Wild Goose Jack, Part 3

Jack Miner, releasing a Canada Goose. Photo courtesy of the Jack Miner Migratory Bird Foundation

Part three in a series on Westlake native Jack Miner.

As we learned in parts one and two of this series, Jack Miner was an eminent naturalist, conservationist and humanitarian who in 1904 established a bird sanctuary on the north shore of Lake Erie at Kingsville, Ontario, Canada. He began attracting geese and other migrating birds to the water-filled clay pits on the family property with grain and shelter.

Before the creation of the bird sanctuary he hunted on this same land and had an epiphany of sorts and realized that he wanted to attract the birds there rather than hunt them.

Jack, who came from a hard-working but poor family, had come to the attention of the King family (who gave their name to Kingsville) because of his exceptional hunting and tracking abilities. He served as hunting guide for many of the elites of the small town. He had an uncanny affinity with animals and was able to capture geese and ducks with his bare hands. His faith and ability to navigate the “bush” in Canada was called upon when he was asked to locate children who had become lost in the woods.

He used prayer and his God-given gifts to help others. He even saved the life of Dr. King, the patriarch of the King family when he became lost and almost froze to death after falling through some ice. Jack’s strength and stamina was called upon to actually carry the good doctor to safety.

Jack’s older brother Ted was his best friend and constant companion. Jack had the grim task of carrying his dead brother out of the “bush” after he was killed in a hunting accident. Jack also suffered the loss of his only daughter when she was a child. His deep, almost child-like faith carried him through.

After establishing the bird sanctuary Jack started catching the birds, banding them and releasing them. Each lightweight aluminum band included a Bible verse and his address with the request to mail the band to him with the location where it was found. Before his efforts, very little was known about the migratory habits of birds in Canada and the United States. Ontario is a stopping point for many birds traveling farther north and south.

Christian missionaries to indigenous people often thanked Jack for aiding their efforts with this simple act of a Bible verse on a band. He lived in a time when men, Christian men, were universally admired. No false bravado though, in his autobiography he was not afraid to discuss when he wept. As early as 1906 he was recognized by a large Minneapolis newspaper as the “founder of the Conservation movement.”

As more and more birds were attracted to his bird sanctuary, people came to watch. He made a point of never charging a cent for the pleasure. There were no refreshment or souvenir stands. By 1915 he had banded over 50,000 ducks. He was partly responsible for the Migratory Bird Treaty of 1917 between the United States and Canada. His bird sanctuary was used as a model for over 280 game refuges on 17 million acres of land in the United States. Eventually he and his sons banded over 60,000 Canada Geese and saved them from extinction.  

Because he was made fun of due to his red hair and freckles he only attended three months of school as a boy. Therefore he was illiterate well into adulthood. This did not prevent him from teaching Sunday school. He was willing to take on the more difficult, male students. Much like the animals, these boys took to the attention given them by Jack, and they ended up reciprocating by teaching him to read. He then taught himself public speaking to spread the gospel of conservation. He eventually filled many large venues in Canada and the United States. He shared a dais in Chicago with Herbert Hoover, one year before Hoover became president; he also filled the Chautauqua Auditorium in New York in 1928.

Jack, his sons, and some friends established the Jack Miner Migratory Bird Foundation in 1931. King George VI of England bestowed the Order of the British Empire on Jack Miner in 1943 “For the greatest achievement in Conservation in the British Empire.” Jack died in 1944 but his legacy lives on.

During Westlake’s Sesquicentennial in 1961 the Kiwanis Club of Westlake transported a load of dirt from Westlake to plant the “Buckeye garden” that Jack had always wanted at the Jack Miner bird sanctuary in Kingsville. In 1975 the Westlake Sportsmen’s Association convinced the State of Ohio to place a historical marker at the southwest corner of Dover Center Road and Westown Boulevard near the place of Jack Miner’s birth.

Several weeks ago, Eric Hansen, a Westlake resident who has portrayed Jack in a one-man play in Westlake and in Kingsville welcomed Jack’s granddaughter to the community that Jack loved as his hometown.

William Krause

William R. Krause, AICP I am the Assistant Planning Director for the City of Westlake. I have worked for Westlake for 29 years. I served on the Bay Village Planning Commission for 5 years. I was a member of the Reuben Osborn Learning Center Steering Committee. I was a Board Member and Historian for the Westlake Historical Society and am a Trustee of the Western Reserve Architectural Historians. I have been married to Debra for 37 years and am the father of three grown children, grandfather of two and owner of two Shih Tzu's.

Read More on
Volume 10, Issue 20, Posted 10:07 AM, 10.16.2018