Episode Details

Wendy Corr:

Well, hey there, folks, welcome to The Roundup! We are a Cowboy State Daily podcast that focuses on interesting people in the Cowboy State. And I just really am so excited about this interview today.

I don't know how many of you have been to or have heard of the Draper Museum of Natural History at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody. Well, it's a big deal, it's truly the Smithsonian of the West. It's a gigantic, huge, nationally recognized Museum in the little town of Cody, Wyoming.

If you've been to the Draper Museum of Natural History, today is a really great treat for you, because you get to meet the person whose brain that whole thing came out of. This is Dr. Charles Preston, and sorry, I'm gonna have to call you Chuck. Because Chuck, you're my friend, and I have known Chuck and his wife, Penny, she's the one who dragged me kicking and screaming and twisted my arm into broadcasting.

But Chuck's, literally, list of accomplishments is so long and so impactful on the world, particularly of raptors, and of golden eagles, but his legacy lives on at the Draper Museum of Natural History, even though he's retired. We're going to talk about that, too. Chuck is not slowing down.

And so I am really excited today to bring you the story of Dr. Charles Preston and how he has just made his career and become the expert on Golden Eagles from growing up in Arkansas. Chuck, you made it to Wyoming from Arkansas. Hello, I'm so glad to have you on the show.

Dr. Charles Preston:

Oh, thank you, Wendy. It's a pleasure to be here.

Wendy Corr:

Well, it's great to see you - I've spent so many wonderful times with you and Penny, and so it's really fun to be able to see you there in your cabin up the North Fork, and living your best life after such an amazing career.

But your career - you weren't supposed to start out being a biologist and being somebody who's the foremost expert on raptors. You started out, you were going to play baseball. Tell us about Arkansas.

Dr. Charles Preston:

Well, I was born in Fort Chaffee, Arkansas. My dad was stationed at Fort Chaffee. It's an army base in Fort Smith, which is a town with really more Western flair than the southern flair. It was always known as hell on the border, because it's right next to what was Indian territory back in the day.

So Bass Reeves, the marshal, and the hanging judge Isaac Parker, and if you've seen Hang 'em High, and Rooster Cogburn, that whole bit that was based out of Fort Smith, actually, so I was born into that environment.

Like I say, born in Fort Chaffee, that was sort of a de facto Wildlife Refuge out there, my dad was stationed there, so he knew that place very well. And I remember just as a young boy, getting excited about wildlife by these afternoon drives with my dad.

And I remember one particular time seeing a great horned owl just at dusk. And I, I didn't know these things really existed, I'd seen them in storybooks and, and Disney films, but to see a live great horned owl stuck with me. And yeah, so I was always interested in wildlife.

But I, you know, my parents weren't particularly financially well off. And I didn't know that I would be able to go to college. But I had several baseball scholarship offers. And so that's how I went to college. Went to a community college first, it was number - I think we were number two in the nation at the end of one season. Anyway, it was one of the better programs in the country.

And yeah, I had my eyes set on a professional baseball career. I was a sho