Open season?

Hunters at Ragged Lake c1887 - click to enlarge
Photo: Maine Historical Society via www.mainememory.net

  Hunting in Maine is big business, it is now and it has been since before 1900.  People pay to come here and hunt, they pay for guides, rooms, food and the price of a non-resident license - all together not too cheap.
  Back in the earlier days that came to a camp, the Bullpen in Medford for example, hunted with a local guide, got the trophy skin or head and went home.  Not as simple now but it amounts to the same thing.  The big difference now are open seasons and closed seasons.  You can't hunt deer, for example, just any old time you want, you wait for November and then you can hunt.  Moose hunters enter a "lottery" for a chance to hunt, there are only about 1,000 permits handed out each year.

Ashland House, a hunting camp, in Ashland 1890.  Hunters pose with moose, deer, bear and geese - click to enlarge
Photo: Maine Historical Society via www.mainememory.net

A Hunter in Sanford c1900 - click to enlarge
Photo: Sanford Historical Committee via www.mainememory.net