Dogs in the Daffs

[Chris Pope]

While hunting quail sometimes luck is finding a patch of daffodills in the middle of nowhere.

[Garry L Gordon]

Cool! An old homestead?

[Chris Pope]

Definately. There is evidence of at least one structure and what appears to be an old collapsed well. The property is on a bluff off the banks of Long Cane Creek which flows into Little River and then the Savannah on the South Carolina side. All of it is now Clark's Hill Lake. It's a beautiful spot.

[Garry L Gordon]

I hope there’s a covey in the neighborhood, named and cared for by you. We’ll never tell.

[Chris Pope]

No quail yesterday but we have encountered quail not far from there. When it's hot we can get the pups in the lake to cool off. Pretty country.

[Dave Noreen]

In the early spring of 1968, I was working for the DNR in southwest Washington laying out timber sales in the second-growth forests there. Found the location of the logging camp from the original logging of the area with daffodils outlining where each of the buildings had been.

[Arthur Shaffer]

Cool! An old homestead?

In Eastern Kentucky where I was born and raised, every small country road had places with grown over turnouts with patches of daffodils growing along both sides and little else too show for it's history. Those farm wives seemed to like a little color in their lives.

[Dean Romig]

Deep in the woods in my section of Vermont's NEK I sometimes found old cellar holes and barn foundations, sometimes with daffodils and lilacs around the foundations. Often within the fieldstone foundations were huge spruce trees growing as if there had never been any settlers there at all. One that comes specifically to mind is the "old Hall place" (known locally only to the oldest natives of the area, like my mentor Hubert Simons, former fire chief of the St Johnsbury Fire Dept). Man, the stories he would tell... Hubert is long gone now as are the other old hunters in the camp where I got my start in about '56. The telling of those stories by Hubert, Uncle Jack, Scudder Parker and my Dad still ring in my ears... There were certainly others there before us.

Unfortunately most of those old stone cellar holes and foundations have been ground into the earth by the heavily chained and cleated tires of logging skidders.

The "Old Ford Cover" is one such place. Once there were the skeletal remains of three old Fords but fifteen of twenty years ago a logger with absolutely no respect for local history drove his skidder with a vengeance it seems, back and forth over the old Fords and now some of the younger hunters I know refer to the cover as "the tin pile" and that's a damn sad commentary.

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[Mike Koneski]

We won't be seeing daffodils above our barn woods until April! :crying:

[Chris Pope]

Love to hear about these old places. I'm sure most of us have encountered old homesteads as we were hunting along. I always have to stop, even if I've been there many times before. I like to picture what the structures may have looked like. I wonder what crops kept the occupants alive. Think about the worry on their minds as winter approached wondering if there would be enough food or wood to cook and keep warm. Think about a child that took ill and the parents wondering if they would survive the night and who was going to ride into the nearest town to try and summon the doctor if there even was one. And then, for whatever reason the homestead melts into the ground. Sometimes These places speak to you. One of the hundreds of reasons I like to hunt.

[Dean Romig]

There are two old family cemeteries on the dirt road where the hunting camp is. They are about 1/3 mile apart. It is sadly shocking to read the names and ages of so many children and babies who died in these forgotten communities… truly sad.

Conversely, it is equally surprising to read the ages of these pioneer farmers, some aged into their 90’s. Why did the babies die yet their parents and grandparents live so long?




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[Garry L Gordon]

The luck of individuals, or lack thereof, always puzzles me, too, but I always try to show reverence (as Dean and Chris clearly do) when I come upon these vestiges of the past. Will any of us leave a sign of our existence I wonder.

[Dean Romig]

I sure hope so... that's why I write.





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[Chris Pope]

...old family cemeteries are numerous here in SC. I stop and read the headstones. What stories they tell! Many are bordered by large brick or stone walls and Hurricane Helene was not kind to them. The ones I find don't seem to get much maintenance. I suspect that they too will melt into the ground in the years to come.

[Dean Romig]

Here's the most neglected of the two cemeteries I mentioned. the ground rises on each little plot and falls between them. I have no idea who's responsibility it is to maintain them...
This is the Shattuck Cemetery not far from where the old homestead stood. even the fieldstone foundation is mostly below ground now, thanks to loggers, but there are still a couple of lilac there by the cellar hole. Half of the headstones and small markers here are for the little children.

Oh, by the way, there's great deer, grouse and woodcock hunting all around this spot.


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[Stan Hillis]

I was over in your "neck of the woods" yesterday traveling between Evans and Modoc for the first time since Helene, Chris. The timber devastation on some of those hillsides near the lake is staggering. I can imagine many old family cemeteries took a beating.

[Chris Pope]

I was over in your "neck of the woods" yesterday traveling between Evans and Modoc for the first time since Helene, Chris. The timber devastation on some of those hillsides near the lake is staggering. I can imagine many old family cemeteries took a beating.

