HISTORIC DUCK HUNTING STORIES THE GOLDEN AGE OF DUCK HUNTING

l don't suppose there were ever any better duck resorts out of doors for the sportsmen of Chicago than the Fox Lake Chain of Lakes, located about 50 miles north of Chicago; the Calumet lakes, just south of Chicago; the "Illinois Bottoms," especially at Bureau County and Senachwine Lake, which spanned the Putnam-Marshall County line along the Illinois River, and the "Kankakee&quo...

windling populations of migratory waterfowl during the late 1920s and early to mid-1930s aroused concerns of sportsmen across the country. The President selected a special U.S. Senate Committee on Conservation of Wildlife Resources which conducted hearings in Washington on April 4-6, 1932. Witnesses blamed the decline on drought in the breeding grounds, spring shooting, market hunting, baiting and...

When the first Dutch settlers arrived about 1626 in the New World and established a town called New Amsterdam, later transformed into the English city of New York, they were astonished at the prodigious quantity of game birds—passenger pigeons, quail, geese, swans, cranes, turkeys, heath hens, snipes and ducks. Swans were so plentiful that the bays and shores where they resorted appeared as if the...

I remember my first shotgun and the beginning of my tutoring in the art of wing shooting. What a Red Letter Day it was for me, for when I reached my tenth birthday Dad placed in my hands a double barrel shotgun, a family heirloom, and a good, reliable shooter over the years—used by my elders of the bygone days over whose everlasting bones the grass has grown and wilted. What halcyon scenes my agin...

The metal “instrument” Bigelow made “to imitate the quacking of ducks” was probably the prototype of the Elam Fisher tongue pincher duck call, who lived in Detroit. As he was hunting at St. Clair during the Civil War and after, home to the canvasback, redhead, mallard and black duck, he would have been close to Detroit and Elam Fisher who was the only one who patented a call that early. His patent...

Side hunts had their origin in a beneficial custom obtained in pioneer days, when the power of a town or county sallied forth to kill bears, wolves, wild cats, etc., which were a menace to the whole community. The choosing of sides and the competition thereby engen­dered, stimulated each man to kill as much as he could, so they began competing against one another for the price of a supper, or some...

As the twenty-third president (1889-1893) and the grandson of William Henry Harrison, the ninth president, he loved cigars and waterfowling as he was an excellent shot at snipe and ducks and a mean performer with the heavy eight- and ten-bore side by side, but mostly with a 12-gauge. He was one of only two presidents that were avid waterfowlers, as it was said that “he had a penchant for duck hunt...

Migrating southward along the Atlantic coast from Labrador, Newfoundland, and portions of southeastern Quebec and western Greenland, along the shores of Cape Cod bays and ponds arose the famous Massachusetts goose and duck stands. These varied in complexity from the “shooting blind” or “brush house,” which was made of reeds and branches and looked like a low cluster of trees and bushes with a few...

From our beginning, there have been but two presidents who were avid and passionate waterfowlers: Presidents Benjamin Harrison and Grover Cleveland. When he became president, Cleveland hunted on what was termed the “Great Presidential Preserve.” It laid south of Washington and took in the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay to the ocean beyond. One of his favorite spots on the Potomac was Wide Wa...

On August 25, 1896, two men began a 1,000-mile wagon ride on a hunting expedition from Arkansas to the rice fields of Louisiana where they spent some time at the farms of the Abbot brothers and W. W. Duson. One of those men became convinced that the Grand Prairie of Arkansas could also produce golden grain rice and he knew that he could grow rice on the prairies by irrigation. That man was W. H. F...

During the first two decades of the twentieth century, hats decorated with bird feathers continued to be in style among women living in the international centers of Europe and the Americas. Demands of the feather millinery trade of London, Paris and Berlin were felt in the most remote and inaccessible corners of the world. It was the demands of fashion for plumes and feathers for hat trimmings whi...

