Courtesy Photo An elk is pictured in this undated photo.

Three of the 25,000 people who purchased applications for the 2022 Pure Michigan Hunt drawing received exciting phone calls on Saturday when the Michigan Department of Natural Resources informed them they’d won.

Men from Holland, Okemos, and Berrien Center won this year’s drawing, which annually awards a prize package worth thousands of dollars and licenses for elk, bear, spring and fall turkey, and antlerless deer.

Of the 72,000 applications purchased this year, 19% were purchased by northern Lower Peninsula residents. No winners have come from Northeast Michigan in any year, nor from the Upper Peninsula, which accounted for 4% of sales this year.

“It’s a numbers thing,” said Eric Hilliard, digital media specialist for DNR’s Wildlife Division, encouraging Alpena-area drawing applicants. “Eventually, someone from around there is bound to win.”

Next year’s Pure Michigan Hunt applications go on sale March 1 for $5 each.