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The following story was first published in winter 2022 edition of The Riverwatch, the quarterly newsletter of The Anglers of the Au Sable.
I’m sitting in the passenger seat of Dave Smethurst’s minivan. We are cruising through a series of sharp, bumpy curves in the heart of the Pigeon River Country State Forest. It hasn’t rained in a week, and when we stop at Hardwood Creek a plume of dust from the dirt road catches up to us and envelopes the minivan. Dave offers me a pink wintergreen lozenge, you know, those cheap candies you get at the gas station that come in a clear bag that proudly proclaims they’re two for a dollar. They taste like Pepto Bismol and Dave loves them.
It’s within this dissipating dust cloud that Dave points downstream at the creek, maybe 10-feet wide, and tells me the story of catching his first trout.
“One of my fondest memories was a time that my dad and I came here about a month after we moved here from Indiana in 1969. My dad was a lifetime bass fisherman and we were just riding around- to some places I had never been- and we saw this little flicker of water through the woods which turned out to be Hardwood Creek. We walked down to it where what I later learned were two of the holding ponds for a fish hatchery that Blue Lakes Ranch operated back in the day. I flicked my spinning rod with a rubber plastic night crawler in and caught a fish, not very long, and had never seen one before. I asked my dad, “What’s this?” He said, “You know, I think I’ve seen that on the cover of a sporting magazine like Field & Stream. I think that’s a trout!” It was, and so my first trout we didn’t even know was a trout.”
Dave takes a swig of Pepsi and smiles, “And I caught it on a plastic worm.”
*
Dave was an Indiana native who landed in the Gaylord area by accident. On the way to an interview for a teaching job in Saint Ignace, Dave and his wife, Sue, stopped at Sue’s hometown of Hillman, Michigan to visit with her family. Dave was reading the local paper one morning and saw an ad for a caretaker and cook at the Blue Lakes Ranch, a 3,500 acre hunting and fishing club, in the heart of what would later become the Pigeon River Country State Forest.
Dave was intrigued by the job and so he and Sue decided to take a break from the teaching world and give the caretaker gig three years. “Three years turned into twelve, and it was a wonderful time,” Dave once told me. He got to raise a family in paradise.
In-between his caretaker duties, Dave honed his trout fishing, taking up fly fishing and teaching himself to fish for brook trout in the Black River, which formed the eastern border of the property.
At the same time, a storm was brewing. Shell Oil Company had drilled several exploratory wells in the area and was making plans to drill. Oil and gas development began in the forest in July 1970 and a heated series of legal battles followed. A group of concerned citizens, outdoorspeople and environmentalists came together in 1971 as the Pigeon River Country Association (PRCA), of which Dave was a founding member.
At the time, the Pigeon River Country State Forest (PRC) didn’t exist. What we now know as the PRC was, at the time, four separate forest areas, with four managers, and four different management ideologies. Oil companies were damaging the area, so the PRCA began doing presentations, started lawsuits and attended hearings.
As the fight progressed, Dave got a tip from a member of the Michigan legislature that the oil and gas companies were likely going to win the battle, as there was an oil embargo, and it was politically unpopular to restrict drilling. It became clear to Dave that drilling was inevitable.
That’s when Dave and his team switched strategies. Instead of fighting to keep the oil and gas operations out of the PRC entirely, they reached a compromise which allowed drilling under tightly regulated conditions. These conditions were eventually adopted throughout the state and are still in effect today. Among them were regulations and orders that allowed only the southern one-third of the Pigeon River Country State Forest to be explored for oil, while the northern two-thirds cannot be drilled. Restrictions were also placed on how close to a stream oil companies could install wells.
The legal battles lasted around five years and went all the way up to the Michigan State Supreme Court where Dave testified. During his testimony, he read Robert Traver’s (pen name of Judge John Voelker) “Testament of a Fisherman” word for word in its entirety.
Dave felt very strongly that the compromise paid off. Surface impact was reduced by 75-percent. You can drive through the PRC today and you don’t know you’re driving through the middle of an oil field. Even today there are people who think Dave and his team should have never compromised, but that would have likely led to a complete loss, and to unregulated oil exploration; for Dave, that wasn’t an option. It’s a modern wildlife success story, the way I and many others look at it.
Perhaps the greatest victory of those compromises was the creation of the Natural Resources Trust Fund, currently valued at over a billion dollars, which uses royalties on the sale and lease of state-owned minerals, primarily oil and gas, to provide a source for funding for public acquisition of land, as well as resource protection and public outdoor recreation.
