community.

And when that is lost or when it diminishes, to a certain point, then there's a lot of things that become harder for that community. So it's not necessarily a one-to-one correlation, but there is a strong correlation between tangible impacts. A guy named Robert Putman wrote a book in the mid-90s called Bowling Alone. He was looking at this concept of social capital, and he used bowling and bowling alleys as like a way to actually look at it. And there used to be people who would gather on Thursday nights, and they would bowl together and being part of a league, connected them to a community and connected them to people.

Those sweet bowling shirts are probably as really half of the benefit. Bowling alleys have been known to house a few good deerheads. Yeah, you probably should have done. Gone to bowling alleys. Yeah, you probably should have done that. You might have even found more. But so that, and his idea was that people are bowling alone now. Like the leagues have diminished.

There used to be Thursday night bowling and people would go and that provided a source of meaning and a point of connectivity where they were actually, you know, building a sense of identity. but it also provided connections for those people that might help them get better jobs, that might help their kids. It's not just about identity, but that is a piece of it. It also provided that community, a sense of trust. Like, well, I know Bill down, you know, for the bowling alley.

We play against each other on Thursday nights. And so, you know, I trust him. And I know his son's a good kid, so I'm going to hire him at my job. But it also says, well, because I care about Bill, I also care about his son. And when I see him driving too fast on the road, I'm going to call Bill and tell him. And that's going to keep his child safe. And so these connections you have provide benefits not just in allowing you to network, but they do allow you to network, but they also provide benefits in building a sense of community trust and a sense of community awareness. And yeah, I mean, I could go on and know, but those things, strong communities, strong families actually contribute to child welfare in a number of ways.

And you can look at future outcomes for kids and see even if the child themselves had a rough home life, being. in a community that had really solid homes is one of the major predictor of that child's future success. Bowling alone and gas stations without deer heads are negative social indicators. Who knew? Well, we're on the road again and headed home. But we see a store I just can't pass by, so we pull in. All right, this place is Brittingham grocery.

Yep. Oklahoma. Yeah, see, they got a buck over there. Yeah, they got a nice buck. I greet the owner of the store as I walk in. He's a kind man and very interested in what we're doing. I tell him my hypothesis that taxidermy in gas stations seems to be going out of style and that we're trying to change that.

And I ask him about the deer hanging in the store. Now, this is your business, though, your gas station. Yes, it is. Tell me what you know about that deer. Well, we had a good customer who lives just a few blocks away from here. His name is Zach Morgan. Okay. He killed this deer about, I guess, four years ago.

And then he just... How did it end up in here? Well, he just... Right, he just donated or put it up there, you know. Zach knew what was going on. He's like, if I kill big deer... Now, are we in Brittingham, Oklahoma? No.

You are in the Moyers, Oklahoma. Brintingham is a name used to be, or... Still, you can call it name of the store. Tell me your name. I'm sorry, I didn't. I think. And so when he brought the deer to you, what did you think? You were like, that's normal, this is good.

What did you think? It's cool. I mean, we have seen other people, too. I mean, like one time we had so many fishes here, big fish. Okay. People brought and they hang it there. And I guess for some reason he needed it back and he took it away. Yeah.

Probably that's what it is, yeah, I guess, yeah. Yeah. People do bring, you know, those horns also sometimes. Yeah. And they left it. We had few. I don't know where they had now, but we had few before. Would you consider putting more in here? Do you think you need some more? Yeah. If anybody bring it, it's welcome to bring it in. Yeah. Let's go analyze this deer, Brent. So there's one big, heavy horned eight. I mean, like a tall, racked, very heavy. He totes it all the way out to the year.

Yeah. The tines are thick like bananas. The right eye guard, it looks like it's about eight inches. I would easily say that's a mid-140's, maybe even 150-inch 8-point. Yeah, I agree. He's 140s for sure. Big win. Big win. This is a bare grease podcast-approved business.

Good job. Good job. Mr. Stiel gets it. We're on the road again, and we're headed home. We've met some incredible people and have seen some great gas station pucks. I've always loved a good gas station and it hurts me when I don't see a buck on the wall in a place that I know should have one.

It just seems negligent. To me personally, I think it's a public validation of a way of life that I love. But on a broader scale, a big buck on the wall is a celebration of conservation in wild places. It's a public tribute to the American model of wildlife conservation. These beasts are so common

their hanging in common places, not just in museums. At one time, it was believed American Big Game was going to go completely extinct, and they began to collect antlers and horns so that future generations would be able to see the animals that used to live here. I also believe that a big buck in a public center is a platform for building community and relationship. When you see a buck on the wall, it should initiate curiosity, conversation, and intrigue. I rarely walk past a Mounted Buck without taking a genuine gander in sending a conscious thought towards the circumstances of the hunt, the person that killed it, and the wild place from which the beast was hewn.

In some small way, maybe it gives us a platform to build social capital with those in our community. I also learned that our lives are impacted by unseen forces, like the oil industry, and it impacts us in odd ways bigger than just how much we pay for our few people. Our society is changing, but the things we truly value, we will find ways to hold on to them. And hey, here's an idea. If you've got a relationship with a gas station, lend them one of your deerheads. You'll probably find that most store owners are like Mr. Shaquille and happy to display a buck. Long live the PDT and long live the beast.

Thanks so much for listening to Beargrease. I look forward to talking about all this stuff on the Bear Grease rendered next week. Be sure to check out all the Bear Grease merchandise on The Meat Eater.com and check out First Lights new waterfowl apparel line. See you next week. First Lights Fieldwear collection is made for the work that happens long before opening day and continues when the season ends. products built for early mornings, full days in real use,

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