Kent Milby gets help from his granddaughter Laney Milby while placing foxhounds around his field, recreating a fox hunt popular in the area decades ago. He has crafted five different stances in his fleet of fox hound silhouettes to make them look truly in pursuit. (Photo by Leslie Milby)
If you are cruising down Three Bridge Branch Road in Cordova, you might see quite the sight of about 20 hounds running out in the sun coming over the slope of the hill.
While I swear it looks like some of the dogs are smiling, they are of course only silhouettes put out by my father-in-law Kent Milby. For the Cordova historians out there, Mr. Kent is the son of the late Ronald and Charlotte Milby, and he grew up in the white 1886 farmhouse that is now the home of my family and I.
These days the fox hunting scene may feel out of place in Cordova, but Mr. Kent remembers it quite well as a young boy and knows that many neighbors and friends from his generation do as well.
He remembers in the 1970s and ’80s after harvest time when farmers would enjoy their first bit of time off by getting together for a fox chase. One group would take the dogs and travel property to property in hot pursuit of the fox. There were of course less houses at the time, but many of the farms were heavy into cattle or hogs and would have wire fences up for the dogs to jump over or run under. Today the cedar trees on our property that seem to be in the middle of nowhere are marred with the scars of wire they served as posts for.
While my father in law’s family didn’t participate in the fox hunting, he recalls hearing the cry of the dogs– called “music” — from well over a mile away when the air was still and the clouds were low.
As a young boy, he said he would run out and sit on the corn crib to watch the scene go by. Many times the pack would go across the back “hill” of our property and through the next to fields before coming out onto the road.
The rest of the hunting party would be riding in trucks equipped with CB radios and tall antennas and would cut the dogs off on the road unless they were still on the scent. If the trail had gone cold, Mr. Kent recalls how they’d crack a big whip onto the road to signal to the dogs to jump up in the truck.
Sometimes the hunts would be quick and done in less than a half hour if the foxes holed up in their den quickly or they could take an hour and a half or so for a more mischievous fox. And of course, typically the fox wasn’t shot at the end — it was all for fun.
At the time, deer and goose hunting wasn’t as popular and Mr. Kent was into rabbit hunting with his rabbit dogs. If he was out hunting with his dogs running rabbits in circles and started to hear the fox hounds hot on a burning scent, he’d have to gather his dogs up quickly and hunker down with them.
The fox hounds would swoop through as an unstoppable force and the chaos of their straight-line force would easily confuse the rabbit dogs. Rabbit hunting is also not as popular these days, but he remembers giving the rabbits to needy families in the area to throw into stews or to fry.
The fox hounds were truly the stars of the show. Farmers knew the distinct cries of their dogs and could tell who was leading the pack and whether it was a pursuit or a dog just “babbling” and making noise.
The dogs, all tri-color hound varieties, were determined dogs on the hunt, but were also friendly.
As other hunting became more popular and as farms got developed or bought out by folks who may not be okay with dogs tearing through, fox hunting died down in the area. When my father-in-law came across a metal silhouette display at a home he was delivering propane to, he thought it was so neat. He figured some people may not know the history, it would probably bring a touch of nostalgia to some residents of Cordova and those who drive by the farm.
He had a sign maker help him blow up two outlines of dogs to use and from there toyed around with the size to get it more accurate. He tinkered with the design a bit as well, making five different stances for the dogs to make them look truly in pursuit.
The display typically appears in the fall, after our fields are cut of their corn and beans.
This follows the traditional after harvest season time and truly, when the sunlight is the prettiest against the fall foliage.
If you’d like to take a gander, turn onto Three Bridge Branch Road between Old Cordova Road and Church Lane. Look East to see the “hunt” in action.
The first year they “appeared” in our field, his were also black silhouettes, but as the project developed, they were painted different patterns of tri-color, many by his three little grandchildren helpers. (He’s a great babysitter — until bow season!)
The scene is different each year, but it seems he is always rooting for the fox to outsmart the dogs.
