Black Mud Memories

Story and Photos by Russell A. Graves

“Thanks to the NWTF and private landowners, turkeys in Northeast Texas have gone from being nearly non-existent to having a season in about a half a decade…”

“Two brothers, bound by blood and a love of hunting, take their first Eastern Wild Turkeys less than a mile from their boyhood home and in the same haunt where, as young men, they camped, built forts, and prowled the blackland bottomlands in search of adventure.”

“Only ten minutes after hearing the first tom gobble, four big birds came creeping in through the wild oats and pungent bottomland onions that soaked up what little sunlight pierced through the hardwood canopy.  From thirty yards away, the first bird fell.”

“Twenty minutes later and less than one hundred yards from the initial set-up, the second bird fell - making personal history for the brothers who started hunting together in the early 1980’s. “

“At the mandatory county check-in, a crowd gathered instantly.  Not only were the birds the first two of the season brought in to the county check station, they were the first turkeys some of the onlookers had ever seen in the county.”

After a long congratulatory handshake and a longer embrace, William (left) and Russell knew that they had indeed shared one of the most special moments in their lives.  On the same 280 acres that they learned to hunt and fish and dream, they made the kind of memories that will burn deep into their conscious minds - black mud memories.