A few years after the legal fight was over, Dave was at a conservation event attended by Voelker. Voelker was ecstatic when he learned Smethurst was in the building and cornered him to get all of the details of the Pigeon River case. Voelker was on cloud nine when he learned that Dave’s testimony included “The Testament,” particularly because it meant that his essay would have been recorded in the official court record. After Dave recounted everything, Voelker leaned in close to Dave and whispered, “Boy, we sure got those son of a bitches, didn’t we!”
*
Dave went on to Chair the Pigeon River Advisory Council. His newfound love of fly fishing brought him to Trout Unlimited Meetings in Petoskey with the Miller Van Winkle chapter. Not long after, at the suggestion of former The North Woods Call editor, Glenn Sheppard, Dave started efforts to center a new Chapter of Trout Unlimited on the PRC. Headwaters TU was born, and Dave moved up through the TU ranks, eventually becoming the State Chair of Michigan Trout Unlimited, as well as serving as the President of the Michigan Wildlife Conservancy, and the Executive Director of the Headwaters Land Conservancy. He shared riverboat time with George Griffith, the co-founder of Trout Unlimited and one of Dave’s heroes. Somehow, even while wearing these many hats, he founded the Otsego Wildlife Legacy Society and Otsego County’s recycling program.
It seems fitting, doesn’t it, that Dave should serve as the hero of “The Pigeon River Opera,” an original production based on the fight against Shell Oil. “I’m pretty sure there is no other conservationist that can say they had an opera written about them.” Said Greg Walz, former State Chairman of Michigan Trout Unlimited.
*
After his time as caretaker on Blue Lakes Ranch, Dave taught social studies — history and law — at Gaylord High School and held several administrative positions in the school system for over the course of three decades.
“Dave was a natural born leader,” according to Ned Caveney, the first manager of the newly formed Pigeon River Country State Forest. “Dave never lost his cool or let his emotions get the best of him, and he had great people skills. He was a great listener and always tried to find a way forward.”
Paul Rose, current Chairman of the Pigeon River Advisory Council said that Dave, “was also skillful at “bringing people along” to an idea or a position without most people even realizing it. Most of us who encounter someone with a differing opinion or perspective, our tools are limited to those of argument or debate. Dave, on the other hand, would tell you what he believes, and why, without suggesting that you were wrong. Even if he was unsuccessful in changing another’s opinion, this civil manner of discourse was solely grounded in ideas and never became personal - a rare thing today.”
“I feel Dave’s biggest accomplishments were that of an educator-mentor. I’ve combined those two words because in the case of Dave, there was no way to separate them. If he was imparting counsel or sharing his knowledge on a topic, he was doing so to either help you become a better person, better at life or to become better at your passions.” said Rose.
Dave was a mentor for Rusty Gates who Dave knew since Rusty was a teenager. During the fight with the oil and gas industry in the PRC, a young Rusty was instrumental to the team’s success. Dave said, “Rusty was usually the source for getting information we needed to fight the excesses of the oil companies in the Pigeon River Forest. He understood the scientific and legal issues as well as the scientists and lawyers.”
According to Josh Greenberg, “Rusty had these very few people that would come through the shop that he would actually listen to when it came to conservation matters, and Dave was one of them. When Dave walked in, Rusty would always be like, ‘Get this man a coffee.’ Rusty would always reach out to Dave for his thoughts on important matters, and there weren’t many people that he had that level of respect for.”
John Walters was also a protégé of Smethurst, and was introduced to Dave by Rusty. In the early 2000’s, John was going down to Gates Lodge regularly to pick Rusty’s brain about conservation. When John started having questions about Trout Unlimited, Rusty pointed him towards Dave Smethurst.
Walters said of Smethurst, “Dave was always there when I needed him from a mentor perspective, he had a vision for me, and he shared some great leadership tips and skills that I was able to utilize. I had two significant mentors in my life, Rusty and Dave. They gave me the tools to do the great conservation work that we’ve all been able to do in a variety of capacities.”
*
For me personally, I first knew Dave as the vice principal of my school. I was not doing well, scholastically-speaking. I forget the exact numbers, but my junior year I had something like 54 detentions, twenty-something days of in-school suspension, and thirty days out-of-school suspension. After barely graduating, I was thinking about joining the Marines and the recruiter took me up to the high school so we could look at my transcripts. Dave was the guy we talked to, and he said something that changed my life.
After pointing out my grades were either A's or F's, he said I always excelled at whatever I was interested in. If I wasn't good at something, it's because I wasn't interested in it. That made me realize I could be successful at whatever I wanted, almost at will.
