A Sporting Oasis At South Dakota’s Sutton Bay

Few states have managed to brand an outdoor activity any better than South Dakota has with its famous pheasant hunting. For an introduced game bird that didn’t take hold in America until the late 1800s, the ring-necked rooster has found a welcomed home in the state where more than 130,000 hunters took roughly 1.2 million of the birds last year. The state estimates that the roughly three-month pheasant season generates some $400 million in economic impact including seasonal salaries. For a state with fewer than one million people, that’s not chicken feed.

According to state estimates, there are nearly 300 pheasant lodges and guide services across the state catering to mostly out-of-state hunters, places where sportsmen and women from across the country descend to pay homage to one of America’s favorite game birds. Come October, the South Dakota grasslands look like animated pumpkin patches as orange-clad hunters line up and march through cover to unearth the colorful roosters within shotgun range. South Dakota native son and fellow pheasant hunter Tom Brokaw describes opening day of pheasant season here as a religious holiday.

And if there’s one cathedral where pheasants are especially revered it’s Sutton Bay, a sprawling resort community located atop the rolling hills of the Missouri River breaks, a dramatic landscape overlooking the big water created by the Oahe Dam, completed in 1962 near the capital city of Pierre. Lake Oahe is one of the largest reservoirs in the U.S., some 231 miles long and is home to some of the best walleye and smallmouth bass fishing in the country.

In addition to hosting a remarkable fishery, the lake provides a spectacular backdrop to Sutton Bay’s massive lodge and cabin complex. Drive across mostly empty prairie for an hour and come upon Sutton Bay and the place feels nearly surreal. Surrounding the dramatic lodging is a sprawling golf course carved out of the breaks and overlooking the big waters of Oahe. It’s a long way from anywhere and that’s just the way members like it. If the apocalypse happened, this is as close to a safe haven as you’re likely to ever find.

I traveled here chasing rumors about the place and its unrivaled setting and epic sporting activities—pheasant hunting, fishing and golf—but my November focus was the property’s abundant and fast-flying pheasants. Joining me was dog trainer Domenico Orzi, an Italian expat who made his way to America after a lengthy stint in South Africa. Orzi owns a kennel full of classic Old-World pointers, slightly smaller than their American counterparts and famous for their pleasant dispositions and keen noses.

Guiding Orzi and me is Sutton Bay’s Jeff Norden, the resort’s hunting director who happens to own one of the finest Labrador retrievers I’ve ever encountered. While the traditional South Dakota pheasant lodge experience entails a line of hunters walking fields of corn, milo or sorghum, we opted to focus on native cover with emphasis on working the dogs through ribbons of cattails and grasses.

Sutton Bay has nearly 5,000 acres of habitat that holds a mix of wild and early released pheasants, so it’s difficult to tell the difference in bird behavior because all of them launch like feathered rockets—especially late in the season when they’ve survived their share of gunners and their dogs.

Unlike most of the relatively flat Dakota prairie, the Missouri breaks that make up much of Sutton Bay’s landscape create an assortment of coulees with cattail bottoms, perfect lairs to hide the shifty late-season pheasants. Norden’s Lab, however, had an especially effective knack for flushing the birds from the dense cattails, sending the roosters past Orzi and me as we paralleled the dog on either side of the draws. The Lab provided the one-two punch of flusher and retriever and seldom missed marking and fetching the downed birds. For many bird hunters, watching a skilled dog work is the highlight of the experience, and Norden’s Lab was the marquee attraction.

Following each hunt, we returned to Sutton Bay’s main lodge to enjoy gourmet meals that made certain; despite hiking the better part of each day, we didn’t lose weight on the visit. While enjoying Sutton Bay’s hospitality, we learned about the rich history of the property.

The Sutton Ranch began in 1896 when Ed Sutton purchased roughly 1,500 acres from a Chicago land company. Long before the Suttons settled the land, however, many Native American tribes thrived in the area. In 1804, intrepid explorers Lewis and Clark camped near what would become the Sutton Ranch as they searched for a waterway to the Pacific. Highway 1804, located near the ranch, is named in honor of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

While South Dakota might be flyover country to many, for tens of thousands of American hunters the state is a dream destination, the kind of place any bird hunter aspires to visit at least once in their lives. For the 400 members of Sutton Bay, however, South Dakota is more than a bucket list stop, it’s become a seasonal home. One visit here and you’ll understand why.