Group announces first six inductees, including Elias and Pittman
Mississippi’s outdoor heritage, featuring the names that helped form it, will soon have a home, according to two groups pushing to build a museum in the Delta.
The Mississippi Wildlife Heritage Foundation and the Leland Chamber of Commerce established the Mississippi Outdoor Hall of Fame and have chosen its first six members.
Foundation director Billy Johnson of Leland announced recently that Holt Collier, Fannye Cook, Billy Joe Cross, Paul Elias, Preston Pittman and Eddie Slater are the first inductees.
The Hall of Fame will be located in the Mississippi Wildlife Heritage Museum that Johnson hopes will open in Leland in 2016.
“Mississippi outdoorsmen and women have contributed so much to enhance one of our state’s best known assets – hunting and fishing,” Johnson said. “It’s time to honor them and showcase the rich heritage that we have.”
Johnson said the Mississippi Wildlife Heritage Museum will be the first of its kind in the state, and that its mission statement is “to preserve the history, heritage and traditions of hunting, fishing and the great outdoors in Mississippi. To honor the people that have been a part of it, and to educate the public on the vast natural resources of the great state of Mississippi.”
The museum will chronicle the evolution of hunting and fishing in Mississippi as well as the outdoor photographers and artists that have portrayed it. The museum will contain over 3,000 vintage photos, firearms, fishing rods and pieces of outdoor equipment. A special area in the museum will feature the state’s duck and turkey call makers.
“People come from around the world to hunt and fish in Mississippi so it is only fitting that we recognize this great heritage through the proposed Mississippi Wildlife Heritage Museum and Mississippi Outdoor Hall of Fame,” said Wesley Smith, executive director of the Washington County Convention & Visitors Bureau. “We look forward to seeing this project come to fruition and to the economic benefits it will produce.”
Pittman sure likes the idea, and the honor of being among the first six inductees to the Hall of Fame.
“This is the most prestigious honor that could be bestowed on me by my home state,” said Pittman, already a member of the National Outdoor Hall of Fame. “I am honored to be selected. I love Mississippi and its people and am proud to be part of its outdoor industry.”
Pittman is one of the most popular outdoorsmen in America, and most recognizable. He is a five-time world champion turkey caller and his game calls are sold all over the world.
Collier earned national acclaim as a hunter after guiding President Theodore Roosevelt on a successful bear hunt. Roosevelt wrote one of eight stories written about Collier that appeared in national magazines. A national wildlife refuge near Darlove is named in his honor.
Cook was Mississippi’s pioneer conservationist. Realizing Mississippi was the only state in the union without a game and fish department, she went on a crusade across the state appearing at county fairs and the state fair gathering enough support to convince the legislature to form one. She wrote the state’s first game laws, and was the first director of the Mississippi Natural Science Museum. She trained workers all over the state to collect, catalogue and preserve wildlife specimens. Cook went on to open 18 more wildlife related museums as well as authoring books on our state’s wildlife.
Billy Joe Cross wore many hats during his long career: executive director of the Mississippi Game and Fish Commission; president of the Southeast Executive Wildlife Directors Association; president of the Mississippi Flyways Council; Southeast Director of Ducks Unlimited; food editor for Ducks Unlimited publications; and nationally recognized chef with 17 cookbooks to his credit.
A successful bass fisherman, Elias is a member of the National Fishing Hall of Fame, and has won over $1 million in his professional bass fishing career, spanning over three decades. He won the 1982 Bassmasters Classic and at 58 set the current BASS record for a four-day tournament at 132 pounds, 8 ounces.
Slater became a household name in the crappie fishing world, not only for his fish-catching ability but also for product design. The Slater Jig remains one of the most effective crappie lures in the country, and is especially effective in Mississippi River oxbow lakes.
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For more information on the Mississippi Outdoor Hall of Fame, visit http://msoutdoorhalloffame.com/.
For outdoor enthusiasts who wish to donate items to the museum, contact Billy Johnson at 662-347-4223.
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