Dean inspired me to get some photographs of local cemeteries. I will have to work on that. Yes we had areas hit hard. It was sporadic. Although any land sitting high seemed to get it worse. Was in Augusta this morning and there are still neighborhoods where wires are down and reconstruction/repairs have not yet begun. None as bad as north of us however. Occaisionally I'm down in Burke County. Happy to buy you lunch some day!

[Brett Trimble]

In this vein, here are a few pics you might enjoy, the first is an old truck we found near Eastland Utah while deer hunting, the second is an old Colt that a friend in Monticello Utah found while plowing a wheat field on his ranch. The third is “Newspaper Rock” near Monticello. Probably carved by the Navajos. I picked this panel because it includes an elk. They are still there, numerous 400in bulls are shot each year!

[Dean Romig]

A few lines from “A Year In The Maine Woods” in reference to the lost or forgotten family cemeteries of a hundred or more years ago.

The author mentions Houghton Brook… Houghton Brook runs merrily through my favorite Vermont hunting covers. I know this because he also mentions Anthony’s Diner in St. Johnsbury, a place I’ve often eaten breakfast.

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[Chris Pope]

Add to the abandoned vehicle stories this car near a phenomenal grouse covert. I suspect some members here might have even walked by this gem in the north country of NH. What is interesting is that it is nowhere near a paved road. It sits at least a quarter mile from the nearest forest road which is a good 12 miles from the nearest paved road. Would love to know the story behind it. Over the years it has slowly melted into the ground and provided shelter for critters. Did she break down and become abandoned? Stolen? Impatient logger's transportation? Young lovers out on a warm summer evening and ran out of gas??

[Dean Romig]

Looks like a 57 or 58 Mercury.





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[Chris Pope]

Looks like a 57 or 58 Mercury.





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After hunting that grouse covert one day I was headed out to civilization on the forest road and ran into a couple old time bird hunters having lunch on the tailgate. We stopped and chatted. I asked if they had ever bumped into an old car in the middle of the woods not far from there. They both looked down and shook their heads.
"AHAA!" I said. Then one of them looked up with a sheepish grin and said, "Damn, didn't know anyone else knew about that old car."
A hunting buddy said he thinks it's a '62 or '63 Dodge Seneca. I have no clue. Still wish I knew how it got there. Perhaps a skidder dragged it there during a logging operation?

[Garry L Gordon]

Add to the abandoned vehicle stories this car near a phenomenal grouse covert. I suspect some members here might have even walked by this gem in the north country of NH. What is interesting is that it is nowhere near a paved road. It sits at least a quarter mile from the nearest forest road which is a good 12 miles from the nearest paved road. Would love to know the story behind it. Over the years it has slowly melted into the ground and provided shelter for critters. Did she break down and become abandoned? Stolen? Impatient logger's transportation? Young lovers out on a warm summer evening and ran out of gas??

What a great photo!!! Send it to Garden and Gun.

[Dean Romig]

Hmmm… maybe it is a Dodge. Here’s a 58 Merc.


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[Chris Pope]

Hmmm… maybe it is a Dodge. Here’s a 58 Merc.


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Hopefully I will make the hunting grounds this October. And if I do I'll take a photo of the front/grill and post it. In the mean time I need to take some pictures of the cemeteries where I hunt quail and woodcock down here in SC.

[Chris Pope]

What a great photo!!! Send it to Garden and Gun.

I titled that photo "Striker Dog" because my old friend Charlie, who lived across the street when I was in my 30's, said he used to drive the wood roads of northern NH at night with his coon hound on the hood of his car. If they passed where a coon had crossed the road the hound would howl and jump off the hood after the coon. Old Charlie (he was in his 80's at the time) said they took a number of racoon that way and how he loved that dog. So when my buddy Dana and I found that car we just had to post "Gunny" on the roof in memory of Charlie. That's Dana in the driver's seat and he's holding one of his classic American doubles out the window- could be a Parker, a Fox or an Elsie- can't remember. He's the one that ruined me by getting me interested in Parkers.

[Clark McCombe]

The previous owner of Briermere was an uncommon farmer. Nearly a hundred and thirty years ago he began planting peaches and apples instead of potatoes and cauliflower.
Along the edge of the woodland he planted daffodils, azaleas, and rhododendrons. The deer have long since feasted on the azaleas and rhododendrons.

[Chris Pope]

Great photo and beautiful pup!

[Garry L Gordon]

The previous owner of Briermere was an uncommon farmer. Nearly a hundred and thirty years ago he began planting peaches and apples instead of potatoes and cauliflower.
Along the edge of the woodland he planted daffodils, azaleas, and rhododendrons. The deer have long since feasted on the azaleas and rhododendrons.

Clark, is this your farm?

[Clark McCombe]

:)Yes