G 



^^^^one are many of the 

 old landings and wharves 

 where generations 

 of Currituckians labored, 

 shipping out fish and fowl 

 and farm harvests. In 

 Poplar Branch, the rotted 

 and ramshackle wharves 

 were burned April 23, 1Q6Q, 

 by the Lower Currituck 

 Fire Department at the 

 request of the N.C. Wildlife 

 Resources Commission. 

 A public boat ramp was 

 installed as locals lamented 

 the loss of another piece 

 of the past. 



The Whalehead Club in Corolla features huntingf displays. 



them," Wilson Snowden says. A 

 businessman and lifelong resident of 

 Currituck County, Snowden helped raise 

 and restore the battery blind owned by the 

 Currituck Wildlife Guild, the only one he 

 knows of in the county. "You'd set there, 

 and the ducks come floatin' in right in 

 front of you, just like you walked out there 

 in neck-deep water." 



JL/ut putting ducks on the water 

 was only a part of the market gunner's 

 task. Getting them to market was the 

 other. 



Steamboats such as the Cygnet, 

 Comet and Currituck generally ran three 

 times a week along a route from Norfolk 

 to central Currituck Sound, stopping at 

 Munden Point on Knotts Island, Waterlily 

 on Church Island, Aydlett and on to the 

 Poplar Branch landing. Early on, Poplar 

 Branch evolved as a major commercial 

 hub of the Currituck Sound region, with 

 grocery stores, dry-goods merchants, 

 barbershop, locksmith, gun shop and at 

 least one hotel. 



Saunders remembers it well. There 

 was a gristmill near the landing, a store and 

 barrel factory on the end of the dock on the 

 left-hand side and a long, wooden wharf 

 where the steamers tied up, with skiffs and 

 shad boats bobbing on both sides. Down 

 the middle of the wharf ran a track of 4-by- 

 4 planking on which a railroad truck about 

 10 feet long was mounted for help in 

 loading and unloading freight. Near the far 

 end of the track, out over the water, was 

 the fish and fowl house where ducks were 

 stored and packed for shipping. 



"When the season opened," Saunders 

 recalls, "and they went to shooting, Mister 

 John Luke Gregory had a place they called 

 the cooler that was always full of ice where 

 they would hang the fowl up. I've been in 

 it many times, just a rough building, boards 

 up and down with battens on the cracks, 

 and inside where the framing was, it was 

 drove full of nails. The whole place would 

 be lined with ducks, all the way around it 

 as high as a man could reach. I'm satisfied 

 in my mind that there would be from 300 

 to 400 in there sometimes." 



Descriptions of the packing process 

 vary slightly but follow a general pattern: 



Birds were shipped unplucked and with all 

 entrails intact. (Game birds can typically be 

 stored in such fashion for a week or more, 

 depending on the weather.) The fowl were 

 packed in wooden fish barrels large enough 

 to hold 150 pounds of perch, black bass, 

 carp or eels. Often a stovepipe was first 

 inserted into the middle of the barrel and 

 filled with ice, and birds were packed 

 around it. As the ice melted, the water 

 drained out of the stovepipe and more could 

 be added. Sometimes a chunk of ice was 

 simply laid into the center of the barrel and 

 birds packed tightly around it, with heads 

 folded under the wings. 



Prices paid for waterfowl varied 

 through the years. Frank Leslie 's Illustrated 

 Newspaper reported in 1878 that canvas- 

 backs brought $ 1 . 10 per pair "on the waters 

 to dealers." Brimley visited "Uncle Ned" 

 Midyette's lodge on Church Island in 1884 

 and noted that gunners were paid cash on 

 the spot by game buyers: $ 1 per pair of 

 canvasbacks, 50 cents per pair of redheads, 

 30 cents per pair of "common ducks" and 

 25 cents for a foursome of teal, bufflehead 

 or ruddy ducks, also called boobies. 



C o n t i n u e d 



COASTWATCH 11 



