The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1911-03-12

In eaCh city OF the Us dlOeHt HIaH
will direct the stock subscriptions.
some OF the men tentatively made To-
cal agents are Sam II. Harris for Ok
lahoma City: former Justice Thomas
owen, OF Muskogee; Fred Barde, Ok
lahoma correspondent OF the Kansas
City Star and Times, dean of the Ok
lahoma newswriters, for Guthrie;
President pro TEN ]. Elmer Thomas,
of the state senate, for Lawton.
All OF these men are field sports
men who have hunted Oklahoma game
from one end of the state to another,
and are citizens of influence in their
respective towns. To the list will be
added every town OF importance in
the state. The object is not to get
as much stock subscriptions as possl-
BILE, for that will be easy, but to get
as many prominent men in the state
actively interested in the preservation
OF Oklahoma game.
Harris of Oklahoma City, Is a mem-
ber of the state code commission;
state attorney for the Pioneer Tele-
phone company, and is one of the au-
thors OF the present game laws pre-
scribing hunters licenses and protect
ing game to greater or less extent.
The preserve will be located in Nc
Curtain county, probably between Lit
tie river and Glover creek, right m
the heart of the Choctaw hills. 1t is.
the intention to get about $4,000 acres,
though the price of the land will in
fuence the size of the preserve more
or less Mr.. Graham is now in cor
respondence with the department of
the interior relative to price and title.
The lands tentatively selected are
not allotted TO Indians, but are part
of the proposed three-million- tim
ber and watershed preserve which
Secretary Hitchcock set aside several
years ago. Much of the land was ap.
praised at from % cents to 81 per
acre, and it is hoped to get it at as
near the appraised price as possible.
If the average price is less than ex-
pected the preserve will be larger.
The idea is to spend 100000 to $4,000
for land alone.
Purpose Two Fold.
The purpose of the preserve Is two
fold; to afford a retreat for the wild
game of the Choctaw hills now so
rapidly being exterminated; and to
afford a private hunting ground for
the stockholders. It is well watered
with one river and several creeks;
contains a number of springs and has
location where an inexpensive dam
would back up a 200-acre lake that
would make an ideal pond for black
bass, the game fish of Oklahoma.
1t is also hoped that the state may
be induced to appropriate for a state
game preserve also, at some future
legislature, in the same locality, and
it is believed that two large preserves
right in the heart of the game coun-
| try would have an educating effect
upon the hunters and help protect the
game of the surrounding country.
| The private preserve will ultimately
be well equipped with hunters bunga-
| lows, and it is highly probable that
| it will be strongly fenced, both with
view of keeping poachers off and
keeping the game in.
The preserve will be well stocked
with quail, the greatest Oklahoma
shooting, and with pheasants, which
thrive we'll in Oklahoma. Wild tur-
key, which are still numerous, will be
! assiduously cultivated also. 1t is
hardly possible to have many deer for
shooting in even such a large pre-
serve as this, and it is probable that
II will be a law of the preserve that
they must not be molested. Black
bear. mountain cats and wolves will
be more or less protected also, unless
they make too much havoc among the
small game and birds.
The Choctaw hills hunting country
is largely composed of Pushmataha,
McCurtain, Leflore. Latimer and Choc-
taw counties. 1t is roughly speaking,
sixty miles square, the better por
tion of it, though deer wolves, a few
bear many turkeys and fox are found
for a radius of fully fifty miles around
The country is rough and broken
with the small mountains that come
down from the Ozarks. Many streams
head therein including Little river,
the Kiamichi and Mountain Fork. and
many large creeks 1t is we'll tim
bered, and in the southern end much
pine timber grows.
The country is so wild and rough
that settlements are far between and
farms not numerous. II is the home
of some OF the full-blood Choctaws,
Il. l.. L.