Whitetail Weekend: Hick's Trading Station gun shop is celebrating 50 years

The great deer hunting stories--like the big buck population--seem to have thinned out the last two years, according to the hunters who come and go from the well-traveled Hicks Trading Station along R. 13 northwest of Pinckneyville.

It's one of two favorite hunting haunts in Gun Town--Hicks Trading Station and Mann & Sons Sporting Goods. In August, Hicks celebrated its 50th anniversary in business.

Today is the first day of the three-day shotgun deer hunting weekend in Illinois as Safety Orange becomes one of the fall colors.

"We haven't heard the big buck stories the last two years," says Hayden Hicks, son of Kevin Hicks and grandson of the trading post's founder. The deer population could be down by as much as 40 percent, according to the hunters who read the outdoor stories and share them at the gun shop. The deer population isn't as important as the fellowship and quality time between gun owners.

It's interesting that the gun shop is near the brown tourism sign two minutes away pointing to the World Shooting Complex in Sparta. Hundreds and hundreds of guns, oh my!

Between Hicks' and Mann's it's not a case of "we don't have it" but instead, "there's one standing up over there."

Hicks Trading Station was opened 50 years ago by Kevin's father, Dale, who had worked for John Mann's father. That was in August 1964, less than a year after the John F. Kennedy Assassination and during the same decade as the Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King assassinations. We went from being the United States of America to the Violent States of America. Dale's wife wasn't happy about investing $1,000 in the shop's first guns at a time when a frightened America had just lost its beloved president and was calling for gun control.

Most shop owners were getting out of the gun business when Dale decided to get into it. It was the right decision.

Until that time, the shop had specialized in clocks, what-nots and sporting goods. Kevin remembers his dad working into the late night hours in the two-car garage. A nearby house was trucked over and placed alongside the garage.

In 1978, Kevin Hicks came back from Greenville College, where he'd played baseball and earned his college degree. He was a great athlete.

For about 10 years, Kevin worked with his dad, who liked to play golf. About five years later Dale started going straight to the house from the golf course and the gun shop became Kevin's.

He treats everyone the same--fairly--and educates gun owners as much as he sells to them. Customer satisfaction and lasting friendships are important to him as a businessman and a Pinckneyville city councilman.

To the whitetail warriors headed to the woods this weekend: be safe and happy hunting.