The Sage Of South Fulton

Alton Powell stands next to his handmade reproduction of an old Warren and Sweat “Cottonwood” climbing deer stand. The original was stolen. Although he doesn’t go up trees any more at the age of 83, Alton loves to set it up during deer season and occasionally sit in it to watch deer.

Most serious deer hunters have a deep, abiding love and respect for the land they hunt on. In order to match wits with the most beautiful and challenging big-game animal on the face of the earth, it’s important for a man to have that special “go to” piece of earth. 

In many ways the land is spiritual. In time, it becomes almost a world unto itself.

For more than four decades, some of the more remote and undeveloped portions of south Fulton County have fulfilled that function perfectly for at least one local hunter. Alton Powell has made his home right smack in the middle of this whitetail paradise for half a century. Ever since the first deer season opened in the area in 1979, Alton has been collecting venison and living what he calls a “deer hunter’s dream.” 

The land has been extremely good to him. He can walk out his back door and within a few steps watch deer crossing several heavily wooded hardwood ridges behind his house. Few seasons have passed in recent decades when he did not shoot his two-buck limit. With so many opening days, his book of memories is overflowing.     

At a spry 83, he might pace himself and take things in stride a little more these days, but he’s still the avid hunter he’s always been. 

“When I turned 80, my wife made me promise to stop going up trees with my homemade climber,” Alton said. “But I still manage to see a lot of deer from the ground.”

Alton Powell grew up in the Griffin area. Like so many Georgia hunters who came along in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, he cut his teeth on hunting squirrels, rabbits and quail. 

“Deer were few and far between at that time, but I always dreamed about hunting them,” he remembers. “My father gave me a Mossberg .410 bolt-action in 1953 when I was 12. It cost $23.95 at the auto parts store. I still have it today. My dad spent a lot of time teaching me gun safety and how to hunt small game. I read magazines like Field & Stream and Outdoor Life and inhaled everything I could about deer hunting from an early age.”       

After a stint in the Air Force during the Vietnam era where he was a radio communications technician, Alton worked for AT&T for a while before landing a job with Eastern Airlines at the airport for the next 21 years. 

“They actually paid me to work on commercial and military airplanes,” Alton says. “I loved it. What an honor!” 

When Eastern folded in 1989, Alton went to work for Northwest Airlines. That job lasted for 13 years until 2002 when Northwest also closed its doors for good.  

Around 1970, Alton happened to see a mounted buck belonging to a friend. That up-close-and-personal experience cemented his growing interest in deer hunting. Having been raised during a time when deer were few and far between in Georgia, the sight of that amazing whitetail buck changed his life. A fire began to burn in his belly that to this day has never been extinguished. 

Deer hunting developed into his lifelong passion.  

“In those days you always heard about deer being in the north Georgia mountains and down in the coastal swamps, but there were not many other places you could hunt. Within a few years, the season started opening in some of the middle Georgia counties. I did some looking around and joined a club in Monroe County. Thirty of us leased about 1,000 acres belonging to Georgia Kraft. I shot my first several deer on that club property. Later I started traveling to a lot of different WMAs across the state. My wife and I did a lot of backpacking, camping and deer hunting. In 1982, I killed one of my best bucks ever while hunting in the Cohutta WMA.” 

Alton poses with an outstanding trophy buck he shot in Cohutta WMA in 1982. It still ranks in the Top-10 bucks for the Cohutta WMA.

Alton had a real stroke of luck back in 1975 while he was standing in line at an auto parts store in south Atlanta. He heard someone talking about wanting to sell an unfinished house and three acres in south Fulton County. 

“In those days you could take over someone’s mortgage and payments, and I ended up buying the house and land for $27,000.

“That was several years before the deer season opened in south Fulton, but deer were starting to trickle into the area,” Alton remembers. “We owned several horses, and we became familiar with all the back-country for miles around. In those days much of the land was uninhabited and owned by large paper companies. My wife and I thought we had found paradise. We just about had the whole place to ourselves.

“The first legal deer season opened in south Fulton around 1979, and people started leasing up all the land to hunt on. I was fortunate to be here when it started. I formed several clubs, and at one point I leased about 1,400 acres. Along the way, I was able to home-in on many of the best hotspots for mature bucks. I was in whitetail heaven. I honestly believe I got to live a life that many hunters only dream about. After I started working for Eastern, I could drive to work at the airport and be home in time to hunt every afternoon. My wife and I got to see and hunt some of the best and most unspoiled deer country in the area. We each took some great trophy bucks during that time,”Alton said. 

“The hunting was so good it was almost sinful!”

With so many opening days and filled tags under his belt, it didn’t take long for Alton to begin focusing his efforts on bigger and better bucks. 

“I learned so much about hunting mature bucks through trial and error,” he remembers. “I loved going into a new area and finding a good buck to hunt through the sign he left behind. Locating a certain buck and hunting him one-on-one is the ultimate way to hunt. There’s a fine art in knowing what he might do and where he might go. In some cases, I hunted the same land and the same stand location year after year. I discovered that if I shot the buck using a certain area, a new buck would soon come in and take his place. I have one special stand location that I hunted for 40 years, and it was always productive. Much of my hunting was done with a Warren and Sweat ‘Cottonwood’ climber that faces the tree. I loved hunting in it. It was well made, safe and very comfortable. I always felt like my body was partially hidden from any approaching deer because I was facing the tree trunk. After many years of using that special stand, unfortunately someone stole it.

“I also loved to still hunt on the ground. The wind has to be right, and a hunter really has to be tuned-in to his surroundings to be successful. Bucks are always tuned in. They seldom let down their guard. If they know a hunter is in the woods, they become 10 times more difficult to hunt. There’s nothing more exciting than sneaking up on a big buck and shooting him. To me, that’s the most challenging way to hunt.” 

