Annewakee

Just a historical tidbit from a native.

I grew up in Douglas county. Back in the late 80's I helped a friend that did custom upholstery. We did some work for the property owner on the upstream, uphill side of the bridge and delivered all of it over a period of a couple of months. After about the 3rd trip or so, I inquired about the glimpses of water through the trees. He took us back to the lake. It was gorgeous, pristine, and slap full of grown alligators. He put them in the lake 10-15 years before. He harvested them for the hide and the meat. It also had a thriving cottonmouth population that had reached an age and size most snakes don't.

That spillway on the north side comes from that lake(I ca ll it that because it is fed and drained by a creek.). Back in the mid 90's, a gator turned up in that manicured pond just pass the bridge headed toward 92. It was a young adult...8 ft or so. Douglas county sheriff and the local DNR milked that gator for a week because it led all three local newscasts untill they finally hooked the poor thing on a big surf rig.

Thing is, there was no shortage of locals that had the means, skills, and tools to have had that gator on the truck within 24 hrs. There was no shortage of locals that was dying for the chance to catch that gator. I'm sure the sheriff was offered some fat checks for the priviledge. However, catching the gator was a clumsy, amatuer, effort that put the gator under stress way longer than it should. It took hours after the catchee viciously set the hook with multiple, violent upswings of the tree like surf rod trying to turn the gator....by the look on his face caught on camera when the gator turned and ran, he thought he did. He dang near got drug in.

It took hours to land the gator...who was pretty much dead by then.

It's the only time in my life I've been embarrased by the DCSD. Really it was the DNR's guy to blame....he made the call. Being DNR...he should've known the basics behind catching a gator. Short lines tied off to something anchored to land, built to hold a thrashing bull, the gator comes up, eats the bait, then sits peacefully enjoying it's meal. Here's the trick...While the gator is eating, one must sneak up close enough to get a kill shot before the gator see you or hears you which will result in an angry gator on a short rope in shallow water close to you...thrashing so violently getting a kill shot is not an option. The window for a kill shot on a gator...just like a pig, is about the size of a LL baseball on his head.

Anyway, the property owner was elderly back then. I'm sure he's gone. I bet he passed it down to relatives...the property still looks about the same.

Billy