EDUCATION CORNER:
The National Bird Dog Museum
As I write this, it is only a few days away from the opening of
bird season in Wisconsin. If you want to see a tribute to our
wonderful breed, then you must make a visit to The National Bird
Dog Museum. It truly makes you proud to be owned by an English
Setter.
I have had the opportunity to visit The National Bird Dog
(burdawg) Museum, in Grand Junction, Tennessee, on more than a
couple of occasions. I grew up ‘down home, not a fur piece
down the road’ from the museum. I hunted behind burdawgs,
Setters. My first dog was a Setter; an English Setter named Lady.
Setters were English Setters. If there were any other setters,
then you called them by their names, Irish Setters, Gordon
Setters or Red & White Setters. Today at the National Bird
Dog Museum, when they refer to a Setter then they are only
talking about an English Setter. We hunted the bottoms of the
Wolf River, which borders the Ames Plantation (this where they
run the National’s in November every year). I’m sure
that I took my limit off the Ames Plantation more than once but
who knows because if it wasn’t fenced and it was fair game.
Those were the “good ol’days”. How I long once
again, to put on my boots, get my gun from the corner and walkout
the backdoor to ‘let the dogs out’ and have 18,000
acres to run dogs before school. It still is a long way from
Wisconsin to Tennessee & Mississippi to run dogs for the
weekend. Enough! Quit wandering and wondering!
West Tennessee has a rich bird dog heritage. Geographically, the
area is recognized as the birthplace of America’s pointing
dog field trials and as the home of the century-old National
Field Trial Championships. They were first held at the Ames
Plantation and today are still held at the Ames Plantation.
This is a first class museum operating on donations from sporting
dog people. Caption Lockee, retired navy, gives you a personal
tour through the museum. The museum has portraits and pictures of
every national winner since the first national bird dog trials.
The first national winner was an English Setter. There have been
numerous other times an English Setter has won since 1895. The
sire (Count Noble) of the first national winner has been
preserved and is on display in the museum in a natural mural
setting with Pennsylvania Quail. Count Noble was on display for
30 or 40 years at Carnegie Hall. When the display was dismantled,
it was donated to the museum. Count Noble lived from 1879-1890
and was campaigned as the top sporting dog (field trialing)
during his era.
The museum is a three-part tour and is still growing. It
highlights each national winner with a write-up and portrait.
Then, it has a Hall-of-Fame of sporting dog people (Capt. Lockee
is an inductee) included are a breed section and a trophy/gunroom
(not all-sporting dog breeds are recognized). It has an art
exhibition room; Eldridge Hardie just finished showing, A
Celebration of the Sporting Tradition. Originals from private
collections are on sale to the public with the proceeds going to
the foundation. On either side of the Art
Exhibition Room is an Education Room of all game animals native
to North America in natural habitat murals. This will be used to
help educate and preserve the memories of hunting in North
America with of course the emphasis placed on birdhunting. On the
other side is a full library of sporting dogs with an up-to-date
periodical section for bird hunting periodicals.
Outside the museum is a walking area with bronze statues of
hunters, their dogs and game birds depicting hunts in natural
settings with a restored Model A Dogtruck. It also has a
demonstration yard which is used for seminars held at the museum.
Birddog trainers like Sherry R. Elbert or Delmar Smith. Sherry
was sponsored by Wilson D’s (formally Dunn’s Catalog
Sporting Goods-Wilson Dunn started years ago). His original store
and now his present store is located in the old schoolhouse
behind the museum (wdsg@lunaweb.net). If you like the audio
portion of the tour at the museum by Capt. Lockee, then you will
love talking with and taking another tour through the schoolhouse
store with 82 year old Wilson Dunn. Wilson had one national
winner and bred two other winners, he'll tell ya, and I
won’t spoil it. You will hear all about it, you don’t
have a choice. He might even offer to take you on a tour of the
Ames Plantation, where the National Bird Dog Nationals are held
each year or take a ride through the plantation yourself. The
plantation is a working agri-site of the University of Tennessee.
The museum is located 50 miles east of Memphis on Hwy. 57, 30
miles south of Jackson or about 120 miles west of Nashville,
Tennessee. Admission is by donations only. It is a class
operation! I believe, it is a true representation of birdhunters.
I was raised bird hunting. Every hunt I ever went on, including
today, is always a true memorable time with class people. Bird
hunting is a gentleman’s sport. The museum is a wonderful
representation of us.
My Dad, uncle and cousin went with me and it was fun to sit in
the Trophy room and the Game room and listen to them reminisce
about hunting trips. If you do not have any stories to tell,
believe me, Capt. Lockee has plenty he will share. You will like
him. He loves being the tour guide and YES; he does know what he
is talking about. The navy was his job, birdhunting and
campaigning fieldtrial dogs was his life. Birddog Foundation,
Inc. 901-764-2058 or www.fielddog.com
Eddie Johnson
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Last modified: March 07, 2007