The Wilderness Warrior - Douglas Brinkley [129]
Among the Boone and Crockett Club’s original objectives, as stipulated in article 3 of its bylaws, were (1) to promote “manly sport with the rifle” (2) to promote “travel and exploration in the wild and unknown, or but partially known portions of the country” (3) to “work for the preservation of the large game of this country, and so far as possible to further legislation for that purpose, and to assist in enforcing the existing laws” (4) to “promote inquiry into and to record observations on the habits and natural history of various wild animals” and (5) to “bring about among the members interchange of opinion and ideas on hunting, travel and exploration.”6 Bylaw 3 is the area where the club eventually succeeded beyond even Roosevelt’s wildest hopes.
The club’s members were indeed an aristocratic clique, pampered but not easily fatigued. Their first meetings were relaxed, as if the members were sitting around the lounge-library of the country manor hotel. Roosevelt served as a moderator, keeping the conversation on track, reminding the wildlife preservation gospelers to be pragmatic. In short order they came up with a set of reasonable rules, none more important than their own membership requirements. To be eligible, a hunter had to have successfully shot at least three varieties of North American big game with a rifle. Once inducted, members were sworn to maintain a strict code of honor—in particular, never lying about a kill and always behaving as serious naturalists. Frontier values, the founders agreed, built character and were to be encouraged. On a hunt, nobody was allowed to pull rank or claim privileges because of his social station—members were absolute equals when tramping. As a covenant all members had to be determined to save big game for future generations of Americans to enjoy. Although it wasn’t their main priority, club members all seemed to mourn the yearly loss of the “heritage” of American hunting.
Like membership in Skull and Bones or Porcellian, the very act of going on a hunting trip with a fellow club member created a lifelong bond of fellowship; after all, even Natty Bumppo seldom hiked in the Adirondacks or Green Mountains without Uncas or Chingachgook guides.7 A general feeling among the members was that research on wildlife—habits, traits, coloration—could never be overdone. To all of the men, America without big game would be like an oak or sycamore tree that never had leaves: totally unacceptable. By saving wild creatures, the Boone and Crockett Club was saving America’s outdoors heritage. Some members were given distinguished Native American names such as Pappago, Little Brave, and Running Waters.8
On February 29, 1888, the founders drafted a constitution. The club has been described as the “first-ever organization to be formed with the explicit purpose of affecting national legislation on the environment.”9 Its initial goal for wildlife conservation was to add enforcement provisions to the laws governing Yellowstone National Park. When Congress had established America’s first national park