Caprock Game Warden Gets Tribute For Long Service

by Tanner Laine
Avalance Journal Staff

This is your life, Cecil Fox; game warden... Boy Scout leader...sportsman...lecturer...and handler of thousands and thousands of rattlesnakes.

You were honored Wednesday night at Lubbock by the State Parks and Wildlife Dept., after 22 years, one month and 23 days with the department.

You are retiring but the public probably will not let you quit entirely because your love for wildlife and your excellent reptile demonstrations still are needed.

You are a familiar figure, indeed in your beloved Caprock foothills. And throughout the area and state for that matter.

Remember back in 1923 when you landed at the little ranch town of Spur, and put in a four-chair barbershop and beauty shop, as well?

How you later sold the shop, borrowed a pair of boots from a rancher friend and went to Austin to be interviewed for a game warden´s position. That was in 1944.

You were appointed, as your many friends and acquaintances knew you would be, and you worked diligently at the job more than two decades and under three different heads of the game department.

The department was much smaller in 1944 as far as staff members went. You had 13 counties under your surveillance. This was not, you said, an overload because hunting and fishing were not enjoyed by so many during the World War II years.

You served as Scoutmaster at Spur from 1927 to 1952, working with Boy Scouts and Explorers. Scouts were your first love then, as now, on many camping rips and junkets into the wilds.

You have served as president of the Caprock Peace Officers Association since its organization in 1949. It has grown from six members to more than 450 since that first meeting was held at the Horace wood Ranch in Kent County.

The annual get-together of the peace officers to shoot live rattlesnake targets known as a "Rattlesnake Rodeo" has grown into one of the truly unique gatherings in West Texas.

You always brought in the targets. You roamed the hills and rocks and dens to get them. You learned much about this "buzzing" gentleman - the rattler. You learned to respect him and handle him. You "milked" him for his venom to make serum.

You shared your knowledge of the rattlesnake with an estimated million other persons. You spoke, you demonstrated, you taught - particularly how to live near, and with, this poisonous native reptile of this area.

Many children learned the sound of a live rattlesnake and the warning it gave - from you. This could have saved their lives, as was your purpose in the first place.

You served as Sunday School superintendent at the First Christian Church of Spur for 28 years.

You married, and you and Mrs. Fox have a daughter, Mrs. Cecilia Holloway of Bowie and two grandsons, Mike, in the U.S. Navy and Bill, of the Holloway home.

For years, you took the Parks and Wildlife Dept.´s exhibit to fairs and expositions throughout the state. One day you talked to 39,000 persons at Amarillo. Your exhibit and lectures were well received by thousands at Lubbock´s annual fair and others.

Serving as a game warden was much more to Cecil Fox, than to mete out fines. Conservation of wildlife was, he said his major purpose in carrying out the department´s objective.

Philosophically, Fox once said "I realize there is a certain amount of resentment toward the game warden, but if we didn´t have laws for him to enforce, there would be nothing left for our children and grandchildren to hunt."

Fox firmly believes we need a law prohibiting drinking while hunting, just as we have one against driving while drinking. "You have a problem when you have hunters, armed for the hunt, and they start to drinking," he explained. "Their safety, as well as others, is in jeopardy."

Working with hunters and fisherman, Fox has had his occasional bad moments. Like the time he was shot and hit, with pellets from a shotgun blast. Fortunately, the distance was too great and the pellets had lost power except to sting.

The retiring game warden points to increasing wildlife in this area. He credits the conservation program led by the department for this.

The Caprock foothills have all kinds of game, he reports, deer, turkey, quail, squirrel, fish and doves.

Fox has seen two antelope this year at the White River Lake, south of Crosbyton. He says there are quite a few of them in the brakes country near Dickens. There are deer, too, he states.

"The count of deer killed in Dickens County last year was 29 bucks." Fox said.

"Deer like the shin oak areas east of Roaring Springs," he added.

Snake hunting and handling has become a major hobby with you, Cecil Fox. You have put on many programs for many age groups. You have spoken to young and old, where you found them.

Your decision to continue running snake shows and giving demonstrations is a popular one.

Now that you are retired as a game warden, you may pursue your work as a taxidermist and the preparation of exhibits from snake skins, fangs and rattles.

Your novelty gifts of fangs encased in plastic, rattlesnake billfolds and belts and other types, have made "hits" around the world - as genuine souvenirs of the West Texas country.

The Lubbock Avalanche Journal, 1966