Alton’s south Fulton paradise was great while it lasted, but things always have a way of changing. 

“When the new city of Chattahoochee Hills was created in 2007, some of the local residents wanted to do away with deer hunting altogether. Local hunters like me fought hard to keep our hunting tradition. I invited Steve Burch to attend one of the meetings in 2006 and speak on behalf of hunting. He graciously came, but the agenda had already been set and the planners wouldn’t allow him to speak. I felt so bad and I apologized to him. In the end, we were able to keep our hunting heritage, and I will always be thankful to Steve and GON for their support.”

Alton Powell holds his much cherished custom .50 caliber Tennessee Mountain rifle made by renowned gunmaker B. Randall in 1991. The rifle has accounted for numerous deer. Davy Crockett would be proud!

Even though deer hunting was saved in the new city, many of the old ways Alton had known and cherished were rapidly disappearing. The increase in development brought in runners, hikers and bicycle riders who quickly ‘discovered’ the back country roads (many of which are still unpaved today). 

“Despite everything, I’ve been able to adapt to the change, and so have the deer,” Alton says. “Deer are so amazing. They can adapt to almost anything. There are still pockets of really good hunting to be found, and I still manage to shoot a few good bucks.”

In 1985, Alton went through a difficult divorce. He fought to keep his beloved home place and land. 

“I worked two jobs and eventually remarried. My new wife, ‘Miss Betty,’ and I have now been together for 38 wonderful years. Betty had a long career as a land procurer for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. She has never done much hunting, but she loves the outdoors as much as I do.”        

You might naturally assume that a man as dedicated to his deer hunting as Alton Powell would have little time for anything else in life. But you don’t know Alton Powell. Alton has always been one of those unique outdoorsmen who stood up and went out of his way to get involved. Over the years he has willingly given of himself by reaching out to help and teach others. He has spent a lifetime sharing with others his vast knowledge about deer hunting, guns, muzzleloaders, shooting and history. You might say that old adage about passing on our sacred hunting heritage to the next generation is in his genes. He’s been doing it for decades. 

The following is only a partial list of some of Alton’s lifetime achievements. 

 • In 1968 and ’69, he served as Scoutmaster for Boy Scout Troop 191 at his church in Palmetto.

• With a passion for American history and muzzleloaders, Alton has been a longtime field rep, instructor and range officer for the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association.  

• After his Air Force service, Alton spent several additional years in the U.S.A.F. Reserve at Dobbins Air Force Base. 

• In 1988, he became a historical reenactor for pre-1840 historical events. Over the years he participated in numerous colonial-style reenactments. 

• For a number of years, Alton volunteered with the Georgia Wildlife Federation at the Perry Buckarama and ran a popular blackpowder shoot.    

• Alton served on the WRD Urban Deer Committee in 2008.

• Alton served as president of numerous hunting clubs and lobbied for a muzzleloader season in Georgia.

• Alton attended DNR hearings on a regular basis and voiced his opinion when needed to protect the wildlife resources and the rights of hunters.

• Alton served on the first board of directors of Cochran Mill Nature Center. 

• Alton served on the organizing committee for the new City of Chattahoochee Hills in 2006 and worked to keep deer hunting legal.

• Because of his concern over the growing new development in south Fulton County, Alton made two bids for a seat on the first City Council for the new City of Chattahoochee Hills in the mid 2000s, but he was not elected. (Perhaps it’s best that he lost. He’s a much better teacher than politician.)    

“As mentioned, when I turned 80 and had to slow down a bit, Miss Betty banned me from climbing trees so I built a ‘deer-house’ blind with a swivel office chair and other amenities in the woods out behind our house.” 

In 2024, Alton filled both buck tags while hunting from his deer house.

Being a skilled machinist, Alton also built himself a new metal climber that was an exact duplicate of his old 1980s Warren and Sweat “Cottonwood” that had been stolen. During deer season Alton’s Cottonwood replica (covered with camo cloth) resides at the base of a tree near his back door and only a few steps from his deer house. “Sometimes, when Miss Betty isn’t looking, I might go up the tree a few feet with it.”   

Just as Alton loves the land he hunts on, he also loves the tools of the trade that make deer hunting possible and exciting. He’s an accomplished gunsmith, and he’s owned many different hunting rifles and handguns over the years. Today, the few special rifles that he still uses in the woods have been customized, nurtured and well-admired over the years. 

Because of his lifelong interest in early American history, Alton developed a keen interest in hunting with muzzleloaders back in the early 1970s. The first muzzleloader he actually used to hunt deer with was built from a kit. In the mid-1990s, he acquired a beautiful .50 caliber Tennessee mountain rifle with a curley maple stock made by a famous gun maker named B. Randall. That percussion rifle is much cherished. It’s accounted for countless deer. 

Several other rifles that he loves and continues to hunt with include a Model 70 Winchester .30-06 bolt-action with a black synthetic stock he fondly calls “Blackie,” a Browning BAR Safari Grade II in .308 that he nicknamed “Mr. Brown,” a .223 bolt-action he says is his pride and joy, and a customized Argentine 1909 7mm Mauser that he knows as “Sweetie.” He sanded-down Sweetie’s stock, added a muzzle break and a recoil pad, and turned the old Mauser into a fine custom deer rifle. Sweetie has been going to the woods with him for over 40 years. You might gather that Alton likes to name his guns the way some of our heroes of yesteryear did back in the old days.  

With his knowledge and enthusiasm for hunting, Alton is a natural teacher. He understands the importance of our sacred hunting heritage, and he’s touched countless lives over the years through his tireless dedication to teaching shooting skills, deer hunting, outdoor skills and gun safety. We owe him a huge debt of gratitude.