Five years or so later I got the fly-fishing bug and went to a fly-tying event hosted by Headwaters TU called “Tie One On,” a cornerstone program for Headwaters TU born from the mind of Dave Smethurst. Of course, Dave was there and took me under his wing, offering to teach me to cast at his house a week later and putting the conservation bug in my ear. Dave was a master of making you think his ideas were your own.
A few years later I was getting a degree in environmental science. A few years after that I was in Dave's passenger seat driving around the Pigeon River Country-- there was nothing better than driving around out there with Dave and listening to his stories, even if you'd already heard them before.
He would drive me around and teach me all about the history of the PRC. Cool stuff like where the last passenger pigeon was seen, and best of all, his secret fishing spots.
I remember asking him why he would share his most secret places with me, and he said he was showing me all of that because he wanted me to be successful on the water so I would love those places as much as he did, ‘cause I was gonna be the Headwaters TU chapter president someday. It was like he just told me I was going to be an astronaut, but ten years or so later, it came to be.
In a very literal way, the Black is my favorite river because it was Dave's favorite river. The Pigeon River Country State Forest is my favorite place in the world because it was Dave’s favorite place in the world.
Dave’s best friend, Dr. Bob Slezak of Gaylord, said that Dave was a jack of all trades, master of most. Dave was not only an expert trout angler, but he also coached golf. One of his biggest passions was fly fishing for bonefish in the Bahamas where he and his wife, Sue, vacationed each year. Dave made ice cream that Ben and Jerry would have tipped their hat to -- and it went really well with Sue’s cherry cobbler.
Dave loved upland bird hunting, particularly behind a good Llewellin setter. He loved daylilies, reading, cooking, traveling, Indiana University basketball and key lime pie. But more than all of that, he loved his family, and he loved the advice of John Wesley, theologist and cleric, which he kept on his desk as a guide on how he wanted to conduct his life.
“Do all the good you can; By all the means you can; In all the ways you can; At all the times you can; As long as ever you can.”
Man did Dave do some good. For me, and – even if you don’t know – for you too.
Dave Smethurst lost his battle with cancer at the age of 74 on November 9th, 2021. During the last 54 years of his life, there wasn’t a major coldwater conservation issue that he didn’t have his fingerprints on. Michigan Trout Unlimited Executive Director, Dr Bryan Burroughs, once told me that Dave was the heart and soul of Michigan Trout Unlimited.
While remembering Dave, Paul Rose said, “From a personal perspective, Dave helped me see that no matter how much you love a place which must be shared with others you must also respect the ideas and opinions that these others bring with them. Dave understood that welcoming new people to a wild place you love was not a threat, but an opportunity – an opportunity to recruit more advocates for this collective vision.”
When you attended a Michigan Trout Unlimited meeting, or a Pigeon River Advisory Council meeting for the first time, Dave would always be one of the first to welcome you and introduce himself. One of those first timers was Greg Walz who went on to become MITU’s Chair. “I think the biggest takeaway I have is that Dave always treated everyone with respect and listened to their arguments, no matter how deeply he may have been opposed to their position. He knew that not only did you have to do the right thing, you had to do it the right way.” said Walz.
Another former state Chair of MITU, John Walters, told me that he would not have been state chair of MITU if it weren’t for Dave. “Dave was a great communicator, there were times when his knowledge, voice and history were needed, and he always delivered. It just impressed me how he was able to time his message.” remembered Walters.
Writer and owner of Gates Au Sable Lodge, Josh Greenberg, said of Smethurst, “Dave is like a quiet little pool in a trout stream.” You know, one of those spots that just looks ordinary until you fish it, “and all of the sudden you’re like, this pool is freaking good! Adding, “He didn’t give that off, which made him really approachable.”
There is a sharp bend on the upper Black that flows through an ancient beaver meadow. It’s a place Dave showed me on one of our PRC adventures. He once told me it was his favorite spot on the whole river.
You sit on an old beaver hut on the inside bend and wait. And while you wait, you will get to see deer and elk browse through the meadow. You’ll see all the big-name trout stream insects depending on the time of year. You’ll hear a kingfisher with its dolphin-like laugh, mocking your fishing abilities as it cruises down the river channel. Once, I had an old, grumpy, one-eyed beaver swim by. And through all that, brook trout will rise, usually two or three at a time. Big ones.
The sun sets to your left over a tree line of mature aspen. And before you know it, the night is over, and you never remembered to cast.
After Dave’s wife Sue passed away in February, I would call him or stop by his house a little more often than normal. He would tell me that he was lonely but doing fine. “I give myself a 15-minute pity party each day to feel sorry for myself, and then I move forward.” Since Dave passed, I follow my mentor’s advice. My pity party always ends with a smile because I know Dave lived his best life.
