- ANNOUNCER: The Texas Parks and Wildlife Television Series is supported in part by Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation -- conserving the wild things and wild places of Texas, thanks to members across the state.

Additional funding is provided by Toyota.

Your local Toyota dealers are proud to support outdoor recreation and conservation in Texas.

Toyota -- Let's Go Places.

- NARRATOR: Coming up on Texas Parks & Wildlife... - Deer hunting is part of our culture number one, and number two it's part of our economy.

- Got your receipt and your hunting license, thank you very much.

- Appreciate it.

- We watch the cattle.

We watch the goats.

We look for the deer.

It's hard to pick one thing because I love it all.

- Beautiful day.

Quality time like this is pretty special.

[theme music] ♪ ♪ - NARRATOR: Texas Parks and Wildlife, a television series for all outdoors.

[birds chirp, traffic] [dramatic music] - I'm Steven Bridges.

I'm fifth generation Texas newspaper owner.

The men in my family have been running newspapers for the last 150 years.

There we are.

I own the Goldthwaite Eagle Newspaper here in Goldthwaite, Texas, in Mills County... right on the edge of the Hill Country.

It's the county seat.

A town of about 1,800 people.

It's just a little bit like Mayberry.

The newspaper, it's still the only place you can read about small town stuff.

The kids and the old people and the deer hunting and the Friday night football.

I tell people that we're telling the history of Mills County one week at a time.

Agriculture is probably our largest industry, followed by deer hunting.

Starting mid-week, we start seeing the trailers coming in.

When opening day hits, it's camouflage everywhere.

We're happy to see the green of the camo because it brings the green dollars.

[bell rings] - Twenty-five even.

My name is Rodney Spies.

Thanks very much, bud.

- Thank you, I appreciate it.

- RODNEY: Our store is called Mills County General Store.

Not only are we an Ace Hardware store.

Is it a 177 caliber?

But we also sell a lot of hunting supplies.

I bet it is.

Anything a hunter needs.

You want to sign up for the Big Buck Contest?

- Yes.

- That's what I thought.

They come in early to sign up for a Big Buck Contest, because everybody wants to shoot the big one.

- STEVEN: It's just an amazing amount of economic stimulus that happens.

- CLERK: Got your receipt and your hunting license.

Thank you very much.

- CUSTOMER: Appreciate it.

- RODNEY: I just got a shipment of ammo on a backorder than should have been here yesterday, so I've got to get this out.

We buy approximately 70% more than we normally do when we're gearing up for opening deer season weekend.

It's quite a chunk of change.

Little stuff.

Little stuff makes the difference.

[reflective music] - This is my granddad, Darrell Head, and this is my son Rhyder Dean.

- Yesterday was my birthday; 91 years old.

- LINDSEY: We're going to sight in my rifle and make sure we're hitting the right spot on the target.

[gun shot] You see it?

- RHYDER: This it right here?

- LINDSEY: Mm-hm.

A little high and to the right.

- DARRELL: That's a Remington Mohawk 222.

They're a fine little gun.

That thing's pretty old.

They quit making them a good many years ago.

- RHYDER: I see the bullseye.

- LINDSEY: Do you?

It's been Old Faithful for me.

I've been shooting it since I started hunting.

- DARRELL: It's about right, right there.

[gun shots] - LINDSEY: Last two.

Right there.

You see it?

- RHYDER: Yeah.

- I think that's close, close enough to go deer hunting with.

[Lindsey laughs] - We're getting ready to make a little breakfast sausage for a man.

A lot of times I stay here till sometime nine or ten o'clock at night, seven days a week, four months straight, until season's over.

Well, last year I cut the end plumb off that one and it growed back.

I don't see how it did, but it did.

You're gonna be on TV right here.

- I'm gonna... - He got summer sausage last year and he liked our jerky.

- Damn right I do.

[laughs] But this year, you're going to make a little bigger jerky.

- Okay.

Bigger chunks.

- Yeah.

- You got it.

When deer season hits, it's good for all the local businesses.

I mean, everybody.

[soothing music] ♪ ♪ - WARREN BLESH: This part of Texas was really known for its hair goats, Angora goats.

And, it was probably the hair goat capitol of the world at one time.

This was a central buying point where ranchers from all over could bring their wool and sell it.

And that changed from the hair goat to the demand for meat goats.

