Here's the package I submitted for Don. If someone wants to resubmit it, go for it. I left off his phone number and address. If someone wants to resubmit, get up with me and I'll provide that info.
NTA Hall of Fame Nomination for Donald D. Shumaker
Full Name – Don D. Shumaker
Address -
Telephone Number –
Date of Birth – 09/26/1948
Place of birth – At home in Buckingham County, Virginia
Accomplishments:
1. Contributions to local, district, state and national organizations.
Served in various positions in the Virginia Trappers Association. Worked with NTA, FTA and many state associations while editing trappers publications. Donated time and money to many of them. Performed many demos at conventions. Has acted as a lobbyist to preserve our hunting and trapping rights on several fronts.
2. Contributions to trapper education, including information such as articles and books written for publication, etc.
Helped author the original trapper education manual for the V.T.A . Was the program director and instructor to teach the first group of instructors. Participated in many trapper education classes. Taught the basics of trapping to game warden trainees for the state of Virginia. He wrote numerous trapping articles (100’s) for many trapping and outdoor publications. He wrote one book, “Profitable Outdoor Ventures” and will soon publish a second one, titled “Woodsbum”.
3. Contributions to the Trapping Field.
He has always been involved with educating the public, landowners, trappers and other sportsmen in the ways of trapping methods and always stressed good ethics. This has been a lifelong commitment all over the country. He was the editor for the Trapper Magazine. He was the publisher and editor for Trapper’s World magazine.
4. Achievements and Accomplishments in the Trapping field.
He was inducted into the Virginia Trapper’s Hall of Fame. He has received several awards from various trapping organizations for work done to promote trapping. He was able to make most or all of his living by trapping, guiding, writing and teaching trapping most of his life. Has trapped for the USF & W Service, various state agencies, timber companies and cattlemen from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean to the Rocky Mountains. He has trapped bear, mountain lion, coyote, red and grey fox, bobcat, beaver, otter, coon, muskrat, skunk, mink, weasel, opossum, badger, swift fox, rabbits, squirrels and groundhogs.
5. Areas worked geographically.
Virginia, Nebraska, Montana, Arizona and New Mexico
6. True anecdotes and accomplishments made in the trapping field.
He caught his first animal in a trap, a groundhog, in a number one longspring trap when he was 6 years old. That same year he caught his first skunk, possum, muskrat and coon. His father and Uncle Marshall gladly helped him in his endeavors and even had to actually set some of the stronger springed traps for him to put in place. As he grew older, he set more traps and ranged further from home on foot trap lines. He caught his first mink around 1960 and his first fox, a red, shortly after that.
7. Family information, including ancestors and descendants.
Mother – Berta G. Shumaker
Father - Tommy G. Shumaker
Wife - Elizabeth C. Shumaker
Children – Felicia D. Taylor, (Stepdaughter)
8. Submit Photograph if available.
![[Linked Image]](https://trapperman.com/forum/attachments/usergals/2022/02/full-3-127781-don2.jpg)
9. A brief life story of the nominee.
On September 26, 1948 he was born in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, in Buckingham County, Virginia. He was delivered by a midwife. Both parents were Christians and they were raised in the local Baptist Church.
His father was a trapper and so was one uncle who lived near them. All of his uncles were hunters, fishermen and true woodsmen. They were simple, country people who lived off the land, farming, trapping, hunting and logging. At a very early age he developed a fascination for all things wild and the woods were his home whenever he could take a break from farm chores and work. Meat for the table was home butchered beef, pork, venison, wild turkey, coons, groundhogs, squirrel, fish, rabbits, home grown chickens, quail, bear and even possum.
As a teenager, he was (and still am) consumed by trapping. Most of the money he ever had to spend on anything came from the proceeds of the sales of fur. His guns, ammo, fishing tackle, trapping supplies and some of his clothes were bought this way. His parents did not have money for such things. There were times when he got paid bounty money for removing groundhogs, foxes, crows and owls. While a teenager in high school, he caught the first otter that had been seen in years in his county. After that, he caught bobcats before people even knew any were around.
After high school he worked all over the U.S. for a gas pipeline construction company and fell in love with the west. They were laid off in the winter and he hunted and trapped for his living during the lay offs. In the late 60’s he was up for the draft so he joined the U.S. Marines with a buddy of his, and they were soon in the thick of the Vietnam War. He was wounded several times but much luckier than his friend who was killed over there.
After Vietnam, he worked at several jobs and even had a thriving business of his own for some time, but he was never happy or content with much of any of it. His heart, soul and body belonged to the woods, the waters and the places off the beaten path. He went back to the trapline full time as fur prices rose in the 70’s and was a happy man.
He was offered the job as editor of The Trapper and Predator Caller magazine took it and moved to Nebraska. It was a super job, a great experience, but he was still restless. He took a job back in Virginia as Executive Director for a program for the Department of Game and Fish. Another great job with great pay but he grew tired of politics, suits and neckties, living in the city and dining with governors, senators and movie stars. He went back to the woods and has been there ever since.
Guiding, trapping, writing, commercial fishing, training hounds and giving seminars have provided him with an often meager but happy living.
He went to college on his G.I. Bill but never saw any related job he really wanted, trapping was always his preferred game, whether it be for fur or ADC trapping. It is what he is – a trapper.
Nomination Submitted By_______Paul J. Dobbins____________
Signature_________________________________________________________
I am a member of the National Trappers Association. __X__YES
Address______208 Earl Dr.________________________
City___Goldsboro_____State_North Carolina_Zip____27530________
Telephone Number(s) 919-580-0621 (home)
![[Linked Image]](http://sniperstrappingplace.com/greysig.png)
