300 
FOREST AND STREAM 
May, 1918 
Transportation Service by both Rail and Water as 
far South as Old Point Comfort was never better! 
The Hotel Chamberlin at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, is one 
of the Finest Holiday Hotels in the Western Hemisphere 
T HE CHAMBERLIN directly faces 
Hampton Roads, which is al- 
always the scene of marine ac¬ 
tivity. Just across the Roads, im¬ 
mediately in front of the Hotel, is 
the site of the New Naval Training 
Base and Aviation School. Langely 
Field, the Army Aviation Experiment 
Station, is but a few miles away. 
This is becoming the show place for 
aviation in America. 
The Chamberlin is alive with gay 
Society the year around, military, 
naval and aeronautical uniforms lend¬ 
ing sparkle and. color to the scene. 
The cuisine is famous, and natural¬ 
ly so, since the finest sea-foods are 
obtainable in the waters around Old 
Point Comfort. The Medicinal Bath 
Department (under authoritative 
medical direction), is complete in 
every detail, and duplicates every 
bath and treatment given at European 
Spas, with the additional advantages 
of sea-air and sea-bathing. 
“An interesting, sporty, conven¬ 
ient, eighteen-hole Golf Course. Grass 
putting greens and attractive club 
house. You may safely count on Golf 
every day in the year.” 
Send for colored Aeroplane Map of 
this Course (the only one of its 
kind ever made in America), which 
will be sent you with our booklet, 
“Golf,” if you desire it, as well as 
booklets dealing with different phases 
of life at the Chamberlin. Write to¬ 
day to 
GEO . F. ADAMS, Manager , Fortress Monroe, Va. 
NEW YORK OFFICE: Bertha Ruffner Hotel Bureau, McAlpin Hotel, Cook’s 
Tours, or "Ask Mr. Foster" at any of his offices. 
LAKE MAHOPAC 
1000 FT. ABOVE SEA LEVEL 
90 MINUTES FROM GRAND CEN¬ 
TRAL STATION 
Good Commutation Service 
All Water Sports and 
Really Good Fishing 
Bungalows, Log Cabin 
Camps and Water 
Front Plots at 
Attractive Prices 
COUNTRY HOME LEAGUE 
LEO BVGG, Director 
40 W. 32nd Street, N. Y. C. 
Phone 9860 Mad. So. 
THOMAS- 
The Thomas hand made split bamboo 
fishing rod has been perfected to meet 
both the all around and the various special 
requirements of the modern angling sport. 
Made of the finest bamboo, light, resilient, 
perfectly jointed and balanced. In the 
Thomas rod the acme of perfection has 
been obtained. Send for our interesting 
booklet. 
THOMAS HOD COMPANY, 
117 Exchange St., Bangor, Me. 
Safe, Staunch, Seaworthy 
Kennebec Canoes give more real pleasure at less cost 
man most anything else in the world. Send for our Free 
1918 Canoe Book. Address, 
Kennebec Boat A Canoe Co. 41 R. R. Square, 
THE ORIGIN OF 
PLANKED SHAD 
By WILLIAM K. FENN 
F OR upward of fifty years in spring time 
epicures have been regaled with tooth¬ 
some “planked shad,” served privately 
or at “Planked Shad” dinners. Many have 
been, the receipts for doing the “planking.” 
Even so-called shad planks, usually made of 
oak, could be bought at hardware stores like 
sauce-pans or kettles. Just as though such 
planks had anything to do with imparting 
the peculiar flavor of- shad cooked by the 
real planked process. Doubtless few per¬ 
sons now know what that subtle planked 
shad flavor was. 
The cooking process of “planking” fresh 
caught shad had its origin along the waters 
of the west branch of the Susquehanna 
River, in the vicinity of Williamsport and 
Lock Haven along about the year 1870. All 
that region was originally covered with 
magnificent white pine forests, and the 
Susquehanna and its tributaries teemed in 
the springtime with big fat shad going up¬ 
river to spawn, and, be it known, that Sus¬ 
quehanna shad was acknowledged to be 
the finest of all shad fish. 
There were many seine fisheries along 
shore, and large catches were frequent. 
About that time Peter Herdic, a one-time 
millionaire, well remembered by the public 
for his line of “Herdic Coaches” in Phila¬ 
delphia and Washington, built the famous 
Herdic House at Williamsport, Pa., a hotel 
among the pines west of the city along the 
P. & E. Railroad, which became a summer 
resort for the wealthy classes of the east¬ 
ern cities, and a hunting lodge in the fall 
for New York and Philadelphia sportsmen. 
Mr. Herdic also built and opened the Min- 
nequa House, at Minnequa Springs, patron¬ 
ized by the exclusives of the eastern cities. 
He had through these hotels and business 
connections a wide acquaintance with 
wealthy men and sportsmen of that day. 
Besides hotel interests he was in the- lum¬ 
bering business in a large way, and known 
as one of the big operators in white pine 
lumber. 
It was while carrying on the hotels and 
lumbering operations that Peter Herdic dis¬ 
covered to the world the method of cooking 
fresh caught shad-fish by the “planking” 
process. While partaking of broiled shad 
at his lumber camps along Lycoming and 
Pine Creeks, he noticed the peculiar sweet 
savory flavor of the camp cooked fish over 
that served by his French chefs in the 
hotels. This delightful flavor was not im¬ 
aginary. It was constant and unmistak¬ 
able. He set out to find the cause. He 
found it. The lumber-jacks cooked in the 
woods over camp-fires. They took of the 
large fresh caught shad, scaled, cleaned 
and cooked them on broad slabs of white 
pine chips before the open fire. 
Therein lay the secret flavoring process. 
White pine, the genuine Susquehanna River 
white pine, is a soft sweet wood, having 
only to a very slight degree the resinous 
properties of other pines. Choppers of the 
huge trees in those days split out great 
chips, often over two feet long. These 
chips were roughly dressed with a few 
strokes of their sharp axes, the cleaned 
fish pinned to them by a couple of whit¬ 
tled pins driven into the soft pine wood, 
and propped up before the camp-fire to 
