Photo from the Sandi Sundquist collection Local hunters show off their quarry.

ESCANABA — Back in the day… snow drifted deep in Delta County by the middle of February.

Back in the day… hunters harvested snowshoe hares by the dozens in the snowy backwoods.

Back in the day… Yoopers gathered for rabbit feeds and mid-winter socialization.

Back in the day… many a beagle sang its way through a cedar swamp and happy hunters went home with hares for the stew pot.

Wintertime in Upper Michigan is home to several traditional winter sports like ice fishing, dog sledding, skiing, snowshoeing and rabbit (hare) hunting.

It was almost a given, back a couple of decades ago, that by February Gichi-Biboon (great winter) or Heikki-Lunta (the Finnish snow god) would have blessed our peninsula with much snow and ice.

Cabin fever could be a problem, but not for the average Yooper. The hardy folks of the North Woods have always known how to have outdoor fun in the winter and how to survive the long, cold, bleak months.

Years ago, on wintry weekends it was common for a bunch of guys and a few gals to strap on snowshoes, grab a shotgun or two, and take the beagles out to the back forty for some hunting.

The music that the little hounds made as they chased the large white hares is permanently recorded in the humans’ brains. It was a happy song.

Seeing the action of beagles easily plowing their way through three feet of snow while perfectly pursuing a rabbit is something never forgotten.

And then, suddenly the white ghost appears between the tree trunks like a puff of fluff with a black jelly-bean eye. Whether the hare was shot or not, the day always ended as a wonderful adventure filled with great exercise.

My dad, uncles and brothers used to hunt rabbits and hares. They provided another meal choice with eight or more people around the table. It was a lot of work, but I remember how well my mother prepared the meat in her big roaster in the oven.

It was the “fast food” of the olden days. It was an organic, low-fat meal usually mixed with good hunting story conversations.

Back in the day, many families had a dog and went rabbit hunting. In our area folks often recall Mr. Charlie Gafner and his fine beagle dogs and the many rabbit feeds they put on years ago.

My dad told stories of how he’d go with his Gladstone neighbor who had hounds and crossed the ice on the Bay to hunt hares in Stonington all day.

My family still owns a few beagles today and we were talking about them at a recent doctor’s visit. One of the young nurses began to recall the days when her dad (Joe Picard) and his buddies had so much fun hunting with beagles. She even came up with a classic photo of the “old gang.” If any of you readers can identify any of the hunters in the photo, that would be so helpful. Please notify the Daily Press.

Today the snowshoe hare is getting very scarce in the southern U.P. The lack of snow cover and an over abundance of predators has really to a damper on this sport.

But it is still a very good idea to put your boots on and make some tracks in the snow this weekend. The U.P. 200 sled dog race is almost ready to begin.

Dress warmly, have fun and make a memory.

——

Karen (Rose) Wils is a lifelong north Escanaba resident. Her folksy columns appear weekly in Lifestyles.