Page 71 - barefoot-in-the-sand-remembering-the-waning-days-of-the-hopewell-community-(1998)-bruce-c-gragg

Barefoot In The Sand: Remembering the Waning Days of the Hopewell Community (1998) Bruce C. Gragg 67/123

SITE OF A WILDLIFE PARTY

I was sent on a mission to Mrs. Mills' one morning, when I reached
the corner of the field where the animal trail came out to the road I
noticed a spot in the road where a lot of tracks were in the middle
of the road. It was a large area and I could see it for quite a
distance away, and I was wondering what had happened even before I
reached the place. Most likely this was a large meeting, taking place
for a long time for there were a lot of tracks spread over the area.
Over the years in some of the Disney films I've seen, they will have
a meeting of various wildlife creatures such as this. These were the
tracks of such a meeting. There was no sign of any kind of a
struggle, no blood or hair or fur. The tracks were all made at the
same time, various tracks on top of each other, and they were made in
slightly damp sand so the impression they left was a good track. The
best I remember, there were bear, fox, deer, raccoons, wildcats,
possums and a couple of others I don’t remember. It would have been
an adventure to be sitting in a tree out of sight and down wind from
them to see what went on in a community wildlife Council Meeting.

At that time I could recognize the tracks of all the wildlife in our
area. I also knew how to look for signs different wildlife would
leave while traveling through an area. If they crossed a fence, look
for hair and how far up the fence they had to go to find a space
large enough for them to go through. That way you can judge the
approximate size of the critter. Most of the time you could identify
what you were tracking by looking at the color of the hair or fur
left behind. Of course you could always recognize and identify by the
tracks, if you could see a full imprint in the soil. I stood there
for a while trying to visualize what had really taken place,
imagining what went on and what kind of an agreement they were making
or maybe it was just a ’’neighborhood meeting." While relating this
to others, many said they had heard of this type thing before, but
had never actually seen signs of it themselves. It was not uncommon
to look either up or down the road and see some kind of wildlife
cross the road from one of the several trails that crossed the road.
The bear was the one we were most afraid of, and there were a lot of
them in the swamps near us. They were the only wild creature we had
to worry about doing harm to livestock roaming free in the local
woods. This was especially true if a sow or cow was pregnant. Mrs.
Mills lost a cow and we lost a sow, to the local bear population.

www.LakeCityHistory.com LCH-UUID: B98DC69E-ADC1-4EE7-8817-CA941114D897