Bruce Urben
Environmental Enthusiast, Talented Wisconsin Carver Bruce Urben, shown here with a winning decoy in Wisconsin’s 2018 Decoy Carving Contest Many of our WWA Newsletter readers, when receiving our monthly newsletter,…
Wisconsin Decoy Heritage
Lee Dudley
Knotts Island, North Carolina, Legendary Carver The east coast had some of the most highly regarded carvers in the nation back in the early 1900’s. It is time to look…
Pascagoula Decoy Company
PADCO drake goldeneye I was recently contacted by a reader of our Decoy Corner to help him identify his vintage wood decoy. After reviewing the photos he sent, it was…
Elmer H. Garbrecht
An Oshkosh/Omro Decoy Carver, Artist, Waterfowler and Boat Builder Elmer H. Garbrecht was born in 1907 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin and lived most of his life there. His outdoor interests began…
Realistic Decoy Company
The bottom of a Realistic Decoy Co. decoy Wisconsin was not a hotbed of factory decoy makers like Michigan (Mason decoys) or Mississippi (Pascagoula decoys). But, there were several entrepreneurs…
Thomas M. Peeters
Neenah, WI Decoy Carver and Artist Wisconsin has been blessed with some of the most talented decoy carvers seen in the early 20th century. These men and women have carried…
Joe Anderlik
Wisconsin and Illinois Decoy Carver Joseph E. “Paco” Anderlik was born in April, 1922 in Mexico City, Mexico. He migrated to the US with his family and had a home…
Myron Mackowski
A Beaver Dam Original Carver Myron Mackowski’s parents emigrated to the the United States from Prussia in 1890. Together they had six children; four boys and two girls! Myron was…
Walter J. Lowry
a La Crosse, Wisconsin Carver It has been said that Wisconsin did not have a decoy carver that compared with the best carvers from along the Illinois River in Illinois!…
Ora Clough
A Wisconsin Decoy Carver All photos courtesy Wisconsin Sporting Collectibles. Ora Clough (pronounced Clew) was born in 1896 in Perkinstown, Wisconsin. Perkinstown is located in Taylor County in the Chequamegon National…
Oliver “Ollie” Drahn
Oshkosh Decoy Carver All photos courtesy Wisconsin Sporting Collectibles. Oliver “Ollie” Drahn was born in Iowa in 1908 and migrated with his family to Oshkosh, WI, as a teenager, residing at…
Shorebird Decoys and the Wisconsin Season
Decoy collectors are sometimes a strange lot. Most are totally immersed in collecting vintage waterfowl decoys, exclusively ducks and geese. Back in this country’s waterfowling history of the late 1800’s…