By Caleb McClain
“The President gets the first bear.” That was the command given to Holt Collier, a seasoned bear hunter with over 2,000 trophies to his name, and the greater hunting party the night before the hunt commenced. Little did anyone present know the impact this trip would have on American history.
If there was ever a real-life Forrest Gump, it was Collier. Born into slavery on the Hinds Family Plantation in the mid-1840s, he was the plantation’s meat hunter by the age of ten. When the Civil War broke out, he insisted on fighting alongside his commander, Colonel Hinds. After being denied, he snuck away and sailed up the Mississippi River to meet Colonel Hinds in Memphis, where he enlisted. He fought at Shiloh, witnessing General Johnston’s death, and later fought under the Ninth Texas Cavalry until he mustered out at the end of the war.
After the war, Collier killed a Union commander whom he felt had treated Colonel Hinds unfairly, escaped from prison with the help of his Civil War regiment, and was later deputized. He knew statesmen and commoners alike and was highly respected by all. Eventually, he returned to his roots as a hunter, pursuing bears for the booming hide market.
Roosevelt’s Famed Mississippi Bear Hunt
By 1902, when he was guiding Theodore Roosevelt, Collier and other market hunters had nearly wiped out all but a few remaining bears in Mississippi, which were now found only deep in the interior of the Delta. By this time, it had become fashionable for Northern tourists to travel South for traditional hunts. Collier capitalized on this opportunity and became regarded as the best guide in Mississippi.
“Mr. President, you stay here, and I’ll drive the bear to you,” he instructed.
However, Teddy had no interest in staying put; he wanted to hunt the bear on horseback, even after being warned that the brush was too thick for this method. When the hounds began barking, he galloped in for the kill. Collier’s hounds cornered the bear exactly where he had indicated, but no shots were fired.
Collier hurried to where his “finishing dog,” a Scotch terrier named Jacko, was and got to work. Still attempting to give Roosevelt the first opportunity, Collier approached the bear with a lasso in one hand and a rifle in the other. When Jacko jumped on the bear, it whipped around, allowing Collier to lasso it. The bear was not about to give up, so Holt took his rifle by the barrel and swung it at the bear’s head. He struck the bear so hard that its skull cracked, damaging his rifle to the point that he could no longer shoot.
Print the Legend
When the President and the other hunters arrived, someone convinced Roosevelt that the optics of him killing a bear tied to a tree wouldn’t look good to the press buzzing around the camp. Agreeing, he let another man kill the bear with a knife.
When he rode into camp with the bear tied across his horse, the press asked if the President had killed the bear. “If he had stayed where I put him, he would’ve got this one,” Collier responded. And that’s exactly what every major newspaper published the next day.
Roosevelt did not kill his bear on that trip, instead having to come back in 1907 where he killed one after a good chase on horseback. Aside from a single book written about him and a National Wildlife Refuge named in his honor, Holt Collier remains largely forgotten in American history. However, the fruits of this hunt—the teddy bear—remain in every child’s room.
