Coyote Hunting on Sundays

 

Paul and David Jones

Growing up in Grainola had some fun and interesting times and in particular there was a craze for years about coyote hunting and typically all the farmers and ranchers did it on Sunday.  I am going to tell you that this story should be at least 80% true and 20% just was what I perceived as a young boy growing up in the tall grass country of Osage County.  In particular Paul Jones flew an airplane to hunt coyotes and he was more than a spotter as he carried a gun and shot from the plane.  It was the wild west for sure.  Paul raised greyhound dogs and I think a lot of folks did as well.  Don Kelsey (my hay hauling boss) and I think Clyde Jackson (Bob's dad) raised greyhounds as well.  Anyway, on Sundays while sitting in the Grainola Methodist Church you could hear Paul flying around looking for coyotes.  

In fact I think Ernie Eaton was a coyote hunter as well since it was his fence that had so many coyotes hung on the post.  If you cannot picture it, let me explain.  The state of Oklahoma paid $4 for a pair of coyote ears since the population got out of hand as an incentive to find and eliminate some of the over population.  When they killed one they would hang the coyote on the fencepost as a badge of honor.  I am not sure if it was Ernie's but one time I counted over 40 coyotes on a fence.  You could find fences everywhere with coyotes hung on them.  It was a wild sport.

Now I am not sure of the accuracy of this but I understood that Bob Jackson got a new Dodge pickup and was chasing coyotes when he ran into a ditch and moved his front axle back about a foot totally his pickup.  Luckily no one was killed.  After church you could see the trucks running across the prairies chasing their greyhounds who were chasing coyotes.  In fact one time A.J. Jacques and a few of us retrieved a dead coyote from someone's pickup and strung it up the Shidler High School flagpole.  It made the front page of the paper and luckily our principle had a since of humor and we did not get in trouble.  

Come to think of it, country boys and men could think up fun, like coyote hunting.  I know some of you think we were crazy but those coyotes killed your cattle and many a time our dogs would come home all chewed up from fighting a coyote and sometimes they just never came home.  

So what do you learn in the Osage?

• Sundays are for worship 
• what some think is danger, to others is excitement
• It is hard to get a coyote up a flagpole

Thanks for listening,

gary

gary@thepioneerman.com