JOHN DAY – A sleek Lear jet from Alabama landed at the airport recently, causing a bit of a stir.

It parked overnight, refueled the next morning to the tune of $600 and then took off with four men in camos and pilot and copilot.

Somewhat suspicious. Who is going to fly an expensive Lear jet to John Day to hunt in upland bird season?

Turns out it was Alabama businessman Stinson Slawson, 41; his father, Guice, 67; and brother, Bill, 39, from Montgomery, Ala., along with a Boise, Idaho, friend. It’s the family’s corporate plane. They, and another brother, own Southeast Wood Treating Inc., one of the largest pressure-treating companies in the country.

“It’s beautiful country y’all have out there. You come to Alabama and it’s flat,” Stinson Slawson said in an interview this week from his home down south. “We took about a thousand pictures with our camera to show everybody back home.”

Excited airport employees snapped pictures, too, of the light jet that landed after dipping through low clouds about 4 p.m., Oct. 17. Only the pilot and copilot were aboard. They used the airport courtesy car to travel to Dreamers Lodge – they left a good tip – for an overnight stay, where they joined the hunting party.

“This is probably the third or fourth time in 13 years that I’ve seen a Lear jet come in here,” said Gary Judd, airport manager.

Airport employees had no idea who the visitors were but marveled at their method of conveyance and appreciated the business.

The plane burned $600 in fuel traveling from Boise to John Day to pick up the hunting party. Judd said he didn’t notice anything remarkable about the hunting party but, then again, he was occupied.

“I was busy running the bill, doing the credit card stuff,” he said, laughing.

Lear jets weigh between 12,500 and nearly 20,000 pounds, and are pricey aviation vehicles, costing between $5 to $10 million each, according to aviation experts. They take a lot of fuel.

If the Slawsons would have had to charter a Lear jet from Alabama to John Day, they would be $30,000 poorer for the roundtrip, according to an estimate by a national charter company.

The John Day Airport’s 4,500 foot, north-south runway, which is awaiting federal money for expansion, accommodated the jet’s landing and takeoff.

“We fly into a lot of small airports with our business and we’ve been in some very bad ones. We were very impressed with the airport. For the size town you have, it’s a very nice airport,” Slawson said.

The Slawson family originally landed in Boise to meet a friend. They drove to Spray, staying two nights with an acquaintance. They hunted quail and chukar and also looked at two Grant County ranches for sale, the Antone Ranch and the Longview Ranch. Slawson said they were more “dreaming” than actually contemplating buying the 25,000-acre ranches for recreation and vacation use.

“We were trying to talk our father into it. That may be a kid’s dream,” Slawson said. “The land price back here for similar property is $3,000 to $4,000 an acre. Out there, you can get a lot more acres for the dollar,” he said.

The family bagged some birds, saw large herds of elk and marveled at the ruggedness of the terrain.

“We didn’t realize the hills are as high as they are. They didn’t look as tall until you start climbing them. When you get to the top, you’re too tired to shoot. We were huffin’ and puffin’,” Slawson said.

The family uses the corporate jet to fly to its plants in Texas, Illinois and Indiana. It employs two full-time pilots.

While in town, the hunting party and pilots stayed at Dreamers Lodge. Manager Rakesh Patel remembered the visitors. “They thanked me for the very clean room. They gave the housekeeper a really good tip,” he said.

One of the hunting party told Patel he’d stay at Dreamers again. “He said he always stays at big motels and he stayed this first time in our place and said, ‘I should stay next time I come here.'”

The Slawson family’s history is steeped in the wood products industry. Guice Slawson started in the lumber treating business in 1979. Lowe’s Home Improvement stores are among their largest customers. The company also is a contractor for Georgia-Pacific.

Lear jet charters cost about $3,800 an hour for one-way and $2,500 for two-way, said Patrick Harris, owner of Skyline Jets in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. His firm flies hunters to exotic places all the time, he said. “I’ve got hunters going from here to Moscow, to Africa, everywhere, Harris said.