The Swan Lake Hunting Club and the State of Mississippi v. United States

GODBOLD,

Circuit Judge:

Swan Lake Hunting Club and the State of Mississippi appeal from a summary judgment for the United States in an action to condemn hunting rights owned by the Club on land in Washington County, Mississippi. We affirm.

Swan Lake Hunting Club, a Mississippi corporation, owned the hunting rights to a swamp area known as Swan Lake (actually a silted-in bed of the Mississippi River). The Club, which in 1962 contained forty-five members, used the area as a private hunting preserve and maintained blinds, hunting trails and a club house. Even before federal regulations affected the…