HISTORIC DUCK HUNTING STORIES THE GOLDEN AGE OF DUCK HUNTING

In 1855, in the springtime, John B. Drake came to Chicago from Cincinnati. Having saved enough money prior to his arrival in Chicago, he purchased a quarter interest in the Tremont House in 1855. He became the sole owner in 1868. What better way to harness the local resources and build his reputation in a new city, Drake thought, than by hosting an elaborate game-dinner party for elite guests? The...

PART I In 1801, Chicago was a swamp. From 1823 to 1832, Chicago was merely an Indian Agency; an agent of the American Fur Company. David McKee, resident of Chicago during these early times, referred to the Chicago River when he recalled: “Over it hovered wild geese, ducks and sandhill cranes in vast flocks, and pelicans and swans were sometimes seen.” In 1825, the year the Erie Canal was completed...

There was one style of fowling that was practiced in America, named toling, which was as curious in performance as it was interesting. It probably came closer to the system of the duck decoy as practiced by the Dutch and English as any of the arts employed by the people of a foreign country for the capture of waterfowl. The American fashion of toling/tolling/toleing probably began about the Chesap...

As I write this, tears come to my eyes against my will, but the story must be told, for every fortunate boy there is a Mom and there is a Dad! Dad was well up in age when his voice was forever hushed and he shut his eyes and rested his head upon the clay-cold pillow of his burial place—thus making his final camp to stir no more—gladly departing to join the snow-cap headed old timers of the yestery...

Directly beneath flyway immemorial and harboring wild game worth a king’s ransom to be defaulted by posterity, for its acreage, Wapanocca Lake held just about the nation’s heaviest population of waterfowl. At times, it staggered credulity. Post Civil War times, however, Wapanocca Lake seems to have been little known sportingly. The late Captain Bill Allen, one of Memphis’ grandest elder sportsmen,...

Most knowledgeable collector would love to have in their collection the “Grand Slam of Mississippi Duck Call Makers”—a call made by Mr. Mac, Son, Speedy, and “Louie” Walker, and the “Grand Slam of Greenwood Duck Call Makers”—Mr. Mac, Son, Speedy, and Dominic Serio, the latter of whom I have very little information on, and no calls made by him. All the authors who have written books about duck call...

Almost every year in the ancient Mississippi Flyway, there is one waterfowl flight that is greater than all others. However, spectacular waterfowl flights have happened only rarely in the twentieth century. Noted Illinois naturalist and author Frank Bellrose dubbed these breathtaking flights as a “Grand Passage,” where millions of ducks migrate all at once. This great movement usually occurs durin...

Nowhere on the Texas Gulf Coast was market hunting more prevalent than at the wild-celery lakes of Lake Surprise, Stephenson’s Lake and the smaller nearby Lake Wallis (Chambers County). These three lakes made up the pre-eminent canvasback hunting grounds on the Texas coast. Of the three lakes, Lake Surprise was regarded as the most preeminent canvasback shooting country in the U.S. That said by no...

With the onset of the twentieth century, sport hunting exploded in Utah. Each year, thousands of hunters made their way to camps in the GSL wetland. Utah newspapers reported on the quality shooting that one could experience in the marsh and remarked that caravans of wagons were transporting hunters to the marshes. By 1900, a newspaper reported that 2,000 duck hunters were in the marshes of the Jor...

At the present day, the topic which I am about to podcast is not likely to be known by contemporary waterfowlers as an object with which most would be acquainted. Stalking geese or ducks with a horse was one of our ancient ancestors’ favorite modes of taking waterfowl, which had been around since the days horses were tamed and first used in hunting. Almost every community had its own novel peculia...

Now, in the depths of winter, I am warmed by memories of Hamm’s general store, with all the old timers gathered around the wood burning stove, while the aroma of a $.25 cigar, chewing tobacco, a remnant of pine tar on the floor, and smoke from the embers in the stove, all creating a pleasing and unique atmosphere and symbolizing a vestige of an age long gone. Memories of every Saturday evening whe...

A Louisiana international duck calling champion touched off a controversy when he criticized that neighboring Arkansas-style calling was “strictly a contest call, a judge’s call, not a duck’s call. It definitely is not for the birds,” contended Raleigh Newman, 29, of Lake Charles, Louisiana. Being interviewed by a reporter for the Associated Press, Raleigh Newman’s remarks came prior to the Novemb...

