Misc: Wolf Tales, Homer Martin, Winn Parish, LA Submitted by Peggy Chandler Beaubouef, 2656 Hwy 1232, Winnfield, LA 71483 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** SOURCE: "the sassafras", Vol. 3, No. 1, 1984-85, published by the Calvin Folklore Society. (Permission to use granted submitter by Linda Dupree, sponsor.) WOLF TALES The time is just before sun-up. Soon the rising sun will spread fingers of warmth through the pearly sky. But suddenly the peace is shattered by a shrill blast from a dog-horn. Immediately there are answering howls wolves! The wolf hunt has begun. "The way we'd hunt 'em," said the late Mr. Homer Martin of Yankee Springs Community, "was we'd go out in the morning before daylight and blow an old coarse horn. Every wolf in the country would answer. You could course the closest howl or the one wherever you wanted to run, and take your dogs after daylight and put them on his trail." Mr. Homer used to hunt wolves all the time when he was a young man. The wolf hunts were a community project. Family and friends would get together. Everybody joined in. Farmers made war on the wolves because wolves killed their livestock. There was also a bounty on wolves, ten dollars a scalp. "You never hunted wolves at night because it's too dangerous. You couldn't see and you'd get yourself hurt and the dogs killed. The wolves were lots bigger than a German Shepherd dog, smart, and hard to track and kill. You had to have special dogs too. You raised the kind that worked best for you. We kept mongrels, you know, the kind that's just two or more different breeds all mixed together." Men on horseback followed the anxious dogs that were onto the scent of the timber wolf. "Sometimes we have tracked 'em all the way from Goldonna up to here." A wolf would run as long as it took to shake off his pursuers or be killed. Sometimes, however, the wolf would turn on the dogs and fight. "I've seen as many as three dogs in a pile. The wolves could just eat them up." The hunters then killed or captured the wolf. Mr. Homer related a wolf-hunting story: Me and a fellow by the name of Grif Dean was gonna make a drive. We went in there and blowed and the wolves answered, you know. We got up there and the hounds were getting pretty hot and I went to whooping with the dogs. Grif said, "What are you hollering for, Martin?" I said, "Make them wolves run, scare them and get them to run so they won't eat up the dogs." He said, "Aw, just hush. They won't eat up my dogs." So I told him, "Alright. If they don't eat up these dogs it's because they've tangled with wolves before and won't even go up there!" We kept going and directly we heard them hounds bawling. Here they came running back. The wolves had killed one and cut another one all up. The on that they didn't kill, he come back to us and he stayed right under the horses! I ran on up there and went to whooping and shot the gun a time or two got them to going. The dogs carried them on. We came on out by Yankee Springs. Grif was kind of put out with his dogs, so he said, "I'll bet that's a cougar." I laughed at him, "That's an old wolf, my Lord." "It can't be. These dogs have killed wolves!" "No," I said, "they've killed a few coyotes, maybe. But no dogs can kill these timber wolves." Well, we came on out through the woods and the dogs ran off. Grif kept talking about that panther-cougar, you know. After a while we looked out across the open woods and saw that old gray wolf coming. I said, "Hey, Grif. Yonder comes your cougar!" NOTE: The timber wolves are gone now, crowded out by civilization. Wolf hunts in the early dawn exist only in the memory of people who are growing old. Mr. Homer Martin died shortly after this interview, and we at "sassafras" feel a tremendous loss. But as long as the story of Homer Martin and his wolf tales is passed on from one to another, the hunts and the hunter will be with us forever. [The Calvin Folklore Society was a student organization of Calvin High School dedicated to the preservation of oral traditions -- the local folklore of the area. Articles in "the sassafras" were written by the students after research and interviews with older citizens of the area. Faculty sponsors were Linda Dupree and Steve Bartlett.]