A-Hunting We Will Go!

 

For a large number of Ohioans, September is the start of something big. No, it’s not football, although that’s pretty big. It’s not fall, although we love that, too. It’s hunting season! In every Ohio county, starting this month, hunters can be found, stalking corn fields, perched in tree stands, canoeing through rivers and reservoirs or sitting behind blinds, searching for food for the freezer, a trophy for the wall, or a great story to tell their friends.

Reflecting the strong role that hunting plays in Ohio’s culture, Ohio Memory features a number of items related to this long-standing tradition. For those who are ready to grab their crossbow (or rifle or muzzleloader), rules, date ranges, and bag limits for sought-after species can be found in the Hunting & Trapping Regulations pamphlet produced by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources each year. Want to know how many antler-less deer you can take in Wyandot County (or any other Ohio county) with your bow and arrow? You can find out here. You can also obtain sunrise and sunset tables (crucial for determining when to begin and end your hunt), and find out how to contact a wildlife officer should you witness poaching or other illegal behavior.

If you’re more interested hunting for artifacts than sitting in a tree stand, or if you love hunting and want to learn more about its place in Ohio’s history, you can always view images of hunting tools and pictures from the comfort of your own home. You’ll find pictures of famous hunters, such as Zane Grey and Annie Oakley, and not-so-famous ones, such as this oneseen at rightof a boy, his gun and his hunting dog. You’ll find artistic representations of hunts, as well, including Currier and Ives’ “October Afternoon” and a print depicting the Great Hinckley Hunt of 1818 (seen above), in which residents of Hinckley, Ohio, killed three hundred deer, seventeen wolves, twenty-one bears, and countless small game after deciding that wildlife was a threat to their safety and their crops. You can also see images of tools used by Ohio’s earliest hunters, such as this spear blade used in the Archaic period (6,000 BC to 1,000 BC) and projectile points from various cultures and periods.

There is no end to hunting season in Ohio Memory. Why not come take a look? You never know what you’ll catch!

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Thank you to Shannon Kupfer, Digital/Tangible Media Cataloger at theState Library of Ohio, for this week’s post!