Three Twin Lakes Area men will be inducted into the Arkansas State University-Mountain Home (ASUMH) Trout Nature Center Hall of Fame on Saturday, April 20 at the Vada Sheid Community Development Center on the ASUMH campus. The event begins at 6:00 p.m. with a silent auction and at 7:00 p.m. the dinner and induction ceremony begin. Inductees this year are Steve N. Wilson, Elmo Hurst and Tom Schmuecker.
Steve N. Wilson was raised in Batesville, AR and graduated from Arkansas Tech with a degree in Fish and Wildlife Management. He earned his Master of Science degree from the University of Arkansas with studies on white-tailed deer reproduction. Wilson served as director of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC) from 1979 until his retirement in June of 2000. During his tenure as director, he was elected to several national and international positions. Upon his retirement, the AGFC named the Steve N. Wilson Raft Creek Bottoms Wildlife Management Area after him. The management area is a host for Raft Creek and tributaries that dominate the 4,000 acre property. Wilson has served as president of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and as president of the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. In 1999, the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies chose him for their highest honor, the Seth Gordon Award. In 2000, the Southeastern Association chose him for its highest honor, the C.W. Watson Award. He served from 1996 to 2000 as chairman of the North American Wetlands Conservation Council.
During Wilson’s 20 years as director of AGFC, the trout program in Arkansas faced many challenges. He made numerous trips to Washington D.C., fighting budget cuts to hatchery programs, promoting minimum flow for the White and Norfork rivers, and adequate dissolved oxygen levels for the tailwaters. He fought for increased budget allocations for cold water fisheries within AGFC. His crowning achievement was in 1996, with the passage of the 1/8 cent conservation sales tax amendment to the Arkansas Constitution.
Locally he has served on the board of directors of the North Arkansas Flyfishers, White River Chapter of Trout Unlimited, Friends of the Norfork National Fish Hatchery, Friends of the Norfork and White Rivers and is chairman of the Trout Task Force that has been charged with the implementation of a Trout Nature Center on the ASUMH campus. He and his wife Jo live on the White River downstream from Norfork and have two children and three grandchildren who all live in Fayetteville.
Elmo Hurst was born in a small house deep in the woods close to Lone Rock, Arkansas, on March 9, 1909. His parents, Baxter and Lula Rose Hurst, moved their large family to Cotter when Elmo was six months old. On July 28, 1933, Elmo married Anna Lucille Marsden. Their two children, Philip (Nancy) Hurst and Sarah (Bill) Ernst live on the family farm near Cotter. Elmo lived his whole life in Baxter County, graduating from Cotter High School and attending Jonesboro State A & M College for two years, specializing in agriculture and animal husbandry. Elmo and Lucille were married almost 51 years before Lucille passed away in 1984. Elmo passed away in Mountain Home, Arkansas, on December 24, 2007 at the age of 98. Elmo and Lucille have five grandchildren: Staci Ann (Corey) Coston, Melissa Sue (Drew) McKinnon, Jordan Matthew Hurst, Doug Ernst (Misty) and Leslie (Billy) Seeley and eight great-grandchildren, all living in north Arkansas.
The year 1933 was the start of Hurst Fishing Service at Cotter, and the start of commercial fishing in this area. Elmo’s dock was the only one on the White River between Forsythe, Missouri, and Norfork, Arkansas. This was long before Bull Shoals Dam, and the White River was a wild, free flowing, warm water stream that held bass, bream, and catfish. Elmo loved farming, fishing and hunting, and was blessed to live his life doing what he loved.
The success of his fishing business and his life in general can be attributed to his almost fanatical work ethic and attention to quality. Both Elmo and Lucille took great pride in their work. In the early years, they had cabins for customers to stay in and Lucille would cook amazing meals, clean cabins, and take reservations while Elmo guided fishermen and raised corn on the family farm. As a testament to his farming ability, the corn he raised produced a state record yield of 110.3 bushels per acre. Later on, he changed from farmer to cattleman and raised registered Hereford cattle, which he dearly loved.
As time passed, Elmo hired his good friend, Bill Johnson, to help run the fishing service. They built a solid customer base, and then an event happened in the mid 1950’s that would completely change the nature of the fishing business – Bull Shoals Dam was completed. Because the water coming from the bottom of the lake was too cold to support bass, the Game and Fish Commission introduced rainbow and brown trout and stocked them in the White River. That set the stage for huge growth in this area.
A watershed event occurred when a sportswriter from the Commercial Appeal booked a three day trip. Upon returning to Memphis, Tennessee, he wrote a glowing article about the fantastic fishing and superb service from Hurst Fishing Service. “After that,” Elmo said, “I never wanted for business. The phone just kept ringing.” It is said that for a time in the early 1960’s Hurst Fishing Service brought more revenue into Baxter County than any other entity of the time.
