Bogard, Missouri - Catfish Poles and Uncle Sam

Past Chillicothe about 6 miles from Carrollton on U.S. 65 near CR 214, is a tall pole about 25 feet high with three levels of hangers about 3 feet apart. On the hangers are carcasses of catfish. A woman passing by told us that a few years ago a young man began to hang the carcasses of his first catches of the season on utility poles. The sheriff's wife and another woman kept taking them down.

The woman told us that she got permission of the property owner on the corner to install a pole to hang the fish. She told the young man that if he would put up the pole she would paint an Uncle Sam to stand beside it. So there stands the pole, and every fishing season the young man hangs the carcases of the first 24 fish he catches. And next to the pole proudly stands Uncle Sam. [Tommie Miller, 04/28/2007]