I yearn for a string of lazy afternoons lolly gagging on the front porch of Uncle Ed’s and Aunt Ceni’s farmhouse near Ramer, Tennessee while swinging with a glass of sweet tea in my hand, with nothing to do but watch the butterflies light on one of her flowers, while breathing in the humid earthy air. Swinging was only interrupted to toss horseshoes or play Chinese checkers or listen to Uncle Ed a...

Probably no section of North America in its primitive state was richer in bird life through the years than southern Louisiana. Encompassing four million acres, Louisiana's coastal marshes and swamps represent over 40 percent of the estuarine wetlands in the contiguous United States. Millions of people relied directly on the marshes for their livelihood and for protection against hurricanes and sto...

The Hudson's Bay Company, a fur-trading enterprise headquartered in London, began operations on the shores of Hudson Bay in 1670. During the next century and a half, it gradually expanded its network of trading posts west across Canada. In addition to their trade in fur, mainly beaver, the Hudson's Bay Company also traded swans, and sometimes geese, for their skins and quills in the 18th and 19th...

FOR A CHANGE OF PACE, E6 IS ABOUT THIS OLD TIMER, ME THE PODCASTER, AND HIS HIS LITTLE WOMAN, HIS WIFE, AND THEIR TWO SONS WHO WANTED A DOG. THE STORY TAKE US FROM THE TIME JESSIE, A YELLOW LAB, WAS A PUPPY UNTIL HER DEATH 12 YEARS LATER ON OPENING MORNING OF THE DUCK SEASON. EPISODE 7 WILL BE ON HUDSON BAY, SWANS, GEESE, DUCKS, FEATHERS, SKINS, AND QUILLS DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. VISIT MY W...

IN THIS EPISODE 5, OLD TIMER TELLS US ABOUT DUCK HUNTING IN CALIFORNIA ON THE SUISUN MARSH FROM THE TIME OF THE GOLD RUSH IN 1848 TO THE 1930'S AND AT THE TIME WHEN MARKET HUNTING WAS OCCURRING AND THE FAMOUS FOUR  DUCK-HUNTING CLUB WERE ORGANIZING, WHICH SET THE STAGE FOR MORE CLUBS TO FORM. EPISODE 5 ALSO GIVES A GOOD HISTORY OF THE FAMOUS, LEGENDARY CHAMBERLAIN TRACT WHERE SO MANY OF THE E...

Episodes 1-3 were waterfowling in the seventeenth and eighteen century in the New World, with E3 being George Washington goes a ducking. Episode 4 covers from the fifteen century to the nineteenth century and how the muzzleloading matchlock developed into the wheellock, a form of flintlock, to the snaphance which used pyrite to produce a spark to ignite the powder, to the true flintlock, which gav...

Fowling was another favorite amusement of the first president. As he got older, his own estate and the country around him swarmed with waterfowl. Tradition has it that he was a good shot. Mount Vernon, in the olden days, was celebrated for the luxuries of the table, as fields, forest, and the Potomac, each in their respective seasons, furnished the most abundant resources for good eating and good...

Most duck hunters, young and old,  want to know what happened  in the olden and golden days when the old timers pursued their love of duck hunting,  but not everyone has the time  nor patience to read through  a bunch of books and outdoor magazines. Through this podcast, the old timers and their stories are drawn from life while being a duck hunter, and their stories will...

THIS IS THE STORY OF DUCK HUNTING IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY WHEN THE EUROPEANS SET FOOT IN THE NEW WORLD IN 1607, ARRIVING IN THE COASTAL AREAS TO SETTLE THE NEW WORLD WHICH WOULD BECOME AMERICA. HERE THEY FOUND AN ABUNDANCE OF GAME AND WATERFOWL THAT WAS BEYOND THEIR WILDEST IMAGINATIONS, DESCRIBED IN SUCH TERMS AS A "NATURE'S MASTERPIECE" OR A "HUNTER'S EDEN" OR A "HUNTER'S PARADISE." USING FLI...