A Legend Passes

[Bear hounder]

Who was sugar creek a what did they hunt did del hunt bears much or mostly cats

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[al baldwin]

I have often heard this story told, you can be the judge if there is any truth to it. Del came to Oregon in the sixties to hunt With a Mr. Glen Dexter who owned a daughter off Finley River Chief. Del was so impressed with that Chief female he wanted to buy her from Dexter. Dexter would not sale that female,however,he let Del take that female back to Montana to hunt. A big snow storm hit while Del was hunting that female & Del never recovered that female.
More than one local hunter has often wondered,is it possible, since Del was so taken by that female that

he inserted some of her blood into his breeding program. Was told that female was small in body size, showed a very cold nose & just an outstanding female in all departments.
In no way is this meant to discredit Mr Cameron as a breeder or person. His breeding & hunting is well documented & he is a true legend. Al

[scottb]

Bearhounder.... Sugar Creek is a line of blueticks.

Al... I know most of the old time hound doggers here would keep dogs leashed while cold trailing and cut loose once jumped to help avoid losing dogs. Del's dogs were mostly bigger , 90lbs plus minus. Would be great to know what actually happened regarding the story you heard, we'll probably never know I guess!

[Bear hounder]

Thanks Scott I have herd of the sugar creek line but I was just curios if any knows who bread them and what they hunted other people talk about del getting his hounds from a Mr vaunn any ideas about that

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[scottb]

Bear hounder... next time I catch up with his son Brad I will ask if he has any records Del kept on the dogs and if it's ok to put them on here. Like any line of dogs I expect there's a lot of different stuff in the wood pile used for all kinds of game if you dig around enough

[macedonia mule man]

Was up in Tennessee looking for a squirrel dog and at one fellows kennel I heard a hound voice coming from behind a shed so I walked around to take a look. I asked if that was his coon dog and he said yes and I also use him to breed these cur females to tighten up their treeing ability, your are right, you never know a line of dogs background. Just take them to the woods and enjoy.

[ALEX]

As far as the Sugar Creek hounds Del bred in the 1960's and 1970's, I had always heard he ended up selling the kennel name and what dogs he had left to a man in Missouri in the mid/late 70's. I believe a large reason for him getting away from the Sugar Creek hounds, as much as he did like them, was because they had a bad tendency to bloat. In total, I want to say he lost around 11 Sugar Creek hounds to bloat. He told me when I was at his place to pick up a few pups in 2014 that Rattler (who is mentioned a lot in his book) was lost to bloat and was a Sugar Creek hound he bred, sold to Glenn Dexter then bought back as an adult dog.

Regarding the more modern strain(s) of Cameron Bluetick most people associate with Del Cameron, this was the culmination of a few different sources. I had also read years ago his foundation stock came from the Clear Water bloodline (which was a once localized Idaho based strain of blueticks that originated from heavy Julius Sebastian blood in Michigan. Del's Savage Sam (also mentioned heavily in Del's book) was a product of this blood I believe.

The other main half of Del's foundation blood for the modern "Cameron bluetick" hound was based on heavy Towaco Valley lines (later to become known as the Minisink Valley blood line bred by John J Henneman in upstate New York). This blood was heavy Elbert Vaughn breeding up close at that time, I believe. Little Blue, yet another hound mentioned a lot in Del's book was his primary foundational sire along with Savage Sam of the Clearwater/Sebastian blood.

Anyway, this is just what I've pieced together as to how these dogs were bred up to give us the modern Cameron hound. You're talking about heavy Sebastian and Vaughn blood, essentially. This is just the gist of things, so if anyone knows more than this or has any corrections to point out, feel free to go ahead.

[JTG]

Hi, Alex.

Most of what you state is pretty accurate with the exception of the following.

The other main half of Del's foundation blood for the modern "Cameron bluetick" hound was based on heavy Towaco Valley lines (later to become known as the Minisink Valley blood line bred by John J Henneman in upstate New York). This blood was heavy Elbert Vaughn breeding up close at that time, I believe. Little Blue, yet another hound mentioned a lot in Del's book was his primary foundational sire along with Savage Sam of the Clearwater/Sebastian blood.

JTG

[Bear hounder]

Hey thanks for filling in some of the gaps I appreciate each ones knowledge I have some blood here that goes back to del dogs so they say so that's why I'm interested in how del started his lines and so on I have bread one of my best males to this female I have here that goes back to dels dogs and only one pup lived it happens to be the one I gave to a young boy across the Rd he and his family wanted to get into bear hunting with hounds so I gave the young lad pick of the litter well his dog is the only one that lived past 9 months but he turned out to be a smashing good bear dog in his second year teeing bear buy himself and is turning out better and better with each chase it seems so we are going to make the same cross again and hope to have some more like him we have some great bear dogs here and we want to learn more about breeding them the right way not just leaving it up to chance so I try to learn what the old boys did to get those cold nose gritty dogs we have the blessings of hunting with

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[JTG]