The Outdoors

By Scott Rall, Outdoors Columnist

What an interesting weekend I had on the pheasant opener. The Governor’s Pheasant Hunting opener event started in 2011 when Congressman Petersen talked Governor Dayton into a hunt. This event has matured over the years and is hosted by different communities who all vie for the opportunity through an application process. My hometown of Worthington has hosted this event twice since its inception.

I have operated as a host community organizer twice and as a hunter host and occasional as a guest over the years. The end goal of the event is to highlight the outdoor recreation opportunities of the area but also to inform the attendees about all of the cool and unique offerings that make the host community special.

Those in attendance include the Governor and Lieutenant Governor’s hunting parties, special guests along with a large number of media representatives. The media folks attend for free and then use their platforms to spread the word about the host community. Each host community offers media tours all day Friday to allow the media to learn and share what is special about their town.

Sleepy Eye was the host community for 2024. Hosting these events is a ton of work. They have 12 months to put together the events and festivities and fund raise to meet the financial obligations to do so. Ortonville was awarded the event for 2025.

I spent the day in Sleepy Eye and was very impressed with what I saw for such a small town. I drove all over the town early Friday morning and was very surprised that a town of only about 3,500 people had to offer as far as community amenities. They had a splash pad, water park, a wonderful indoor ice arena and some of the most manicured ball fields I had ever seen. I also visited a very nice Veterans Memorial Park. Sleepy Eye had much more industry than I was aware of. I have driven through this town on many occasions but knew little of their employment base. It was very impressive. In addition to their work opportunities, they have Sleepy Eye Lake. This is a small lake of about 280 acres, but what a story it has. The city, at its own expense, dredged this lake three different times over the past 60 years. They have committed extraordinary resources to make this lake the centerpiece of their community. The Sportsman’s Campground on the shores of this lake is top-notch and is open to camping, even late into the fall for pheasant hunters. They have a volunteer organization that operates as a non-profit called Bobbing for Bobbers. They are pretty much on-call to take whoever wants to go for an evening boat cruise to groups that want to spend a day angling for the multi-species that can be caught there.  I went on the tour and they have a very compelling and heartwarming story.

This community has another non-profit called the Sleepy Eye Sportsman’s Club. They have 60 members and a management board of about 5-6 individuals who do most of the work. They make $30,000-$40,000 of annual expenditures for the sportsmen and women of this area. I visited their clubhouse and visited with their senior folks and was totally impressed with the work that they are doing. This is just another example of people giving of their time and talent for the benefit of their community.

After my day spent learning about Sleepy Eye on Friday, I was able to join the Governor and his hunting party for a short hunt on Saturday with Governor Walz. I know Governor Walz and have hunted with him a few times before. We were closely monitored by leagues of Secret Service, Department of Homeland Security, state patrol, the Governor’s protective detail and a large contingent of local police and sheriffs’ office department staff. This is how it goes when you are the sitting governor and running for the Vice-Presidency of the United States.

Our party was never more than 30 feet from about 15 national, regional and local media outlets that were there to cover the event. We saw a few birds and I shot one which I was unable to retrieve. This was disappointing, but I have never been very successful hunting in a party of 30 folks.

This was one day that I made a conscious effort to put politics on the back burner and celebrate the traditions of pheasant hunting in Minnesota. A morning celebrating habitat, conservation and wildlife which has no political party. On opening day there is no blue or red, there is only orange. It was a day that I will likely not get the chance to experience again, but for one day we were able to enjoy the hospitability of Sleepy Eye and try to make contact with the rooster pheasants that call Brown County home. We saw a few but only shot at one. On this day it was roosters 1 and Scott Rall and Governor Walz 0.

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If you have any questions, reach out to me at scottarall@gmail.com.