Elmo had a truly first-class operation including the finest boats, motors, and equipment. But most importantly, he employed 35 guides who were the very best at running boats, knowing where to catch fish, and making the customers feel like they couldn’t wait to come back and do it again. The quality of his operation was second to none and attracted fishermen from every state. Even some celebrities of the day, including singers Tennessee Ernie Ford and Red Foley, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, and Ford Motor Company president Ernie Breech, enjoyed fishing with Elmo. Trout fishing on the White River is certainly one of the drivers of growth and development in the Twin Lakes area. Elmo Hurst, entrepreneur, farmer and businessman, was truly a pioneer and innovator in the early years of this industry.
Tom Schmuecker was born in Blairstown, Iowa in 1933. He attended high school in Norway, Iowa, then served in the U.S. Army from 1955-1957. In 1959 Tom married his wife Ann Light. He graduated college with a Bachelor’s in Business Administration in 1961. Tom worked for J.C. Penny, Hartford Insurance, and Purebred Angus Farms, all before he purchased Wapsi Fly in 1973. In 1978, he moved the business to Mountain Home where it is still going strong today.
Tom has served on several boards, both local and international. He served as a board member for the Mountain Home Chamber of Commerce from 1982-1989; he has served on the Baxter Regional Medical Center Board of Directors since 1988, and was also on the American Fly-Tying Tackle Manufacturing Association board from 1992-1996.
Throughout his career, Tom has received many awards: Federation of Fly Fishers Lee Wulff Award for Innovative Business, 1995; Federation of Fly Fishers Southern Council Fly-Tyer of the Year, 1996; Federation of Fly Fishers Friends of the Southern Council, 2007; North American Fly Fishing Sowbug Appreciation Award, 2007; and the Great Lake Council Presidents Award, 2009.
Tom is a member of Federation of Fly Fishers, Trout Unlimited, White River Fly Fishers, North Arkansas Fly Fishers, and The Trout Task Force at ASUMH. Tom Schmuecker is a true pioneer of the fly-tying industry. His contributions to fly-tying have influenced every material used and every fly tied in production today. Tom’s passion for fly-tying started as a small boy in Iowa. At an early age, he was fashioning makeshift poppers and flies in pursuit of bass and bluegill. His interest and passion for fly-tying continued through college.
While attending the University of Iowa, Tom married his wife, Ann, and soon after they graduated, they entered the family business of raising purebred Angus cattle and chickens. During those years, Tom’s father was the President of the Iowa Poultry Association, and the farm had the perfect facilities for raising chickens. Tom’s desire for procuring better fly-tying hackle soon led him to produce genetic hackle. After 10 years of careful breeding, he produced a strain of fine cross-bred birds, ideal for fly-tying.
During that time, Tom became friends with Lacy Gee, the owner and founder of Wapsi Fly. Lacy later purchased hackles from Tom, and soon Tom was making more money selling genetically-bred hackle than he was farming. One day in 1973 Tom came into the shop and Lacy asked him if he would be interested in buying the company. Tom saw this as an opportunity to pursue his passion full-time.
Soon after buying the company, Tom recognized that almost all commercial fly production would soon be done overseas, so he set the company’s focus on producing fly-tying materials for fly factories and for fly shops. At this point in time, there were no primary suppliers of fly-tying materials for these markets. The large amount of work and difficulty processing natural materials coupled with the difficulty of sourcing textiles and synthetics in small amounts made this a daunting task.
Tom’s inventiveness, mechanical skills, and salesmanship allowed him to devise new and ingenious ways to purchase and process fly-tying materials. Since there was no machinery made for processing and dyeing, he had to make his own. It took years to create the necessary tools and machinery as well as to learn the ropes of purchasing, dyeing and processing materials. Tom likes to joke that one of the company’s two warehouse buildings contains all of the mistakes Wapsi has made over the years. Today, Tom is still the first person in the building every day and the last to leave every evening. During the weekends, Tom is busy tinkering in his workshop devising new machinery or processes of producing the finest fly-tying materials.
Sponsors for the Trout Hall of Fame Banquet are Integrity First Bank, First Security Bank, Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation and The Stephens Group. Tickets to the auction and Hall of Fame banquet are$50/person and are available at Dally’s Ozark Fly Fisher, Mountain Home Chamber of Commerce, First Security Bank, Integrity First Bank, First National Banking Company, Rivertown Gallery, TLC Bank, KTLO Radio Station, Norfork Fly Shop and at ASUMH in the Office of Development. For information, contact Sarah Sikes at (870) 508-6105.
ASU-Mountain Home 