Bring on fall! When the weather starts to cool and children are back to school we know that we can soon enjoy feeling the crispness in the air, leaves crackling underfoot, the smell of cinnamon and spice as the pumpkin desserts abound. It is also HUNTING SEASON! Where in addition to orange colored pumpkins and leaves falling from the trees, the orange comes out in full force as we host family, friends and visitors to hunt Huron. Huron is known for the hometown hospitality that we extend to our guests. We hear it over and over again from visitors that call or stop into the Huron Chamber & Visitors Bureau. So, thank you to our businesses and citizens for helping to make our visitors welcome.
It is common knowledge that hunting is a great boost to our local and state economy. In 2015, Beadle County was ranked 6th out of the 66 counties in the state by the SD Game Fish & Parks upland game harvest survey. 5.7 million dollars was spent by non-resident hunters this past year in Beadle County coming from an estimated 3,438 hunters. The non-resident hunter spent on average $1,658 per hunter and harvested 28,576 birds. Those are some phenomenal numbers for the 11 week hunting season. It is also estimated that there are 2,168 local hunters that spent an additional million dollars during the pheasant hunting season. Statewide the total estimated in spending for nonresident and resident was $170.1 million and 150,037 hunters.
I did a little more research to see what Beadle Counties taxable sales in the transportation, retail and services industries were for that 11 week time period. Those are the categories that the hunting dollars would normally be included in. The taxable sales for the 11 weeks in October, November and December were $56,907,713.00. If hunters spent 6.7 million dollars than that equates to 11.77% of the taxable sales coming from hunting dollars, again reiterating the impact that hunting has in our community and our state.
Let’s roll out the orange carpet! Paint the town orange and bring on Rooster Rush activities and hunting season! Let’s support our local business owners by shopping local and keep our Huron economy growing stronger and stronger. We Are Huron! We hunt, we play, we support, we shop!
Thanks to you all for your support of the Huron
Chamber & Visitors Bureau!