The National Hall of Fame Cemetery of Fox Hounds occupies a beautiful plot of the Piney Woods in the Sabine National Forest outside of Shelbyville, a stone’s throw from Toledo Bend Reservoir and the Louisiana border.
Most everyone in this neck of the woods claims that it is the only memorial park in the country for championship foxhounds. They may be right.
The cemetery began in 1941 when Hinkel Schillings planted his state champion hound under the towering pines. Dawson Stride was considered one of the greatest foxhounds in these parts. He died on the hunt at age 7.
According to weremember.com, Schillings, who died in 2000 at 98, is also buried in the cemetery. The former county clerk owned the land before Sabine National Forest was created in 1936.
Of the nearly 30 headstones in the half-acre, the most recent is from 2013. The dogs came from 11 states.
The cemetery is across the road from the National Forest System’s Boles Field Campground. It’s a heavily wooded area with a Civilian Conservation Corps-built pavilion, RV hookups, restrooms, and an amphitheatre called the Fox Bowl that once hosted foxhound gatherings.
In the Southern U.S., foxhunting had nothing to do with country squires, horses, or tea and crumpets. The hounds were turned loose to chase foxes, wolves, or coyotes through the woods. In the meantime, the owners would pull up a chair and follow the dogs’ progress by listening to the baying. It’s not clear exactly how the hounds were judged.
“We don’t kill the fox,” Schillings told an interviewer in 1993. “A dead fox can’t run. It’s a race between the dogs.”
The National Hall of Fame Cemetery of Fox Hounds and Boles Field Campground are 8 miles east of Shelbyville on FM 2694. Camping is $6 at the self-pay station. Barbed wire fences and irate landowners have pretty much ended foxhunting in East Texas.
1,657th in a series. Everywhere is a day trip from somewhere: Follow “Day Trips & Beyond,” a travel blog, at austinchronicle.com/daily/travel.
This article appears in June 23 • 2023.
