The LOGO • FLOCK 13 DECOYS

So I get a phone call from my good friend Kent, in October of 2023.  He was in South Dakota waterfowl and archery/deer hunting.  Kent stopped at an auction while in town getting supplies and sent me a photo of a decoy.  The decoy was a hand carved drake canvasback, nice bird, I said to buy it as it was cool enough to purchase.  He said, "well there's a lot of decoys and hunting stuff at this auction, I'm going to put you on live video to show you what's here".  So he's walking through the room, he passes a bin of decoys and I said, "stop, go back and grab the decoy that's on top of the bin you just passed".  I told him, I don't know a lot about this particular type of decoy, but I know enough that you need to leave with it.  

As it turns out, it was a Duncan Ducharme canvasback, origin Delta Marsh, Canada.  I became intrigued with the decoy and its design.   I researched the Ducharme decoys for several months, only to find that the actual origin of the Ducharme decoy design went back to the famed Heron Lake in Minnesota.  Most of the Heron Lake decoys were made by local guides from Heron Lake and a version was created by James Ford Bell, (General Mills Founder), made in-house at General Mills, by machine.  To make a long story short, a few of the JFB Heron Lake decoys migrated to the Delta Marsh in the 1920's and JFB then commissioned the Ducharme family, who were his Delta Marsh guides, to replicate the Heron Lake decoys and the "Ducharme" version was then created. 

I took the decoy that Kent had acquired, photographed it, made a painting of it and eventually created a photo illustration which then became the image for the "Flock 13 Decoys" logo.  

"Now you know...the rest of the story".  ©Paul Harvey 

The three images below show the Ducharme decoy, my painting/photo illustration and "Delta Marsh Prototype #001" decoy, that I carved to honor the Ducharme style decoy and its legacy.