[goats bleating] What's been happening, probably started around 2000, with kind of a land boom, as you call it in the Hill Country when prices soared from 600 an acre to over 3,000 today, is, the people that you're seeing buying this land are very much conservation-minded and they're taking over-grazed land and turning it into restored pastures, new lakes, new ponds.

I think that's a theme you're seeing with the land shift is they're making it even better than it was when they found it, and more like it was, probably, originally back in the 1900s.

- MIKE MILLER: I'll bet you've seen things change around Mills County.

I bet hunting has gotten bigger and bigger over the years.

- Yes, it definitely has.

It's busy.

Gosh, it's busy.

Every year it seems like more and more hunters come in.

- MIKE: There's a big wildlife management association in this part of Mills County.

It's a cooperative effort between land owners.

They're actually managing this wildlife resource together.

They look at it as a group effort rather than trying to go about management on their own.

Simms Creek specifically, has close to 80 properties represented now and nearly 55,000 acres.

So that's pretty powerful.

Now, when you have that kind of acreage, you can start making a difference by making the right decisions, both in terms of numbers of deer harvested and the types of deer that you harvest.

[traffic] - I'll shoot several thousand photos tomorrow, and interview a hundred people at least.

Everybody's gonna want to know in the paper.

So I'm just covering the news.

But, the hunting is the news.

[crickets chirping] - Make a little jalapeno and cheese link sausage.

Got to get a little fire going.

This is going to give it the smoked flavor.

- CAMERAMAN: Sawdust?

- WESLEY: Yes sir.

- CAMERAMAN: What kind of sawdust are you using?

Is this a special secret?

- It's a special secret.

Little bit of coffee and a whole lot of creamer.

Just about, I guess every place in Mills County's got a hunter on it.

Lots of deer in Mills County, Goldthwaite.

[clock ticking] - CAMERAMAN: No deer come in yet today?

No hunters?

- None yet.

- CAMERAMAN: It's early though, right?

- Yeah.

A little early.

Maybe they'll be here in a little bit.

[uplifting music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - LINDSEY: Opening day's always my favorite.

Just the rush, you know, getting ready, walk in pitch black to the stand, usually you freeze to death.

There's a small 8-point buck up there.

His horns are pretty, they're wide, but they're not very tall.

He's chasing that doe that's in front of him.

I just love being outside and be able to enjoy the outdoors and get away and look at all of God's creation, see, you know, all of the neat things that He's created.

All the little critters running around and enjoy the peace and quiet of the outdoors.

[metal clanking] Well, we saw a bunch of deer this morning, but we didn't get anything.

Everything was out of shooting range, but hopefully this evening we can regather and try a different location.

[uplifting music] - STEVEN: So you hit him perfect, right there.

Great shot.

How far was he?

- KALEE COMEAUX: About 65 yards.

- STEVEN: Alright Kalee, let's take a few photos, can we?

One, two, three.

Got it.

Yeah, hold him out here for me.

Alright, push him out.

When I say ready, push him out toward me.

One, two, three, push him out.

Nice.

Well, how far was this buck?

How far do you have it set?

- 107 yards.

- STEVEN: 107 yards.

- Well, the feeder was at 100 and he was seven yards past it.

- STEVEN: I knew you'd know the actual yardage.

I know you too well.

Alright, go field dress him.

Y'all take care.

- GARY: You, too.

- STEVEN: We've got our share of characters in this town, that's for sure.

My stomach runs me just like it runs these deer half the time.

And as you can see, like the little restaurant, it's gonna be completely swamped today.

It's already swamped and it's, you know, 10:40.

[phone rings] - NANCY RODRIGUEZ: I love deer season.

We look forward to this every year.

Give us about 15 minutes.

If we didn't have deer season, it wouldn't be busy.

[food sizzling] The cook, he was sweating, drenched in sweat back there because it's so hot.

Our hunters, one of them said he had killed a, uh, 12-point or something.

- Oh, and then I saw a dozen turkey come in and they were, they were a little upset because the deer had already eaten all the corn.

- I mean, I was expecting it to be busy, but just not, like, overwhelming busy.

[laughs] We didn't even get to have a break, you know, but now that deer season just started, it's gonna be like that from now on.

Have a great day.

- All right, you too.

- Yay!

Money.

[uplifting music] - On to the next place.

[uplifting music] We sort of, our bread is buttered, when deer season starts is when our bread starts getting buttered in Mills County and it can really make or break a year.

