Memories of the Sagebrush Pheasants

By Tony Petres

South Dakotans may be vaguely familiar with the stocking and distribution of Chinese ring neck pheasants in the first two decades of the 20th century in South Dakota. While the original birds were stocked in Spink and the James River counties, eventually bird stocking spread westward until every county in the state had received either private stocking or those conducted by the SD Game, Fish, and Parks Department. In far western Butte and Lawrence counties the state managers looked at areas where at least some plant-based agriculture existed, and records show that the areas drained by the Redwater and Belle Fourche Rivers were really the only terrain that might sustain the non-native birds. According to written accounts, additional private stockings were carried out by individuals from Deadwood and Spearfish. The ring-necked pheasants had arrived in locales far west of the first their first appearance east river country.

Beginnings

In 1911, one of the nation’s first Bureau of Reclamation projects, on the Belle Fourche River in Butte County South Dakota was completed. At the time the Belle Fourche Dam was the largest earthen dam in the world and the center piece of the project’s engineering. The dam closing had allowed the creation of an irrigation-controlled agricultural district that allowed land-owners to grow crops that would otherwise never survive the dry land of Butte County. The Bell Fourche Irrigation District blossomed and crops such as wheat, corn, oats and eventually sugar beets began to thrive in the areas drained by the numerous irrigation canals and Belle Fourche River. When pheasants were eventually released in the district in the late teens, populations exploded. By 1924–1940, figures published by the state indicate that Butte County and a small handful of west river counties had enough birds to allow for an annual pheasant season.

By the end of WW2, counties extending as far west as Jackson County also held annual bird seasons. Estimates of bird populations in the Butte County in the 1930–40 ranged from approximately 400 to 600 hundred thousand birds in years when the total statewide population ranged from 14 to 18 million birds. While the fall seasons were much shorter than elsewhere in SD, the daily bag of four hens gives one the idea of the abundance of those days. According to records the Butte County, bird take in the years of 1944–45 saw thousands of birds harvested.

Though 1950’s saw populations that were somewhat below the ‘glory years of SD pheasant hunting’ which had occurred during the WW2 years, they nonetheless were excellent, probably due to the national land set aside program known as Soil Bank. With abundant nesting and roosting cover provided by this program, the birds continued to flourish statewide. But unknown to folks who lived and farmed in the Belle Fourche District, a change was coming.

The 1960’s, Hard Winters and Changing Land Use in the Irrigation District

1964 was the year that began a series of major declines in the state bird populations. These declines directly related to both the elimination of the Eisenhower era of the Soil Bank Program and a series of extremely tough winters. By the 1970’s the destructive winters of the previous decade were largely replaced by dry to drought conditions that by some measures equaled or exceeded the 1930’s. The daily bird limit in 1975 was reduced to two for the first time in over 50 years. In short, conditions in the Belle Fourche irrigation district mirrored those of the rest of the state and bird populations in Butte County also crashed to the point where wild pheasants practically disappeared from the landscape. Additionally, the wild bird population that had existed in proximity to the Redwater River in Lawrence County had virtually disappeared.

Randy Vallery’s Vision

Into this story came Randall “Randy” Vallery, a rancher/farmer whose family had homestead acreage just south of Nisland back in 1889. As a youngster growing into his teen years in the early 1960’s Randy had witnessed large bird numbers and their eventual crash in the decade of the late 1960-1970, and he longed for the return of birds that added so much to his formative years growing up on the Vallery Ranch.

He attended SDSU and returned to the Nisland area in 1972 and set his sights on farming and ranching, but his interests also included studying the rise and fall of the pheasants of the irrigation district. By the early 1980’s Randy had immersed himself in the science of raising pheasants on the same property that had once produced abundant wild roosters. As part of this research, he began looking seriously at establishing a huntable habitat on the ranch acres. The area regularly still produced good populations of sharptailed grouse, but Randy’s dreams centered on creating a productive area where stocked pheasants could co-mingle with the few remaining wild ringnecks.

