One fall afternoon in 1992, friends took
Steve Smith and his girlfriend of only a few months to a hunting preserve in northern Middle Tennessee. It was an unusual but eventful date, planting an idea in Steve’s mind. Two years later, Steve and his bride bought a 389-acre farm that is now Cedar Rock Hunting Preserve. Cedar Rock opened for business in October 1994 with a  limited, yet very successful season. The first season was an attempt to test  the waters of this growing industry.

As we enter our 11^th season, the Preserve business has grown a lot and several improvements have been made to the farm. We are no longer a two man operation, cleaning birds in the kitchen of a tiny office trailer. We now have a full staff, a bird cleaning facility, a website, a professional dog kennel, top of the line equipment, as well as a luxurious club house/lodging facility. Improvements continue as we continue our growth for additional meeting space, develop the fields, put in new ponds and develop more effective computer systems & databases.

Several of our hunters have been with us from the beginning and are now a lot like family. Our client base has grown from the typical 2 man hunt to corporate entertaining. Our customers are everything from a father and son to Sony/RCA Records. Most of our customers come from the greater Nashville area but we also have customers coming from as far away as New Mexico, California and Alaska. Youth come by the busloads, as we regularly have the countywide hunter safety program here to shoot skeet.

Hunting has changed significantly over the last 50 years. Land is being developed at such a fast pace, there is hardly enough public hunting land to go around. Combine that with a transit society, the days of hunting on Grandpa’s farm are scarce.  We are preserving the art of bird hunting. That is the reason it is called a “hunting preserve”.  Within the next 50 years, hunting preserves may very well be the primary way for sportsman to hunt.