Dudleys Diary

a little over 25 years ago. The photo was taken on his farm north of Palestine, TX. The fellow lived the kind of life Dudley could only dream about. Dudley was told he had inherited a large estate from his parents who had owned a successful business in town. He did not have to work and spent all of his time hunting or fishing or working around his farm. He had put in a high fence around part of his place and was raising some big whitetails inside the fence. I remember he drove me and a coworker around the high fence and showed us some of the deer he was raising. He showed us his elevated deer stand that was quite big and was more like a one bedroom apartment up on stilts. He had power to his deer stand and had an air conditioner and heater so he could stay comfortable no matter the weather. He had a television and radio so he could stay entertained. The stand was built right by the fence so he could shoot the wild deer on the outside of the enclosure if he wanted to. If I remember correctly the buck in the photo was killed by the man down in Mexico and I think it had 14 points. He was a part time taxidermist and I believe he did the full body mount on the buck himself. The picture was set up and he had a photographer take the photo and he had a bunch of postcards printed up with the photo and an advertisement for his taxidermy business, Green Stump Taxidermy. He was ahead of his time raising big whitetails behind a high fence before it became common place here in Texas.