But a pheasant reemergence in the district wasn’t Randy’s only motivation. The early 1980’s were hard times for farmers and ranchers, with bank foreclosures occurring throughout the northern plains. Randy convinced his father/partner Thorton Vallery to try something new; namely operating a hunting preserve. The elder Vallery was skeptical at the beginning, and the two occasionally butted heads over land use issues. With time Thorton became a believer and an integral part of the operation. The 1,280 acres of the Vallery Ranch opened to sportsmen on September 1, 1986.

The High Plains Game Ranch is Born and Flourishes

The Vallery ranch was located less than an hour from Rapid City-Black Hills, and provided that population’s bird hunters a welcome relief from the usual three to six-hour drive to hunt on the eastern or central parts of the state.

Vallery’s Ranch was also a mid-point for big game hunters coming from Wyoming and Montana. Many of those folks were happy to have a crack at SD pheasants while driving through on I-90 or US 212 on their way to a big game hunt farther west.

The High Plains Game Ranch in 1993 constructed a hunting lodge providing comfortable sleeping accommodations, cozy gathering space complete with wood stove, game taxidermy and wildlife art adorning the walls. Randy’s wife, Rhonda, always stocked the kitchen with tasty meals and goodies for the hunting guests.

By the end of the 1980’s, the ranch was well on its way to achieving Randy’s goal of attracting Black Hills area hunters but also established a vast, non-resident clientele. Hunters from all 50 states, and international guests from Canadian, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia were counted among the hunters at Vallery’s.

Times Change Once Again

South Dakota’s state-wide pheasant population began to swell due to CRP in the mid 1980’s and into the 2000’s (with census surveys showing bird numbers in the 12 million area in 2007).

Many new hunting operations, in addition to heavily used public areas across the state, began to increase hunting competition for Randy’s operation. But because of the Vallery’s homestyle catering to bird hunters from virtually every compass heading, the ranches’ business only continued to grow. The Vallery’s saw things that could only have occurred with an extremely loyal and admiring clientele. Randy describes numerous “first hunts” with young people taking their first steps as licensed bird hunters. Entire families, with the guidance of Randy and his faithful Labrador Retrievers, created lifetime memories.

Then there were, at the other end of life’s spectrum, the last hunts taken with severely ill individuals, who chose the Vallery Ranch as the location of their last days in the field. During many years, even marriage proposals were worked into a days’ hunt. None of these watershed events would take place unless Randy’s hunters didn’t love the ranch and the Vallery’s. Many of the hunters certainly felt the ranch to be a second home, with wonderful people all wrapped up in South Dakota traditions.

In 2014, the Vallery’s began to take stock of what the hard work had brought them. 2016 would see the 30th anniversary of the ranch. Although Randy had relied on help from close friends and neighbors to guide hunting guests, there were no heirs to take over the operation. His daughter Cody, who enjoyed the outdoors from hunting deer, antelope, and game birds was already gone from the homestead and busy with her life. It was decision time for Randy and Rhonda, and the difficult choice that surfaced was the realization that the High Plains Game Ranch would have to be stood down. On January 7, 2018 the ranch saw

its last hunt and the books were closed on 32 years of providing a remarkable SD pheasant hunting experience to thousands of hunters, a good many of whom saw Randy’s ranch as their own hunting nirvana, and the Vallery’s as best friends . They would be missed.

As a longtime friend and frequent hunter at the High Plains Game Ranch, I would be among the host of bird hunters heartbroken at its passing. Having hunted the ranch over a hundred times in it’s years of operation, I felt what many ohers undoubtedly did, namely that the ranch was my own to explore; particularly enjoyable on cool October days with the cottonwoods and aspens changing color on the Belle Fouche River banks.

I asked Randy for his thoughts on what he and his family had created in the 3 decades plus of running a hunting farm. He said that while the constant demands of running the operation were indeed demanding, the friendships that stretched literally world-wide were what we missed the most. Then there were the dogs.

There are lots of dog ashes scattered about the ranch. Some of Randy’s best Labradors like Dusty (the little chocolate which would periscope in thick cover always maintaining eye contact with the bird hunters) are there, as are a couple of my own Vizslas. Many guests have brought remains to the place where the hunters and their dogs were the happiest. For everyone who were guests at the ranch and who hunted rooster pheasants in the gold corn with the northern Black Hills as a backdrop, the memories of the sage brush pheasants are held like gold.