35 A giant of beauty and grandeur 



refuge and resented the invasion of governmental authority, espe- 

 cially Federal authority. James O. Stevenson, the first refuge man- 

 ager at Aransas and an old and valued friend of mine, was an able 

 student of the whooping crane from the day of his initial contact 

 with it. He wrote several articles about these birds that stirred 

 wide interest in the need for greater knowledge of their entire life 

 cycle and a more comprehensive program for their protection. In 

 one of these he described the local reaction to the establishment 

 of Aransas Refuge. 



Back in 1937, the boys used to gather around the old coal- 

 burner in Cap Daniel's store in Austwell, Texas, commenting 

 from time to time on the fate of the farmer. A visitor could 

 have heard them mulling over the latest news: "I hear the gov- 

 ernment is buying up the Blackjacks for a pile of money just to 

 protect a couple of them squawking cranes! They tell me they 

 ain't bad eating but there's no open season on them/' To this 

 came the inevitable reply: ''If you can't shoot them, what the 

 blankety-blank good are they?" 



But, as Stevenson commented, "Facts are invariably garbled 

 in any hot-stove league." 



When Jim Stevenson left Aransas in 1941, local savants were 

 rapidly changing their opinions. A few years later, when I lived 

 near Austwell for two winters, the irrepressible Cap Daniel's com- 

 bination store, beer parlor, gas station, and garage was also 

 Whooping Crane Information Center. The price of crops and the 

 recent war were high on the list of major subjects under discussion, 

 but whooping cranes had become topic number one. Cap is a great 

 collector of antiques, especially old firearms and other engines of 

 war. The walls of his little place are heavy with relics from many 

 periods, and he never tires of adding new exhibits. One day he 

 said to me, "Mr. Allen, I wonder if you couldn't get ahold of some 

 whoopin'-crane pitchers I could put up on my wall. People ask 

 me about 'em every day an' I oughta have a pitcher or two." I 

 brought him some pictures a few days later, including one large 

 drawing of a pair of the great birds. It was then that Cap showed 

 his true mettle. Without a moment's hesitation he walked to the 



