Historic Hood River
Hunting by Rail
10-15-2013
Notes
Here’s one for the hunters at HHR. Alva Day and friends are hunting in eastern Oregon with a special rail car. They apparently knew how to avoid other rail traffic, or maybe this is an abandoned logging spur. The image was captured in November 1941.
l.e.
That should be a Fun Friday photo because I bet those guys are having fun.
What powers the car?
The flatbed car must be for hauling the deer.
Arlen Sheldrake
Neat photo. Power is probably a small gasoline engine in the "speeder". These were standard equipment on railroads for getting crews to work sites, inspecting track, etc. Many are currently owned by private individuals who belong to groups who get permission from mostly short line railroads to take trips. Todays railroads mostly use hy-rail vehicles, trucks and pickups that have both rubber and steel wheels.
longshot
What does the guy with his back to the camera have sticking out from under his shirt tail?
Arthur
longshot, unfortunately he was moving so I can’t get any more detail. Perhaps it’s the world’s first fanny pack?
Buzz
Probably a small canteen containing a little "hair of the dog." Where I grew up on the coast every logging outfit and sawmill shut down for the first week of hunting season and all the men went to eastern Oregon to hunt deer. Didn’t understand that until later, as the coast was full of deer. And most people had fresh venison year around. Learned as I grew up that the hunt was more about "doing the man thing" and having a party. The hunt was talked about and rehashed for 51 weeks a year, and then they were off to the hunt. Very important tradition in the forties.
AndrewB
Now that’s good livin!
Dedilee
Another reason all those hunters came east to hunt is the coast deer are like rabbits they’re so little. Hardly worth shooting. Mule deer provide at least twice as much meat.
spinsur
And the coast is brushy and rainy. East side is a vacation from working in the weather!
l.e.
Buzz pretty well describes it. Coast deer were for eating. East of the mountains was something you planned for all year.
I wonder how many days it has been since they shaved.
That might be the remnants of a log fence on the left hand side.
Buzz
Agree Dedilee that mule deer were much bigger and provided bragging rights for the hunter who bagged the biggest one. But the meat was tougher. And for a family of any size there was only enough meat for a few months and the rest of the year we lived on coast deer. Jerky wasn’t as tough either.
Jeffrey Bryant
Would it be possible to provide a closer view of the 2nd man on the left, the one with the gun facing us? It could be my grandfather, Harold Bryant, but I can’t tell for sure.
Charlott
Well, I always heard that east of the mountains if you went to the right places the deer were better, as they had been in the grain fields munching…….
Buzz
Deer and elk hunting trips to eastern Oregon were not about the meat. That was one of the excuses or rationales used to have some fun, but to take a week off from work and expenses involved, you could have driven into town and filled up the back of your pickup with t-bone steaks.