ENID – This week about 65 shooters will be in Enid for the 2011 Grand National Quail Hunt.
“We will have a full week of activities,” said Troy Enmeier, president of the Grand National Quail Club and a certified financial planner with Ameriprise in Enid.
The shooters in the 45th annual event will include 18 first-time participants.
Since the first Grant National Quail Hunt in November 1967, the annual event has become a destination for avid quail hunters from around the country, attracting celebrities, politicians and business executives.
“They come from all over the world,” Enmeier said.
The hunt is used as a selling point for recruiting companies to Enid.
“It brings a lot of very well-known corporations to northwest Oklahoma,” Enmeier said. “Most of the hunters are CEOs or high-ranking officers with the various companies. We have contacts from all over the United States with the hunters who have come to Enid. The hunters are plugged into us.”
Having the executives from around the country in Enid for the hunt creates contacts for potential economic development.
“It is a great opportunity for us to show another aspect of Oklahoma,” said Brent Kisling, executive director of the Enid Regional Development Alliance.
But the main activity this week is hunting.
“They are here to hunt and shoot bobwhite quail,” Enmeier said.
Hunting starts Wednesday with the qualifying round.
“They will be hunting all day at nine different ranches in northwest Oklahoma,” he said.
A reception and silent auction are scheduled Wednesday night at Oakwood Country Club.
Thursday activities include trap and sporting clays shooting, a dinner and auction, a ladies cocktail party and visits to the Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center for the “Field, Forest & Stream” exhibit.
“Field, Forest & Stream: The History of Oklahomans and the Outdoors” was created as a joint project of the Oklahoma History Center and the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation to tell the history of outdoor recreation and conservation in Oklahoma, said David Davis, director of exhibits for the Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City.
The exhibit opened at the Oklahoma History Center in 2008. In late August, Davis was in Enid to install the exhibit at the Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center, where it will be on display until Jan. 15.
A few adjustments were made to the exhibit for its run in northwest Oklahoma.
“We are the home of the Grand National Quail Hunt,” Andi Holland, director of the Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center, said when the exhibit opened. “So we included some of the history of the hunt in our exhibit.”
Friday will be another hunting day with the championship round of the Grand National Quail Hunt. An awards reception is scheduled Friday night at the Cherokee Strip Conference Center.
Enmeier said he has been involved with the hunt for 14 years.
“I actually became involved as a sponsor and after a couple of years became a member,” he said.
When the hunt started in 1967, the Grand National Quail Club had fewer than 20 members. Today the club is limited to 150 dues-paying members – all Oklahomans and involved with the annual hunt. The members provides resources, guide and score hunts and provide hunting areas, dogs and transportation.
About 25 new shooters are invited – participation is by invitation only – to the hunt annually.