History of Old Men Outdoors

So, how did we come about hunting and eventually owning property near Beaver Ohio. Chuck
Young (our Brother in-law) and a friend of his named Danny J started hunting in the Beaver
Ohio area back in the late 60’s. If my memory serves me right Danny had a brother that owned
a small farm that the two started hunting. Sometime later in the early 70’s Danny’s brother sold
the farm and Chuck and Danny started looking for a new place to hunt.
The Search led them to Buck Hollow not far outside of Beaver Ohio. Buck Hollow contained
several hundreds of acres of public hunting area belonging to Meade paper corporation. In
addition to the public hunting opportunities they were also able to gain permission to hunt an
additional 1,000 acres of private property. A gentleman named Lottie Chandler was the
caretaker for this property.
When I (David) was 15 years old Chuck asked if I would like to go deer hunting with him. Phillip
and I had spent several prier years playing dog (running rabbits out of the brush) for Chuck (our
introduction to hunting). As we got older we were able to start carrying guns and actually
hunting game. I guess I graduated again (or he didn’t have anyone else to go with him) and in
1975 I went on my first deer hunting trip to Beaver Ohio with Chuck. Back then it was buck only
hunting. Eventually that would turn into a lottery system for doe’s and then an open season for
doe’s.
It kind of gets a little sketchy for me as far as time lines go for the next few years. I know I deer
hunted with Chuck until they moved to Missouri. Eventually I went into the Air Force and ended
up getting stationed at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. I deer hunted solo for a year spending
the nights in Beaver at a place that rented rooms. I ended up killing my first deer in Buck Hollow
with a muzzle loader in 1980. Sometime around then Jim Kletzli got stationed at Wright Patt.
We became friends and Jim started deer hunting with me in Buck hollow. Over the next 12
years Dad, Jim Dearing (Dad’s neighbor) Bob, and George started hunting with us in Buck
Hollow.
Lodging was fairly interesting especially early on. The first year I deer hunted with Chuck we
hunted out of his truck camper. I can’t remember why (I think his camper caught on fire and
burned up) but we moved on to his Dodge Ram Charger along with some stints in a tent. When
Jim K started hunting with me we used his van as home base. As the group got larger Mr.
Dearing brought his camper. Eventually we fixed up Dads old truck camper and used that in
addition to Mr. Dearing’s camper. Most of those years we camped in the pines on Meade
property. Later on we camped on the private land that Chuck had gotten permission to hunt and
we were able to get permission extended to the rest of us.
During all those years we would drive by this little White House on Ervin Hill Rd. It appeared to
be uninhabited except for every gun season a group of guys would use it for deer camp. Our
group couldn’t help but be a little envious (especially when we were hunting out of the back of a
Ram Charger). I was down bow hunting one weekend and there was an older gentleman out
working in his yard. I decided to stop and talk to him. His name was Charlie Wheeler and his
wife’s name was Flory. They owned the property next door to the little White House. During our
conversation I asked Charlie if he knew who owned the property next door and if he thought
they might be interested in selling it. As it turned out a relative owned it and he said they were
thinking of selling it.

After talking with Dad, Bob, and George we decided to contact the owner and have him come
show us the property. Turns out the property consisted of the house, barn, and 10 acres. We
did a little dickering and ended up buying the property. The four of us purchased it together in
1992. A few years later Dad gave his share of the property to myself, Bob, and George. Over
the years we added hunters to our group (Gene, Chris) as well as lost a few from passing away
or deciding to go else where to hunt. In 2011 we were fortunate enough to be able to add close
to 80 acres of additional land to our farm. This is the property that we exclusively hunt now.

This is just an overview of how we came to hunting this area of Ohio and ended up buying
property to hunt on. I’m sure some might remember things slightly different so it will be
interesting to see their perspectives. While typing this hundreds of memories came flooding
back with tons of side stories it was hard not to include. Perhaps over the next few years we’ll
be able to share a bunch of those stories if anyone is interested..