Boone and Crockett Club

In December 1887, a dinner was held by Theodore Roosevelt at his home in New York City and was attended by 10 of his friends, all hunting enthusiasts. Among the attendees were Dr. George Bird Grinnell, then editor of Field and Stream magazine, Roosevelt’s cousin, and Roosevelt’s brother. At the dinner Theodore Roosevelt proposed that the guests form an organization to promote sport with the rifle and work for the preservation of the large game of North America.

The first formal meeting of the Boone and Crockett Club was held in February 1888. Those present elected Theodore Roosevelt as President of the Club. The administrative duties of the Club would fall to an Executive Committee and Executive Officers. An editorial committee, with George Bird Grinnell as chair, was formed to prepare publications that promoted the Club’s conservation message. American Big-Game Hunting, by George Bird Grinnell and Theodore Roosevelt, was the first volume published by the Club and was released in October of 1893 by Forest and Stream Publishing Company. This volume was followed by several more game-related publications in collaboration with Forest and Stream Publishing Company.

A Committee on Admissions was formed at the Club’s first meeting. Membership was to be kept to 100 in order to keep administrative work to a minimum so that officers could be free to use their time for the goals of the Club. It was decided that regular membership requirements included killing “in fair chase” one specimen of three species of the larger game mammals of North America. Associate memberships were conferred upon men who did not meet these requirements but were prominent members of the hunting and conservation community. Another committee was appointed “to promote useful and proper legislation toward the enlargement and better management of Yellowstone National Park.” This committee, along with additional Club members, was instrumental in the passage of the Yellowstone Park Protective Act of 1895.

In 1910, a Game Preservation Committee was appointed with George Bird Grinnell as chair. This committee lent its support to the passage of conservation laws and policies such as the Alaska Game Law, the establishment of Glacier and Mt. McKinley National Parks, a bill to enlarge Yellowstone National Park, and many forest reserve and game refuge bills. The Club was able to lend effective support to conservation efforts due to its number of notable members, including Aldo Leopold, Gifford Pinchot, Theodore Roosevelt, Grinnell, Charles Sheldon, John F. Lacey, Stephen Mather, Jay N. “Ding” Darling, and many other prominent conservationists.

Between the years 1906 and 1922, Club member William T. Hornaday began collecting and cataloging exceptional big game heads. This collection became the National Collection of Heads and Horns and was displayed at the Bronx Zoo in New York City beginning in 1922. The Club assumed ownership of the National Collection of Heads and Horns in 1978 and the collection is currently available for viewing at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming.

The National Collection of Heads and Horns and the early conservation efforts of the Club sparked an interest in some members for big game records keeping. In the early 1930s, the Boone and Crockett Club began to assemble data on the maximum size attained by various species of North American big game. Prentiss N. Gray published the Club’s first big game records book titled Records of North American Big Game in conjunction with the National Collection of Heads and Horns in 1932. A second edition followed in 1939. These editions marked the first time that North American big game records were collected, authenticated, and published.

In 1947, the Club formed a Conservation Committee under the chairmanship of Richard Borden of the National Wildlife Federation. The Conservation Committee endorsed bills and produced policy statements for conservation, and was instrumental in saving the Florida Key Deer from extinction and establishing a Key Deer refuge in 1957. The Club also began supporting big game research through small monetary grants in 1948. Through oversight of the Conservation Committee, the Club contributed to numerous wildlife research projects including predator-prey relationships in Alaska, moose-wolf relationships on Isle Royale National Park, research on grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park, and many others. In 1972, the Conservation Committee established an official Grant-in-Aid Subcommittee to oversee grant proposals. The Grant-in-Aid program continues today as the William I. Spencer Conservation Grants Program. The program is supported by endowments named for William I. Spencer and Tim Hixon.

