Flashback Friday: Hunting Some Special Properties
Hunting Some Special Properties
Over the last 20 years, Pass It On – Outdoor Mentors has had the opportunity to hunt and fish some of the really unique properties in Kansas. We have hunted and fished on Ted Turner’s Z Bar Ranch southwest of Medicine Lodge. We’ve hunted deer on some of KDWP’s wildlife management areas. We’ve gotten access for some special youth waterfowl hunts at Cheyenne Bottoms. Private landowners across Kansas have opened their lands for us to hunt and fish.
Because over 95% of the land in Kansas is privately owned, our relationship with landowners is one of the keys to our being able to take kids hunting all across the state. And private landowners continue to step up and help us give kids opportunities to hunt and fish.
In ’02, I was visiting my brother in Medicine Lodge and his son’s Cub Scout pack was going to visit Ted Turner’s Z Bar Ranch that weekend. Of course, I wanted to tag along. I got to meet Keith Yearout, the ranch manager, and we talked about the Outdoor Mentoring program I was putting together for Kansas Big Brothers Big Sisters. Keith offered to have some kids come hunt the ranch for deer that September youth season and again in the December rifle season. At the time, the doe to buck ratio on the ranch was 11 to 1 and they needed to have the doe herd thinned out.
The Z Bar is about 42,000 acres in the Red Hills area of Kansas, an area that is truly unique in the state. They run several thousand head of bison on the ranch. We’ve seen antelope, prairie dogs, coyotes, mountain lions and of course, bison on the ranch. We got to ride on Ted’s hunting wagon, talk with his dog trainer and the guy who manages habitat on all of Turner’s ranches. And we had bison burgers and bison chili after the hunts!
Being as remote as it is, it gave the kids we were hunting with an opportunity to experience the great outdoors. One evening when we were heading home, well after dark, driving down country roads in the middle of the ranch, one of the boys asked, “Where are the streetlights?!” He had never spent any time outside of Wichita. Another afternoon, we were sitting in a blind, waiting for an opportunity to harvest a doe and the young boy we were with just couldn’t be quiet. He didn’t know how to whisper! After we got him to be quiet for a few minutes, he blurted out, “I can’t believe how quiet it is out here!” Living in Wichita, he had never heard quiet before.
We have had many opportunities to hunt and fish on the Z Bar and look forward to hunting and fishing there again soon!
If you have land that you would like to share with our program, give us call!
