Coal City opener gets good reviews
5/23/2005 5:47:34 PM
Coal City Opener
Coal City, WV – John Denver called it Almost Heaven and the tourism bureaus posted the slogan on every billboard in the state. Fifty years before that kids learned the 3-R’s in the mountain schools; Reading, Ritin’, and Route 21 to Cleveland and many of the hunters in the upper Midwest today trace their roots back to southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky.
When the southern highlanders settled the coalfields of West Virginia they brought their hounds along and the tree dog sport flourished here in spite of slim pickings in terms of game for the dogs to tree.
Typical of the region is the area around Coal City in Raleigh County, 35 miles from the Virginia line where hogback ridges and cold, swift streams make you work for every point on the scorecard. Hunters here are as tough as those hard rock hills but like the proverbial lump of coal, they’re diamonds in the rough, good folks to the man and dyed-in-the-wool cooners.
The good folks at the newly formed Coal River Coon Hunter’s Association, lead by Doug Hampton say they’re tired of the inflated scores coming in with other brands of hunts. They like the idea of the “cast winners only” format of the new AKC and have decided to make AKC run there in the West Virginia hills.
Last Saturday night they held their inaugural AKC hunt and drew two casts of dogs. There was another hunt up in Greeenbrier County that some of the boys attended but those that hunted Coal City enjoyed it. “It was bright and the dogs didn’t look the best on our cast but we had a good time,” said Hampton. “We would have liked to have had more dogs but we didn’t get this one advertised and we hope to do better with the next one,” he added. Corkey Crowder of Salem, Virginia came over and showed his Black and Tans in the show. “Thats a nice group of people at Coal City. You should encourage everyone to support them,”was the message he posted on the AKC online message forum the day after the show.
Here are the cast winners at Coal City. Each won money and one of them put a leg on its AKC Nite Hunt title by having plus points. Five cast wins with plus equals the coveted AKC Nite Champion title and you can bet these mountain coon hunters will be looking to have one or more of them before long.
Cast winner – Curry’s Ransom
English male
Owner – Jesse Curry
Handler – Mike Acord
300 plus
$30.00 earnings
One win toward AKC Nite Champion
Cast winner – Hampton’s Deep Creek Kate II
Treeing Walker female
Owner/handler – Doug Hampton
175 circle
$30.00 earnings
Bench Show Winners:
Corkey Crowder won Best Male and Best Female of Show with his Black and Tans. Names to follow.
AKC – Fun, Feasible, and Fair!
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