In 1947, the Club held their first annual Big Game Competition. Supervision of the Competition was the responsibility of the Boone and Crockett Club’s Records of North American Big Game Committee, which was established in 1935. Winners were chosen by a judges’ panel based on skull length, antler or horn length, and basal circumference. The popularity of the competition and the records books led the Club to consider establishing an objective scoring system that could be used by trophy holders to measure their own specimens. In 1949, the Club appointed a committee, chaired by longtime Club member Samuel B. Webb, to develop the Official Scoring System for North American Big Game Trophies. In 1950, the system was adopted by the Club and soon became the standard for measuring North American big game. With the new scoring system in place, the Boone and Crockett Club remeasured the trophies in every category originally published in North American Big Game and published the results in a new edition records book in 1952. The system proved to be so effective it is still in use today in essentially the same form.

Editions of Records of North American Big Game were published every six to seven years after 1952 and 1993, when it was determined that records books would be published every six years. In addition to the original records books, the Club has published volumes on record elk, mule deer and whitetail deer. With collaborative oversight by Club-appointed committees and professional staff, the Boone and Crockett Club continues to publish books about hunting and conservation.

After the success of the initial Big Game Competition, the Boone and Crockett Club continued to hold annual Competitions until 1952, when competitions moved to every 2 years. In 1968, the Club moved the competitions to every three years. After the 14th North American Big Game Competition, held in 1971, the Club chose to change the name of their records program contests to the North American Big Game Awards to deemphasize the competition aspect of trophy hunting.

In 1973, the Boone and Crockett Club began collaborating with the National Rifle Association to sponsor records keeping. The tri-annual North American Big Game Awards Program was run from the Hunting Activities Department of the National Rifle Association by wildlife biologist William H. Nesbitt. The Hunting Activities Department was also responsible for processing entries into the Awards Programs and general records keeping. The Records of North American Big Game Committee of the Boone and Crockett Club retained responsibility for the polices of records keeping, including fair chase requirements, boundary identification, minimum scores, and species to include in the Awards Programs.

In December 1980, the collaboration with the National Rifle Association was dissolved and the Club assumed sole responsibility for the North American Big Game Awards Programs. In January 1981, the Club appointed William H. Nesbitt as Administrative Director for the Boone and Crockett Club’s Big Game Records program to work collaboratively with the Records of North American Big Game Committee. Currently, the administrative duties of Big Game Records are still shared by professional staff and the Records of North American Big Game Committee.

In 1985, with the help of a loan from The Nature Conservancy, the Boone and Crockett Club purchased the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Ranch, located 10 miles southwest of Dupuyer, Montana on the Rocky Mountain Front, adjacent to the Bob Marshall Wilderness and Blackleaf Wildlife Management Area. The Boone and Crockett Foundation was formed and charged with managing and directing the Ranch, which the Club uses to conduct habitat research, conservation education programs, and land management demonstrations. In 2001, the Club completed construction of the Elmer E. Rasmuson Wildlife Conservation Center at the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Ranch. The Center serves as a headquarters for the Club’s Lee and Penny Anderson Conservation Education Program, which offers education programs for people of all ages.

In 1986, the Boone and Crockett Club began publication of an Associates Newsletter which contained hunting and conservation articles and was distributed to Associate Members. This newsletter gave rise to the Club magazine Fair Chase in 1994. Fair Chase continues to be published quarterly and distributed to Associate Members of the Club.

In May of 1987, the Club entered into collaboration with The University of Montana to establish and direct research programs on the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Ranch. Additionally, a Boone and Crockett Wildlife professorship was established at the university. In late 1990, the Club formed a hiring committee for the professorship and in 1992 Hal Salwasser was hired as the first Boone and Crockett Professor of Wildlife Conservation. In addition to the collaboration with The University of Montana, the Club currently has affiliated programs at Texas A&M, Oregon State University, and Michigan State University. In 2009, all physical assets, including the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Ranch, were transferred from the Boone and Crockett Foundation to the Boone and Crockett Club. Although the Foundation no longer plays a role in the day-to-day management of the Ranch, the Foundation continues to raise funds to support and endow conservation education programs.

In 1992, the Boone and Crockett Club purchased the historic Old Milwaukee Railroad Depot on the Clark Fork River in Missoula, Montana, and relocated its headquarters there from Dumfries, Virginia. The Club continues to support its original mission of conservation and game preservation.

From the guide to the Boone and Crockett Club records, 1888-2009, (University of Montana-Missoula Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library Archives and Special Collections)