David Priest, interviewed by William Warner

1288 David Priest, interviewed by William Warner, September 26, 1979 – March 9, 1980, Winn, Maine. Priest, a retired game warden, talks about his life and work in the Maine woods; his interest in hunting, trapping, and fishing as a child; trapping as more profitable than service as a game warden, which led him to abandon his first stint as a game warden; the seasonal cycle of trapping and working as a fishing guide; application process to become a game warden; responsibilities of a game warden in the late 1940s and early 1950s; the methods of gangs whose business was selling poached deer to hunters; changes over time in how confiscated illegal game and road kill was distributed; anecdotes from his years as a game warden; skinning animals and preparing the pelts; techniques of deer poachers; hunting bobcats with dogs; emotional connection and respect for the animals he hunted and trapped; bears terrorizing lumber crews; guns and which guns he used for specific purposes; his childhood in the 1920s and entering the workforce during the early 1930s; using skunk scent in traps; various traps for bear and beaver; legal manner of trapping, his dislike of Maine game laws, particularly those which allow Native Americans exemptions; combat in Italy during WWII; a poem about game wardens written by a fellow warden; changes in trappers’ attitudes and methods over time; definition of “woods queer” and an example of such a man; multiple cases of searching for people lost in the woods; hunting porcupines; apprehending poachers; discussion of photographs; release of caribou onto Mt. Katahdin; tragedies on Mt. Katahdin; use of his woodsman and hunting skills in the Army; poisoning foxes; odd jobs that made him money during his childhood; traditional medicine used by his grandmother; canoe designs and which ones are most useful for which tasks; cookouts as an outdoor guide; cases where the legal system did not serve justice, particularly as regards to unjust and biased judges; night hunting and apprehending poachers; pine martins and ways to trap them; responsibilities of an outdoor guide; varieties of snowshoes and materials used to make them; a notable poacher who used a plane to spot.