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Hometown 1
i Spotli;htj
Wild about
Waterfowl
After the rice fields are harvested
and millions of ducks begin their annual migration south
along the Mississippi River flyway, John Stephens can be
found sitting in a camouflaged blind on his lather's farm
east of Stuttgart, Ark. (pop. 9,745), awaiting die familiar
quack of migrating mallards.
“I always look forward to it," say's Stephens, 33, of die
fell hunting season. “I like to communicate with die birds
and see how they react to the call.”
Stuttgart, the self-proclaimed Rice and Duck Capital
of the World, is liome to Riceland Foods—tlie world's
laigest rice miller and marketer—and each year thou
sands of sportsmen and women converge on the town to
participate in the fell hunt and attend the Worlds Cham
pionship Duck Calling Contest.
Last November, Stephens won the championship
for the third time, outperforming 7 () of the nation's
best duck callers in the oldest and most prestigious
event of its kind. Held annually since 1936, the con
test today is part of the weeklong Wings Over the
Prairie Festival, featuring a Queen Mallard pageant,
duck gumbo cookoff and youth duck calling clinics.
In short, Stuttgart is wild about waterfowl, and
townspeople take great pride in the
community's claims to feme. The
Saittgart High School mascot is
the Ricebird; the city maintains
farming and waterfowl exhibits at
the Museum of the Arkansas
Grand Prairie; and visitors
can lodge at the Best West
em Duck Inn or shop at Jflkgl
Mack's Prairie Wines.
tile nations premier
waterfowl outfitter.
Surrounded
by thousands of
acres of flooded
rice fields and
Queen M.tll.it,l
Meredith M, Gee
and John Su-ptk-m
with his trophy
Trees
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by STUART
ENGLERT
Senior Edit nr
&Am
! 7-. v Commerce
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Young duck callers practice quacking in Stuttgart, Ark.
w'ooded wetlands, Stuttgart is a haven for waterfowl and
hunters alike. Flocks of ducks and geese least on grain
that harvesters leave behind, and truckloads of hunters
pour onto nearby farms and wildlife refuges to pursue
the binds during a season that generally begins in mid-
November and continues through January.
Migrating waterfowl have been drawn to the
hardwood bottomlands of eastern Arkansas for eons,
using the secluded backwaters of the Arkansas,
Cache and White rivers to feed and rest on their
journey south.
“Water is tlie most important dung for ducks," says
Larry Mallard, manager of the 160,000-acre White River
National Wildlife Refuge, 25 miles east of Stuttgart.
They’ve got to have water. Water sustains them.”
When farmers began planting rice on the Grand
Prairie in the eariy 19(X)s, the grain-loving waterfowl
had a reason to land on tlie flooded
k fields around Stuttgart. At first, the
■ marauding birds were considered
r J pests for eating the fanners' gram,
F but soon townspeople began cater
ing to the sportsmen who came
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H in tlie 193(>s. By 10(4 Ins trade
HKf_ vt itli waterfowl hunters became
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A mallard greets customers at Mack's Prairie Wings.
so brisk that he opened a separate spirting goods store.
"It's been said that it was the first full-line
sporting goods store, says Marion McCollum, 64,
son of the store’s founder.
Today, Mack’s Prairie Wings sells everything
for hunters, from battery-operated duck decoys to
Winchester shotgun shells, in a 32.000-square
foot store north of town. The store also carries
duck calls manufactured by John Stephens, last
year's world champion duck caller.
"Tlie mallard is the only duck that makes a quack,”
says Stepliens. the owner of Rich-N-Tone Duck Calls.
“The other species make a whistle or other sound."
In a few weeks, Stephens will get to demonstrate
his award-winning skills, teaching his children—
Reese. 6, and Riley, 4—the finer points of quacking.
It's a ritual that happens each fell in duck blinds
around Stuttgart.^
The Wings Over the Prairie Festival is
scheduled Nov. 22-26. For more informa
tion, visit www.stuttgartarkansas.org or
call (870) 673-1602.
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