Wyoming governors historically love hosting the One Shot Antelope Hunt in Lander.  Gov. Matt Mead is no exception and will be hosting his fourth hunt on Sept. 20.

         The hunt now in its 71st year is a competition where three-man teams compete to see who can kill Pronghorn bucks the quickest and with just one shot each. Governors invite other governors and the competition is keen. Last year, Mead also invited former Vice President Dick Cheney.

         As someone who has been attending these events for over 40 years, it brings back some memories.

         Some years ago then-Gov. Dave Freudenthal invited then-Gov. Joe Manchin of West Virginia to the hunt along with Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas.

         I interviewed Manchin and quoted him about hoping that coal production would rise and increase its share of our national energy from 51 percent to 57 percent.  Now, it is barely above 40 percent.

         Wyoming as #1 coal producer in the country and Manchin’s West Virginia, the #2 coal producer, planned to work together to make coal the energy source of choice.  The goal was to end dependence on Middle East imported oil.

         Now here we are in 2014 and that goal has been reached, but not by increasing coal usage, but by the explosive increase in the amount of oil produced here.

         Huckabee back then had his eye on the White House and was entertaining. It snowed nine inches the day of the hunt and some hunters, including Freudenthal, did not get off a shot.

         Huckabee complained about walking around in rain, hail, snow and 40 mph winds.  “Nobody back in Arkansas will believe I was snowed on in September,” he said. “One thing I did learn up on South Pass, though,” he said.  “I now know where Jimmy Hoffa is buried.”

         American heroes like Chuck Yeager, Joe Foss and Jimmy Doolittle competed.  Over 20 astronauts shot and often won.

         Greatest hunt ever was 1974 when Soviet cosmonauts and American astronauts competed against each other. Later, they linked up in space.  My news story was headlined: “Astronauts, cosmonauts hold One Shot reunion in space.”

         The One Shot is the original competitive outdoor sporting event.  It’s the Super Bowl of Shooting Sports.  It’s been copied but never duplicated.

With large numbers of Past Shooters returning again this year, the spirits of those great hunters who have gone on to happier hunting grounds will be lingering in the area:

         • The sound of the magnificent singing voice of famed opera tenor Lauritz Melchior, a long-time booster of the One-Shot, was in evidence for over a decade.  Other great warblers like Tennessee Ernie Ford also shot and sang.

         • Then there was co-founder, Harold Evans, sharing a joke with his great pal, Harold Dahl Sr. Did they realize just what they were cooking up when they dreamed up the One Shot over a campfire seven decades ago?  Harold was a regular columnist in my newspaper and a great friend.

         • Or great cowboys such as Roy Rogers, Montee Montana, Slim Pickens, Tex Ritter, Guy Madison and Casey Tibbs. Who could forget seeing Slim riding around Lander on the hood of a car, much like he rode the atomic bomb in the movie Doctor Strangelove.

         • Then there were the great stories by former Governor Lester Hunt, a native of Lander.  The local airport, known as Hunt Field, was named after him, not after the One Shot.      

         • Former Governor and 12-time shooter Ed Herschler`s personality is missed along with former Governor Nels Smith, who shot on that first Wyoming team. I remember one time when a rookie Game and Fish warden came upon Herschler’s freshly killed buck.  As he was checking it out, the governor’s gravelly voice cracked: “Son, how’d you like to be transferred to Wamsutter?”   Ed loved the One Shot and competed more than any other shooter.  In a fit of pique once, he stood before a crowd of 800 people and admitted, “I’m a sh*tty shooter!”

         • Or the historical record keeping of Tommy Thompson and Earl Kurtz, who pioneered the pictorial which this writer had the honor of perpetuating for 25 years.

         • Or rocket men like Werner Von Braun and astronauts Deke Slayton, Jim Lovell and Jack Swigert Jr. 

         • Or airline mogul Robert Six and wife Audrey Meadows.

          The spirits of many friends of Lander and of the One-Shot will be here during One Shot weekend along with the hundreds of living kindred spirits . . . all gathered to celebrate the greatest shooting event ever.