A lot of Harhers Island 

 history is carved 

 out of wood and 

 shaped like a ducle. 

 So, it might seem, 

 is some of the future. 



But the wooden 

 waterfowl these days 



are far more lileely 

 to decorate a mantel 

 th an hoh atop a 

 saltwater wave. 

 The decoys that once 

 coaxed game hirds such 

 as canvashachs and 

 hluehills into shot sun 

 range are now 

 attracting flochs of 

 tourists and collectors. 



Carving decoys is a Down East 

 tradition turned evolving art form and 

 emerging cottage industry. Like quilts and 

 other folk arts, the handcrafted creatures 

 that draw admiring crowds and premium 

 prices today were an ordinary item of 

 daily life a generation ago. 



They were tools for securing food. 

 Ducks and geese were a source of protein, 

 a tasty one. Hewing decoys out of a log 

 was a natural part of a culture where 

 people depended on nature, and them- 

 selves, for their needs. 



"This part of the country was poor 

 country," says lifelong resident Curt 

 Salter, 69, as he smooths a handful of 



tupelo into a sharp-billed loon head. 

 "You couldn't afford to buy everything." 



Although money might have been 

 scarce, waterfowl were not. Core Sound 

 and the surrounding waters and marshes 

 that provided the area's fishing liveli- 

 hood also beckoned to hundreds of 

 thousands of ducks and geese, swans 

 and loons each fall. 



"They'd look like an island out in 

 the sound, there were so many," says 

 Salter. So abundant were the birds early 

 in the century that market hunters filled 

 boxcars with game birds bound for city 

 restaurants and butcher shops. 



Hunters crafted their own "rig" of 



decoys to bring the bounty nearer their 

 boats. For puddle ducks such as pintails or 

 teals, a dozen decoys might do. Canvas- 

 backs, redheads and the like that preferred 

 open water would be fooled only by a 

 "raft" of 100 or more wooden relatives. 

 Some decoys always got lost in the marsh 

 or carried off when hurricanes washed 

 away the nethouses where they were 

 stored, making carving an annual task. 



"That was part of hunting," Salter 

 says. "Not just going out and shooting. 

 Getting your blind and your boat and 

 your gun ready, that was part of it." 



Carvers used cedar, cypress or 

 whatever wood was at hand, but they 



12 HOLIDAY 1997 



