The Skunk Hunt

The Skunk Hunt

Your interest in my grandfather's fur business brings back memories. No one has been more influential in my life than my Grandpa Sartin. My grandfather operated the fur business in Cedar Vale in the 20's, 30's, and early 40's. My father then took over the business and operated it until around 50-51.

Grandpa was raised on a farm and farmed himself in the early years. Most farmers in the early 1900's supplemented their income by hunting and trapping furs, there are a few that still do. In those days traps were very expensive, so they didn't have many, they hunted at night with dogs. Grandpa was big on hunting skunks because they could be dug out of a den and sometimes you would get several. He sold his furs to a traveling buyer that came through and bought all the farmers furs. Grandpa knew this man was making money on his furs, so he researched a national fur buyer by the name of Moss and Stephen in St. Louis, Missouri. He wrote then and inquired about a price list. He found that the buyer was making a great deal of money on the local furs. Grandpa told his neighbors he would buy their furs and give them more money than the fur buyer, word got around and he was soon buying furs from a big part of the

Cedar Vale area. He realized that his small business was doing so well that he needed a bigger building to skin and stretch the furs. He bought half a city block in Cedar Vale, including a house (right across the street from the hospital) and moved to town. I'm unsure, but believe the building he used for the fur house (across from the hotel) was already in existence. Each year his business grew by his innovation in marketing and hard work. I admire my grandpa for being so successful with only an 8th grade education and no one to teach him about business. One of his marketing techniques was sending the county clerk of each county a letter including a $5 bill asking if they would give him a list of the farmers in that county, he did this in nearly all the counties in the state of Kansas. He would then send these families a price list of what he paid for furs. He would take the train to areas as far as southern Oklahoma and set up a fur buying station for the weekend. He would ship furs out of Cedar Vale by the train car load in his most prosperous time. He later sold to other companies besides Moss and Stephen, other companies paid greater prices for various furs. Since the fur business just lasted about 4 months of the year he went into the service station business. I believe he built the service station on the corner of his property and he or my dad built the one Freddie Marshall operated for many years. He owned 2 stations in Ark City and 2 in Winfield, he partnered with Wes Drennen in Winfield.

I spent Christmas vacations and weekends with my grandpa and grandma on the farm south of Elgin, KS. In the evening there was no T.V. and limited electricity, I was told a mountain of stories. During the day we hunted and trapped furs. He taught me how to hunt for a skunk den, among other things. They usually build a den under a rock on the south or east side of a hill, unless is is a very deep canyon, then it might be on either side, the yard around the den would be very clean, the grass and leaves raked. I thought this was because they were good house keepers, but it was actually because they used the leaves and grass for bedding in their den. A female skunk and her brood would live together in the den along with 1 male. Other male skunks that didn't have a girl friend would live alone in a bachelor den, his yard wasn't as neat. When I was 11 or 12 and just full of this information, I suggested a skunk hunt to my fishing buddy Wilson Wesbrook, he was always game for new adventures. Armed with lots of enthusiasm, but no experience, we set out for Lookout Mountain on our bikes with a burlap bag and my 2 friendly dogs. On the back side of the mountain we found a bachelor den. My grandpa told me that you could take a long green stick with a fork on the end, push it in the den, when you feel the skunk you start twisting and his fur entangles in the fork enough that you can pull him out. Since we didn't have anything to kill the skunk with, I suggested dropping a big rock on him when he was pulled out of the den. Wilson wanted to pull the skunk out; he was lying on his stomach facing the den entrance, a dog on either side of him. I was standing on top of the den with a large rock ready to drop. Just as he brought the skunk to the entrance my dogs unexpectedly rushed in and grabbed the skunk. I couldn't drop the rock on my dogs! The skunk being attacked by the dogs defended himself as only a skunk can, unfortunately Wilson was bringing him out tail first and he was right in the line of fire. The dog's eyes burned and so did Wilson's. We skinned the skunk, put it in the burlap bag, tied it to the handle bars and set out for town. The scent and grease saturated the spokes and front wheel. They could smell us coming! Wilson and I shared $1.65; we were docked because we cut a hole in the hide. That was the end of Wilson's skunk hunting career because even after that tidy profit, his mother informed him he was not to go skunk hunting again. My mother was accustomed to the smell, so it was just another day for her. Ron Sartin