Bowhunter – September 2019

120 OWHUNTERB ///SEPTEMBER 2019

IT IS WITHGREATtrepidationthatI nowputpentopaper

(metaphoricallyspeaking).Thetaskbeforemeisdaunting.

I havebeenchosentoauthorthiscolumn—Dwight’s

column.Indoing so,I havebeengiventhegreathonor

ofsteppingintotheshoesof a bowhuntingicon,outdoor-

writinglegend,anda tirelesschampionofourcause.

Dwight

“WEARELIKEDWARFSSITTINGONTHESHOULDERSOFGIANTS.WE

SEEMORE,ANDTHINGSTHATAREMOREDISTANT,THANTHEYDID,NOT

BECAUSEOURSIGHTISSUPERIORORBECAUSEWEARETALLERTHAN

THEY,BUTBECAUSETHEYRAISEUSUP,ANDBYTHEIRGREATSTATURE

ADDTOOURS.—JOHNOFSALISBURY 1 159

andy Ulmer

I humbly submit that I am neither wor-

thy nor talented enough to do so. I could

never, and will never, fill his shoes.

However, the torch has been handed to

me, so I must grasp it firmly and move for-

ward. Dwight Schuh was my mentor for a

very long time. Perhaps that fact alone will

be my saving grace. For 30 years, I was his

friend and his disciple. And for that privi-

lege, I will be forever grateful.

Hopefully, I have garnered a modicum

of understanding, merely by brushing up

against his greatness — dipping a toe into

the well of his wisdom. Proximity and time, I

pray, will prove enough for me. As I have said

before, Dwight’s writings have graced these

pages; my writings will merely occupy them.

For those of you who did not know

Dwight, let me tell you a little about him —

exactly why who he was is so important to us

going forward:

LOVE FOR THE WILDERNESS. William

Shakespeare once wrote: “Things won are

done, joy’s soul lies in the doing.” Dwight

thoroughly embraced “the doing.” This was

the core principle he so desperately tried to

instill in each and every one of his readers.

He was an evangelical, crusading for the

spirituality one acquires only through the

wilderness experience.

He personally discovered, early on, that

the outdoors, and bowhunting in particu-

lar, could fill the empty place inside the soul

of modern man. He had a uniquely erudite

perspective and a sage’s intuition. He had a

probing, inquisitive mind. These attributes

led him to develop a deep understanding

of the fundamental elements necessary

to nourish our primordial craving — the

craving for wilderness that lies hidden deep

within the human psyche.

Dwight drank in all of nature. And he

relished it. Most importantly, he wanted us

to relish it, too.

A MAN OF HEART. Nowadays, people are

willing to trade in their dignity for a moment

or more of exposure on an electronic screen.

Heroes worth emulating are exceedingly

rare in our world of internet/television driv-

en, self-promotional, f leeting fame. These

Dwight wannabes, with hands calloused

only by a dumbbell and a selfie stick, choose

exuberance over eloquence, f lamboyancy

and fluff over guts and grit. These imposters,

in the end, prove to be more silicone than

substance.

As a man grows older, he sees beyond

this hyperbole and realizes there are, indeed,

very few people worthy of idolizing. Dwight

was one of those rare specimens — a man

truly worth emulating.

Dwight was not an elitist intellectual,

pontificating from an ivory tower. He was

willing to crawl into the arena and get dirty

and bloody, fighting to preserve the lifestyle

he loved. However, in spite of his passion, he

refused to let the battle for our rights con-

sume him.

Dwight’s flame, his yearning to live life to

the fullest through adventure and challenge,

never grew dim. He was guided by his heart,

his savior, and a love for remote country. He

was an extremist mountain bowhunter —

the pioneer and true absolute of the term.

Dwight truly was my hero.

I want to leave you with a paragraph from

Edward Abbey, an outdoor enthusiast and

an Arizona boy, just like me. It pretty much

sums up Dwight’s attitude on the subject:

“Do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am

— a reluctant enthusiast... a part-time cru-

sader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other

half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure

and adventure. It is not enough to fight for

the land; it is even more important to enjoy

it. While you can. While it’s still here. So

get out there and hunt and fish and mess

around with your friends, ramble out yon-

der and explore the forests, encounter the

grizz, climb the mountains, bag the peaks,

run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet

and lucid air, sit quiet for a while and con-

template the precious stillness, that lovely,

mysterious and awesome space. Enjoy your-

selves, keep your brain in your head and

your head firmly attached to the body, the

body active and alive, and I promise you this

much: I promise you this one sweet victory

over our enemies, over those desk-bound

men and women with their hearts in a safe

deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by a

desk calculator. I promise you will outlive

the bastards.”

If Dwight were here, he would heartily

s ay, A M E N!

FIGHTING FOR THE CAUSE. Dwight

valued the wilderness and all that it em-

bodied. He believed in defending it, too. So,

take up Dwight’s banner. Fight for what we

have...our outdoor legacy. Don’t acquiesce.

Don’t allow our rights nor our privileges

to be wrested from our grip. Don’t ever let

this wonderful thing that we all share dis-

appear.

I know Dwight wouldn’t.

In memoriam, I implore each of you to

think about what drives you. What fulfills

you? Why do you love the outdoors? Why

do you hunt? What does the future hold for

us as well as for our children? How can you

help perpetuate Dwight’s legacy?

But most importantly, know this:

If Dwight were here, right now, he would

surely just hop the back fence, ramble out

yonder, and do something.

So, gird your loins, don your pack, grab

your bow, and venture forth.

Be like Dwight!