So, we're gonna head to Ranch Land Feed.

That's another place where people congregate to see who shot what.

It's scary.

If deer hunting went away, a quarter of our sales tax rebates would disintegrate.

And that's an incredible hit to our county.

- CLERK: What can I help y'all with today?

- KRISTI MCCOY: We're very busy, all the hunters are coming in.

They're all coming in to get corn, supplies for their deer camp.

- MAN: Those are a 110.

- KRISTI: We try to influence the hunters to take something back with them, you know, because the wives are like, "You spent all that money on deer, you know, you can bring me something."

- Go ahead and bring another one, he's going to want some corn.

- STEVEN: The retailers always make their year, across the nation, from Thanksgiving on to Christmas.

For us, it starts when the dove hunters hit town.

And then opening day of deer season when the deer hunters hit town and that deer season keeps on giving all the way through Christmas.

- WESLEY: Aw, you can't like beef jerky better than deer jerky.

[winch rumbling] - WESLEY: Yeah, it's been good.

I think we've got 30-something today.

- And we are slammed, and we are still checking them in.

See, we knew it was going to happen.

- WESLEY: This afternoon there may be 20, 30 more.

- CAMERAMAN: What's your favorite sausage?

- Jalapeno and cheese link and the summer.

I can make it all day long and go home and eat it at night.

The cleanness that you put in the meat itself, that you know what's in it, and the seasoning that we use, and I just think it's all, makes it good.

- I don't think he was even chasing.

- Think that will stay on there?

- It will in a minute.

- Man, you must drive like a cop.

[laughs] Oh, you're going to, you're going to latch it.

I was fixing to say.

- Cause I drive like a cop.

[uplifting music] - STEVEN: We have an opening day chili luncheon for all the deer hunters to come in and eat chili.

Alright.

Let's do 20 bucks worth on it.

- MAN: He always wins, by the way.

Every gun raffle.

- STEVEN: Shush, you're gonna jinx me.

They'll be gun raffles and gun drawings and all kinds of specials going on at all the retailers.

[country music] We've got interesting, sometimes goofy people, I'm one of them.

We just enjoy everybody's differences, as well as their similarities.

They are a hoot.

- MAN: Here we go.

Stephen Bridges, owner of our local newspaper.

- That's my third gun.

- Is that right?

- STEVEN: Every year my wife says, "Don't buy any more tickets."

I'm just a lucky guy, what can I say?

- This is the biggest buck brought in this morning.

[cheer and applause] The deer was about 80 yards.

My dad said I probably missed him.

And I was like, "No!"

And he said, "Yes, you got him."

So, I was like, "Yay."

- STEVEN: I grew up deer hunting in Mills County and my children, they want to go hunting.

They're outdoor kids.

My wife has been a hunter for her whole life.

We hunted together in high school.

There's a lot of places like Mills County in the Hill Country, there's Llano and there's Mason, there's Ozona.

Deer hunting is big in lots of these places, and it's just part of our culture number one, and number two, it's part of our economy.

[country music] - LINDSEY: We're on our evening hunt on opening day.

It's about 5:00.

We're sitting in an oak patch.

Evening hunts are my favorite.

All the deer just walking around crazy.

It's a fun time of the evening.

I'm gonna go.

Been waiting long enough.

Think I'm gonna go ahead, take down that doe.

[gun shot] She fell down.

Got her.

Opening day of deer season.

Got me a good doe today.

There's gonna be plenty of more opportunities to get a big buck, but I'm proud of this first doe of the season.

This is what I was talking about.

My favorite part of the day.

In the evening, whenever the sun sets and you see all the different color clouds and the sky and the reds and blues.

Magical looking.

It's real peaceful out here during this time.

[soothing music] ♪ ♪ - Hey Wes.

- Come to pick up your deer?

- Yes, 95.

- 95.

Okay.

Come on in.

- STEVEN: This town, we don't boom, we don't bust.

- WESLEY: And we got your chicken fried steaks.

- STEVEN: So we just kind of click along nice and easy.

We're not growing by leaps and bounds, but we're sustainably growing.

We get our fair share and a lot of that has come from deer hunters who have moved here.

They say, "I'm a deer hunter, I bought this land.

"I love it here.

I need to make a living, here's what I can do."

And those are the kinds of businesses that have started up here and they're thriving.

