Lecture: “Ducks on the Menu — Stories from Texas Market Hunting”

In 1867, the Galveston Daily News gushed:“Texas is still the promised land. Our market is supplied with great numbers of wild geese at 50 cents, wild ducks at 50 cents a brace. All these things are the substantials on which we live.” Less than a decade later, the men who supplied those local markets – market hunters – saw their fledgling occupation grow into a state, national, and even global enterprise.

This is the story that Rob Sawyer tells in his book Texas Market Hunting: Stories of Waterfowl, Game Laws, and Outlaws, which chronicles not just Texas’ market hunting history, but also the state’s first conservationists and game laws, and the showdown that followed between early game wardens and outlaw market hunters. Published by A&M University Press, Texas Market Hunting is due out in late August. This is Rob’s second book, following last year’s  A Hundred Years of Texas Waterfowl Hunting: The Decoys, Guides, Clubs, and Places, 1870s to 1970s.

Join us on Thursday, August 14th, as Sawyer presents his lecture on waterfowl hunting along the Texas gulf coast.

As always, this lecture is free and open to the public. It begins at 6:30 pm, with doors opening at 6 o’clock. Call (409) 832-1906 for more information.