Twenty-one years of Deer Camp, a tradition of brothers and friends

Growing up in small Northwest Missouri towns, you come to enjoy that fact that even after you graduate, you still keep those bonds of friendship. Deer Camp for these men has meant camping in some cold barns, tents and even on the ground. That still has not deterred them from their annual Deer Camp, which they have all come to look forward to in November.

This year marked 21 years since the beginning of Deer Camp. Members have been added over the years, including a school principal who retired and decided to get in the mix.

The distance doesn’t seem to matter. One member comes from Wichita, KS, each year and stays the whole week, just to hunt and hang around the “younger” fellows. He might be a few years older than they are, but he’s never behind a step when it comes to walking into the timber before light.

And then there’s the “coffee man” who gets something hot in everyone’s thermos before dawn.

Now the younger ones that have been born into this tradition have come to anticipate this time even as much as their fathers and uncles.

Not many men in their twenties that live in Colorado, who have the opportunity to take on the Rockies, would pick a week’s vacation in Northwest Missouri over that, but it does happen — when you’ve been raised in Deer Camp.

Let’s give credit to the brothers and friends that got this tradition started back in the late 1990s. It was a time to get together, share some stories and homemade grub, and also to know that it might be another year before it starts all over again.

The starting line has grown, not to mention the friends that now stop by Deer Camp, which has moved to a heated garage.

It’s a known fact that the driveway is full on Ogden Street, when everyone stops by to swap a story and snack.

One thing about it, no matter who got the deer from year to year, the companionship they all feel for others makes them deer hunting “brothers,” related by blood or not!

Front row kneeling, James Critten, Alex Critten, John Agenstein, Victor Nelson, Mike Fatkin, Nathan Nelson, and Hunter Nelson; back row standing, Chris Elbert, Bill Nelson, Steve Agenstein, and Jim Nelson.