Purchase from: Dowdle Sporting Goods or The Author

As each year passes us by, the history of our waterfowling heritage in the Mid-South, like old photographs, slowly fades away until the details become harder to ascertain. Unless preserved, our history will eventually fade away altogether. What we have left, as recorded in this book after five years of research, is what this writer has been able to garner by searching out-of-print newspapers, books, sporting journals and courthouse records. Effort and research are underway to learn more about our waterfowling heritage, but I will share with you now what I know about The Golden Age of Waterfowling.

Here are some of the chapters:

1. Early Duck Clubs
2. Warfare at Big Lake
3. Warfare at Reelfoot
4. Duck Calls
5. Paddlers
6. Pushers
7. Nash Buckingham
8. Decoys
9. Market Hunters
10. The Peabody Ducks
11. Waterfowl Hunting Clubs
* Arkansas
* Mississippi
* Arkansas
* Southeastern Missouri

Some excerpts from some of the chapters:

THE EARLY DUCK CLUBS: The great lonely river bottomlands of Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi were within easy reach of the sporting gentry of Memphis. It was a vast and sparsely settled area of swamp, forest and sloughs, with many shallow lakes and “Old Rivers” of brown water winding through virgin timberlands and almost impenetrable willow flats and canebrakes. These baffling mazes of all three states riverward gave safe harbor to an incredible plethora of wildlife resources. During the frost months, the region was the haunt of millions upon millions of waterfowl. They filled the skies and crowded the waters of lakes and rivers to form a riotous clamoring carpet. Practically, the only restrictions concerning the taking of game were those imposed by the seasons, the state of the weather, and by one’s needs or desires.

WARFARE AT BIG LAKE: According to local sportsmen, five duck clubs in Arkansas were tormented with market hunters in the olden days: Osceola Ducking and Trolling Club, Hatchie Coon Hunting and Fishing Club, Mud Lake Hunting Club, Wapanocca Outing Club and Big Lake Shooting Club. The first to have trouble with market hunters was the Osceola Ducking and Trolling Club, known locally as the “Memphis Club.” Soon after its organization in 1882, the members built a clubhouse, located on the southeast side of Big Lake. Not long afterwards, market hunters burned it to the ground. . . . These conflicts (between the market hunters and Big Lake Shooting Club) were the harbinger of future and further class warfare. The warfare, in this case, covered a span of some thirteen years, from 1903 to 1915, and involved the market hunters and the Big Lake club members. The warfare only ended when President Woodrow Wilson signed an Executive Order, making Big Lake a national waterfowl refuge in 1915.

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For the first time ever in one publication, the wonderful history of waterfowling in the Mid-South is told, from Arkansas, to Mississippi, to Tennessee, to southeast Missouri. Lavishly illustrated with 143 vintage, black and white photographs (many never published before), The Golden Age of Waterfowling documents waterfowling in the Mid-South in a regional and national historical context for the very first time. Beginning just after the War Between the States and ending during the 1940s, the book covers all aspects of waterfowling.

Sit back, relax and enjoy reading The Golden Age of Waterfowling as the old-timers give us back their years. Over 3500 copies have been sold since publication in 2002.

Dec 16th by admin