Book's Foreword by Jim Aikin

Typically, when we think of a bay, we visualize a small or medium-size body of relatively sheltered water. In contrast, Saginaw Bay is a very large body of water along the western shore of Lake Huron, which is about 30 miles wide, 60 miles long and penetrates far into the eastern border of Michigan in the hollow of the "thumb." Because it is an extremely shallow body of water-depths range from 50 feet to less than 15 feet deep in the inner bay-it is easily affected by wind. Any boater, fisherman, or duck hunter who has navigated these waters can recount stories from any season about the unpredictability of the weather, wave, and water. However, during "duck hunting season" the intemperate temperatures and North winds of autumn can quickly churn calm waters into roiling cauldrons with large, treacherous waves many feet high. Recall the 1975 sinking of the ship Edmund Fitzgerald when the corollary wind pushed five feet of water from the Bay and many duck hunters had to walk several miles to reach shore. In weather not as servere, I personally watched in horror as two dozen wooden blocks (decoys) hoisted anchor and began their move to the horizon. Frantically climbing down the ladder from the stilt blind, I tried, as other Bay hunters could attest, to collect as many blocks as possible to minimize my losses. Simultaneously, I was trying to prevent my chest wadders from filling with water to assure the power of the waves didn't overtake me and prevent me from getting back into the safety of the blind. This is the unpredictable environment for which many of the decoys chronicled in this book were created.

Decoys carved for use on Saginaw Bay, and in the hunting clubs that surround the area, needed to withstand the vigorous waters and weather of the Bay. These conditions called for relatively heavy, wide-bodied, flat-bottomed decoys, keeled and weighted for rough water. Substantial, sometimes multiple, anchors were often required to hold them in place. Carvers even created long keels, some as much as three inches in depth. For further stabilization other carvers added "flow-through" keels or "swing-down" extended keels with weights.

This rigorous design for decoys used on open, turbulent waters was not as important in the calmer waters of areas with potholes, back water marshes, and deep protected shore areas around the Bay. Decoys used in these waters could be lighter weight and even included some designs with rounded bottoms. Conversely, these smaller, lighter decoys might have worked well on a calm day in the Bay but in most open water conditions would pitch, yaw and not do an effective job of "luring." Excellent examples of carvers and the designs they created for these variant conditions are detailed well in the text that follows.

Additionally, most of the Bay carvers were, first and foremost, serious duck hunters carving for their own use. They were pragmatists creating decoys and improving on them to successfully lure ducks and geese. They were all skilled craftsmen but the Bay is no different than other hunting areas, the decoys of a few individuals "stand out from the crowd." Here comes my personal bias based on years of duck hunting experiences, the best have been able to craft aesthetically striking sculptures that have become very desirable, collectible folk art.

Unlike books that provide an overview of decoys and carvers from large geographical areas, e.g. North America, the Mississippi Flyway, Illinois River, etc., this book focuses magnifying style to catalogue for posterity decoys created and used on this large, single body of water in a relatively small area of Lake Huron. It is also unique in that it provides details of Saginaw Bay duck hunting over the past 150 years, including: clubs, outfitters, many of the hunters, guide services, changes in the environment, duck populations, and numerous duck hunting tales. Author Bill Stout, an avid decoy collector and historian, spent six years pain-stakingly researching duck hunting and decoys of the Saginaw Bay region. Stout, along with the knowledge, expertise and practical experience of Bob Montgomery (who has more than fifty years experience as a duck hunter and hunting guide in Saginaw Bay, and is also a decoy collector), has chronicled, in impressive detail, the history of waterfowl hunting and decoys of Saginaw Bay. This book represents the most detailed, thoroughly researched account of this subject to date. Collectors of Michigan decoys will be grateful to Bill for the research and rescue of this history before it becomes lost in time and memory.