%20ThomasSparks.jpg)
became my responsibility to pick up the mounted head. After I got
to know Mr. Sparks there was a ritual that had to be carried out
every time I would load his buck into the truck."Young...I like you," Tom would say with a grin, "but if anything ever happens to Old Buck, don't ever come back."
It was easy for me at that point, knowing how much 'Old Buck' meant to him and his whole family, to guarantee that if anything ever DID happen to Old Buck...well, he would never see me again! Although the whole exchange was said only in semi-seriousness, it became an amusing sidelight shared between us.
On a beautiful November morning back in the fall of 1975, Mr. Tom was easing through the Ozark Mountains of extreme northwestern Arkansas. He was actually hunting less than a mile north of his home place, and 'within seein' distance' of the Oklahoma border. He was carrying his favorite Marlin .30-30, freshly equipped with a new-fangled scope 'the kids' had just presented him for his birthday.
"I couldn't hardly see nothin' through it," Mr. Sparks grinned at the memory, "but I wouldn't have took it off for the world. It was a gift . . . from family you know.''
As he slipped carefully along, Tom could hear dogs running somewhere far off to the south. Hound hunting was a time-honored tradition in the mountains back in those days, and hunting dogs are still used in many areas today. After cresting a steep rise, the slipping hunter paused briefly to catch his breath, and to listen to the faraway 'hound music'.
Suddenly three deer crashed over the ridge crest some 75 yards away . . . two bucks and a doe! Through the troublesome scope Mr. Sparks could see that one of the bucks was far larger than the other. He finally managed to center the crosshairs on the animal's swollen neck, then fired as the three animals whirled and headed in his direction.
At the blast of the rifle the largest buck cartwheeled into the bottom of the draw! The two remaining animals, confused as to the direction of the shot, continued running directly toward the now-startled hunter! While the second buck hurtled toward him, Tom tried frantically to find him in the scope, but the animal was so close all he could see was brown hair!
"Yessir,'' the memory of the day was accompanied by the hearty laugh never far from Tom's lips, "I missed that son-of-a-gun at no more'un ten steps. Why, he nearly run over me as he came down that draw!''
After field dressing the big 10-point, which Tom estimated had a live weight of more than 275 pounds, he wrestled him to the truck and then drove into nearby Evansville to have him checked. While he was there he ran into his son Jim, who took one look into the back of the truck and exclaimed "Dad, you've killed an elk!''
But as was the case with most mountain folk of that time, Mr. Sparks was a 'meat hunter' first. The beautiful long-tined rack, while certainly to be admired, was merely sawn off and hung on the Sparks' bedroom wall. It was to remain there until the day some fifteen years later when another son, Tom Jr., read the story of the recent taking of Frankie Felton's 'Queen of Hearts' buck in Arkansas Sportsman magazine. That Independence County 5x5 was Arkansas/ first B&C book buck in nearly 25 years!
"Dad, look at this," Tom showed Mr. Sparks the photo which accompanied the article. "Why your buck is a lot bigger than this one."
As it turned out, Tom Jr. was right. Officially scored later that year by Craig Uyeda, the Natural Dam buck netted 189 0/8 typical points. That figure meant the Thomas Sparks buck was the largest typical whitetail ever taken in this state, ranking just ahead of the Walter Spears' buck. In addition, 'Old Buck' was also the largest whitetail taken in the entire Southeast up until that time! Today it remains the largest ever taken by a hunter, listed only behind a Kentucky buck found dead by William Burrell during the winter of 1977!