Orlan is the Gazette’s outdoor writer since 1994 and has been hunting pheasants around his hometown of Quasqueton for the past 45 years. He grew up in the glory days of Iowa pheasant hunting, when nearly every Iowa farm was as full of roosters as the fields of Highland Hideaway. Though he has learned to content himself with fewer birds, he still looks eagerly forward each fall to the company of dogs and like-minded people and the thrill of rocketing roosters. His writings have earned several awards including Iowa Newspaper Association master columnist, best series and best news feature and the Associated Press Managing Editor’s first-place awards for investigative reporting.