For some people, hunting for “sport” implies frivolity—it’s killing for fun—but for participating students at Houghton College, it is a sacred experience that is widely misunderstood.
Hunters are perpetually accused of recklessly chasing adrenaline and intentionally using weaponry that brings animals cruel deaths. However, listening to some who participate in the sport reveals that it can be perceived as an art—an expression or application of human creative skill and imagination.
Beginning their day before light, hunters spend an extended period of time observing their prey’s behaviors, habits, and tracks. Sporting garb that blends them with their tree-stands, hunters sit in oneness with the woods to assure the animals that their habitat is safe and secure. Though it may take hours, applying this tact and developing strategy to outwit their game is half the enjoyment for hunters.
Additionally hunting is an investment—hobbyists pay to participate in this pastime. Each year, hunters must purchase hunting licenses and sometimes pay to hunt on the specific land they’d like to explore.
“There is much more to hunting than killing animals,” said senior Austin Groff, “Not only is it is beneficial for wildlife management, but it provides good food.” After hunting for almost 10 years, Groff described a feeling of satisfaction that came each time he worked to hunt and harvest an animal.
For Groff and others, hunting has also served as a way to experience the beauty of God’s creation. Sophomore Aaron Eisenhardt reminisced, “Bow hunting in the fall is awesome…sitting in the tree stand with the trees resembling the colors of fall all around me.”
Situated on the site of a former Caneadea Indian Reservation amidst 1,300 acres, Houghton College has delivered an ideal environment for hunting hobbyists. Having grown up close by in Fillmore, first year Jordan Mullen was eager to stay close to the land in which he grew up hunting. “Hunting is the way I take myself out of the busy world and experience nature in its true form,” he said. For Groff, “sitting in the woods in itself, for hours, is enjoyable.”
Mullen has been enjoying hunting with his dad since the age of seven. “I have shared some of the greatest bonds with my friends and family in the woods,” he said, “the perception is that it’s a savage and brutal time, but that’s false.” For Eisenhardt and senior Jordan Sloat, hunting was also shared as a father-son activity beginning at a very young age. “I grew up around it, my whole family hunts, I was born into it,” said Sloat.
“For someone who has never hunted before,” Eisenhardt explained, “It is hard to describe the reason why I enjoy it.” He encourages his peers to find an opportunity to get out and try it for themselves.