After six years of guiding I’ve decided to quit. Lots of people have asked me why and I’ve never really given anyone the real answer. That is until now. There probably isn’t just one reason but if I had to sum it up in one word it would be dishonesty. I have witnessed Mr. Phelps lie to hunters on numerous occasions. I should’ve spoke up but I never did and I guess my conscience couldn’t handle it anymore. 

Mr. Phelps made me numerous promises over the years which he never fulfilled. You might ask “why not confront him”?  I asked myself that same question and this is the only explanation I have. We had a friendship or at least I thought we did. When you’re friends with someone and they break a promise you tend to overlook it in the interest of maintaining that friendship. After several broken promises you finally realize this person is taking advantage of you and they never really considered you a friend. 

I created a Facebook page to book hunts with the promise that I would receive a $300 commission for every hunt sold through Facebook. In the beginning I would ask Mr. Phelps how many hunts did we sell and his response was always “I’ll have to check”. I finally stopped asking. I’ll admit I should’ve been more adamant about getting paid but it still doesn’t change the fact that we had an agreement. I decided it was time for me to be compensated for Facebook however, Mr. Phelps and his associate Duane Watlington were successful in blocking me from the very page I created. 

As if that wasn’t enough I have more stories of deceit. My wife had job offers in Arkansas and Illinois. She wanted the job in Arkansas but Mr. Phelps promised me a job as “manager of Calhoun county”. Being the good wife that she is we moved to Illinois only to find out that once again Mr. Phelps had broken another promise. 
These two stories aren’t the only tales of broken promises I have but they are the two worst ones. I wanted to end my time with ITB on a friendly note but stealing my Facebook page was the last straw.