PRESHO, S.D. - Francis Bell of Bloomington shares a vision called "Pheasant Town" with Neal Brakke, a rancher and businessman in South Dakota.

Brakke, who coined the name, describes Pheasant Town as a Land of Oz for hunters where startled flocks blacken the sky and everyone always has a place to hunt.

But Pheasant Town really exists, unlike the place where Dorothy met the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion. It lies in South Dakota about 40 miles from the state capital of Pierre and midway between Rapid City and Sioux Falls. It's at the intersection of Interstate 90 and U.S. 183 not far from Lake Sharpe - where Lewis and Clark camped on their way further west.

No town officially claims the name Pheasant Town. The idea is too big for any one village to hold. Its epicenter is Presho, S.D., population 600. Brakke's great grandfather helped settle the area in 1890. Today, it serves as headquarters for ranches and farms that raise wheat, corn, sunflowers and more pheasants than anyone can count.

Recent brood count surveys led officials of the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department to forecast pheasant numbers this year will top a historic 40-year high seen in 2005. Statewide numbers for 2007 are 23 percent higher than in 2006 and 18 percent higher than the year before that.

"I saw more birds there in one day than in all my years of pheasant hunting, and that's an honest statement," said Bell, 60.

"I went to one place where there were so many birds I couldn't shoot. I was ducking pheasants," he said gesturing with his fingers this way and that in front of his face. "My dog was running in circles."

"We have the best (pheasant hunting) in the world," Brakke agreed.

Bell hunted pheasants as a boy on his grandfather's farm in DeWitt County during the Golden Age of pheasant hunting in Illinois. Birds thrived when farming practices left cover on the ground before the time when row crops took over and the habitat was lost.

"There were tons of pheasants, lots of cover," Bell said.

Bell was seriously wounded in Vietnam. After a long recovery, he rose to be a general superintendent for a heavy construction company. Work took him to places like Alaska to work on the oil pipeline and to the American West. He hunted everywhere. He found some of the best pheasant hunting he'd ever seen in Nebraska.

But friends kept telling him to try South Dakota. An uncle who lived there after World War II told him he'd never seen anything like it. Bell eventually decided to go.

Research on the Internet led him to Presho and Brakke's New Frontier Station RV & Campground. Bell's wife, Terri, couldn't go along that first trip. But Bell's mom, Classena, volunteered to travel with him to cook. She knew her way around a kitchen. Raised among hunters on that DeWitt County farm, she'd been with Steak & Shake more than 40 years and served as the model curb girl for the restaurant's billboard advertising years ago.

Before they arrived, his mom asked how long Bell planned to stay. Hunting licenses granted privileges for 10 days at a time. But, unsure of the prospects, Bell told her he wasn't sure until he after he made his initial hunting trip into the South Dakota countryside. His first sight of pheasants came quickly. He looked down to see 30- or 40 birds running in a ditch. Because South Dakota law allows hunting on roadsides unless too near to homes, Bell exited his pickup truck right there and shot his three-bird limit before noon. Once back at his travel trailer, he held them up for mom to see.

"How long are we going to stay?" she asked again.

"Ten days," Bell answered with a grin.

" 'We're going to need more groceries,' was all she said. God love her," Bell said, smiling.

Bell soon met people like Junior, who owns Hussman's, the general store, and Scott and Heidi and Bret and Tami McClanahan, who operate Hutch's, a combination motel, café and lounge where locals gather to tell hunting stories.

Bell has his own tales of superb hunting to share after returning to Presho every November for the past five years. To illustrate the density of the birds, he describes a time he stopped his truck, walked to a metal fence running alongside the ditch and smacked it with a piece of wood. Hundreds of spooked pheasants darted into the sky. He repeated the demonstration a little farther along to prove the first time wasn't a fluke. The same thing happened.

"They're everywhere," Bell said. "But they are so wild. You have to get right up on them."

Brakke takes first-time visitors to his family's ranch where weeds grow as tall as a man. When everyone's ready, he makes noise to spook the birds. They rise into the air like "a cloud." His guests are so awed, they just stare. They often forget to shoot.

"Then, we walk another hundred feet and do it again," Brakke said.

Newcomers to the area often get help from friendly locals like Lyle Schulte. The Stetson-wearing rancher stops when he sees Bell out hunting and points out likely spots to try. John Uthe cleans and freezes Bell's birds for a buck apiece.

Hunting wasn't always so good in South Dakota. Just like the Illinois experience, Brakke remembers pheasant prospects falling off after ranchers began to plant row crops. Fortunately, efforts like the Conservation Reserve Program helped numbers rebound.

"It's golden, it's an abundance," Brakke said. "I lived here all my life. I've gone from not seeing any birds to the point of seeing hundreds of birds huddled under one tree to not get eaten by an eagle."

Still, Pheasant Town remains largely undiscovered.

"Terri once said, 'We've been out here all day and we haven't seen another person.' That happens all the time," Bell said.

But, like the Wicked Witch of the West, Brakke and Bell fear a shadow is falling over Pheasant Town. Signs at remote rural crossroads once pointed to several family ranches in one direction and several more in the other. Historically, most of them were open to hunters for no more than a polite, "May I hunt?" But those signs are being taken down and replaced by "no trespassing" signs as corporations and out-of-state outfitters buy up the family operations to create private hunting preserves.

Bell said the trend mirrors what's happening to deer hunting in Illinois where outfitters are leasing more and more acres for private hunting parties. The dynamic is being repeated in Utah, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, Brakke added. Hunters without high dollars to pay for access are finding it harder and harder to take part.

The state of South Dakota has 5 million acres of public land to hunt. Plus, the roadsides are available, which are important to people like Bell who still has problems walking from his war wounds, he said. Still, Brakke and Bell said hunting traditions are in danger of vanishing if the trend toward privatization continues.

By pushing the concept of Pheasant Town, they hope bringing more visitors to Presho to hunt birds or to pursue other outdoor activities, such as fishing, will translate into more advocates pressuring government officials to keep public lands public, they said.

Brakke realizes times change. His grandfather went from using horses to get around to driving an SUV from the ranch house to board his high-tech tractor in the fields. He came home at night to watch men step foot on the moon. Still, Brakke made it a priority to start his three sons and his daughter hunting to help keep the sport alive.

"I darn sure think that's important," he said.

He wants them to always have the chance to enjoy Pheasant Town.

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If you go

Pheasant Town: You won't find it on the map, but head to Presho, S.D., at the intersection of Interstate 90 and U.S. 183. Presho is midway between Rapid City and Sioux Falls.

Local resorts: Neal Brakke, a Presho businessman and rancher, recommends Garnos Ranch at www.garnosranch.com or Medicine Creek Pheasant Ranch at http://www.authier.org/pheasants.htm.

Campground: New Frontier Station at www.newfrontierstation.com/

Traditional S.D. pheasant seasons: Eastern areas, mid-October to mid-December; western areas, mid-October to late October; preserve season, September through March.

Best times: First two weeks in November.

More information: Visit South Dakota Division of Game, Fish & Parks at www.sdgfp.info