NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/873551
36 NEBRASKAland • OCTOBER 2017 shooting cans with his BB gun. "He's getting close," Jim said. "I'll try to get him up here on this hunt just to walk with us like when I was a kid." For Jake, Jim and now Joe, there have been summer family vacations spent in Scotia, where the shack has served as the cabin at night and the days were spent swimming or running set lines for catfish in the North Loup River. In his college days, Jim brought friends to the shack and they would fish at Sherman or Davis Creek reservoirs or Pibel Lake. Jake has started coming up once or twice a year with a neighbor to fish there or on nearby Sandhills lakes. "There's been a lot of fun stuff happen here," Jake said. The Polinoskis lived in the white house until 1964, when they moved to an apartment complex for seniors in Ord. Jake's folks bought the place in 1964 for $1 to keep it in the family. Jim and Jake took ownership in 2011. John Sr.'s last hunt was in 2001. All but one of the Jacobsen brothers have passed, John Sr. in 2008. His memorial funded a Pheasants Forever habitat project in the bottomlands along the North Loup River south of Scotia. "After dad died we kept a Kodak film container of his ashes and Jim and I scattered them out there," Jake said, pointing to the yard outside the shack and choking back tears. "It was kind of a bittersweet day." Friends Jake lived and worked in McCook, North Platte, Lincoln and Omaha during a 41-year career with the Nebraska Department of Roads before retiring in 2011. With more sometimes being better, especially when hunting massive fields of grass enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program, Jake started inviting friends from work to fill spots vacated by uncles and cousins. Steve Schmidt of Lincoln was one of the early invitees. He hunted in the late 1970s and early 1980s before life got in the way. He started coming again around 2000 and hasn't missed a hunt since. Tom Sands of Martell worked with Jake in McCook. He hasn't missed a hunt in Scotia since he started coming in 1990. Not even in 2004, after he lost everything in the Hallam tornado. Two long-time regulars on the hunt couldn't make it in 2016. Many others have made appearances. For years, there was a waiting list of people who wanted to come. Come one year and you were guaranteed a spot the next; don't, and you risk losing yours to the guy who filled in for you. This year one of Jim's friends filled a spot, if only for a day, driving up from Omaha in the wee hours of A "Scotia Hilton" sign is among the items that adorn the walls of the shack. The group's Husker spirt is carried into the outhouse behind the shack.