Families pool land, resources to creat opportunities for hunting, recreation

Friday, February 2, 2007
Five Hayes County families have pooled their acres to offer hunting opportunities. Owners of the new "Blackwood Hunting and Recreation LLC" are (from left): Bev and Jerry Unger, Rita and Al Erickson, Vickie and Tom Gohl, Kate and Jerry Repass, Alan Messinger and guide Jeffrey Unger. Not shown is Pam Messinger. Below, a herd of deer gathers in the late afternoon in a pasture south of Hayes Center. (Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Daily Gazette)

HAYES CENTER -- For years, five Hayes County families dreamed of supplementing their farming and ranching operations, creating something that benefitted the community and, at the same time, encouraging young people to stay at home.

With the creation of "Blackwood Hunting and Recreation LLC," the five families are achieving those goals.

Blackwood Hunting and Recreation LLC offers hunting opportunities for pheasants, quail, turkey, deer and varmints on approximately 40,000 acres of privately-owned and leased Hayes County canyons, pastures and irrigated farmland.

Each of the families has a son who acts as guide on hunting expeditions.

Housing is available in a motel in Hayes Center, in a privately-owned home whose owner will rent three bedrooms and in a couple rural houses.

This would be a terrific opportunity for owners to develop bed-and-breakfast establishments in the large, classic homes of Hayes Center, said Beverly Unger, speaking for the group: Bev and her husband, Jerry; Jerry and Kate Repass, Tom and Vickie Gohl, Al and Rita Erickson and Alan and Pam Messinger.

"For years, we've talked about doing this," said Bev, who explained that the "Opening Doors" conference in Curtis in 2005 "gave us the nudge" to research funding for and the operation of a hunting business.

With assistance from the Nebraska Cooperative Dev-elopment Center in Holdrege (Jim Crandall) and the USDA Cooperative Development Center in Beatrice (Deb Yokum), the couples wrote their business plan.

NCD furnished a $6,000 (25 percent match) start-up grant to pay for meetings and the legal work to create an LLC (limited liability corporation).

A $35,000 Rural Devel-opment Value Added Grant will further the process, and allow the couple to promote Blackwood Hunting at sporting expos, such as the expo planned in Loveland, Colo.

A short-term goal is to build sporting clay and trap shooting ranges in Hayes Center. The group will make the ranges available to youngsters in 4-H and school shooting sports.

The group's long-term goal is to build a hunting lodge and offer memberships.

Blackwood Hunting hosted its first hunters during the 2006-2007 pheasant season.

The group starts advertisements soon for the turkey season.

More information on Blackwood Hunting and Recreation can be found at the group's Web site: www.blackwoodhunting.com

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