None other than French Cajun Florine Champagne, of Port Arthur, nicknamed “Pie,” took the title at the first International Duck Calling Championship in 1947, using his own Cajun cane call that he made. He was a recognized duck caller, wooden decoy maker, and market hunter in his earlier days. He was sometimes called the greatest waterfowl hunter ever.

Virgil George “V.G” Musselman organized the local Quincy chapter of the Izaak Walton League and enticed the League to host a duck-calling contest on March 11, 1927 between waterfowlers from Illinois and other states. The League wasted no time and sent out notifications to distant cities. On March 11, 1927, the Kokomo, Indiana Tribune wrote under the headlines “Duck Calling Contest at Quincy: Fans...

On Friday, February 26, Harry Wieman was declared the “World’s Champion, succeeding the 1936 World Champion Thomas Walsh. For the three calls, Wieman scored 91 4/9 percent from the three judges, while runner up Walsh scored 91 3/9 and John “J.T.” McCollum came in third with 83 8/9 points. It would be the closest contest ever, even until this very day. Wieman won against 25 contestants including a...

Three Stuttgart sportsmen, Dr. Glenn, Thad McCollum, and Verne Tindall, are credited with originating the National Championship Duck Calling Contest. It was as though the three recognized that the event would become a part of history and knew that those who engaged with Mother Nature directly would see themselves in a very specific way as part of the environment, their place in it, and their relat...

Breathed into this world by our Creator, modern man entered at a unique time in geological history with his very existence revolving around a style of living—hunting and gathering—that, to improve survival, he studied the ways and habits of wildlife through countless eons and developed a deep understanding of the environment in which he operated by learning the most effective ways to kill big game...

Nash Buckingham and some of the other old-time outdoor writers, in many of their hunting stories, mention “Red Gods.” I’ve always wondered who these Red Gods were. So who are they? And what is it? The Red Gods harken us to their call. “Be free! Go out!” they cry, this strange something. Their insistent call—this subtle, penetrating call—is something which arouses something within us. It shakes our...

Through the tireless effort of the Big Six—John B. Weeks, George P. McLean, Gilbert Pearson, William Hornaday, George Shiras III, and Elihu Root—millions of duck hunters owe gratitude, especially the latter two. George Shiras III, a member of congress from Pennsylvania, began the fight right away back in 1904. Elihu Root—possibly the most commanding intellect in the country then—clinched the victo...

The great hook of Cape Cod, sweeping into the Atlantic southeast of Boston, swarmed with ducks, geese and shorebirds during migration in the olden days. At the easterly end of Cape Cod, on its elbow, is the town of Chatham, and some three miles away to the southward of this is the island of Monomoy, a mere belt of sand running still further southward about six miles. Various contrivances had from...

  The Indian was the first hunter of this land; a skilled hunter by stern necessity. He was a true market hunter; he made a business of pursuing game, living upon what nature made most abundant. His concerns were outcomes, as he had to feed his family. So, for a Paiute, in the Great Basin, hunting and fishing was the business of his life and waterfowl was considered an esteemed food source gatheri...

Ever since Slingshot Charlie Taylor—his real name was Charles Bell Taylor—was a young boy in Hornbeak, Tennessee, he had shot a slingshot with uncanny accuracy. When he was a barefoot tyke of seven, he began using the slingshot in hills around his home to hunt meat for the family pot because it was simply necessary. “I learned the hard way on rabbits, squirrels, coons and possums. It was hit or go...

There were times, as I have said, when ducks were everywhere, so much so that I was able to carry out two objectives that I hoped to achieve if ever I had the opportunity: “The Triple Crown” and “Double-Digit Bands.” To accomplish either required many factors to happen on any given day of the season, which was rare. A Triple Crown was getting a limit of three different species of fowl in one day:...

Most are aware of Nimrod, the mighty huntress of the Bible, and the mythological Diana, the Roman goddess of the hunt, but it took centuries after the discovery of the New World for the nom de guerre “Diana” or “Fair Nimrod” to get any recognition. Throughout history prominent women have stood alongside male hunters, equipped with bows or firearms. Elizabeth I of England was a keen hunter in the 1...

Patrick made many duck guns for the Carrol Island Shooting Club on Chesapeake Bay for point shooting on high-flying, overhead canvasbacks and redheads. They were all laminated-steel, single barrels and not less than 5 feet 8 inches with the bore diameter being an inch or more if requested, with the gun weighing 20 pounds. The size of these guns was larger than any shoulder gun that most had ever s...