As a kid, Ben Gordon was inspired by the Field and Stream magazines and copies of Outdoor Life that would show up in his mailbox. Now, he manages a property that looks like a spread out of one of their glossy pages.
Ben is the general manager of The Rivers Lodge and Hunt Club out of La Cygne, Kansas, about an hour south of Kansas City. The luxury hunting lodge and event venue sits on 113 acres and offers guided hunts on the 15,000 acres they manage.
Rivers Lodge covers it all in their hunt packages. They offer boutique guided hunt and fishing trips, including waterfowl, turkey and other birds such as quail and pheasant, as well as whitetail deer. The property has the only privately stocked trout stream in all of Kansas, and visitors can fish for pike, yellow perch, small-mouth bass and, of course, rainbow trout.
During a guided hunting or fishing weekend, clients arrive in the evening for cocktail hour and are given time to get settled into their cozily-decorated private rooms on the property, and then enjoy a five-course dinner by a private chef. The next day is filled with sporting, whether you’re fly fishing, going on multiple guided hunts, or even just exploring the land by foot or UTV. Rivers Lodge will even assist you in getting your harvest home with you.
The lodge caters to individuals, small groups and even corporate groups. Families and partners who want to spend some time at the lodge but may not be interested in hunting or fishing are invited to come along too for the delicious food and peaceful setting.
Ben says they have all sorts of experience levels of hunters visiting the property, where they offer archery and firearm hunting. For clients who have never shot a gun before, the lodge brings newcomers up to speed with gun safety and range shooting.
“We can get them feeling safe and confident and get them shooting good,” says Ben.
Ben says they see plenty of highly experienced hunters at the property, too, and feels an immense sense of pride when he can assist in a great harvest for them.
“Just this last fall, we had someone who I’d gotten to know through Rivers who's been out several times from Texas and was able to shoot his biggest whitetail of all time,” says Ben. “Getting to be there for that recovery and putting them on [the hunt] was pretty great. It's just as good as doing it myself.”
But to be able to offer beautiful scenery and a bountiful harvest for their clients, Rivers must value being stewards of the land, and conservation is something they take seriously.
“Everything we do on a land management side is definitely in view of creating a better environment for the animals we harvest,” says Ben.
An example of putting conservation over hunting, Rivers Lodge has been offering guided hunts for four years, but this spring was the first season they held a turkey hunt.
“We've been open for four years now and it was really important for us to let the local turkey population come up to a sustainable level so that if we did harvest turkeys it wasn't going to make an impact in the population,” says Ben.
He says Rivers Lodge keeps a close watch on the amount of animals they harvest to keep everything in balance and makes sure animals feel safe and secure on the property to encourage natural breeding.
In doing so, they hope to create a space with an abundance of animals and natural spaces for visitors to enjoy for years to come.
The Rivers Lodge and Hunt Club
La Cygne, Kansas
theriverslodge.com
info@theriverslodge.com