About Pachitla Creek Plantation
Meet Our Owners - Hayward & Dona Simmons
Hayward Simmons and his wife of 50 years, Dona, owned and operated the Cedar Knoll Hunting Lodge and Lakeview Plantation, an equestrian trail riding and RV camping facility near Allendale, SC for 37 years before purchasing Pachitla Creek Plantation in the Fall of 2022.
As a member of a Florida pioneer family from the Tampa area, Hayward has spent his life as an agriculturist and outdoorsman involved in raising cattle and citrus since his youth. He and Dona enjoy people, especially outdoorsmen, and have been interested in hunting and trail riding throughout the continental United States.
Hayward has also served the following community roles:
- Clemson University School of Forestry & Natural Resources Advisory Board
- Tourism Regional (Thoroughbred Country) Advisory Board South Carolina Parks Recreation
- South Carolina Horseman Council Board of Directors
- Equestrian Trails & Conservation Awareness Advisory (ETACA) Board
Their Philosophy
Hayward & Dona's wealth of experience provides them with the knowledge and the people skills necessary to ensure that their clients are provided with the very best product in exchange for their recreational dollars. Their emphasis on Pachitla Creek Plantation is to provide a quality experience founded on minimizing the behavioral changes of the wildlife associated with human activity and the implementation of habitat modifications designed to maximize productivity of all wildlife. Pachitla Creek had not been hunted for 17 years when it was purchased in the Fall of 2022 and the animals were obviously very comfortable with the pristine setting that exists there. It is Hayward & Dona's intention to preserve the pristine setting and minimize the disturbance associated with hunting by utilizing only archery equipment and limiting hunting activity in order to maximize the interaction between visitors and wildlife .
Their Mission
Hayward & Dona Simmons' Cedar Knoll SC Hunting Lodge was founded in 1985 in the Low Country of South Carolina, a region generally considered by wildlife biologists to contain some of the best deer habitat in the world. Therefore, the owners, Hayward and Dona Simmons, would have been able to maintain an abundant white-tailed deer population without any manipulation of the deer herd or habitat. However, the natural capacity of the habitat alone did not meet their objective of providing the highest level of hunter success on quality deer in a free-range setting in the country.
As a result, in 1985, Cedar Knoll SC Hunting implemented a broad-based habitat management program and an unlimited year-round supplemental feeding program designed to increase the numbers of all types of wildlife, especially white-tailed deer. In the following years, Cedar Knoll Hunting Lodge evolved into one of the most intensively managed hunting properties in the Southeast, maintaining one of the highest documented concentrations of quality deer in the nation (densities exceeding 200 deer per square mile).
However, a high deer population alone doesn't guarantee a high rate of hunter success on mature deer and the Simmons' were determined to provide a hunting scenario that would permit a higher rate of harvest success on mature bucks. One approach would have been to implement harvest criteria designed to improve the age structure of the deer, especially the buck segment of the population, but that would take several years to produce satisfactory success levels and the Simmons' who were getting older were afraid customers would become frustrated during the interim period, Pachiitla Creek Plantation offered the perfect solution to meet their goals. It is a large property that already had an abundance of bucks in older age classes because it had not been hunted in 17 years and has responsible neighbors with large acreages who were similarly interested in producing mature bucks. Also, the deer found in this region a have incredible genetic potential which is a huge plus. To say that the Simmons' are excited about the future at Pachitla Creek Plantation would be a huge understatement and the fact that they are willing to share the experience with like-minded individuals is a huge opportunity for archers from throughout the region.
Contact them to schedule your stay at Pachitla Creek Plantation in the Southwest Georgia Trophy Belt and an opportunity to harvest Pope & Young bucks scoring 130 or better in an archery only setting.
Media Features
Their Lakeview/Cedar Knoll operations have been featured in the following media:
Magazines
- Outdoor Life
- Field & Stream
- Deer & Deer Hunting
- Shooting Times
- Progressive Farmer
- Trail Rider Magazine
Television
- Cabela's Outdoor Quest with Jay Novachek
- Red Arrow with Kip Campbell and Chad Day
- Bob Redfern Outdoors with Bob Redfern
- Just Killin Time with Buck Buchanan and Max Rowe
- The Best of America by Horseback with Tom & Pat Seay
