History of Hunter’s World

The early years...

Hunter’s World was founded by the great American sports man, pioneer and industrialist Daniel E Hunter with the doors opening to the first guests on April 14th 1938. Hunter was born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin and began his life long love affair with outdoor sports while hunting as a child in the nearby ceded territory reservation. His family history reaches back to before the revolutionary war to an Andrew Hunter who settled in New York State from Ireland in 1722.

Hunter graduated from high school at the age of 15 and following his father’s death several months after his graduation, he was employed by the U.S. Geological Survey, and in 1881 was sent to Kansas with a party surveying and subdividing the Kiowa-Comanche lands. The following year he left the Geological Survey to pursue his fortune prospecting.

By 1885 he was in the Black Mountains of southwestern New Mexico, living in the rough silver-mining town of Kingston where it’s numerous hotels played host to the likes of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Mark Twain and Billy the Kid. Hunter spent his time in Kingston prospecting and mining as well as buying and trading mining claims, but the prosperity didn’t last as the silver panic of 1893 hit the town hard and it began to fold as quickly as it had flourished.

During his time in Kingston he met two men who would play important roles in his later life: Alistair Toward, the future Under Secretary of the Interior, and his business partner Robert David Crockett. It was also during this time that he met and married his wife, Carrie Chambers, on August 7, 1893.

Hunter’s Fortune

Hunter and Crockett together worked the Rocco Smith Mine, which Crockett owned. Both men became firm friends as well as business partners sharing a love of hunting deer and quail. While on a property surveying trip, Hunter found pitch and obtained a lease for the land with $500 in financing from Crockett. Hunter and Crockett soon made a fortune by drilling in the area and selling the oil to nearby factories. Later, they prospered even further when the railroads switched from coal to oil as power for their locomotives. During this time, Hunter found time to father two sons, Daniel Hunter junior and Ted Hunter.

D. E. Hunter’s reputation was somewhat tainted in 1931 by being implicated in the leasing of Teapot Dome conspiracy where government officials had been bribed to allow drilling on reserved land. Hunter faced criminal prosecution over the incident but was cleared of all charges, including murder.

A new venture; Hunter’s World

In 1932 Hunter sold his stake in the company and moved North with his family and vast fortune to start his new venture: Hunter’s World. He caused a local sensation buying up massive tracts of government reservation and farmland land including the historic Watson Estate, the mansion house of which he gave as a wedding gift to his son Ted Hunter after his marriage to Jemima Woollard.

The former 3000 acre deer park formed the heart of Daniel’s last business venture, the creation of a hunting paradise, stocked with all of the various animals that could be found in North America. Fully realizing that his vision almost cost him his fortune, he had to bring in his old friend Robert Crockett to build the lodges for the paying guests.

In 1938, Hunter’s World opened the doors of the massive game reserve park to paying customers for the first time. A year later Ted's first child, William, was born, followed a year later by a daughter, Ella.

Ted Hunter builds his own lodges

Daniel Hunter died soon after the Second World War and his son Edward (Ted) took on the running of the estate. In an attempt to increase the profitability of Hunter’s World, Ted wanted to reduce the exclusivity of the site by lowering the entrance fee, allowing more people to hunt on site. His father’s old friend Robert Crockett who owned a controlling stake in the lodges resisted this move and limited the accommodation capacity.

Ted Hunter decided to build his own lodges and funded this by selling two further lodging franchises on the site. This gave Hunter back some control on the lodges and expanded the capacity of the park. The franchises were sold to another of his father’s old friends, Alistair Toward and a friend of Ted’s, George Karl Jäger.

Hunter dominates in the 'Inter Lodge' competition

Despite the franchise lodge system having been set up in 1948 Crockett Lodge remained dominant as regards facilities, numbers of buildings and membership until the mid 1960s. On Crockett's death in 1950, the board of trustees of Crockett Lodge set up the 'Inter Lodge' competition to build bridges but also to demonstrate their dominance. During the next 30 years they lost the 'Inter Lodge' competition only once, to Jäger Lodge in 1959. The early dominance of Crockett Lodge was due in part to the new lodges adopting a strategy of focusing on niche areas of hunting, enjoyed by the lodge's original founders.

Toward was Scottish by birth and modelled his lodges on the British hunting system specialising on elk, red deer and grouse. Jäger was a keen horseman and thrill seeker and so focused on equestrian hunting and dangerous game. By the mid 60s the Jäger and Toward Lodges had proliferated and when Hunter started building his own lodges the Crockett dominance was broken.

Hunter Lodge wins 'Inter Lodge' trophy for the first time

Crockett's dominance of the Inter Lodge trophy was a major influence in Hunter's marketing strategy, which was soon to turn from quantity to quality, although by the start of the early 80's the Hunter Lodge had finally topped the membership list for the first time. Although Hunter now had the numbers in terms of overall membership, he felt that quality was missing and changed his tactics by increasing membership prices and offering his members a wider variety of animals to hunt. The Crockett Lodge reacted by lowering prices and removing a number of membership restrictions that had given them an elitist status for many decades.

In 1983, just after his 68th birthday, Hunter's change of tactics paid off and for the first time, the Hunter Lodge was triumphant, winning the 'Inter Lodge' trophy for the first time.

Coming soon: Retirement looms for Ted Hunter