Brunch With Mark Twain

Brunch With Mark Twain


Come on over to Marietta, Ohio on September 17, 2016 for a Riverboat Ride and Brunch with Mark Twain!

Rare Jackalope

I didn't want to brag, but here is my 16 pointer. Rare Jackalope actually as it grew a rack where this sub-breed usually grows their wings.

I was a'walkin' a fence row down home in my hometown of Beloved, Kentucky several years back durin' huntin' season, tryin' to flush some grouse out of the fence row when a whole covey of them winged Jackalopes got kicked up an' flew. The noise of a covey of Jackalopes is somethin' that will scare Yankee folks or the unassumin' mountain man.

I however was ready an' waitin'. This one took to the air but wasn't flyin' as good as the rest as it was still in velvet. It was a big ol' bull Jackalope I could tell even though the mist was a'hangin' on the fence row right thick.

Now, to make it fair all I use is an ol' 20 gauge Stevens single shot shotgun Daddy gave me years ago. I load my own shells an' only put one single lead birdshot pellet an' 70 grains of powder in the whole shell. If a feller ain't a good enough shot to hit a critter with one little ol' single bb size birdshot, well he ain't worth his salt an' shouldn't be a huntin' Appalachian Jackalopes.

If they get spooked an' start to stampede... well, I ain't gonna mention the lost town of Ox Hide, Kentucky (just over the hill from Bull Skin. It was settled after Bull Skin an' since the name was taken an' the folks was set on Bull Skin they went with the next best thing, Ox Hide). A youngin' playin' with firecrackers too close to a hillside plumb full of Jackalope holes started a stampede an' them things came out of them holes like hornets. They ran ever'where, knockin' down houses, barns, trees, eatin' crops, crows, buzzards an' then they morphed like grasshoppers morph into locusts.

Before the town of Ox Hide knew it them Jackalopes had done et the whole town, even the town librarian an' all six books! Nothin' was left. They even et the town off ever' map in the state.

Anyways, I threw that ol' Stevens up to my shoulder, took aim an' hit this one right betwixt the eyes. If you look close you can see the pinhole where that single pellet went in.

It weren't till I had it mounted an' the velvet came off what I though was the wings did I realize they weren't wings a'tall. THEY WAS ANOTHER SET OF ANTLERS!

Folks went crazy wantin' to see it. I charged a dime a peek an made might near $137.59 before one of them pepper-rosie fellers snuck in, took a picture an' sold the picture to the National Geogramic Magazine.

So, I lost the chance to be rich or even to be on the Mike Douglas Show back then. But I still have the only 16 point Jackalope in the world.