With the end of War World II, Olin leased
from Crowe in 1945 some 1,880 acres, of which 1,100 acres was timber in Prairie
County, approximately six miles southeast of Hazen. It was immediately
christened the Greenbriar Club, so name by John Olin’s younger brother Spencer,
who was, besides being a duck hunter, an avid golfer and his favorite golfing
course was the Greenbriar Club in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. Over
the years, however, the locals knew it as the “Winchester Club.”
John Olin was the president of the Olin Company and Winchester-Western small arms and ammunition company, while his brother Spencer was vice president.
Having no clubhouse, Olin rented two floors
of the Riceland Hotel in Stuttgart. Olin always boarded in room 410. He had a
number of famous guests over the years, including Herb Parsons, John Wayne,
Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, Nash Buckingham, General Nate Twining, General
Jonathan Wainwright, Richard Bishop and many others.
Olin often brought along Walter Siegmund,
who was general sales manager of Olin Industries. He was also a great sportsman
and judge for the National Duck Calling Championship.
Having no clubhouse, Olin rented two floors
of the Riceland Hotel in Stuttgart. Olin always boarded in room 410. He had a
number of famous guests over the years, including Herb Parsons, John Wayne,
Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, Nash Buckingham, General Nate Twining, General
Jonathan Wainwright, Richard Bishop and many others.
It was at the Greenbriar Club where Olin's Lab, King Buck, retrieved his first duck and his last duck over a five-year period.
Buck successfully completed an unprecedented 63 consecutive series in the
National Championship Stake and was the National Retriever Field Trial Club
champion for two successive years, 1952 and 1953, in a feat not to be
duplicated for nearly 40 years. Overall, King Buck finished 83 national series
His royal name was given its due, when, in
1959, it was decided that the federal duck stamp for that year should
commemorate the work of retrievers and their contribution to waterfowl
conservation. And so, for that occasion, the single time that the Migratory
Waterfowl Stamp has ever been other than a duck, Maynard Reece painted a
portrait of perhaps the greatest duck dog of them all: King Buck.
In 1955, Olin built a one-room clubhouse with
a fireplace to replace staying at the Riceland Hotel. In the early 1960s, the
IRS disallowed his business deductions for the club.John sold his Prairie County duck paradise to multi-millionaire Robert “Bob”
Brittingham, of Dal Tile of Dallas, Texas, and a hunter of great refute. A
magnificent lodge was built in 1983. Today, the club is still in existence, and owned by three brothers of the Kemmons Wilson Company (Holiday Inn fame) and two other individuals.