[van beeping] This is one of our many deliveries we make on Wednesday morning.

This is volume 124 for 124 years in a row every Wednesday we've had the newspaper come out.

The newspaper, we cover kids and old people, that's what we love to do, that's who we love.

That's our people here.

Now we may not have all the amenities of the city, but there's definitely something to be said about raising your kids in this little community.

You can enjoy this for what it is, a beautiful little piece of the center of the universe as far as we're concerned.

[soothing music] [light guitar music] - TOMMY HEAD: This is the Pigfoot Ranch.

We're located almost in the center of Texas in Mills County.

[acoustic guitar music] In what was originally the tall grass prairie.

Our efforts are to maintain and conserve as much tall grass prairie as we can.

- We're in the middle of nowhere, kind of where you don't hear cars... you look around, you see all of God's wonders and the creation of nature.

- The Pigfoot Ranch lies within the cross-timbers and prairies ecoregion.

This property is a great example of what that ecoregion looked like prior to 1850s, prior to European Settlement.

The diversity that we have out here is unparalleled.

So, this species right here is actually a Verbena species, it's really good for pollinators on the rangeland.

- It has a nice flower on it, we call it Sweet William.

- I've never heard that before.

Sweet William.

- TOMMY: That's the common name.

- OLIVIA: That is beautiful.

[meadowlark calls] - TOMMY: The original tall grass prairie in this area had Live Oak Savannah's.

We have some of that.

In addition along the creeks, there are other woody species of plants.

[creek riffles] This is the main Pigfoot Springs right down here to our left.

We try to maintain the vegetation along the edge of the creek so that these riparian areas will not be subject to erosion.

This is a favorite spot of mine to always come down to and enjoy.

In the summertime, I'd rather be here than in Colorado.

The history of Pigfoot Ranch goes back to 1885.

Our great-great grandfather was the one who actually established the ranch.

We would like to see our children and our grandchildren continue to own and operate the place.

Let's work on that area right over there.

We'll get those cedars right under those trees right there.

- JONATHAN BARTEK: I feel like I'm pretty well up for the task.

I just need a little bit more education on what I'm doing, in order to do it right.

- TOMMY: Each tree takes up an awful lot of water.

By keeping the number of juniper trees and mesquite trees down, we have a more healthy ecosystem.

This is an area where we had a successful prescribed burn.

This is burned on the tops, but you'll see the little Shin Oak shoots coming in at the bottom, and as the livestock and wildlife come in here, they enjoy eating those fresh shoots, so that, along with the fire, will help control the less desirable plants.

[acoustic guitar music] - WYNONA: We haven't always had a lot of deer out here, and the deer population has grown as well as a lot of our other wildlife which is really nice.

- TOMMY: Here on the Pigfoot, we rotate through three pastures.

So, it's not a difficult thing to move the cattle from one pasture to the other.

- WYNONA: Their coming, that's good!

- TOMMY: Most of them have come in.

This actually is a little holding trap that we've moved the cattle into.

You can turn em out to one of two pastures from this spot.

They're enjoying the fresh grass.

- WYNONA: It's almost like candy to them!

- TOMMY: Let's go ahead in this fresh pasture look for deer.

Typically, we see three or four groups of eight or ten.

- JONATHAN: Oh, there goes one right there, a doe.

- TOMMY: There we go, a doe right here.

- JONATHAN: You might be able to see her right through there in the brush.

- It's a beautiful day, quality time like this is pretty special!

- When Tommy and I were dating, we looked for grass seeds, we look at grasses out here.

We watch the cattle.

We watch the goats.

We look for the deer.

It's hard to pick one thing because I love it all!

- I just really enjoy being out here on the open land.

Hopefully with years to come, we can get this place looking even better than it is now!

- TOMMY: Our family motto is "Keep it, preserve it, and share it with future generations."

That's what I feel good about being a part of!

[gentle breeze] [gentle breeze] [gentle breeze] [gentle breeze] [gentle breeze] [gentle breeze] [gentle breeze] [gentle breeze] [gentle breeze] [gentle breeze] [gentle breeze] [gentle breeze] This series is supported in part by Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation -- conserving the wild things and wild places of Texas, thanks to members across the state.

Additional funding is provided by Toyota.

Your local Toyota dealers are proud to support outdoor recreation and conservation in Texas.

Toyota -- Let's Go Places.