Outlaws and lawmen
“Well, I was never a big fan of going out in a boat at night on the river. I’d say that, if you weren’t about 98% afraid of doing it, then you shouldn’t be out there at all,” said Game Warden Don Simonson. He continued, “Pretty intense – the Mississippi River is so unpredictable. All kinds of debris come down that river. You gotta have a helluva lot of respect for it.”
Mississippi River??? For those who don’t know, the Mississippi River borders the State of Iowa for more than 300 miles. And for 35 years, Iowa Game Warden Don Simonson patrolled approximately 35 miles of it in the southeastern part of the state. For game wardens, no matter where they’re from, it doesn’t really matter whether they’re afraid or not. If they want to keep drawing a check, they do what the job asks of them. Ever since I read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in high school, I’ve been fascinated with the Mississippi River. And after I’d been a game warden for a while with some boat time under my belt, I often wondered what it’d be like to work somewhere along the line of the 2340-mile Mighty Mississippi.
That’s where Don comes in. Recently, he told me about a case he worked one night back in 1981. He got a report of two brothers, “Doc” (the elder) and “Leonard”, who were illegally fishing up the Skunk River from where it empties into the Mississippi.
Doc and Leonard were commercial fishermen. As such, they were allowed to run hoop nets in the Mississippi, for blue, channel and flathead catfish. The Skunk was off-limits to hoop nets, which is why when placed there, the prospect of a bountiful harvest increased significantly. It follows, that the best way to not get caught when engaging in illegal activities is to do them when the chances of being seen doing them are minimal, i.e., at night. So that’s when they went. After running their nets in the Skunk, all Doc and Leonard had to do to get away with their ill-gotten-fish-booty was to get back to the Mississippi before anyone paid them any mind.
It so happened, that Don caught wind about Doc and Leonard’s bad behavior, so he and his partner came up with a plan. Using a drag (basically a small grappling hook tied to a line and drug alongside, or behind, a boat as it drifts with the current) they located three illegal hoop nets up the Skunk. One night, they dropped off another warden they’d recruited, we’ll call him “Lowell”, to sit watch over two of the hoop nets they’d found. Don’s partner waited upriver in the Skunk, while Don laid in wait along an island in the Mississippi that afforded him a good view of the mouth of the Skunk.
Sometime around midnight, Doc and Leonard made their run. Lowell saw them run three hoop nets in the Skunk and radioed the other two wardens. Don worked his way in behind Doc and Leonard to catch them before they made it home free to the Mississippi. And catch them – I mean HIM – he did. When Don shined the spotlight on the violator’s boat, which was so packed down with fish it barely had the freeboard to float, only one man was aboard - Leonard.
Much to Don’s chagrin, Doc had taken a swim. The wardens gathered up and searched for Doc for a while, but eventually they had to move on to other business. Leonard didn’t seem to be too upset about his brother bailing on him and ended up taking the wrap for the whole deal. The fish were confiscated and sold, tickets were issued, and fines were, eventually, paid.
But that wasn’t the end of it. Every now and again, Don would see Doc driving through town, and, every time, Doc just smiled and waved. One day, Don stopped Doc and asked him, “What gives?” Smiling even bigger, Leonard said, “I just like to smile and wave at the game warden.”
And so, I believe it is now, and I know it was then, with outlaws and lawmen.
Jon Brauchle spent 29 years as a game warden.
